Rājputana (), meaning Land of the ,
The main settlements to the west of the Aravalli Hills came to be known as Rajputana, early in the Medieval India.
Name
George Thomas (
Military Memories) was the first in 1800, to term this region the
Rajputana Agency.
The historian
John Keay in his book,
India: A History, stated that the
Rajputana name was coined by the
British Raj, 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 the Gurjara-Pratiharas.
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.
Transition to Rajasthan
The territory consisted of 23 states, one Sardari, one Jagir and the British district of
Ajmer-Merwara. Most of the ruling princes were Rajputs. These were Rajput Kshatriyas from the historical region of Rajputana, who started entering the region in the seventh century.
Jodhpur,
Jaisalmer,
Bikaner,
Jaipur and
Udaipur were the largest states. In 1947, integration of these states took place in various stages, as a result of which the State of Rajasthan came into existence. Some old areas of south-east Rajputana are now a part of
Madhya Pradesh and some areas in the south-west are now part of
Gujarat.
See also
Notes
-
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 .
