Rajput Polity (A Study of Politics and Administration of the State of Marwar, 1638-1749)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Of all the Rajput states of Rajasthan, Marwar represents the best model for understanding Rajput polity within the perspective of the rise and fall of the Mughal empire. The present study seeks to take a fresh look at the politico-administrative structure in this princely state during the Mughal period.

Based on contemporary documents and records, it traces the historical evolution of this structure and the forces which helped to shape it. The various aspects of Marwar polity such as the role of the nobility, its organization and composition, nature of changes in the institutional structure caused due to external and internal factors and the sources of state revenue have been critically examined. Special emphasis has been given to the economic foundation of this institutional framework, particularly the land revenue.

The author has also discussed the political activities of the Rathor rulers and their relations with the Mughal emperors vis-a-vis the rulers of the neighbouring states. These constituted a part of the milieu in which the institutional structure evolved and the changes therein took place.

The author has retained the social, economic and administrative terms in their original form. Since words produce a particular image of the reality they are employed to describe, an analysis of the contemporary connotation of these terms has also been made. These terms and the discussion on them further broaden our understanding of the system.

G.D. Sharma (b. 1947) was awarded the Ph.D. by the School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, on the 'Politics and Administration of the State of Marwar (1638-1749)' in 1974. At the time of his premature death in 1991, he was teaching in the Department of History and Indian Culture, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur.

Besides publishing many research papers in the leading journals on the subject, he edited Marwar underJaswant Singh, a Rajasthani manuscript of the seventeenth century known as Jodhpur Hukumat-ri-Bahi.

The state of Marwar occupied a prominent place in Rajasthan during the period under study. It played an important role not only in the politics of this sprawling region but also of northern India in general. Although a number of monographs have been published on the history of the erstwhile states of Rajasthan, these have mainly been concerned with the political activities of the Rajput rulers, their relations with the Mughal Emperors, and with inter-state relations. No Attempt has, however, been made to understand the evolution of the politico-administrative structure in Rajasthan-the changes that took place in it, and the social and economic forces that were responsible for these changes. The choice of Marwar for studying these aspects has been determined by the fact that, of all the Rajput States of Rajasthan, Marwar presents the best model for understanding the Rajput polity within the perspective of the rise and fall of the Mughal Empire.

With Mewar's decline after Rana Sangram Singh (A.D. 1509-28), the centre of political gravity in Rajasthan shifted from Chittor to Jodhpur. Before the rise of Rao Maldeo (A.D. 1532-62), the state of Marwar was a loose confederation presided over by the Rathor rulers. Rao Maldeo expanded his dominion and tried, though unsuccessfully, to forge a new relationship between the ruler and the nobles. However, it was only after his death that the internal political structure, the position of the ruling class, and the administrative pattern gradually began to assume a new form. An effort was made to restructure the Marwar polity by introducing in it some aspects of the jagirdari system of the Mugha.ls. This was the basis of the pattadari system which was evolved by Maharaja Sur Singh (A.D. 1595-1619) and which later became crystallised during the time of Maharaja Jaswant Singh (A.D. 1638-78). This system began to crumble after the death of Maharaja Ajit Singh in 1724, and there emerged a different form of relation-ship between the rulers and the nobles, and a different system of government. These changes were overlooked by Colonel Tod and the historians following his line, who claimed that during the Mughal period the forms of government and land relations in Rajasthan were similar to the feudal system of Europe.