Amer, Bikaner and Other Princely States of Rajasthan

The princely states of Rajputana were the building blocks of modern Rajasthan, and after Mewar and Marwar the most examinable of them are Amer (later Jaipur), Bikaner and Jaisalmer, with the Hada states of Bundi and Kota and a ring of smaller states around them. For RPSC, RAS and RSSB papers this topic is a store of founders, foundation years, forts and treaties, so the facts are easy to fix and easy to confuse, which is exactly why examiners like them.

Amer and the Kachhwahas of Jaipur

The Kachhwaha clan ruled from Amer, and tradition names Dulharai as the founder of their power in the Dhundhar region in the eleventh century. Raja Bharmal was the first Rajput ruler of Rajasthan to accept an alliance with Akbar, in 1562, and his daughter, known to history as Mariam-uz-Zamani, became the mother of Jahangir. His grandson Man Singh I commanded Akbar's army at Haldighati in 1576 and served as governor of Kabul and Bengal. Mirza Raja Jai Singh I led Aurangzeb's campaign in the Deccan and concluded the Treaty of Purandar with Shivaji in 1665. The greatest of the line was Sawai Jai Singh II, who shifted the capital from the hills of Amer to a planned city, Jaipur, founded in 1727, laid out on a grid by Vidyadhar Bhattacharya. He built the Jantar Mantar observatories, prepared the astronomical tables called Zij-i-Muhammad Shahi, and called the Rajput rulers to the Hurda conference of 1734 against Maratha pressure. The Hawa Mahal was built in 1799 by Sawai Pratap Singh, and Jaipur is called the Pink City because Sawai Ram Singh II had it washed pink in 1876 for the visit of the Prince of Wales.

Bikaner and the Rathores of Rao Bika

Rao Bika, a son of Rao Jodha of Marwar, founded Bikaner in 1488, which is why Bikaner and Jodhpur are branches of one Rathore house. Raja Rai Singh, a trusted general of Akbar, built the Junagarh fort in 1589; Bikaner is one of the few major Rajasthani forts built on the plain rather than on a hill. Maharaja Ganga Singh, who ruled from 1887 to 1943, is called the maker of modern Bikaner: he raised the Ganga Risala camel corps, brought canal water to the desert through the Gang Canal opened in 1927, represented India at the Imperial War Conference and signed the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, and was the first chancellor of the Chamber of Princes.

Jaisalmer and the Bhatis

The Bhati Rajputs ruled Jaisalmer, which Rawal Jaisal founded in 1156 after leaving Lodurva. Its Sonar Quila, the golden fort of yellow sandstone, is one of the few living forts in India, with families still inside the walls. The state is remembered for its sieges and the jauhar of its women, for the stone-carved havelis of Patwon ki Haveli, Salim Singh ki Haveli and Nathmal ki Haveli, and for the Gadisar lake that held the town's water in the heart of the Thar.

Bundi, Kota and the Hada states

The Hada branch of the Chauhans held Hadauti. Bundi was taken by Rao Deva in the thirteenth century, and Kota was separated from Bundi as a state in its own right in 1631, in Shah Jahan's reign, for Madho Singh, a son of Rao Ratan Singh. Jhalawar was carved out of Kota in 1838 for the Jhala family whose ablest member, Zalim Singh, had run Kota's affairs for decades. Bundi and Kota also gave Rajasthan two of its finest painting schools.

The smaller states

The states, the British and the merger

After the Maratha and Pindari raids the rulers of Rajputana signed subsidiary treaties with the East India Company in 1817 and 1818, beginning with Karauli; they kept their thrones and lost their foreign policy. The states paid tribute, accepted a Resident, and survived to 1947. They were then merged in stages, and the stage worth remembering is Greater Rajasthan on 30 March 1949, when Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Jaisalmer came together, Jaipur became the capital and Maharaja Man Singh II was made Rajpramukh. That day is observed as Rajasthan Day.