Through a Feudal Window: Chronicles of a Rajput Clan

This is the story of every Rajput feudal family in Rajasthan through Indian History.

This is a tale of extraordinary survival of a clan over a millennium. The chronicles of the Mertia Jagmalots trace their origins to their progenitor Rao Duda of Merta and through him to the Rathore clan of Rajputs. The martial Rajputs, according to many historians, descended from the Scythians who ruled large tracts of northern India in the early centuries of the first millennium A.D.

While it is true that we are all in a sense survivors down from Adam, but to be able to trace a lineage over six hundred years on the basis of historical records puts such survivors in a remarkable category of their own. Tracing the history of one family in the sub-clan assumes historical significance as a study of a microcosm representative of numerous feudatory families across Rajasthan which have braved the vicissitudes of history to survive meaningfully to the present day. The story of one family then becomes the story of every such family with minor variations.

We see how they faced one challenge after another with the changing dynasties and empires in the region and at the central seat of power. We observe how they withstood the hegemonistic ambitions of the regional super powers and the overlordship of the Delhi Emperors expressed through their Governors at Ajmer. The manner in which they succeeded in fending off the bigger fish in their neighbourhood, forever seeking to swallow them or learnt to deal tactfully with the whales from Delhi, emerging remarkably intact into the present times, constitutes the theme of this book.