NAME – SHAHNAZ BANO SHAH

ROLL NO – 21029716028
COURSE – FINAL YEAR (MA HISTORY)
SUBMITTED TO – MANISHA CHOUDHARY
SUBMITTED ON – 20TH MARCH,2022
COLLEGE – INDRAPRASTHA COLLEGE FOR WOMEN
Question – the 18th century is an age of change. Issues like legitimacy, loyalty,
dignitaries, etc must be addressed

Along with the decline of the Mughal empire, the second major theme of the 18th
Century was the emergence of regional polities. Broadly there were three kinds of
states which came into prominence: the states which broke away from the Mughal
empire, the new states set up by the rebels against the Mughal, and the independent
states. Successor States - Hyderabad, Bengal and Awadh were the three cases
where provincial governors under the Mughals set up independent states. The
breakaway from Delhi occurred in stages - the revolt of individuals followed by
that of the social groups, communities and finally regions. Zamindari revolts in the
provinces against imperial demands triggered off the breakaway. Governors did
not get support from the centre and tried to secure support of the local elites.
However, links with the centre were maintained and Mughal tradition continued.
Through their links with factions of nobles, the provincial chiefs were often strong
enough to control the centre. Hence the changes in polity in this period may more
appropriately be characterised as transformation (to use Muzaffar Alam's term)
rather than collapse. A new political order was constructed within the Mughal
institutional framework. The collapse of the all India polity did not lead to
generalised economic decline. The regional picture was very varied.
The second group of regional states were the 'new states' or 'insurgent states' set up
by rebels against the Mughals-the Marathas, Sikhs. Jats and Afghans. The first
three began as popular movements of peasant insurgency. The leadership was not
with the nobility but with 'new men', often from lower orders, e.g.. Hyder Ali,
Sindhias and Holkars.
There was a third type of state which was neither the result of a breakaway from or
rebellion against Delhi. Mysore, the Rajput states fall in this category

JODHPUR
Jodhpur had a lead in 19th century. Britisher had kept a soft corner in regard to
jodhpur in modern context jodhpur has all kind of acivities that are british in
nature. Jodhpur also wanted to have a say in british set up and they knew they
cannot fight as in term of human as well as social resources they accepted britisher
Geographically different from Jaisalmer and Bikaner unique topographically we
get a lot of stone and marble so whatever rains it gets collected and hence there is
no dearth of water. Jodhpur was not very interconnected with areas hence
Jaisalmer served as a conducive stoppage for people coming from karachi. In this
belt we get stone which becomes easy to collect water and because of Aravalli they
have natural inundation. Supply of camels from Jaisalmer is always more than that
from jodhpur. The supply of water helped it to grow into develop and also had
leverage while deciding the distribution of territories
Basically in 8th century when we have the vamsavalli, states The rajputs coming
from kannauj crossing the vindhayas entered mewar further crossing Aravalli, they
enter the desert and decide to set up the kingdom there. Mythology the establisher
is a twice born the lady is the brahmin and the man is Rajput and therefore the
union is blessed by god. Bd Chattopadhyay work the rise of emergence of Rajput
describes how the Rajput in 7th century came to power, moving out in search of
new lands. The rajputs of jodhpur always claim that they are kannaujiya Rajput. In
12th century the activity actually started with Delhi sultanate but still we don’t have
the jodhpur as a state or in marwar in general but the to be state from 7th century
this area is constantly in contact with Sind but the area is not explored by and
remains a desert. In delhi sultanate there is constant mention of nagaur (because
iqta of balban) jodhpur as as term came only after Rao jodha. Colonel todd
mentions kannaujiya Rajput came into this area in 8th century and they establish the
set up and continue to rule but when we refer to sources it was not there as a state,
there is a population living as as pargana but not as jodhpur. Importance of nagaur
as a cente because of growth of economic activity and its strategic location,the
khyat mention that they are from 8th century while Nandini Sinha Kapoor states
protection for artisan during the 17th and 18th century and hence the state came into
being, but during Mughals they were getting the market. The story that in 11th
century there is a trading network – three brothers start moving to Gujarat to do
