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UDAIPUR,Oodeypore orMewar, a native state of Indiain the Rajputana agency. Area, 12,691 sq. m. Pop. (1901),1,030,212. Estimated revenue £200,000; tribute £17,000. Thegreater part of the country is level plain. A section of theAravalli Mountains extends over the south-western andsouthern portions, and is rich in minerals, but the mines havebeen long closed. The general inclination of the countryis from south-west to north-east, the Banas and itsnumerous feeders flowing from the base of the Aravalli range.There are many lakes and tanks in the state, the finest ofwhich is the Debar or Jaisamand, with an area of nearly21 sq. m.; it is considered to be the largest artificial sheet ofwater in the world. A portion of the state is traversed by theMalwa line of the Rajputana railway. A branch from Chitortowards Udaipur was taken over by the state in 1898, and wasextended nearer to the capital. Like the rest of Rajputana thestate suffered severely from famine in 1900. The ancient coinageis of the Sasanian or Persian type, copper issues of this typebeing still in circulation. Modern coins bear on the reverse thewords “Friend of London.”
The chief, whose title is maharana, is the head of the Sisodhyiaclan of Rajputs, and claims to be the direct representative ofRama, the mythical king of Ajodhya. He is universally recognizedas the highest in rank of all the Rajput princes. Thedynasty offered a heroic resistance to the Mahommedans,and boast that they never gave a daughter to a Mogul emperor.They are said to have come from Gujarat and settled at Chitorin the 8th century. After the capture of Chitor by Akbar in 1568the capital was removed to Udaipur by Maharana Udai Singh.During the 18th century the state suffered greatly from internaldissension and from the inroads of the Mahrattas. It came underBritish protection in 1817. The Maharana Fateh Singh, G.C.S.I.(b. 1848), succeeded by adoption in 1884.
The name ofMewar is derived from the Meos, or Minas, a tribe ofmixed Rajput origin, who have likewise given their name to adifferent tract in northern Rajputana, called Mewat, where they arenow all Mahommedans. About 1400 a sub-division of the Mewatis,Called Khanzadas, made themselves the dominant power in thistract; and at the end of the 18th century, and again during theMutiny, they were notorious for their ravages in the Upper Doab,around Agra and Delhi. In 1901 the total number of Mewatis inRajputana was 168,596, forming 13% of the population in thestate of Alwar. Down to 1906 the Mewar residency was the titleof a political agency in Rajputana, comprising the four states. ofUdaipur, Banswara, Dungarpur and Partabgarh; area, 16,970 sq. m.;pop. (1901), 1,336,283. But in that year the three last stateswere separated from Udaipur, and formed into the Southern RajputanaStates agency. The Mewar Bhil Corps, raised as a localbattalion in 1840, which was conspicuously loyal during the Mutiny,was in 1897 attached to the Indian army, with its headquarters atKherwara.
The city ofUdaipur is 2469 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901),45,976. It is situated in a valley amid wooded hills, on the bankof a large lake (Pichola), with palaces built of granite andmarble. The maharana's palace, which crowns the ridge onwhich the city stands, dates originally from about 1570, buthas had additions made to it till it has become a conglomerationof various architectural styles. On Lake Pichola are twoislands, on which are palaces dating respectively from themiddle of the 17th and of the 18th centuries. In one of thesethe European residents were sheltered during the Indian Mutiny.In the neighbourhood are Eklingji (with a magnificent templeof the 15th century), and Nagda, the seat of the ancestors ofthe chiefs of Udaipur, with a number of temples, two of whichare said to date from the 11th century.
There is anotherUdaipur State in the Central Provinces (till1905 one of the Chota Nagpur states of Bengal). Area, 1052 sq. m.;pop. (1901), 45,391. Its capital is Dharmjaygarh.
