History · the whole state on one page
Who ruled Rajasthan?
Nobody — not as one state, until 1949. Before that the land was a patchwork of Rajput kingdoms, each with its own clan, capital and quarrel: the Rathores in Marwar and Bikaner, the Sisodias in Mewar, the Kachwahas in Amber and Jaipur, the Bhatis in Jaisalmer, the Hadas in Bundi and Kota. Empires — Delhi, the Mughals, the British — ruled over them in turn, but never quite instead of them. This page is the map and the timeline; the city guides are the stories.
Eight kingdoms
The realms a traveler actually moves through. Labels mark heartlands, not borders — frontiers shifted for centuries.
- Marwar
- RATHORE
Mandore, then Jodhpur from 1459 · Jodhpur guide → - Mewar
- SISODIA
Chittorgarh, then Udaipur from the 1560s · Udaipur guide → - Dhundhar
- KACHWAHA
Amber, then Jaipur from 1727 · Jaipur guide → - Jaisalmer
- BHATI
Jaisalmer, from 1156 · Jaisalmer guide → - Bikaner
- RATHORE
Bikaner, from 1488 · Bikaner guide → - Hadoti
- HADA CHAUHAN
Bundi, then Kota as a separate state from 1631 - Shekhawati
- SHEKHAWAT KACHWAHA
No single capital — a confederacy of small estates - Ajmer
- CHAUHAN, THEN MUGHAL AND BRITISH
Ajmer · Pushkar guide →
The timeline
Sixteen dates that every fort, palace and legend in the state refers back to.
- c. 600–900
Rajput clans emerge from the wreck of older empires; the Pratiharas hold Mandore, the Guhilas Mewar.
MARWAR · MEWAR - 1156
Rawal Jaisal founds Jaisalmer on the caravan road to Central Asia.
JAISALMER - 1192
Prithviraj Chauhan loses the second battle of Tarain; the north passes to the Ghurids, then the Sultans of Delhi.
AJMER - 1241
Rao Deva takes Bundi — the Hada Chauhans' kingdom of Hadoti begins.
HADOTI - 1301 · 1303
Alauddin Khilji storms Ranthambore, then Chittorgarh — the siege from which the legend of Padmini's jauhar is born.
MEWAR - 1459
Rao Jodha moves the Rathore seat from Mandore to a bare rock: Mehrangarh and Jodhpur begin.
MARWAR - 1488
Rao Bika, a younger son of Jodha, founds Bikaner in the northern desert.
BIKANER - 1544
Sher Shah Suri takes Marwar — 'for a handful of millet', he is said to have rued.
MARWAR - 1559
Udai Singh II founds Udaipur; Chittorgarh falls to Akbar in 1568.
MEWAR - 1576
Haldighati: Maharana Pratap fights Akbar's army under Amber's Man Singh — and never submits.
MEWAR · DHUNDHAR - 1631
Kota is partitioned from Bundi as a separate state.
HADOTI - 1679
Aurangzeb seizes Marwar; Durgadas Rathore's long war restores the heir, Ajit Singh, in 1707.
MARWAR - 1727
Sawai Jai Singh II lays out Jaipur on a nine-square grid below Amber.
DHUNDHAR - 1817–18
Treaties with the East India Company: the kingdoms become the princely states of Rajputana.
ALL - 1876
Jaipur is painted pink for the Prince of Wales — and kept that way since.
DHUNDHAR - 1949
30 March: the states merge into Rajasthan, with Jaipur as capital. Privy purses end in 1971.
ALL
In seven moments
The story, briefly
01 · 8TH–10TH CENTURY
The clans rise
Out of the collapse of older empires, warrior clans claim descent from the sun, the moon and a sacrificial fire, and call themselves Rajputs — 'sons of kings'. The Pratiharas rule from Mandore, the Guhilas take Mewar, and the map of kingdoms that still shapes every city begins to draw itself.
02 · 1156
A fort on the caravan road
Rawal Jaisal, a Bhati chief, founds Jaisalmer on a ridge of golden sandstone deep in the Thar — a toll-gate on the routes to Central Asia that will make his descendants rich for seven centuries.
03 · 1192–1303
Delhi arrives
Prithviraj Chauhan of Ajmer loses the second battle of Tarain (1192) and the north passes to the Ghurids and then the Sultans of Delhi. A century later Alauddin Khilji storms Ranthambore (1301) and Chittorgarh (1303) — the siege from which the legend of Queen Padmini's jauhar is born.
04 · 1459
A king moves to a rock
Rao Jodha, Rathore ruler of Marwar, abandons indefensible Mandore for a bare outcrop 120 metres above the plain and begins Mehrangarh. The city beneath it — Jodhpur — will paint itself blue. His son Bika rides north and founds Bikaner (1488).
05 · 1568–1576
Akbar and the one who refused
Akbar takes Chittorgarh (1568); Mewar's rulers have already moved to a new capital at Udaipur (1559). While Amber's Raja Man Singh leads Mughal armies, Maharana Pratap of Mewar fights him at Haldighati (1576) and never submits — the defiance Rajasthan still tells its children about.
06 · 1727
The planned city
Sawai Jai Singh II, Amber's astronomer-king, lays out a new capital on a nine-square grid on the plain below: Jaipur. It is painted pink in 1876 for a visit by the Prince of Wales, and the old city has been kept that colour by civic rule ever since.
07 · 1818–1949
Treaties, then a state
One by one the kingdoms sign treaties with the East India Company and become the princely states of Rajputana. On 30 March 1949 most of them merge into a single Indian state — Rajasthan, 'the abode of kings' — with Jaipur as its capital. The maharajas keep their palaces, then turn them into hotels.