Before the kings: Kalibangan, Ahar and Bairat
- Third millennium BCE
- Kalibangan, a Harappan town
- Several thousand years ago
- Ahar culture, Banas valley
- Early metal age
- Copper tools at Ganeshwar
- Third century BCE
- Ashoka's edicts at Bairat
- Later centuries
- Mauryas, Shakas, Guptas, Huns
Kalibangan and the lost river
A Harappan town: at Kalibangan, in what is now Hanumangarh district, excavations revealed a citadel, a grid of streets, mud-brick houses and fire altars.
- An ancient field: the ploughed field found beneath the town is among the oldest known anywhere.
- The Ghaggar: many scholars identify it with the Saraswati of ancient texts; it once watered this northern plain.
- Why it matters: the river's drying is part of the long story of how Rajasthan became a land of scarce water.
Ahar, Ganeshwar and the Aravallis
Ahar: the mound near Udaipur has given its name to a copper-using farming culture of the Banas valley.
- Ganeshwar: near Sikar, early metalworkers made copper arrowheads, fish-hooks and tools from Aravalli ores.
- Trade: some of their copper may have travelled to the Harappan cities.
- Ancient mines: the Aravallis, among the oldest mountains on earth, have been mined for copper, zinc and lead for thousands of years.
Bairat, where written history begins
Viratnagar: the ancient name of Bairat, north-east of Jaipur.
A story, not a record: tradition makes it the Matsya capital where the Pandavas of the Mahabharata spent their year in hiding.
- What is certain: Ashoka had his edicts carved in rock here in the third century BCE.
- A Buddhist shrine: the remains of a circular shrine have been excavated on a hill nearby.
- Many rulers: Mauryas, Shakas, Guptas and Huns crossed and ruled the region before the clans who gave Rajasthan its name rose to power.
Pratiharas, Chauhans and the first Rajput kingdoms
- From about 7th century
- Rajput clans emerge
- 8th century
- Pratiharas hold back Arab armies
- 9th century
- Mihira Bhoja rules from Kannauj
- 11th century
- First Dilwara temple
- 1156
- Bhatis found Jaisalmer
- 1191 and 1192
- Two battles of Tarain
Who the Rajputs were
The name: from rajaputra, son of a king, for the new ruling clans that emerged across western India from about the seventh century.
- What the bards said: divine ancestors, the sun, the moon, and a sacred fire on Mount Abu.
- What historians say: mostly warrior lineages of varied origins who rose to power in these centuries and then gave themselves noble pedigrees.
- The clans and legends: our guide to the Rajput dynasties.
The Gurjara-Pratiharas
First great power: early strongholds around Mandore and Bhinmal in western Rajasthan.
Guhils, Chauhans and others
Guhils: held Mewar from Nagda and then Chittor.
Chauhans of Shakambhari: from around Sambhar Lake, they founded Ajmer in the twelfth century.
- Paramaras and Solankis: the Paramaras ruled at Abu; the Solanki kings of Gujarat extended their power over the south-west.
- Dilwara: the Solanki minister Vimal Shah built the first Dilwara temple in the eleventh century.
- Bhatis: founded Jaisalmer in 1156.
Prithviraj III and Tarain
1191: he defeated Muhammad of Ghor at Tarain, north of Delhi.
- 1192: he was defeated and killed on the same field.
- Legend, not history: his romance with Sanyogita, and much else told of him, comes from the Prithviraj Raso, composed and expanded long after his death.
- Ajmer falls: within a few years Ghorid forces took Ajmer, and Adhai Din ka Jhonpra was begun there in 1192 with pillars from older temples.
Sultans, sieges and the great Rajput forts
- 1236
- Death of Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer
- 1301 and 1303
- Khalji takes Ranthambore, then Chittor
- 15th century
- Rana Kumbha's Mewar
- 1459 and 1488
- Jodhpur and Bikaner founded
- 1527
- Rana Sanga defeated at Khanwa
- 1535
- Chittor besieged by Bahadur Shah
Rajput kingdoms and the Delhi Sultanate
Three centuries side by side: sometimes paying tribute, often at war.
