The Mughal alliance
Raja Bharmal of Amber gave his daughter in marriage to Akbar in 1562 and entered imperial service, the first Rajput ruler to do so. The arrangement set the pattern for Mughal–Rajput relations for a century and a half: military service and marriage alliance in exchange for confirmed rule, high rank and a share in the empire's expansion.
His grandson Man Singh I became one of Akbar's foremost commanders, governing Kabul, Bihar and Bengal and leading the imperial army at Haldighati against Mewar — Rajput against Rajput, which is a necessary corrective to accounts that treat the period as a straightforward confrontation between Mughal and Rajput. Mirza Raja Jai Singh I later commanded against Shivaji and negotiated the treaty of Purandar.
Jai Singh II and Jaipur
Sawai Jai Singh II founded Jaipur in 1727 on a grid plan derived from Indian architectural treatises, with wide straight streets, defined market blocks and a palace quarter — the first substantial planned city built in India in centuries, and still legible as such.
He was also an astronomer of consequence. He built five masonry observatories, at Jaipur, Delhi, Ujjain, Mathura and Varanasi, with instruments of great size designed to reduce the errors of small brass instruments; the Samrat Yantra at Jaipur is a sundial some twenty-seven metres high. He commissioned translations of Ptolemy and of Euclid, corresponded with European Jesuits, and produced revised astronomical tables.
Jaipur entered British protection in 1818 and acceded to India in 1949.
Further reading
- Asher, Catherine B. India Before Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2006
- Jackson, Peter. The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History. Cambridge University Press, 1999
- Richards, John F. The Mughal Empire. Cambridge University Press, 1993
- Basham, A. L. The Wonder That Was India. Sidgwick & Jackson, 1954
- Keay, John. India: A History. HarperCollins, 2000
See also
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.