An historical sketch of the native states of India/Bikaner

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An historical sketch of the native states of India

By Col. G. B. Malleson, Publisher: Longmans, Green & Co. London (1875)


Part I - Chapter XIII: Bikaner

Foundation of Bikaner State

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Area: 17,676 sq. miles. Population:539,000. Revenue: about 6,00,000 rupees.

THE state of Bikaner was founded by Bika Singh, sixth son of Raja Joda of Jodhpur. Followed by three hundred of his clansmen, Bika quitted the paternal roof to found a new city in the wilderness. He of course went sword in hand, with a determination to slay or to be slain. The Sanklas of Janglu fell before him. This brought him in contact with the Bhatis of Pugal, the daughter of whose chief he married. Settling down at Koramdesar, he built there a castle ; then, gradually, by establishing his influence over the race of the Jats or Getes, settled in the land, and of others who immigrated from more remote regions, he came at last to be elected lord of a community of nine cantons, containing 2,670 villages. The people led a pastoral life, their wealth consisting in their cattle, the produce and wool of which they exchanged with their neighbours.

Conditions to bestow the supremacy

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The conditions on which they offered to bestow the supremacy over their community upon Bika Singh were these :

1. That he should make common cause with them against the cantons with which they were at variance.
2. That he would guard the western frontier against the irruption of the Bhatis.
3. That the rights and privileges of the community should be held inviolable.

On the fulfillment of these conditions, they relinquished to Bika and his descendants supreme power, assigning to him in perpetuity, the power to levy dhua, or a hearth tax, of one rupee on each house in the canton, and a land tax of two rupees on each hundred bighas 1 of cultivated land within their limits. As a security for the performance of their part of the contract by Bika and his successors, Bika bound himself and them to receive the mark of inauguration from the hands of the descendants of the elders, and that the throne should be deemed vacant until such rite had been administered.

Bika then made war with the rival tribe of his new nation, the Johyas, and conquered them ; then advancing against the Bhatis, won Bhagor from them. In this district he founded his capital, Bikaner (1489), just thirty years after his departure from Mundor.

Bika died in 1495, leaving two sons by his first wife, Nunkarn, who succeeded him, and Garsi, who founded Garsisin and Arsisar.

Nunkarn conquered several districts from the Bhatis. He left four sons, the eldest of whom renounced his birthright to have a separate establishment in his father's lifetime. The second brother, Jaetsi, then succeeded Nunkarn. He, too, enlarged his borders. Kalian Singh, his eldest son, followed him, and then succeeded his eldest born, Rai Singh.

Marriage alliance with Akbar

Rai Singh came to the throne in 1573. In his reign


1. A bigha is five-eighths of an equivalent to six shillings and five acre. The charge, therefore, was pence per hundred acres.


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Bikaner rose to importance amongst the principalities of the Mogul empire, and Rai Singh became a satrap of his brother-in-law, the Emperor Akbar.1 High honours were bestowed upon him by the emperor. He was made a leader of four thousand horse, received the title of Raja, and the government of Hissar. Moreover, when Maldeo Singh, King of Jodhpur, incurred the displeasure of Akbar, that sovereign transferred to Rai Singh the district of Nagore and afterwards his entire kingdom. Such transfers, however, were in effect nominal. But, armed with the emperor's favour, Rai Singh returned to Bikaner, conquered Bhutnair, and rooted out the Johyas. Previous to his reign the Rajputs had gradually been ousting the Jats as proprietors of the soil, and the Jats had been sinking to the position of labourers or serfs. This silent revolution was completed under Rai Singh. It was made absolute by the conquest of the territories of the Punias,. the last race of Jats who had preserved their liberty.

Raja Rai Singh led a band of his warriors in all the wars of Akbar. He distinguished himself in the assault of Ahmedabad, slaying the Governor in single combat. He married his daughter to Prince Selim, afterwards Emperor, as Jehangir. Her son Purvez was one of those who unsuccessfully strove for the empire with Shah Jehan.

Rai Singh died in 1632, and was succeeded by his only son Karan. Karan supported the claims of Dara Sheko against Aurangzib, and escaped the plot laid by the general of his antagonist to destroy him. He died in 1674, and was followed by his son, Anop Singh. This prince held the governments of Bijapur and Aurangabad, was nominated a leader of 5,000 horse, accompanied Raja Jeswant Singh to Kabul with the imperial forces, returned, and died at Bikaner in 1709. His son, Sarup Singh, succeeded. Sarup Singh was killed m endeavouring to recover the castle and lands of Adom, bestowed by


1. They had married two sisters, princesses of Jaisalmir.
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Aurangzib on his father, and taken back on his quitting the imperial army. The two next Rajas, Sujaim Singh and Zorawar Singh, were men of little note.

Raja Guj Singh followed, them. Throughout a long reign of forty-one years, this prince was engaged in border contests with the Bhatis and Bhawalpur. He succeeded in rounding his borders by acquisitions from both. But he is chiefly famous for the number of his offspring. He had sixty-one children ; 'though,' remarks the annalist, ‘all but six were " sons of love." He was succeeded in 1787 by his son, Raj Singh.