business but on the way they stop at Pali because of night, the villagers allow them
to stay outside the village and not let them in because of distrust against merv
stealing cattles. These three brother In turn save the villagers from merv and the
villagers in turn understand there humble background and keep them in service that
to protect them and the marriage of the brother in Gehlot family and appropriation
of land. Later the brother span out. They continue to rise, one moved to merta and
with time in 13th 14th century they started calling them Rajput. This story as
mentioned in ‘The court protocol and social ordering in Jaipur state’. Rao jodhas
uncle was in service in Mewar state and killed by rana kumbha. Rana kumbha is
constantly invading the area later Rana kumbha was advised to stop fighting
amongst themselves and focus on Mughal in one such clashes he denied the last
rights to a person fighting and this enrages Rao jodha who wanted to settle this
once and for all. Rao jodha attacked but was defeated later Harbhuji (vahan desert
fox) a saint has important role to play, he sems to posses some supernatural
powers. We have a story of Rao jodha visiting his community feast but by the time
he reached the feast was over and could not get the treat and thus missing out the
blessing of saint, Rao jodha ends up staying there for night drinking the khejri in
morning the colour of khejri comes on his moustace and harbuji blesses him his
kingdom telling him to go to chidiya ka tuk from where he will rule later. When
Rana kumbha comes to know this, he attacks Pokhran but was in turn defeated by
Rao jodha. Harbhuji was a quite influential man which helped rao jodha in getting
people fighting for him rao also invades chittor and loots it, this settled rana
kumbha once and for all. This comes to being of jodhpur and building up of fort
Mehrangarh. the desert is based on trade or raid and all places try invite trade as
its flourishing at that time the support of trade by state
Jodhpur comes into state with series of events and phases with two people staring
in it. Matrimonial relations to protect the state starts, they marry their daughter in
Nagaur, Mughals, Jaisalmer, Sindh to keep their state safe. This is basically
because of events uprising and, to pacify it the relations are brought into being.
Issue of property was always central to them and to remain in power was the
economy of state
SOME IMPORTANT RULERS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION INTO MAKING
OF JODHPUR
Roa Seeha came from kannauj to marwar to help Paliwal brahmins. Rao Mallinath
shifted his capital from kher to meva nagar. Rao jodha establish jodhpur in 1459,
built the famous Mehrangarh fort on top of hills. In 1541 Rao maldeo attacked
Bikaner and defeated king Jattisi in battle of Paheba he annexed Merta forcing king
Biram deo to take shelter in court of Sher shah sur. Humayun after being defeated
by Sher shah entered territory of Maldeo but later left doubting the intentions of
Maldeo. Maldeo’s territorial expansion policy turned his own members of the clan
against him. If he had obtained support of Kalyanmal of Bikaner and Biram dev of
Merta they would have dominated Sher shah. Suspicious nature of Maldeo made
him loose the Giri Sumel battle . Chandra Sen shifted his base to Bhadra Jun in
Jalore
MUGHAL RAJPUT POLICY -
Besides, one fact more has to be kept in mind that while Akbar annexed the
territories of all those Muslim rulers whom he defeated, he did not annex the
territory of any Rajput ruler except that of Gondwana. The liberality of Akbar was
the primary reason of the success of his Rajput policy. It is also wrong to say that
the Rajputs had become cowards. If Akbar would have tried to oppress them, they
would have fought against him as much as they fought against Aurangzeb later on.
They became loyal supporters of the Mughul emperor because Akbar offered most
liberal terms to them in exchange of their services and friendship to him. Akbar
simply desired that the Rajputs should accept his sovereignty, pay him annual
tribute, surrender their foreign policy to him, support him with their forces when
necessary and regard themselves as one with the Mughul empire. In return, Akbar
was prepared to give them liberty in their internal matters, honour them, offer them
services in the state according to their merit and provide them complete religious
freedom. On the contrary, Akbar neither forced any Rajput ruler to enter into
matrimonial alliance with him nor asked their princesses to accept Islam before
marrying them. Besides, he honoured his wives, allowed them to follow their own
religion, respected their Rajput relatives and gave them high offices in the state.
