The Two Jat States (Bharatpur And Dholpur) - Translated, With Additional Notes And Brief Histories of These States Till 1948 (Part-I)

This book has been written with a very limited object-to translate into English the histories of the Eastern Rajputana States (Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur and Karauli) written by Mahamahopadhyaya Shyamal Das in his monumental work, Vir Vinod, which enjoys a very high prestige not only in Rajasthan but throughout India, and even abroad, so that these may become accessible to those not familiar with Hindi.

Shyamal Das was born in 1836 in a Charana family. At the age of 11, he entered Mewar's Maharana Swaroop Singh's darbar in 1847. It was in 1871 that Major Nixon, the Political Agent Mewar, urged Maharana Shambhu Singh (1861-74) to have a history of Mewar written. Two years later, a Department (Itihas Vibhag) for writing history was established on the advice of Lt. Col. Hutchingson, the officiating Political Agent (1872-74), Bakshi Mathura. Das and Dhinkdya Udai Ram were appointed to write a history of Mewar. As the work of history writing was not making any progress, Maharana Shambhu Singh asked Shyamal Das and Purohit Padma Nath to take charge of the Itihas Vibhag. The two completed Mewar Ka Itihas in 1874. On 7th October 1874, Maharana Sajjan Singh succeeded his father. The same year, the Department of History or Itihas Vibhag was closed.