Surat Singh

Raj Singh enjoyed his dignity only thirteen days, being removed by a dose of poison, administered by the mother of Surat Singh, fifth son of the late Raja. He left, however, two sons, Pertap Singh and Jai Singh. But Raj Singh had not been poisoned without an object. Surat Singh at once assumed the office of regent, his two elder brothers, Surtan Singh and Ajit Singh, fleeing the paternal roof to escape the fate of their brother. During the following eighteen months Surat Singh conducted himself with great circumspection, and by condescension and gifts impressed the chiefs in his favour. Then he disclosed to some of them his determination to rule. His plans were, however, discovered, and the majority of the nobles determined to resist him, unfortunately only passively. Surat Singh, an active and determined man, levied troops, attacked, and subdued them ; then returned to Bikaner, resolved to remove every obstacle between himself and the throne. One of his nephews had died ; the other remained under the care of the sister of Surat Singh, a virtuous woman. Unable to deceive her vigilance, Surat Singh forced her into a marriage which she abhorred, and then, having rid himself of her, strangled, it is said with his own hands, his nephew and sovereign. He then proclaimed himself Raja, a position in which his defeat of his elder brothers, who had levied a force to dispossess him, confirmed him.

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It was in the year 1801 that Surat Singh became undisturbed ruler of Bikaner. He was a warrior, and made many acquisitions to his country, especially from the Bhatis ; but in the Jodhpur civil war he unfortunately took the wrong side, supporting the cause of the pretender, Dhokal Singh, and expending nearly five years' revenue in fruitless efforts on his behalf. This failure caused him to become oppressive to his people, and bigotry in his old age, the natural child of riotous and unscrupulous youth, making him more and more superstitious, he withdrew gradually from affairs, leaving his government in the hands of those who had been his associates, and who were not haunted by the same terrors. Before his death in 1828, his country was embraced in the general scheme of subsidiary alliances, formed by the British Government at the time of the Pindari war. The Raja was bound to subordinate co-operation, and the British Government engaged to protect his territories and to reduce his rebellious subjects to obedience. No tribute was exacted, none having been paid to the Marhatas. Surat Singh left his country in a terrible state of anarchy and disorder: the chiefs were in open rebellion, the country swept by robbers, the very cultivators of the fields forced to arm in their own defence. He was succeeded by his son, Ratan Singh.

Ratan Singh

One of the first acts of the new Raja was to proceed to invade the territory of Jaisalmer in revenge for former injuries, or supposed injuries, sustained by his subjects through subjects or servants of the former. The Raja carried his operations, in direct breach of his treaty with the British Government, to the very gates of his enemy's capital. The ruler of Jaisalmer prepared an army to resent the injury, and the armies of Jodhpur and Jaipur assembled on their respective frontiers. The peace of Rajputana was in imminent danger, when the British Government interfered, and through the arbitration of

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the Rana of Udaipur the dispute was settled, both parties making reparation for the injuries done.

But there was but little improvement in the internal condition of the state. The Raja continued on bad terms with many of his nobles, and he did not feel himself strong enough to coerce them. Under these circumstances, he applied for aid to the British Resident at Delhi (1830). The aid was promised under a misapprehension. But the British Government interfered, and informed the Resident that military aid should never be given to native states for the suppression of internal disturbances, except under the specific authority of Government. The Government also expressed an opinion that the case was not one in which they were called upon to interfere.

Meanwhile the squabbles between the Rajas of Bikaner and Jaisalmer continued. They had reached such a point in 1835 that a British officer was deputed to effect a reconciliation. His mission was happily attended with success. Both Rajas renounced their previous ill-will to each other, and entered into a pact of friendship. A disposition to border encroachments was, however, manifested by the Raja in other quarters, especially in the direction of Hissar ; and it was not until strong means had been used that he desisted from his attempts.

Raja Ratan Singh died in 1852. He was succeeded by Sirdar Singh, the present chief. Sirdar Singh did good service in the mutinies, both by sheltering European fugitives and by co-operating against the rebels in the districts of Hansi and Hissar. As a reward for these services he received a grant of forty-one villages, which, some years before, had been declared to belong to the Sirsa district. He received, likewise, the right of adoption.

Still the frontier outrages continued, and they proceeded to such a length in the Jodhpur territory, that in 1861 the British Government was constrained to remind

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the Raja of his treaty obligations. In the same year, too, his misgovernment of the forty-one Sirsa villages ceded to him for his services in the Mutiny, called for the intervention of the British Government. An inquiry before the Commissioner of Hissar showed that, whereas the total revenue demand against the villages between 1861 and 1867 had been 90,000 rupees, the Raja's officials had exacted 2,00,000 rupees in excess of that sum. The Viceroy, upon this, addressed a letter to the Raja, calling upon his Highness to maintain all concerned in the rights and privileges conferred upon them by the British Government, and to place an official of upright character in charge of the villages.

I am not aware of anything that has occurred subsequently in Bikaner calling for notice.

The Raja of Bikaner is entitled to a salute of seventeen guns. His territory lies in the Rajputana Desert, east of Bhawalpur.

Go to Index of the Book

End of Part I - Chapter XIII: Bikaner