Alwar had failed to absorb the Sisodiyas of Mewar in southern rajasthan ever since
the Mughals had defeated them at battle of Haldighati. The clans leader Maharana
Pratap had a protracted Guerella warfare against Akbar over next several decades
he even recovered much sisodiya territories that akbar had seized except Chittor
fort . Jahangir when took over the in the first six renal years he repeated sent
armies into Mewar against Amar singh son of but results were inconclusive finally
in 1614 Mirza aziz koka was sent to assist Khurram on his first military assignment
Khurram prosecuted a campaign against Amar singh forcing him to surrender or
accept peace negotiations finally an agreement was concluded in 1615 between
Khurram and Amar singh. It was a politically astute move acknowledging the
unique importance of sisodiyas clan by monumentalizing its two leading political
figures in heart of Mughal power, while the policy towards the marwar was
completely different, he gave high ranks and jagirs to Rathore of marwar.
Marwar allies with Mughals during Aurangzeb had ups and downs Raja Jaswant
Singh fought against Aurangzeb at the battle of Dharmat, joined him a little later,
but again left his side when he was going to give battle to Shah Shuja. Yet, when
there remained no chance of success of prince Dara Shukoh, he was successfully
persuaded by Raja Jai Singh to accept the service of Aurangzeb. Rana Raj Singh,
the ruler of Mewar did not participate in the war of succession and, later on,
accepted Aurangzeb as the emperor. But, Aurangzeb never kept faith in the loyalty
of these Rajput rulers. He deputed Raja Jai Singh in the Deccan where, ultimately,
he died in 1666 A.D. Raja Jaswant Singh was deputed to defend the north-western
frontier of the empire. Two of his sons died fighting against the Afghan rebels and
he himself died at Jamrud in Afghanistan in 1678 A.D. Aurangzeb was waiting for
this opportunity. At that time, there was no successor to the throne of Marwar. He
occupied Marwar immediately and, with a view to disgrace the ruling family, sold
the throne of Jaswant Singh for rupees thirty-six lakhs. It seemed that the existence
of Marwar was lost forever. But, Marwar was saved. While returning from
Afghanistan, the two wives of Raja Jaswant Singh gave birth to two sons at
Lahore. One of them died but the other named Ajit Singh remained alive. Durga
Das, the commander-in-chief of the Rathors came to Delhi with the prince and
requested Aurangzeb to hand over Marwar to Ajit Singh. Aurangzeb did not agree.
He offered to keep Ajit Singh with him, till he would have become young. Durga
Das, having recourse to a stratagem, succeeded in escaping to Marwar with the
prince and his mother. Ajit Singh was declared the ruler of Marwar and the war of
independence of Marwar began from that time. The Rathors, however, continued
their fight against the Mughuls. Pursuing his son Akbar, Aurangzeb left for the
Deccan and could never come back from there. Marwar fought against the
Mughuls till the death of the Emperor in 1707 A.D., of course, accepting peace in
between twice, and finally succeeded in gaining its independence.
THE BEGINNING OF DECLINE
With the foul and monstrous murder of Raja Ajit commence those bloody scenes
which disgrace the annals of Marwar. Yet indeed in the history of her decline there
are occasional acts of redeeming triumph. But the lustre of the ultimate is spoiled
by decay and disgrace. It seems as if the fighting spirit of the Rajputs had deserted
them and honour was forgotten. There was, still, one triumph ahead of them before
the Mahrattas overwhelmed them and decay set in. After Abhye came the new
Maharaja, he raided Nagore and having thrown out the chieftain there, bestowed it
on Bukhta, his family who, it was rumoured, was also involved in the heinous
murder of their father Ajit. Abhay Singh whose name meant the ‘ intrepid captain ’
had the material of a great sovereign . His courage was ferocious he was an
suitable director and generous towards his subjects. He was supposed the first
swordsman of Rajwarra. But his hands were tainted by his father’s blood, he was
partial to opium and eventually he was overwhelmed by circumstances.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G S DEVRA – SOME ASPECTS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC HISTORY OF
RAJASTHAN
JAMES TOD – ANNALS AND ANTIQUITIES OF RAJASTHAN