Mughal era

The Delhi sultanate was extinguished when Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodi at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526. Rana Sanga, ruler of Mewar, rallied an army to challenge Babur. Rana Sanga used traditional war tactics and weapons and Babur used modern tactics and cannons, the first example of their use in northern India. Overmatched, Sanga was defeated by Babur at the Battle of Khanua on March 16, 1527. However, it was not until the reign of Akbar fifteen years later that the structure of relations between the Mughal imperium and the Rajput states began to take definitive shape.[edit] Maharana Pratap Singh of MewarMain article: Pratap Singh of MewarPratap Singh of Mewar, a 16th century Rajput ruler and great warrior. The Mughal emperor Akbar sent many missions against him. He survived to ultimately gain control of all of Mewar, excluding Chittorgarh FortUdaipur City Palace Udaipur remained the capital of Mewar after the fall of Chittor until its accession in independent India.

The region of Mewar held out against the Mughal empire and gave battle to all invaders. Rana Sanga, the grand father of Rana Pratap, fought against Babur. Later, Babur's grandson Akbar attacked Chittor in 1567 CE. After a struggle, Mewar's chief citadel of Chittor finally fell to Akbar in 1568. The third (and last) Jauhar of Chittor transpired on this occasion. When the fall of the citadel became imminent, the ladies of the fort committed collective self-immolation inorder to save there chastity and the men sallied out of the fort to meet the invading Muslim army in a fight to the death.

Prior to this event, Mewar's ruler, Rana Udai Singh II, had retired to the nearby hills, where he founded the new town of Udaipur. He was succeeded while in exile by his son Pratap Singh of Mewar as head of the Sisodia clan. Under the able leadership of Pratap Singh, they harassed the Mughals enough to cause them to make accommodatory overtures. Pratap Singh, a present-day Rajput icon, rebuffed these overtures of friendship from Akbar and rallied an army to meet the Mughal forces. He was defeated by the Mughal forces at the battle of Haldighati in June 1576. He escaped, and carried out a relentless guerilla struggle from his hideout in the hills, and by the time of his death, he had reconquered nearly all of his kingdom from the Mughals, except for the fortress of Chittor and Mandal Garh. He died in 1597 CE.

After Pratap's death, his son Rana Amar Singh continued the struggle for 18 years, and faced constant attacks from Mughals. He fought eighteen wars during this period. Finally he entered into a peace treaty with the Mughals but with certain exemptions: the Rana of Mewar did not have attend the Mughal court personally but the crown prince would attend the court, and it was not necessary for the Rana and the Sisodias to enter into marriage alliances with the Mughals. The treaty was signed by Rana Amar Singh and Prince Khurram Shihab-ud-din Muhammad (later Shah Jahan) in 1615 CE at Gogunda. Singh thus regained control of his state as a vassal of the Mughals. The Sisodias, rulers of Mewar, were the last Rajput dynasty to enter into an alliance with the Mughals.

[edit] Maratha empire

As the central authority of the Mughal empire disintegrated following the death of Aurangzeb, the power of the Marathas was being consolidated under the leadership of Shivaji (his grandfather, Maloji Bhonsle, claimed descent from the Sisodia clan of Rajputs). The only major defeat in Shivaji's rise to power came against the Kachwaha ruler, Mirza Raja Jai Singh I of Amber, who was commanded by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb (ruled 1658–1707). When in Agra, on a visit to Aurangzeb, Shivaji was deceitfully kept under house arrest. With the assistance of Mirza Raja Jai Singh I and his son Ram Singh I, Shivaji managed to escape to the Maratha Empire.

Having been able to cross the Narmada River by 1728, Peshwa Bajirao and his successor Balaji Bajirao were able to organise military expeditions initially into Malwa and then into other parts of Hindustan. By 1760, with defeat of the Nizam in the Deccan, Maratha power had reached its zenith with a territory of over 250 million acres (1 million km²) or one-third of the Indian sub-continent. The Maratha expansion was temporarily halted after their defeat in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761. For the Rajput states of the former empire in the north of the Indian subcontinent it was a period of constantly shifting alliances and military conflicts with the various forces competing for power.

The Maratha's constant attempt to extract tribute and conduct raids greatly antagonised the people of the Rajput states and Jat community and was one of the reasons for the emergence of military alliances between the Rajput states and the East India Company by the early 19th century. In a notable incident of this period, Jayappa Scindia, one of the Maratha generals, was murdered at Nagaur while trying to collect taxes. In another incident, Ishwari Singh, ruler of Jaipur, committed suicide. The public of Jaipur was very much infuriated by this incident. On January 20, 1751, when 4,000 Maratha soldiers came on an informal visit to Jaipur, all the gates of the city were closed, and the Rajput army along with the civilian population attacked the Marathas and killed them. Almost 3,000 Marathas died. 1,000 were injured and managed to escape.

In May 1787 the Marathas suffered a defeat in the Battle of Lalsot. On June 20, 1790, the Battle of Patan was fought between the Maratha Confederacy and the Rajputs of Jaipur and their Mughal allies, in which the Rajputs suffered a severe blow. The Marathas demanded taxes and damages. The Rana of Mewar could not pay these taxes and had to mortgage some of his properties to the Scindia family to raise the funds.

The Rajput states remained loyal to the Mughals. But the Mughals changed their liberal policy towards Rajputs and other Hindus, resulting in a major Hindu revolt by the Sikhs, Jats, Marathas, Satnamis and Rajputs. The outrage ultimately weakened the Mughal empire irreparably. At the last the emperor became merely a nominal head. Mughals fought among themselves and Rajputs were unjustifiably held responsible for the fighting. In this uncertainty and chaos the Rajputs chose to begin to withdraw their support from the Mughals. Whether they physically supported the Mughals with troops depended upon their own interests and the status quo of the respective states. This became the main concern of the rulers of Delhi and other Rajput states, rather than the reemergence of a powerful Mughal regime. The English East India Company established control in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey, where they defeated the Nawab of Bengal. After a period of chaos and unrest culminating in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Queen Victoria was declared Empress of India on 1 May 1876, officially supplanting the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II and the rule of the East India Company. This ushered in a new age of British empire in India which would last until Indian Independence in 1947.