- A different presence: the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti settled in Ajmer and died there in 1236.
- Ajmer Sharif: his shrine, Ajmer Sharif, became one of the most revered places in South Asia for people of every faith.
Alauddin Khalji and the sieges
Ranthambore: taken from Hammir Dev Chauhan in 1301.
Chittor: taken in 1303.
- Jauhar and saka: the chronicles say the women chose death by fire, jauhar, rather than capture, and the men rode out in saffron to die, saka.
- Padmini: the queen whose beauty is said to have drawn Alauddin to Chittor comes from the Padmavat of Malik Muhammad Jayasi, written in 1540.
- What contemporaries say: writers of Alauddin's own time do not mention her.
- Still the heart of memory: our journal tells the story of Padmini with both versions side by side.
Mewar's recovery
Rana Hammir: of the Sisodia branch, retook Chittor in the fourteenth century.
Rana Kumbha: in the fifteenth century made Mewar one of the strongest kingdoms of the north and built Kumbhalgarh and dozens of other forts.
- The Vijay Stambha: Kumbha raised the Tower of Victory at Chittor after a victory over the Sultan of Malwa.
- Patron: of music, scholarship and temple building; in his reign the merchant Dharna Shah built the great Jain temple at Ranakpur.
- The Rathores: to the west, founded Jodhpur in 1459 and Bikaner in 1488.
Rana Sanga and Khanwa
The great coalition: Rana Sanga of Mewar united many clans against the new power from Central Asia.
- 1527, Khanwa: near Bharatpur, Babur, the first Mughal emperor, broke the Rajput charge with cannon and cavalry tactics.
- 1535: Chittor was besieged again, by Bahadur Shah of Gujarat, and the chronicles once more record jauhar.
The Mughal centuries: alliance and resistance
- 1544
- Sher Shah and Maldeo at Giri-Sumel
- 1562
- Amer allies with Akbar
- 1567 to 1568
- Akbar takes Chittor
- 1576
- Battle of Haldighati
- 1615
- Mewar makes peace with Jahangir
- 1672 and 1678
- Shrinathji to Mewar; Marwar crisis
Sher Shah and a handful of millet
Before Akbar: Sher Shah Suri, the Afghan, drove the Mughals out of India for fifteen years.
- 1544, Giri-Sumel: he fought Rao Maldeo of Marwar and won only narrowly.
- The jibe: he is said to have remarked he nearly lost Hindustan for a handful of millet. Whether he said it or not, Marwaris still quote it with pride.
Amer and the alliance
1562: Raja Bharmal of Amer gave his daughter in marriage to Akbar, and the Kachwahas became the empire's closest allies.
Mariam-uz-Zamani: she became the mother of Jahangir and is known by this title in Mughal sources.
- Jodha Bai: a much later popular usage, one reason historians argue about the film. Our piece on Akbar and Jodha explains the debate.
- Man Singh I: the raja of Amer became one of Akbar's greatest generals.
- Imperial service: Bikaner, Bundi and in time Jodhpur joined, and Rajput princes commanded Mughal armies from Kabul to Bengal.
- What it built: the palaces at Amber Fort, Bikaner and Bundi.
Mewar refuses
Chittor falls: Akbar besieged it in the winter of 1567 to 1568, and the court moved to Udaipur, founded by Udai Singh II in 1559.
Ranthambore: surrendered to Akbar in 1569.
- 1576, Haldighati: Maharana Pratap fought a Mughal army commanded by Raja Man Singh of Amer, Rajput against Rajput.
- After the battle: it was indecisive, and Pratap fought on from the hills with the help of the Bhils.
