| Kingdom of Jaisalmer | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1156–1947 | |||||||||
 Flag  Coat of arms | |||||||||
  South Asia 1525 .png) | |||||||||
 Jailsalmer State (orange) within Rajputana (yellow), 1909. | |||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• 1931 | 41,600 km2 (16,100 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1931 | 76,255 | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 1156 | ||||||||
| 1947 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Rajasthan,India | ||||||||
| Coat of arms based onThe Princely Armory. Publ. by The Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing. Calcutta. 1877 | |||||||||
TheKingdom of Jaisalmer was a kingdom in the far-western part of present-dayRajasthan, India, from the mid-12th century CE until 1947. In 1156 CE,Rawal Jaisal moved his capital fromLodhruva toJaisalmer 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 ofsubsidiary alliance with theBritish 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.[2]
The Bhatis ofJaisalmer belonged to theBhati dynasty, aYaduvanshi clan ofRajputs.[3][4] They reportedly originated inMathura through a common ancestor namedRao Bhati, who is claimed to be a descendant ofPradyumna.[5][6] According to the seventeenth-centuryNainsi ri Khyat, the Bhatis after losing Mathura moved toBhatner inLakhi Jungle, and from there to other locations inwestern andnorthwestern India includingRajasthan andPunjab. Rao Bhati conquered and annexed territories from 14 princes in Punjab, including the area of what is now modern-dayLahore.[7][8] He is also credited with establishing the modern town ofBathinda in the Lakhi Jungle area in the 3rd century.[5]According toSatish Chandra, theHindu Shahis of Afghanistan made an alliance with the Bhati rulers ofMultan, because they wanted to end the slave raids made by the Turkic ruler ofGhazni, however the alliance was defeated byAlp-Tegin in 977 CE.[9]
In 1156,Rawal Jaisal moved his capital fromLodhruva toJaisalmer and the state took its name from this new capital.
Around 1299 CE, Rawal Jait Singh I faced a long siege byAlauddin Khalji ofDelhi 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 ofDelhi Sultanate, before being eventually reoccupied by some surviving Bhatis.[10]
In 1541 CE, Rawal Lunakaran also foughtMughal emperorHumayun when the latter attacked the fort on his way toAjmer.[11] He also offered his daughter in marriage to emperorAkbar. Mughals controlled the fort until 1762.[12]
The treaty between theEast 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.[12]
On 11 December 1818 Jaisalmer became aBritish protectorate in theRajputana Agency.[13][14]
Traditionally, in the Middle Ages, the main source of income for the kingdom was levies oncaravans, but the economy was heavily affected whenBombay 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 severedrought and the resultingfamine 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 ofRajputana, especially the neighbouring state ofJodhpur. 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 anInstrument of Accession to the newUnion of India, while retaining some internal autonomy until the 1950s.
Media related toJaisalmer State at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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