Marwar and the Rathores: Rulers, Battles, PYQs

Marwar, the sandy country around Jodhpur, Pali and Nagaur, was the largest princely state of Rajputana in area, and the Rathore clan ruled it for about seven centuries. For RPSC, RAS and RSSB papers the dynasty is a reliable source of questions because its story is made of hard, datable facts: a founder from Kannauj, a capital that moved twice, a battle that Sher Shah Suri almost lost, a ruler who refused Akbar, a minister who saved the state from Aurangzeb, and a sacrifice of Bishnoi villagers for a grove of trees.

Origin and the early Rathores

The Rathores of Marwar traced their descent from the Gahadavala rulers of Kannauj, and the family tradition names Rao Siha, also called Siyaji, as the founder of Rathore power in Marwar in the thirteenth century; his memorial stands at Bithu in the Pali district. Rao Chunda obtained Mandore, which became the first Rathore capital, and his successor Rao Ranmal involved himself in the affairs of Mewar, where he was killed at Chittor.

The turning point is Rao Jodha, who in 1459 founded the city of Jodhpur and began the Mehrangarh fort on the Chidiyatunk hill, moving the capital from Mandore. His sons spread the clan: Rao Bika founded Bikaner in 1488, and another line held Nagaur, so Bikaner and Marwar are branches of the same house. Rathore rulers of Marwar used the title Maharaja, as against the Maharana of Mewar.

Rao Maldeo and the battle of Giri Sumel

The most powerful Rathore of the sixteenth century was Rao Maldeo (reigned 1532 to 1562), who extended Marwar over much of western Rajasthan and was described by the Mughal chronicler Ferishta as the strongest prince of Hindustan of his day. In 1544 he faced Sher Shah Suri at Giri Sumel near Jaitaran in the present Pali district. Sher Shah won the field only after a forged letter sowed suspicion between Maldeo and his commanders Jaita and Kumpa, who fought and died there, and he is remembered as saying that for a handful of millet he had nearly lost the empire of Hindustan.

Maldeo's son Rao Chandrasen (1562 to 1581) refused to submit to Akbar, kept up resistance from the hills of Siwana and Bhadrajun, and never attended the imperial court; Rajasthani historians call him the first freedom fighter of Rajasthan and the Pratap of Marwar. His brother Mota Raja Udai Singh took the opposite path, accepted Mughal service in 1583 and became the first Rathore ruler to join the Mughal alliance. His daughter Manavati Bai, titled Jagat Gosain, was married to Jahangir and was the mother of Shah Jahan.

Jaswant Singh, Durgadas and the struggle with Aurangzeb

Maharaja Jaswant Singh I commanded Mughal armies for Shah Jahan and then for Aurangzeb, fought at Dharmat and Khajwa during the war of succession and died in 1678 at Jamrud in the north-west. Aurangzeb tried to take Marwar under imperial management and to keep Jaswant Singh's posthumous son Ajit Singh under control at Delhi. The infant was carried away to safety by Durgadas Rathore, whose thirty-year struggle preserved the dynasty; Ajit Singh recovered Jodhpur in 1707, the year Aurangzeb died. This episode, called the Rajput rebellion of 1679, is set in papers along with the Mughal-Rajput wars of Mewar.

Khejarli, the treaty with the British and integration

In 1730, during the reign of Maharaja Abhai Singh, the king's men came to cut khejri trees at Khejarli village to burn lime for a palace. Amrita Devi Bishnoi and, by tradition, three hundred and sixty-three Bishnois of eighty-four villages gave their lives embracing the trees. The Khejarli sacrifice is remembered as the world's first organised forest protection movement, the khejri is the state tree of Rajasthan, and the state's Amrita Devi Bishnoi award for wildlife protection takes her name.

Marwar signed a subsidiary alliance with the British in 1818 along with the other Rajputana states. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the state built Jaswant Thada, the marble memorial to Maharaja Jaswant Singh II, and the sandstone Umaid Bhawan Palace, raised as a famine relief work. After independence Jodhpur joined the union of Rajasthan in the fourth stage of integration, when Greater Rajasthan was formed on 30 March 1949 by merging Jodhpur, Jaipur, Bikaner and Jaisalmer, with Jaipur as the capital; 30 March is observed as Rajasthan Day.

Places to remember

• Mehrangarh fort at Jodhpur, begun by Rao Jodha in 1459, with the Chamunda temple and the Jhanki Mahal.
• Mandore, the earlier capital, with its cenotaphs and the hall of heroes.
• Osian, the temple town of Marwar, and Nagaur fort, the seat of Amar Singh Rathore of folk ballad.
• Khejarli in the Jodhpur district, site of the 1730 sacrifice and of an annual Bishnoi fair.