- Chetak: his horse, said to have carried him wounded from the field and then died, belongs to the ballads. See Maharana Pratap and Haldighati.
- 1615: Amar Singh I made peace with Jahangir on honourable terms.
- Jag Mandir: a few years later Mewar sheltered the rebel prince Khurram, the future Shah Jahan, on the island of Jag Mandir.
Exchange, then rupture
Shared courts: Mughal and Rajput courts traded painters, architects, musicians, dress and manners.
In stone: seventeenth-century Rajput palaces, with gardens, pavilions and mirrored halls, show it.
- Aurangzeb: when Maharaja Jaswant Singh of Marwar died in 1678, the emperor tried to take Marwar.
- Durgadas Rathore: the noble smuggled the infant heir, Ajit Singh, to safety, and Marwar and Mewar fought the empire for years.
- Nathdwara: in 1672 the image of Shrinathji was brought from Govardhan near Mathura to Mewar for protection, and the temple town grew around it.
An astronomer's city and a century of turmoil
- 1707
- Aurangzeb dies; Mughal power fades
- 1727
- Jaipur founded
- 1770
- Naruka Kachwahas found Alwar
- 1810
- Death of Krishna Kumari
- Early 19th century
- War, Pindari raids, famine
Sawai Jai Singh II
General, diplomat and scholar: he built observatories at Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Varanasi and Mathura.
- A planned city: with the scholar-architect Vidyadhar Bhattacharya he laid out Jaipur, founded in 1727, on a grid of broad bazaars and city blocks.
- Jantar Mantar: the Jantar Mantar he built there is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Read more: Sawai Jai Singh the astronomer.
Marathas, Jats and new states
The Marathas: after Aurangzeb's death in 1707, the Scindias and Holkars pushed north, extracting tribute and taking sides in Rajput succession disputes.
- The Jats of Bharatpur: under Maharaja Suraj Mal, a powerful kingdom with the fort of Lohagarh and the garden palaces of Deeg.
- Alwar: founded by the Naruka Kachwahas in 1770.
- Tonk: later given to the Pathan soldier Amir Khan under the British settlement.
Rajput against Rajput
Krishna Kumari: a princess of Udaipur whose hand was claimed by both Jaipur and Jodhpur.
- A ruinous war: the fight over her ruined both kingdoms, and in 1810, the story goes, she was given poison to end it.
- Exhausted: by the early nineteenth century war, Pindari raiders and famine had left Rajasthan's rulers ready to accept a protector.
Rajputana under the British
- 1817 to 1818
- Treaties with the Rajput states
- 1829 and 1832
- Tod's Annals published
- 1857
- Revolt reaches Rajputana
- 1875
- Mayo College founded
- 1899 to 1900
- The chhappaniya akal famine
- 1927 and 1929 to 1943
- Gang Canal; Umaid Bhawan built
Treaties and paramountcy
1817 and 1818: after its wars with the Marathas and Pindaris, the East India Company signed treaties with almost every Rajput state.
The terms: rulers kept their thrones and internal powers, accepted British paramountcy, gave up foreign affairs and often paid tribute.
- Ajmer: ceded by the Scindias, it became British territory, and the region came to be called Rajputana.
- The Agent: a British Agent to the Governor-General oversaw the states from Ajmer, and later spent the hot months at Mount Abu.
- Tod's Annals: published in two volumes in 1829 and 1832, gave the region its romantic reputation and shaped how Rajasthan is seen ever since.
1857 and the princes
The revolt: soldiers rose at Nasirabad near Ajmer and at Erinpura, the thakur of Auwa in Marwar joined the rebels, and there was fighting at Kota.
- Loyal rulers: most stayed with the British, and after 1858 the Crown rewarded them with titles and gun salutes.
- Mayo College: founded in Ajmer in 1875 to educate the princes in the manner of an English public school.
- A new style: many princes travelled, played polo and built palaces mixing European and Indian styles.
