Why this story is everywhere you travel
Two kinds of power: the Mughals held the plains, the treasury and the artillery. The Rajputs held the forts, the cavalry and the loyalty of their clans.
Neither could easily destroy the other: so, after the first wars, they bargained. Marriage, rank and service bound many Rajput houses to the empire.
- First Mughal
- Babur, from 1526
- Akbar's reign
- 1556 to 1605
- Closest allies
- The Kachwahas of Amer
- Longest resisters
- The Sisodias of Mewar
- Aurangzeb died
- 1707
- Not one story: each Rajput kingdom made its own choice. Amer allied early, Mewar resisted longest, and Marwar did both at different times.
- Shared taste: the courts exchanged painters, architects, musicians and manners. You see it in every palace on our journeys.
- A modern argument: the period is still debated in India, often angrily. We tell it as history, with both sides heard.
- The wider frame: our short history of Rajasthan and our guide to the Rajput dynasties give the background.
Before the Mughals, three centuries of sultans and sieges
Tarain, 1192: Prithviraj Chauhan, king of Ajmer and Delhi, was defeated and killed by Muhammad of Ghor, and the Sultanate began.
The Khalji sieges: Alauddin Khalji took Ranthambore in 1301 and Chittor in 1303. Read the story of Padmini for the legend that grew from it.
- Mewar recovers: Rana Hammir of the Sisodia branch won Chittor back, and in the fifteenth century Rana Kumbha built Kumbhalgarh and the Tower of Victory.
- New capitals: the Rathores founded Jodhpur in 1459 and Bikaner in 1488.
- By 1500: Mewar under Rana Sanga was the strongest power in the region, and a natural rival to anyone who wanted Delhi.
Babur and Rana Sanga, the battle that decided everything
Panipat: in 1526 Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the last sultan of Delhi, and founded the Mughal dynasty.
The coalition: Rana Sanga united many Rajput clans against the newcomer, a rare moment of unity.
- Panipat
- 1526, Babur defeats the Lodi sultan
- Khanwa
- 1527, near Bharatpur
- Rajput leader
- Rana Sanga of Mewar
- Babur's edge
- Cannon and cavalry tactics
- Khanwa: in 1527, near Bharatpur, Babur's cannon and cavalry broke the Rajput charge.
- Why it mattered: after Khanwa no Rajput army again challenged the Mughals for the throne of Delhi. The question became how to live with them.
- A memoir: Babur wrote about it himself in his memoirs, one of the most vivid royal autobiographies ever written.
- Mewar's sorrow: Sanga died soon after, and Chittor was besieged again in 1535, by Bahadur Shah of Gujarat.
Humayun, Sher Shah and a birth in a Rajput fort
Humayun loses the throne: the Afghan Sher Shah Suri drove Babur's son out of India in 1540.
Giri-Sumel, 1544: Sher Shah fought Rao Maldeo of Marwar and won only narrowly. He is said to have remarked that he nearly lost Hindustan for a handful of millet.
- A birth in the desert: as a fugitive, Humayun was sheltered at Umarkot in the Thar, now in Sindh, and there in 1542 his son Akbar was born.
- The rakhi story: tradition says Rani Karmavati of Mewar sent Humayun a rakhi, a thread of sisterhood, asking for help against Bahadur Shah in 1535. Historians doubt the details.
- The return: Humayun won back Delhi in 1555 and died the next year. His tomb in Delhi is the ancestor of the Taj. Read our Humayun's Tomb guide.
Akbar's great bargain with the Rajputs
1562, Amer
The marriage: Raja Bharmal of Amer gave his daughter in marriage to Akbar, at the imperial camp at Sambhar.
- Her title: in Mughal sources she is Mariam-uz-Zamani. She became the mother of the emperor Jahangir.
- The legend: popular films call her Jodha. Read Akbar and Jodha for why historians dispute the name.
- The result: the Kachwahas became the closest allies of the empire, and the wealth of imperial service built Amber Fort.
1567 to 1568, Chittor
The siege: Akbar besieged Mewar's great fortress through the winter, and it fell in early 1568.
- The defenders: the Rathore Jaimal and the Sisodia Patta are remembered as its heroes, and their names are still sung in Mewar.
- Mewar moves: Udai Singh II had already founded Udaipur in 1559, and the court made it the capital. Read Chittorgarh Fort.
1569, Ranthambore
- The surrender: Rao Surjan Hada of Bundi gave up the fortress to Akbar and entered imperial service.
- Today: the fort stands inside the tiger reserve. Read Ranthambore.
Partners in the empire
Rank and land: Rajput rulers received high imperial ranks, kept their own kingdoms and governed provinces far from home.
