Rathores of Marwar - Jodhpur

Photographed by Andrew Ruppenstein, January 26, 2020

1. Rathores of Marwar - Jodhpur Marker

The Rathores arrived in the desert tracts of western India during the 13th century, in the wake of invading armies, from their ancestral territories on India's northern plains. By the 15th century, they had established a powerful kingdom and built a walled capital city - Jodhpur-with the massive Mehrangarh Fort (or Fort of the Sun) at its center. Jodhpur's prosperity, owed largely to the Rathores' control over lucrative trade routes, attracted the attention of two successive empires that ruled India: the Mughals (1526-40, 1555-1857) and the British (1858-1947). Both encounters would reshape Jodhpur's cultural landscape, expanding the Rathores' interactions with the external world and introducing objects, artisanal traditions,

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Displayed in this Museum are portraits of Marwar rulers who played significant role as patrons of art and architecture. Also the interiors of the monument celebrates fine craftsmanship of Marwar craftsmen and is very much a living museum with practicing rituals associated with the monument.
 
Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Government & Politics.
 
Location. 26° 17.976′ N, 73° 1.193′ E. Marker is in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, in Jodhpur District. It is on Fort Entrance Road. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Jodhpur, Rajasthan 34200-1, India. Touch for directions.

Regionally, it is in Asia, specifically in South Asia, in the Indian Subcontinent, on the Arabian Sea, on the Bay of Bengal, and in the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Mughal Empire, Portuguese colonies, and a British colony.

circa 1905

2. The Meherangarh Fort at Jodhpur

Photograph of the Meherangarh Fort at Jodhpur in Rajasthan, taken by an unknown photographer in the 1900s. The photograph is from an album containing views of various locations in India, formerly in the collection of Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum and Broome, (1850-1916), who was Commander in Chief of India between 1902 and 1909. The city of Jodhpur has been the capital of Marwar - the "region of death" - in western India since the 15th century. It was founded on the edge of the arid Thar Desert by Rao Jodha of the Rathore Rajputs in 1459, replacing the previous Marwar capital of Mandor. The formidable Meherangarh Fort, considered the finest in Rajasthan, was built by Rao Jodha and stands on an isolated outcrop of rock which rises abruptly from the surrounding plain. Its high sheer walls and massive bastions dominate the city and can be seen for miles around. Within the fort at the northern end are the Old Palaces, a series of beautiful courtyard buildings, which date from the 17th century onward. This is a view of the fort from the Rani Sagar, a lake to the north-west of the fort within the old city walls. (Photo courtesy of the British Library).