Rajputana in the context of "Vidyadhar Bhattacharya"

The Kingdom of Mewar was an independent Hindu kingdom that existed in the Rajputana region of the Indian subcontinent and later became a dominant state in medieval India. The kingdom was initially founded and ruled by the Guhila dynasty, followed by its cadet branch, the Sisodia Dynasty.

The earliest kingdom was centered around the south-central part of Rajasthan, state of India. It was bordered by the Aravali Range to the northwest, Ajmer to the north, Gujarat, Vagad and Malwa regions to the south and the Hadoti region to the east.

Menander I Soter (Ancient Greek: Μένανδρος Σωτήρ, romanized: Ménandros Sōtḗr, lit. 'Menander the Saviour'; Pali: Milinda), sometimes called Menander the Great, was an Indo-Greek king (reigned c. 165/155 –130 BC) who administered a large territory in the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. Menander is noted for having become a patron of Greco-Buddhism and is regarded as the greatest and most well-known of the Indo-Greek kings.

Menander might have initially been a prince or king of Bactria. After conquering the Punjab, as far as Taxila and Sagala, he established an empire which stretched from the Kabul River in the west to the Ravi River in the east, and from the Swat River valley in the north to Arachosia (the Helmand Province). The Greek geographer Strabo wrote that he "conquered more tribes than Alexander the Great." Ancient Indian writers indicate that he possibly launched expeditions southward into Rajputana (Rajasthan, Gujarat and Sindh) and central India (Gujarat and Malwa) and as far east down the Ganges River Valley as Pataliputra (Patna).

The Kingdom of Amber, later the Kingdom of Jaipur, was located in the north-eastern historic Dhundhar region of Rajputana and was ruled by the Kachwaha Rajput clan. It was established by Rao Dulha Rai, possibly the last ruler of the Kachchhapaghata dynasty of Gwalior who later migrated from Narwar to Dausa and started his kingdom there with the support of Chahamanas of Shakambhari with coalition of Gaur dynasty of sheopur in the 11th century. Mostly through 11th to 15th century, the kingdom faced stagnation, and resources were scarce. Under Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan, its Raja Pajjwan dev of Ajmer, battled Muhammad Ghori. Raja Chandrasen of Amber became a Sisodia under him and fought in the Battle of Bayana and The Battle of Khanwa under Raja Prithviraj Kachhwaha.

Under Raja Bharmal, the kingdom heavily aligned with the Mughals and Akbar. His son and grandson Raja Bhagwant Das and Raja Man Singh I were leading generals in Akbar's army and helped him in expanding the empire. Mirza Raja Jai Singh I served under Shah Jahan and became a distinguished general. He fell out of Aurangzeb's favour when he was suspected of helping Shivaji escape from Mughal captivity in 1664. Sawai Jai Singh II became the ruler during the decline of the Mughal Empire. He successfully rebelled against the Mughals in 1708 to regain his confiscated kingdom. After Jai Singh's death, the kingdom was drained of its resources during the civil war amongst his sons Ishwari Singh and Madho Singh I and the Marathas.

The Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–1819) was the final and decisive conflict between the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India. The war left the Company in control of most of India. It began with an invasion of Maratha territory by British East India Company troops, and although the British were outnumbered, the Maratha army was decimated. The troops were led by Governor General Hastings, supported by a force under General Thomas Hislop. Operations began against the Pindaris, a band of local mercenaries and Marathas from central India.

Peshwa Baji Rao II's forces, supported by those of Mudhoji II Bhonsle of Nagpur and Malharrao Holkar III of Indore, rose against the East India Company. They attempted to regain the power that was taken away by the British due to the Treaty of Bassein. Pressure and diplomacy convinced the fourth major Maratha leader, Daulatrao Scindia of Gwalior, to remain neutral even though he lost control of Rajputana.

Ajmer-Merwara (also known as Ajmir Province, and Ajmer-Merwara-Kekri) was a former province of British India in the historical Ajmer region. The territory was ceded to the British by Daulat Rao Sindhia by a treaty on 25 June 1818. It was under the Bengal Presidency until 1861 when it became part of the North-Western Provinces. Finally on 1 April 1871, it became a separate province as Ajmer-Merwara-Kekri. It became a part of independent India on 15 August 1947 when the British left India.

The province consisted of the districts of Ajmer and Merwara, which were physically separated from the rest of British India forming an enclave amidst the many princely states of Rajputana. Unlike these states, which were ruled by local nobles who acknowledged British suzerainty, Ajmer-Merwara was administered directly by the British.

The Jat people (Hindi: [dʒaːʈ], Punjabi: [dʒəʈː]), also spelt Jaat and Jatt, are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, many Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and subsequently into the Delhi Territory, northeastern Rajputana, and the western Gangetic Plain in the 17th and 18th centuries. Of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh faiths, they are now found mostly in the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and the Pakistani regions of Sindh, Punjab and AJK.

By the 20th century, the landowning Jats became an influential group in several parts of North India, including Punjab, Western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. Over the years, several Jats abandoned agriculture in favour of urban jobs, and used their dominant economic and political status to claim higher social status.

Rajasthani literature is a tradition in Indian literature dating to the 2nd millennium, which includes literature written in the Rajasthani language. An early form of Rajasthani started developing in the 11th century from Saurseni Prakrit as Maru-Gurjar or Gurjar Apabhramsa.Early Rajasthani literature was usually written by Charans. Earlier Rajasthani was known as Charani or Dingal, which was close to Gujarati. Medieval Rajasthani literature was mostly heroic poetry mentioning the great kings and fighters of Rajasthan. Rabindra Nath Tagore, a Bengali polymath, once said, "The heroic sentiment which is the essence of every song and couplet of a Rajasthani is peculiar emotion of its own of which, however, the whole country may be proud". It is generally agreed that modern Rajasthani literature began with the works of Suryamal Misran, including the Vansa Bhaskara and the Vir Satsai. The Vansa Bhaskara contains accounts of the Rajput princes who ruled in what was then Rajputana (at present the state of Rajasthan), during the lifetime of the poet (1872–1952). The Vir Satsai is a collection of hundreds of couplets.