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Founding
Founding of Kingdom of Jaisalmer
medieval Hindu dynasty of Indian state of Rajasthan
- 1156
- South Asia
Founding
medieval Hindu dynasty of Indian state of Rajasthan
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
The Kingdom of Jaisalmer was a kingdom in the far-western part of present-day Rajasthan, India, from the mid-12th century CE until 1947. In 1156 CE, Rawal Jaisal moved his capital from Lodhruva to Jaisalmer because the former was vulnerable to attacks from Turko-Afghan and Baloch tribes. The descendants of Jaisal continued to exercise absolute control over Jaisalmer until 1818 CE, when a treaty of subsidiary alliance with the British East India Company bringing under British protection and sphere of influence. Known as the Maharawal, the native ruler of the princely state was entitled to a 15-gun salute.
The Bhatis of Jaisalmer belonged to the Bhati dynasty, a Yaduvanshi clan of Rajputs. They reportedly originated in Mathura through a common ancestor named Rao Bhati, who is claimed to be a descendant of Pradyumna. According to the seventeenth-century Nainsi ri Khyat, the Bhatis after losing Mathura moved to Bhatner in Lakhi Jungle, and from there to other locations in western and northwestern India including Rajasthan and Punjab. Rao Bhati conquered and annexed territories from 14 princes in Punjab, including the area of what is now modern-day Lahore. He is also credited with establishing the modern town of Bathinda in the Lakhi Jungle area in the 3rd century.According to Satish Chandra, the Hindu Shahis of Afghanistan made an alliance with the Bhati rulers of Multan, because they wanted to end the slave raids made by the Turkic ruler of Ghazni, however the alliance was defeated by Alp-Tegin in 977 CE.
In 1156, Rawal Jaisal moved his capital from Lodhruva to Jaisalmer and the state took its name from this new capital.
Around 1299 CE, Rawal Jait Singh I faced a long siege by Alauddin Khalji of Delhi Sultanate, who is said to have been provoked by a Bhati raid on his treasure caravan. By the end of the siege, facing certain defeat, the Bhati Rajput women committed 'Jauhar', and the male warriors under the command of Mularaja met their fatal end in battle with the Sultan's forces. For a few years after the successful siege, the fort remained under the sway of Delhi Sultanate, before being eventually reoccupied by some surviving Bhatis.
In 1541 CE, Rawal Lunakaran also fought Mughal emperor Humayun when the latter attacked the fort on his way to Ajmer. He also offered his daughter in marriage to emperor Akbar. Mughals controlled the fort until 1762.
The treaty between the East India Company and Mulraj on 12 December 1818 allowed the Mulraj to retain control of the fort and provided for protection from invasion. After the death of Mulraj in 1820, his grandson Gaj Singh inherited control of the fort.
On 11 December 1818 Jaisalmer became a British protectorate in the Rajputana Agency.
Traditionally, in the Middle Ages, the main source of income for the kingdom was levies on caravans, but the economy was heavily affected when Bombay emerged as a major port and sea trade replaced the traditional land routes. Maharawal Ranjit Singh and Bairi Sal Singh attempted to turn around the economic decline but the dramatic reduction in trade impoverished the kingdom. A severe drought and the resulting famine from 1895 to 1900, during the reign of Maharawal Salivahan Singh, only made matters worse by causing widespread loss of the livestock that the increasingly agriculturally based kingdom relied upon.
The attempts of Maharawal Jawahir Singh (1914–1949) at modernization were also not entirely successful in turning the kingdom's economy around, and the drylands of Jaisalmer remained backward compared with other regions of Rajputana, especially the neighbouring state of Jodhpur. Nonetheless, the extensive water storage and supply, sanitation, and health infrastructures developed in the 1930s by the prime minister Dewan Bahadur Brijmohan Nath Zutshi provided significant relief during the severe droughts of 1941 and 1951. Maharawal During 1930–1947, Jawahir Singh and his ministers also promoted technical education and the academic disciplines of civil and mechanical engineering in the state.
After the departure of the British from India in 1947, the Maharawal signed an Instrument of Accession to the new Union of India, while retaining some internal autonomy until the 1950s.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Kingdom of Jaisalmer”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.