The Author Has Made A Detailed And Meticulous Examination Of All Aspects Of Social Life Of Rajputs, Their Religious Beliefs, Gender Relations, Education And Aesthetic Life. Based On Field Work, Royal Archives Of Many Former Princely States. Useful For Social Scientists.

Winner of the 2009 Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy Book Prize, sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies The medieval Rajput queen Padmini - believed to have been pursued by Alauddin Khalji, the Sultan of Delhi - has been the focus of numerous South Asian narratives, ranging from a Sufi mystical romance in the sixteenth century to nationalist histories in the late nineteenth century. The Many Lives of a Rajput Queen explores how early modern regional elites, caste groups, and mystical and monastic communities shaped their distinctive versions of the past through the repeated refashioning of the legend of Padmini. Ramya Sreenivasan investigates these legends and traces their subsequent appropriation by colonial administrators and nationalist intellectuals, for varying different political ends. Using Padmini as a means of illustrating the power of gender norms in constructing heroic memory, she shows how such narratives about virtuous women changed as they circulated across particular communities in South Asia between the sixteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book will interest historians of memory, gender, community, culture, and historywriting in South Asia. Illustrating how enduring legends emerged out of particular precolonial repositories of "tradition," the book also addresses the nature of colonial transitions and precolonial historical consciousness.

In Royal Umbrellas of Stone: Memory, Politics, and Public Identity in Rajput Funerary Art, Melia Belli Bose provides the first analysis of Rajput chatrīs ("umbrellas"; cenotaphs) built between the sixteenth to early-twentieth centuries. New kings constructed chatrīs for their late fathers as statements of legitimacy. During periods of political upheaval patrons introduced new forms and decorations to respond to current events and evoke a particular past. Offering detailed analyses of individual cenotaphs and engaging with art historical and epigraphic evidence, as well as ethnography and ritual, this book locates the chatrīs within their original social, political, and religious milieux. It also compares the chatrīs to other Rajput arts to understand how arts of different media targeted specific audiences.

This book firmly roots the history of the British Indian sepoy in India'a medieval past.

Son of a King! So the name of Rajput signify and the scenario where the adventures of these invincible warriors becomes enacted is The Land of Kings as the name of Rajasthan embodies. A Rajput is set apart from other warriors by his chivalrous code of honor and tradition. Many are the names of valiant Rajputs that have been heralded through the ages from father to son. Many are they who fell, steel in hand so to prevent their Kingdom, Mewar, from being conquered by the invader. Many too are the Rajput women whose presence alongside their warriors shaped the course of destiny, unhesitatingly, choosing death to dishonor. Rajput reads with the ease and pleasure of a work of fiction, yet every detail, inference, and fact has been meticulously researched revealing, as yet, the untold wonder of an amazing past that would otherwise be left smoldering in its own ashes. RECOMMENDATION: The history of Rajasthan is so colorful, vibrant and eventful it needs to be recorded with love and care. Although not a student of history, yet the stories of valor, beauty, intrigue and war excite me. Such history as yours will be a valuable addition to students and researchers. Neelabh Pandit, Associate Professor, English - Alwar, Rajasthan