Rājputana, meaning "Land of the

Rajputs Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

", was a region in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

that included mainly the present-day

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

, as well as parts of

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

and

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

, and some adjoining areas of Sindh in modern-day southern Pakistan. The main settlements to the west of the Aravalli Hills came to be known as ''Rajputana'', early in the

Medieval Period In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. The name was later adopted by British government as the

Rajputana Agency The Rajputana Agency was a political office of the British Indian Empire dealing with a collection of native states in Rajputana (now in Rajasthan, northwestern India), under the political charge of an Agent reporting directly to the Governor ...

for its dependencies in the region of the present-day

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n state of Rājasthān. The Rajputana Agency included 18 princely states, two chiefships and the British district of

Ajmer-Merwara Ajmer-Merwara, also known as Ajmir Province and as Ajmer-Merwara-Kekri, was a former province of British India in the historical Ajmer region. The territory was ceded to the British by Daulat Rao Sindhia by a treaty on 25 June 1818. It was u ...

. This British official term remained until its replacement by "Rajasthan" in the constitution of 1949.

Name

George Thomas (''Military Memories'') was the first in 1800, to term this region the ''Rajputana Agency''. The historian

John Keay John Stanley Melville Keay FRGS is a British historian, journalist, radio presenter and lecturer specialising in popular histories of India, the Far East and China, often with a particular focus on their colonisation and exploration by Europ ...

in his book, ''India: A History'', stated that the ''Rajputana'' name was coined by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

, but that the word achieved a retrospective authenticity: in an 1829 translation of Ferishta's history of early Islamic India, John Briggs discarded the phrase "Indian princes", as rendered in Dow's earlier version, and substituted "Rajpoot princes". The region was previously long known as Gujratra (an early form of "Gujarat"), before it came to be called Rajputana during the medieval period, although the name "Gujratra" itself originated from Gujara Parthihar .

Geography

The area of Rajputana is estimated to be 343,328 square km (132,559 square miles) and breaks down into two geographic divisions: * An area northwest of the Arāvalli Range including part of the Great Indian Thar Desert, with characteristics of being sandy and unproductive. * A higher area southeast of the range, which is fertile by comparison. The whole area forms the hill and plateau country between the north Indian plains and the main plateau of peninsular India.

Princely States Region

Kingdom of Marwar Kingdom of Marwar, also known as the Jodhpur State under the British, was a kingdom in the Marwar region from 1226 to 1818 and a princely state under British rule from 1818 to 1947. It was established in Pali by Rao Siha, possibly a m ...

* Shekhawati State *

Kingdom of Mewar Kingdom of Mewar, sometimes known as Udaipur State, was ruled by the Sisodia dynasty. It was an independent kingdom in Rajputana region of India. It was established around the 7th century as minor rulers of the Nagada-Ahar region of Udaipur a ...

* Jaipur State *

Sirohi State Kingdom of Sirohi or later Sirohi State (in colonial time) was an independent Hindu state in present-day Rajasthan state of India. The state was founded in 1311 CE and lasted for six centuries until its peaceful dissolution in 1949 CE, when i ...

Vagad State Vagad (also known as Vagar, Hindi: वागड) is a region in southeastern Rajasthan state of western India. Its boundaries are roughly defined by those of the districts of Dungarpur and Banswara. Major cities of the region are Dungarpur an ...

Mewat State The Khanzadas of Mewat were a dynasty of chiefs from Rajputana who had their capital at Alwar. The Khanzadas were Muslim Rajputs who descended from Raja Sonpar Pal who was a Yaduvanshi Rajput who converted to Islam during the period of the De ...

Rise of Rajasthan

History

Notes

References

#Low, Sir Francis (ed.) ''The Indian Year Book & Who’s Who 1945-46'', The Times of India Press, Bombay. #Sharma, Nidhi ''Transition from Feudalism to Democracy'', Aalekh Publishers, Jaipur, 2000 . #vikas raghav would have been a rich boy today,if his ancestors did not donate all his land to sc st people History of India History of Rajasthan History of Madhya Pradesh History of Gujarat History of Pakistan {{Rajasthan-geo-stub