Kishangarh

Kishangarh is the name of a town in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It lies 18 miles north-west of Ajmer.

Princely history

Kishangarh was the capital of the eponymous princely state during the British Raj, which was located in the Rajputana agency. It had an area of 2210 km² (858 miles²) and a population in 1901 of 90,970. This figure for population represented a decrease of 27% over the census figure of 1891, something presumably attributable to the famine of 1899-1900. The state enjoyed an estimated revenue of Rs.34,000/- and paid no tribute to the British Raj.

The state was founded in the early 1600's by Kishan Singh, a younger son of the raja of Jodhpur. He was a courtier of the Mughals, and was rewarded for services rendered to the emperor Akbar. In 1818, Kishangarh first came into direct relations with the British by entering into a treaty, in common its neighbouring states, for the suppression of the Pindari marauders by whom the country was at that time overrun. The chief, who held the title of Maharaja, was a Rajput of the Rathor clan.

Maharaja Madan Singh ascended the throne in 1900 at the age of sixteen, at a time when the state was reeling from the impact of a devastating drought. The administration under him and his diwan was widely deemed worthy of approbation; irrigation from tanks and wells was extended and factories for ginning and pressing cotton were started. A social reform movement for discouraging excessive expenditure on marriages made remarkable impact during his reign.

External Links

• Genealogy of the ruling chiefs of Kishangarh

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)