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Rajsingh : the Rāṇā of Mewār during the reigns of Shah Jahan & Aurangzeb. Like many Rajput kings who succumbed to Akbar’s ruse of forcing those he defeated to choose a Kshatriya’s death & enslavement of his family & kingdom to Moghul throne, Jashwant Singh the Rāthod Rājā of Mārwād had taken up the service of Shah Jahan but failed to subdue Aurangzeb who had revolted against Shah Jahan in 1658. When Jashwant Singh failed to defeat Shivaji, Aurangzeb, banished him to Jamrud at the mouth of the Khyber Pass to block the invading Afghans at whose hands he died on 10th Dec. 1678. When his ministers brought his only surviving son Ajīt Singh to Delhi for Aurangzeb to recognize him as his heir & successor, Aurangzeb sent his guards to kidnap the whole party to convert them & usurp Mārwād. In the Rāthod contingent guarding them was Durgādās, the warrior son of Askaran, a minister of Jashwant Singh. While the Rāthod warriors fell upon Aurangzeb’s kidnappers, Durgādās escaped with the queen & the prince along with their attendants & with forced rides brought them to their capital Jodhpur. In 1678, Mārwād forged an alliance with Mewār against Aurangzeb & its king Rajsingh gave protection to the queen & his son. The next year, Rajsingh, who had long been protesting against the barbaric Moghul imposition of jizyā, started a war against Aurangzeb & conducted it with such success that a treaty was signed in 1681 by which the demand for jizyā was dropped in exchange for some territories of Mewād. The previous year, 1680, when his third & favourite son Akbar whom he had sent to Chitore failed, Aurangzeb diverted him to attack Mārwād. But Akbar went over to the Rāthod side, hoping to enlist the help of the Rajput kings to attack Delhi & take over the Moghul Empire. Wily Aurangzeb prevented this catastrophe by inserting a wedge into this alliance but his ruse was discovered in time for Durgādās to smuggle the doomed Akbar through Khāndesh & Baglana to the court of the Peshwa hoping the Akbar would be given asylum there. But the cowardly Peshwa Shambhāji failed to rise to the occasion & lead the armies of Rajputs & Marathas to fight beside Akbar’s. Disappointed, Durgādās returned to Mārwād in 1687 & started a prolonged war with the Moghuls until they accepted Ajīt Singh as the rightful heir & he ascended the throne of Mārwād in 1709. Aurangzeb’s son Akbar meanwhile had escaped to Persia & died there in 1704 [cf. Bhattacharya’s 20-21, 131-32, 517, 760].