Jodhpur, Rajasthan (Dec. 29, 2008)

We reached Jodhpur police guest house on the night of Dec. 28th. Sujani and my sister picked some dinner but it was no good. Next morning we got some good chai from the guest house cook. We left for Jodhpur fort (also called Mehrangarh fort). The fort looked very impressive. It was professionally maintained and organized for tourists with rates published everywhere and qualified guides.

The tour of the fort lasted about 3 hours and it was very impressive. The havelis inside the fort were converted into museums with dedicated rooms displaying, Howdahs (elephant carriers), cradles, Jodhpur miniature paintings, Pallakis (palanquins), and their war booty from their lootings of Ahmedabad.

Apparently this fort had many wars, one of which was with Jaipur and Bikaner which they claim was won by Jodhpur. The most impressive of all the royal rooms I saw was the durbar and the courtyard in front of it. The balconies in the courtyard are fully restored and looked beautiful. Their miniature painting collection is impressive.

After the tour, while my family took rest, my son, Bunti and I walked along the fort ramparts and good view of the Jodhpur city. They had a good collection of ancient cannons. On the way out, we stopped briefly at the place where the royalty are cremated. There is a beautiful temple built in marble in honor of Jaswant Singh called Jaswant Thada.


History:
Jodhpur is capital of a region in Rajasthan called Marwar. This region is famous for merchants all around India. Marwar was ruled by Rathore clan since 1400s. They initialy were from Kaunaj (near modern day Kanpur) and moved to Pali (near Jodhpur) after they lost to Mohammed Ghori in 1192. Rathore ruler Raja Jai Chand (is this the notorious father-in-law of Prithviraj Chauhan?). Raja Jai Chand drowned while crossing river Ganges. After wandering through Gujarat they settled down in Pali.

Rathore Saihaji married the sister of of the ruling dynasty. They took over Mandore the capital of Marwar. Eventually they moved their capital to present day Jodhpur in 1459. Like many stories behind ancient capitals of India, there is a sage behind choosing of Jodhpur as the new capital. It was built by Raja Jodha.

There was an incident in 1516 when during the rule of Sikander Lodi, a band of Pathans kidnapped 140 Rajput women during festival of Teej. To avenge Rajput honour, the raja of Jodhpur chased and fought with the Pathans but lost his life in process. His son was part of the last confederacy made by Rajputs for national independence containing one-eyed Rana Sanga of Mewar. This confederacy fought against Babur in the battle of Khanua in 1528 and lost.

When Humayun lost to Sher Shah Sur, he fled to Marwar for refuge and didn't get any. Sher Shah soon arrived with a large army and defeated Marwar. It was a narrow victory and Sher Shah was supposed to have said, "I nearly lost the empire of Hindustan for a handful of barley." That is one reason why you will find barley in the Jodhpur coat-of-arms.

Akbar invaded Marwar in 1561 as he had a score to settle for not helping his father while he was on run from Sher Shah. He captured Jodhpur and handed it to the raja of Bikaner. Eventually the eldest son, Udai Singh, of defeated Rajah of Jodhpur was able to please Akbar and get back Jodhpur. Thus Jodhpur became vassal state of Mughals. Jodha Bai, sister of Udai Singh was given in marriage to Akbar and that is how Akbar returned all possessions he had seized from Marwar except for Ajmer. (I wonder how many Jodhas Akbar is married to. One was Jaipur's princes and daughter of Man Singh).

Jodhpur assisted Mughals from then onwards. They helped Mughals conquer many parts of India including Gujarat and parts of Decan. When Shah Jahan was rebelling against his father, Jahangir, Jodhpur Rathores helped put down the rebellion.

Jodhpur's relationship with Mughals soured with coming of Aurangzeb. Jaswant Singh, the Rajah of Jodhpur, backed Aurangzeb brother Dara Shikoh against Aurangzeb in 1658 at Fatehbad (his wife was supposed to have locked the fort gates to prevent him from entering Jodhpur for losing in a battle). Dara lost and was killed.by Aurangzeb. Jaswant singh continued to opose Aurangzeb until he died fighting Afghans. Aurangzeb tried to assasinate Jaswant Singh's infant son but he was smuggled out of Jodhpur by Durga Das. Enraged Aurangzeb sacked Jodhpur, destroyed numerous temples and try converting Rajputs to Islam. This united the divided Rajputs. Soon after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, the infant son, Ajit Singh reclaimed the throne of Jodhpur. (There is a beautiful painting of Durga Das in forest in front of a camp fire in Jodhpur palace. It was painted by a German painter and looks very european).

When Jodhpur formed an alliance with Udaipur and Jaipur to fight the Mughals after being vassals for Mughals for many decades, the regained the privilege of marrying Udaipur princessess, a privelege they lost when they allied with the Mughals (Udaipur was fiercely indepenent).

Ajit Singh turned out to be far greater ruler than his father. When he was forced to give one of his daughter to then Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyyar in marriage, his hatred for Mughals grew further. He schemed with some courtiers in Mughal court and had the emperor (his son-in-law) assasinated. After capturing Ajmer from Mughals again, he prohibited Koran in Marwar. That may explain why I didn't see any muslims or mosques in Marwar other than Ajmer's Dargah.

Story of Ajit Singh's sons is a tragic one. His son Abhay singh assasinated his father and became the ruler of Marwar. His brother Bukhta was given a piece of the kingdom but both never got along. Due to their rivalry, the rajputs lost a perfect opportunity to dislodge the Mughals from Delhi. Bukhta eventually took over the throne from Abhay singh's son and much happened between both the brothers' families. Jodhpur throne passes between the families of both sons of Ajit Singh many times. Meanwhile the Marathas replaced the Mughals as the dominant force and took over most of Marwar including Ajmer.

Eventually, the grandson of Ajit Singh through Bukhta, Vijay Singh became the king. After his death, his adapted son Man Singh fights against Vijay Singh's grandson and eventually becomes the king of Marwar. Soon after his coronation, the armies of Pokhran, Jaipur, Mewar and Ambar beseiged Jodhpur fort. You can still see the holes made on the fort outer wall by the cannons fired during the seige. With help of his general Mir Khan, Man Singh broke up the seige and defeated the Jaipur army.

With his only son dead, Man Singh suffered from melancholy mania and was deemed not fit to rule. The British arrived in 1818 and concluded a treaty that made Jodhpur their protectorate. This brought political stability, prosperity and good relationship with the British.

The ruler of Jodhpur in 1800s, Pratap Singh introduced the famous 'Jodhpurs' to western world and fought for British with his elite Jodhpur lancers to Boxer rebellion in China in 1899 and later in World War I.

The kingdom of Jodhpur was the third largest of Indian kingdoms, after Kashmir and Hyderabad, during colonial times.

Travel
After returning from our tour of the fort, we had lunch at a Rajasthani restaurant where I tasted for the first time a vegetable dish with stringy things in them. Very tasty. That evening, we left for the village of Sarawas, south-east of Jodhpur which is famous for cotton carpets called Dhurries. The place we went to was run by a father-son duo. More impressive than their dhurries is their joint family of uncles, father, son, daughter-in-law, monther, kids. We saw their collection of furniture. I wondered where they could get the wood to make such beautiful furniture in an arid place like Rajasthan.