Famine and reform
1899 to 1900: the great famine, remembered as the chhappaniya akal after the year 1956 of the Vikram calendar, killed huge numbers.
- Ganga Singh of Bikaner: brought irrigation to the desert with the Gang Canal, opened in 1927.
- On the world stage: he sat in the Imperial War Cabinet in the First World War and signed the Treaty of Versailles for India.
- Umaid Bhawan: Umaid Singh built Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur between 1929 and 1943, partly as famine relief work.
Change from below
Bijolia: peasants in Mewar organised against heavy taxes from the end of the nineteenth century, in one of India's longest farmers' movements.
- Govind Guru: the reformer led a movement among the Bhils; in 1913 many followers were killed by troops at Mangarh hill near Banswara.
- Praja mandals: in the 1930s and 1940s, people's associations in Jaipur, Mewar, Marwar and other states demanded responsible government and joined the independence struggle.
How twenty kingdoms became one state
A patchwork: in 1947 Rajputana was some nineteen princely states, three small chiefships and the British province of Ajmer-Merwara.
Who led it: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and his secretary V. P. Menon, as rulers signed agreements of accession and merger.
Matsya Union: formed in March 1948 by Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur and Karauli.
- 1947
- About 19 princely states, 3 chiefships, Ajmer-Merwara
- March 1948
- Matsya Union, Rajasthan Union
- April 1948
- Udaipur joins
- 30 March 1949
- Greater Rajasthan formed
- May 1949 and 1950
- Matsya Union, then Sirohi
- 1 November 1956
- Present borders
- Rajasthan Union: southern and eastern states including Kota, Bundi and Dungarpur; Udaipur joined in April 1948.
- 30 March 1949: Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Jaisalmer joined to form Greater Rajasthan, with Jaipur as capital, the historic date of the union.
- Rajasthan Day: since 2025 the state celebrates it on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, the Hindu new year, so the date changes each year. See how Rajasthan Day is marked.
- Ceremonial heads: Sawai Man Singh II of Jaipur became Rajpramukh, and Maharana Bhupal Singh of Udaipur was honoured as Maharajpramukh.
- 1956 reorganisation: Ajmer, Abu Road and a small area of Madhya Bharat were added, giving today's shape.
- Privy purses: the princes kept palaces, titles and annual payments until privy purses and official recognition were abolished in 1971.
- Into politics: Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur won a seat in Parliament in 1962.
- Palaces into hotels: beginning with Rambagh Palace in 1957, the start of today's heritage hotels. See royal families today.
Modern Rajasthan
Largest state: Rajasthan is India's largest state by area, a position it has held since Madhya Pradesh was divided in 2000.
A border at war: the desert border with Pakistan saw fighting in 1965 and 1971, when the battle of Longewala was fought near Jaisalmer.
- 1985
- Keoladeo National Park
- 2010
- Jantar Mantar, Jaipur
- 2013
- Six hill forts
- 2019
- Walled city of Jaipur
- Pokhran: the sand near Pokhran in the Thar shook with India's nuclear tests in 1974 and again in 1998.
- Indira Gandhi Canal: begun in the late 1950s, it brought Himalayan water deep into the Thar and turned parts of the north-west into farmland.
- The economy: mining, marble, textiles, solar power and above all tourism.
- The hill forts: our journal on the UNESCO forts of Rajasthan explains the listing.
- Royal families today: hoteliers, trustees of museums and festivals, and figures in public life.
- History in daily life: in the old cities, people still call the head of a former ruling family Maharaj or Darbar.
Legends, and how we tell them
- Padmini's mirror
- Poetry, two centuries later
- Bhangarh's curse
- Folklore
- Kuldhara in one night
- Legend; slow 19th-century decline
- Mehrangarh's hermit
- Unprovable
Padmini and the mirror
The tale: Alauddin Khalji saw Padmini's reflection in a mirror or a pool and attacked Chittor to possess her.
