Marwar
The Rathores claim descent from the Gāhaḍavāla kings of Kannauj, displaced by the Ghurid conquest — a claim that is old and widely repeated and that historians treat with caution. They established themselves at Mandore in the thirteenth century, and Rao Jodha founded Jodhpur in 1459, building the Mehrangarh fort on a rock above the plain.
Rao Maldeo, in the sixteenth century, made Marwar the strongest Rajput state of its day. Sher Shah Suri defeated him at Sammel in 1544 and is reported to have said that he had nearly lost the empire of Hindustan for a handful of millet — the Marwar country being worth little in itself.
The Mughals
Marwar entered Mughal service under Udai Singh and its chiefs held major commands: Jaswant Singh governed in the Deccan and on the Afghan frontier under Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. On his death in 1678 Aurangzeb attempted to take Marwar under direct administration and to control the succession, and the resulting war lasted thirty years.
Durgadas Rathore, who conducted the resistance and protected the infant heir Ajit Singh, became the central figure of Marwar's own historical tradition. The war is one of the clearest cases in which Mughal policy toward a Rajput house turned a client into an enemy, and its costs contributed to the empire's difficulties in the Deccan.
Marwar entered British protection in 1818 and acceded to India in 1949.
Further reading
- Jackson, Peter. The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History. Cambridge University Press, 1999
- Richards, John F. The Mughal Empire. Cambridge University Press, 1993
- Asher, Catherine B. India Before Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2006
- Gordon, Stewart. The Marathas 1600-1818. Cambridge University Press, 1993
- Stein, Burton. Vijayanagara. Cambridge University Press, 1989
See also
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.