Rajasthan: A Quick Guide To Alwar

A quaint case of Modern-India-meets-Mahabharata-era-meets-severely-British-nomenclature took place in 1948, just after India’s independence, when the kingdoms of Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur and Karauli became ‘the United Kingdom of Matsya’, with its capital at Alwar (the states merged with Rajasthan in 1949). This was a reference to the Alwar tract being part of the ancient Matsya Kingdom across the time of the Mahabharata. Otherwise the first notable mention of Alwar in any long-standing record refers to the year 1265, when Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq invaded it, to “punish its inhabitants for their brigandage, which they had the insolence to carry up to the very gates of Delhi”. But the dreadful massacre that he ordered seems to have had very little effect, for one finds them enjoying the reputation of inveterate bandits at a much later date.

The ruler who first founded Alwar, around 1720, was a Rajput, Pratap Singh, belonging to the clan of Jaipur’s rulers. He succeeded in taking an area called Macheri from the Mughals and set up his capital in Rajgarh, south of Alwar. By way of obtaining pardon for this usurpation, in 1774 his successor offered his services to Delhi against the Jats, and as a reward was recognised as an independent ruler. Separating himself completely from Jaipur, of which he appropriated a number of provinces, he founded a permanent capital at Alwar.