Jodhpur State also historically known as the Kingdom of Marwar, was a kingdom in the Marwar region from 1226 to 1818 and a princely state under British rule from 1818 to 1947. Its capital was the city of Jodhpur since 1450. Covering an area of, Jodhpur State was the largest state under the Rajputana Agency and the third largest state in British India after Jammu and Kashmir State and Hyderabad State. The average revenue of the state was Rs.56,00,000 in 1901. the Maharaja's of Jodhpur originally had a gun salute of 19 guns with 21 personal. However the gun salute was reduced to 17 guns and 21 personal in 1870 due to a quarrel with the Maharana of Udaipur. Its last ruler signed the accession to join the Indian Union on 7 April 1949 and the state was formally dissolved on 1 November 1956.
History
The Rathore rulers of the Indian princely state of Jodhpur were of an ancient dynasty established in the 8th century. However, the dynasty's fortunes were made by Rao Jodha, first of the rulers of the Rathore dynasty in Jodhpur in 1459. Out of the 15 rulers that preceded Jodha, 9 died on the battlefield, of them 6 against foreign armies. Jodha's son himself died after a battle in which he saved 140 women from Afghan raiders. The kingdom remained independent until it was annexed by the Mughal Empire in 1581 after the death of Chandrasen Rathore. It remained under direct Mughal control until Udai Singh was restored to the throne as a vassal and given the title of Raja in 1583. During the late 17th century it was under the strict control of the Mughal EmperorAurangzeb, but the ruling house of Rathore was allowed to remain semi-autonomous in their territory. During this time Durgadas Rathore struggled to preserve the rathore dynasty and freed Marwar from the Mughal Empire after 31 years of war. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the kingdom was overrun by the Maratha hordes of Scindia and Holkar. Marwar was financially bankrupt due to heavy tributes exacted by the Marathas and its once renowned army had now thinned down because of internal wars and rebellions by its nobles, forcing its rulers to ask the British for aid. The British had no role in the state's affairs until 6 January 1818, when the Raja at that time, Man Singh, entered into a subsidiary alliance, after which the Rajas of Marwar continued as rulers of a princely state. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Rajput Nobles of Pali under Thakur Kushal Singh Rathore led a rebellion against Raja Takht Singh and the British, however the rebellion was put to an end by the British armies under colonel Holmes after a siege of the Thakurs fort in Auwa. The armies of Jodhpur State fought in World War I for the British. They actively fought in Afghanistan and the Middle-east and scored a series of victories for the British empire. The Jodhpur lancers with the support of the Mysore lancers defeated a large host of Turks and Germans in the Battle of Haifa. Some of the other battles they participated in were the battles of Suez, Gaza, Jordan Valley, Abu Tellul and Megiddo. Following Indian independence in 1947 Maharaja Hanwant Singh, the last ruler of Jodhpur state, delayed signing the Instrument of Accession to India. He even briefly considered acceding to Pakistan, for Jodhpur shared a border with the new nation and he had been personally given a blank page to write his demands and an assurance of access to sea ports in Pakistan by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. But due to the effective persuasion of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Lord Mountbatten, the Maharaja of Jodhpur agreed to the accession of his state to the new Dominion of India.
Rulers of Marwar
The Rathore dynasty of Jodhpur are Rajputs who claim descent from the Rashtrakuta dynasty. On the fall of the Rashtrakuta dynasty they migrated north and formed their kingdom in Kannauj and then in Marwar.
