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Rajputana : original Rājputāna lay in the north-western part of Bhāratavarsha on both sides of the Aravalli Range (see ‘India’). A large part of it was desert-area with meagre rainfall unequally distributed over the land. For centuries it was ruled by a few powerful dynasties of which the earliest were the Chālukyas & the Rāshṭrakūṭas, the Rāthods of Kanauj, the Chauhans of Ajmer, the Solankīs of Aṇhilwād Pātaṇ, the Guhilots or Sisodias of Mewād & the Kachchwahads of Jaipur. Over time, weakened by internal feuds they succumbed to the invading Mahommedans. Though attempts were made to throw off that yoke, whenever the Mahommedan rulers showed signs of weakness, the Rajputs as a race, failed to unite as one confederacy & benefit fully from the decline of the imperial Mughals in 1707 – as did the Marathas. Worse, they failed to realise that it was in their own interests to ally with the Marathas & prevent the Mahommedan & the British from destroying their common native culture & civilisation. Consequently, at the first opportunity the British partitioned their proud ancestral kingdoms into 23 ‘princely states’, one chiefdom & one estate which were to be ‘ruled’ [=heavily paid for] by them – except the area the named Ajmer-Mārwār kept directly under British bureaucracy – to keep its ‘boots’ on the ground. [Cf. Bhattacharya’s pp.763-64]