- Its source: poetry written two centuries after the siege.
- History and maybe-not: the siege of 1303 is history; the queen and the mirror may not be.
- At Chittor: guides show you the palace by the water, and we tell both versions.
The curse of Bhangarh
Founded: in the late sixteenth century.
- The legend: famous across India as a haunted fort, cursed by a sorcerer or an ascetic, depending on who tells it.
- The reality: the ruins are real, beautiful and deserted; the town most likely declined for ordinary reasons of politics, war and water.
The overnight exodus of Kuldhara
The legend: the Paliwal Brahmins of Kuldhara near Jaisalmer left in a single night to escape a tyrannical minister, cursing the village as they went.
- The record: the village declined over the nineteenth century, probably from failing wells and heavy taxes.
- Still haunting: the empty streets are, in the best sense.
The hermit of Mehrangarh
The story: when Rao Jodha built Mehrangarh in 1459, he moved a hermit off the hill, and the hermit cursed the fort with drought.
- The sacrifice: to appease him, a man is said to have been buried alive in the foundations.
- How Jodhpur tells it: with a shrug and a glance at the sky every dry summer. Nobody can prove it either way.
Where to see each chapter
Ancient: the edicts and Buddhist ruins at Bairat, on a quiet day out from Jaipur or Alwar.
Early kingdoms: the temples of Osian and the stepwell at Abhaneri.
- The Sultanate and the sieges: Chittorgarh Fort, Ranthambore Fort inside the tiger reserve, and Adhai Din ka Jhonpra in Ajmer.
- Rana Kumbha's Mewar: Kumbhalgarh, the Vijay Stambha at Chittor and the Ranakpur temple.
- The Mughal alliance: Amber Fort, Junagarh in Bikaner and the palaces of Bundi, with Fatehpur Sikri and Agra across the border.
- Eighteenth-century Jaipur: the walled city, the City Palace and the Jantar Mantar, with Lohagarh and Deeg at Bharatpur.
- The British age: Mayo College in Ajmer, Umaid Bhawan in Jodhpur and Lalgarh Palace in Bikaner.
- The whole story in one journey: our forts and palaces grand tour travels through most of it, with historians as guides where we can find them.
Rajasthan in twenty dates
Third millennium BCE: Kalibangan flourishes as a Harappan town.
Third century BCE: Ashoka's edicts carved at Bairat.
Eighth to ninth century CE: the Gurjara-Pratiharas, the temples of Osian, Chand Baori at Abhaneri.
- 1192
- Tarain, and the fall of Ajmer
- 1576
- Haldighati
- 1727
- Jaipur founded
- 1818
- British paramountcy
- 30 March 1949
- The union; Rajasthan Day since 2025 by the Hindu calendar
- 1156: Rawal Jaisal founds Jaisalmer.
- 1191 and 1192: Prithviraj Chauhan wins and then loses at Tarain.
- 1236: death of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer.
- 1301 and 1303: Alauddin Khalji takes Ranthambore and Chittor.
- Fifteenth century: Rana Kumbha builds Kumbhalgarh and the Tower of Victory.
- 1459: Rao Jodha founds Mehrangarh and Jodhpur.
- 1488: Rao Bika founds Bikaner.
- 1527: Rana Sanga defeated by Babur at Khanwa.
- 1559: Udai Singh II founds Udaipur.
- 1562: Raja Bharmal of Amer allies with Akbar.
- 1567 to 1568: Akbar besieges and takes Chittor.
- 1576: the battle of Haldighati.
- 1727: Sawai Jai Singh II founds Jaipur.
- 1818: most Rajput states accept British paramountcy.
- 1857: revolt at Nasirabad, Erinpura, Auwa and Kota.
- 30 March 1949: Greater Rajasthan formed. Rajasthan Day now falls on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, the Hindu new year.
- 1 November 1956: Rajasthan takes its present borders.