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 City,
north-central Rajasthan state, northwestern India. It
lies 240 miles (386 km) west of Delhi. The city was the
capital of the former princely state of Bikaner. About
1465 Rao Bika, a Rajput chieftain of the Rathor clan, began
to conquer the area from other Rajput clans. In 1488 he
began building the city of Bikaner (“the settlement of
Bika”). He died in 1504, and his successors gradually
extended their possessions. The state adhered loyally to
the Mughal emperors, who ruled in Delhi from 1526 to
1857. Rai Singh, who succeeded as chieftain of Bikaner
in 1571, became one of the emperor Akbar's most
distinguished generals and was named the first raja of
Bikaner. As Mughal dominance ebbed, wars between Bikaner
and the princely state of Jodhpur raged intermittently
in the 18th century. A treaty establishing British
paramountcy was concluded in 1818, and order was
restored in the country by British troops. The
rebellious behaviour of the local thakurs, or subsidiary
chiefs, continued, however, until the princely state was
made subject to the Rajputana agency in 1883. The
state's military force included the Bikaner Camel Corps,
which gained renown in China during the Boxer Rebellion
(1900) and in the Middle East during World War I. In
1949 Bikaner, which by then totaled more than 23,000
square miles (60,000 square km) in area, became part of
the Indian state of Rajasthan and was divided into three
districts.
Bikaner's history dates back to 1488 AD when a Rajput
prince Rao Bikaji a descendent of the founder of
Jodhpur (1459 AD)., Rao Jodha Ji established his kingdom
here. Bika Ji chose a barren land called "Jungladesh"
and shaped it into an impressive city, called Bikaner
after the founder's name. Archeological surveys and
excavations have established beyond doubt that
civilization flourished here even before the Harappa
period . Excavated statues, coins and carvings of stones
and clay stands as testimony to this fact. Ever since
the foundation of Bikaner till its accession into Indian
Union in 1947 A.D. and there after it's integration in
Rajasthan state in 30-3-1949 A.D., Bikaner has played a
notable role in the history of the country. |