- Respect for faith: Akbar abolished the tax on Hindu pilgrims and the jizya, the poll tax on non-Muslims, early in his reign.
- One court: Rajput princes, Persian nobles and Central Asian generals served side by side at Fatehpur Sikri.
Mewar says no
Haldighati, 1576: Maharana Pratap fought a Mughal army commanded by Raja Man Singh of Amer, a Rajput leading the emperor's forces against another Rajput.
An indecisive battle: Pratap escaped and spent the rest of his life fighting from the hills, with the help of the Bhils.
- Chetak: the horse who carried him wounded from the field belongs to the world of ballads. Read Maharana Pratap and Haldighati.
- The peace of 1615: Pratap's son Amar Singh I made peace with Jahangir on honourable terms. The Maharana was not required to attend the imperial court in person.
- A prince on an island: a few years later the rebel prince Khurram, the future Shah Jahan, was sheltered by Mewar on Jag Mandir in Lake Pichola.
- Why it still matters: Mewar's pride in its independence is part of how Udaipur sees itself today.
Rajput mothers of Mughal emperors
Jahangir: son of Akbar and the Amer princess known as Mariam-uz-Zamani, born in 1569 at Sikri.
Shah Jahan: son of Jahangir and Jagat Gosain, a Rathore princess of Marwar.
- Jahangir's first wife: Man Bai, a Kachwaha princess of Amer, mother of his eldest son Khusrau.
- Powerful women: Mariam-uz-Zamani held high rank at court, and her ships traded and carried pilgrims from the western ports.
- A mosque in Lahore: her son had a mosque built in her honour there, completed around 1614.
- Her tomb: at Sikandra near Agra, close to Akbar's own. Read about Agra.
Rajput generals from Kabul to Bengal
Raja Man Singh I of Amer
His career: one of Akbar's greatest generals, governor of Kabul and Bengal among other provinces.
- His buildings: palaces at Amber, a palace on the ghats of Varanasi around 1600, and the great temple of Govind Dev at Vrindavan.
- Read more: Mathura and Vrindavan.
Rai Singh of Bikaner
- His career: a leading general of Akbar.
- His fort: Junagarh in Bikaner, built in the late sixteenth century from imperial wealth.
Mirza Raja Jai Singh I of Amer
- His career: a great general of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, who forced the Maratha leader Shivaji to terms in 1665.
- His title: Mirza Raja, a Mughal honour, joined Persian and Hindu kingship in two words.
Maharaja Jaswant Singh of Marwar
- His career: a senior general for Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, posted to the far north-west, where he died in 1678.
- His death: it set off the great crisis of the alliance, below.
Shared taste, in stone, paint, music and cloth
Gardens and pavilions: Rajput palaces took up the Mughal charbagh, the four-part garden, and halls of public audience like those at Agra.
Rajput forms in Mughal palaces: carved brackets, balconies and chhatris appear at Fatehpur Sikri and in the Jahangiri Mahal at Agra Fort.
- Mirrors: the sheesh mahal, a hall of inlaid mirror work, became a favourite of both courts. See Amber Fort.
- Painting: Rajput courts adopted Mughal naturalism and portraiture, then made it their own in the schools of Mewar, Bundi, Kishangarh and Jodhpur. Read miniature painting.
- Music: Tansen, from the Gwalior region, joined Akbar's court in 1562. Read our Gwalior Fort guide.
- Dress: the long Mughal jama and the Rajput angarkha borrowed from each other, and turbans grew elaborate at both courts.
- Titles: Mughal honours such as Mirza Raja and Sawai were worn with pride by Rajput kings.
Aurangzeb and the breaking of the bargain
1678: Maharaja Jaswant Singh of Marwar died, and Aurangzeb tried to take control of Marwar.
Durgadas Rathore: the noble smuggled the infant heir, Ajit Singh, to safety and fought the empire for decades on his behalf. He is Marwar's model of loyalty.
- The jizya returns: in 1679 Aurangzeb reimposed the poll tax on non-Muslims that Akbar had abolished.
- Mewar joins: Marwar and Mewar fought the empire together for years.
- Shrinathji's journey: in 1672 the image of Krishna as Shrinathji was brought from near Mathura to Mewar for protection, and Nathdwara grew around it.
- After 1707: when Aurangzeb died, Mughal power faded fast, and the Rajput kingdoms were free again, and soon fighting each other and the Marathas.
What the Rajputs did with their freedom
Sawai Jai Singh II: general, diplomat and astronomer, who served the late Mughal emperors and received the title Sawai, one and a quarter.
A city of his own: he founded Jaipur in 1727 on a grid of broad bazaars, our home.
