Rajputs, Mughals and Marathas in Rajasthan History

Between the rise of Babur in 1526 and the British treaties of 1817 and 1818, the Rajput states of Rajputana faced two great outside powers in turn: the Mughals from Delhi and Agra, and then the Marathas from the Deccan. State service commissions set a steady stream of questions from this stretch, because it is dense with dated battles, named commanders and signed treaties. The safest way to hold it is as a chain of events, each with a year, a place and a pair of opponents.

Rana Sanga and the coming of the Mughals

Maharana Sanga of Mewar, also called Rana Sangram Singh, was the strongest Rajput ruler of his age. He defeated Ibrahim Lodi at Khatoli in 1517 and again near Dholpur in 1519, and his forces beat Babur's advance party at Bayana in 1527. The decisive clash came at the Battle of Khanwa on 17 March 1527, near Fatehpur Sikri, where Babur's artillery and tulughma formation broke the Rajput confederacy. Sanga survived the field but died soon after, and with him went the last chance of a Rajput empire in north India. Maldeo Rathore of Marwar then built the next large Rajput power, and was checked by Sher Shah Suri at the Battle of Giri Sumel in 1544, after which Sher Shah is said to have remarked that he had almost lost the empire of Hindustan for a handful of millet.

Akbar: alliance for some, siege for others

Akbar offered the Rajputs service in return for submission. Raja Bharmal of Amer accepted in 1562, the first Rajput ruler of Rajasthan to do so; his daughter became the mother of Jahangir, and his descendants Man Singh I and Mirza Raja Jai Singh I rose to the highest Mughal commands. Mewar refused. Akbar besieged Chittorgarh in 1567 and took it in February 1568, after Jaimal of Merta and Patta of Kelwa died defending the fort; Rana Udai Singh II had already withdrawn to the hills and had founded Udaipur in 1559. His son Maharana Pratap fought the Battle of Haldighati on 18 June 1576 against a Mughal army commanded by Man Singh I of Amer. Pratap, his horse Chetak and the Bhil chief Rana Punja are the fixed names of that day. Pratap later recovered most of Mewar, winning at Dewair in 1582, and made Chavand his capital. The long quarrel ended under his son Amar Singh I, who signed the treaty of 1615 with Jahangir, negotiated by Prince Khurram; Mewar kept its honour, its rulers never attended the Mughal court in person and gave no daughter in marriage, but accepted Mughal overlordship.

Aurangzeb and the Rajput war

Aurangzeb reimposed the jaziya in 1679 and tried to control the Marwar succession after Maharaja Jaswant Singh died at Jamrud in 1678. Durgadas Rathore carried the infant Ajit Singh to safety and fought a guerrilla war for three decades; Marwar and Mewar made common cause, and Maharana Raj Singh I of Mewar sheltered Ajit Singh. Raj Singh also built the Rajsamand lake and had the Raj Prashasti, the longest stone inscription in India, engraved on its embankment. The Mewar front closed with a treaty in 1681 under Maharana Jai Singh, Mewar ceding a few districts in place of the jaziya. Ajit Singh regained Jodhpur after Aurangzeb's death in 1707.

The Marathas in Rajputana

Maratha armies entered Rajputana through succession disputes, demanding chauth and tribute. To resist them, Sawai Jai Singh II of Jaipur called the Hurda conference in 1734, where the Rajput rulers met under Maharana Jagat Singh II of Mewar; the pledge collapsed within a year. The Jaipur succession then pulled the Marathas deeper in: Ishwari Singh won the Battle of Rajmahal in 1747, but his half-brother Madho Singh, backed by Malhar Rao Holkar, won the Battle of Bagru in 1748, and Ishwari Singh ended his own life in 1750. In the last phase Jaipur and Jodhpur together checked Mahadji Scindia at Tunga in 1787, but Scindia's French-trained general Benoit de Boigne defeated them at Patan and Merta in 1790.

The British treaties

Exhausted by Maratha and Pindari raids, the Rajput states signed subsidiary alliances with the East India Company under Lord Hastings, negotiated by Charles Metcalfe. Karauli signed first, in November 1817; Jodhpur, Udaipur, Bundi, Kota, Jaipur and the rest followed in 1817 and 1818, and Sirohi was the last, in 1823. Rajputana became a cluster of protected states until integration in 1949.

Dates at a glance