- His observatories: at Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Varanasi and Mathura. Read about Sawai Jai Singh the astronomer.
- The Marathas: in the eighteenth century the Scindias and Holkars pushed north, extracting tribute from Rajput states.
- 1818: most Rajput states accepted British paramountcy, and a new chapter began.
Legends of the age, and what history says
Jodha and Akbar
- The legend: a Rajput princess named Jodha and a great romance with the emperor.
- The record: the Amer queen is known in Mughal sources as Mariam-uz-Zamani. The name Jodha is a later popular usage.
Chetak's leap
- The legend: Maharana Pratap's horse carried him wounded across a stream at Haldighati, then died.
- The record: the battle is history. Chetak's leap comes from the ballads.
Karmavati's rakhi
- The legend: the queen of Mewar sent Humayun a thread of sisterhood in 1535.
- The record: historians doubt the details, but the story is told every Raksha Bandhan.
Birbal's wit
- The legend: Akbar's clever courtier outwits everyone in hundreds of folk tales.
- The record: Raja Birbal was a real noble of Akbar's court. The stories are folklore, still told to every Indian child.
Where to see this history on our journeys
Amber Fort, the alliance in stone
- Why: the palaces of the Kachwahas, built from imperial service, with Mughal gardens and Rajput balconies side by side.
Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar's city
- Why: the capital where Rajput and Mughal nobles served together, with the palace popularly called Jodha Bai's Mahal.
Chittorgarh, the fortress that fell
- Why: the scene of the sieges of 1303, 1535 and 1567 to 1568.
Haldighati and Udaipur
- Why: the battlefield of 1576 and the lake capital of the house that resisted.
Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal
- Why: the imperial capital, where Rajput princes attended court and the son of a Rathore princess built the Taj.
Mehrangarh, Marwar's defiance
- Why: the fort of the Rathores who served the Mughals and then fought them for a generation.
Before you go, reading and listening
Read Babur himself: his memoirs are frank, funny and full of detail about India as he first saw it.
Read Tod with care: James Tod's Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan gave the Rajputs their romantic fame, but it relies on bardic tradition.
- Classic but romantic
- Tod's Annals, 1829 and 1832
- In his own words
- Babur's memoirs
- Akbar's chronicle
- The Akbarnama of Abul Fazl
- Best on site
- A guide who knows both sides
- Read the court chronicle: Abul Fazl's Akbarnama is the official history of Akbar's reign, written by the minister later killed in Bundelkhand. Read Orchha, the forgotten capital for that story.
- Listen in the forts: the bards and guides at Chittor and Mehrangarh tell the Rajput side with feeling.
- Ask for a historian: in Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Agra we can often arrange a specialist guide.
How we tell this story
Neither heroes nor traitors: the Kachwahas who allied and the Sisodias who resisted both acted for their kingdoms. Our guides explain the choices, not just the outcomes.
Legend and record side by side: Chetak's leap, Padmini's mirror and Jodha's romance are stories. The sieges, the treaties and the marriages are history.
- Faith without bitterness: the period saw both tolerance and persecution. Akbar abolished taxes Aurangzeb restored. Both facts matter.
- The forgotten people: Bhil archers, Charan bards, Jain bankers and ordinary soldiers made this history too.
- Ask your host: at a heritage hotel, the family can often tell you exactly where their ancestors stood.
The story in twenty dates
1192: Prithviraj Chauhan defeated at Tarain. The Delhi Sultanate begins.
1303: Alauddin Khalji takes Chittor.
1459 and 1488: the Rathores found Jodhpur and Bikaner.
- 1526: Babur wins at Panipat and founds the Mughal dynasty.
- 1527: Babur defeats Rana Sanga at Khanwa.
- 1540: Sher Shah drives Humayun out of India.
- 1542: Akbar is born at Umarkot in the Thar.
- 1544: Sher Shah narrowly defeats Rao Maldeo of Marwar at Giri-Sumel.
- 1556: Akbar comes to the throne.
- 1559: Udai Singh II founds Udaipur.
- 1562: the Amer alliance and marriage.
- 1568: Chittor falls to Akbar.
- 1569: Ranthambore surrenders, and Jahangir is born at Sikri.
- 1576: the battle of Haldighati.
- 1605: Jahangir becomes emperor.
- 1615: Mewar makes peace with Jahangir.
- 1665: Mirza Raja Jai Singh I brings Shivaji to terms.
- 1678 and 1679: Jaswant Singh dies, the Rathore war begins, and the jizya returns.
- 1707: Aurangzeb dies and Mughal power fades.
- 1727: Sawai Jai Singh II founds Jaipur.