¤ The Marathas Supplant the Mughals

However, poison achieved what the sword could not। Madhu Singh, queen of Amber was entrusted with the task of removing the enemy of her nephew Ram Singh. She presented Bukhta with a poisoned robe leading to his death in 1753. Meanwhile the Marathas were fast supplanting the Mughals as the pre-eminent power in India, and in conjunction with the prince of Amber, Ram Singh concluded a treaty with the Marathas to depose Bukhta’s son and heir Vijay Singh from Jodhpur. Ram Singh was able to vanquish the young Vijay thanks to a rumour circulated by his minister among the enemy that Vijay had been shot by a cannon. It was a tactic which invariably worked against the Rajputs, and as his army ran helter-skelter, the young Vijay was left virtually defenceless. Thus Ram Singh reclaimed the throne of Jodhpur but not without cost, as it led to the Marathas spreading their tentacles in Rajputana. Ajmer was ceded to them and a fixed triennial tribute on all lands of Marwar both feudal and fiscal had to be paid.From then on Jodhpur’s independence was never really secure and Ram Singh finally died in exile in 1773 in Jaipur. Historians agree that both in exterior and in his accomplishments he compared favourably with the great Ajit, and in his later years he was much mellowed, with much of his early irascibility, a thing of the past. His death meant the Marathas had free run of the land and they missed no opportunity to plunder. Vijay Singh was too callow and without resources to resist the Maratha might, and ruinous wars followed by humiliating negotiations dissipated the wealth of Marwar completely. Indeed the situation was so chaotic that an exasparated prince Devi Singh of Pokhran once remarked " Why trouble yourself about Marwar? It is in the sheath of my dagger." and although Vijay Singh in league with Pratap Singh of Amber recovered Ajmer temporarily from the Marathas at the battle of Tonga in 1787, But the Maratha Scindia won it back four years later and Ajmer was lost to Marwar forever. and in his last few years Vijay was enmeshed with a young beauty from the Oswal tribe which created such a scandal that it almost led to his dethronement.

¤ Man Singh’s Fortunes Rise

The conflict however led to enormous turmoil in Jodhpur, leading to slicing up Vijay Singh’s dominions. and with his sons and grandsons in rival camps thanks to the folly of Vijay Singh’s ways, he died a disillusioned man having reigned for 31 years. Barely 22 hours after his death his grandson Bhim Singh seated himself on Jodhpur’s gaddi (throne), dismissing the legitimate claims of Vijay’s sons Zalim and Sur Singh. However the throne of Jodhpur merely whetted his appetite and his next target was Pali. A protracted siege lasting eleven years followed, during which the garrison was valiantly defended by Man Singh, (the adopted son of Vijay Singh and his young mistress). Just as Man and his men were on the verge of capitulation news filtered through of Bhim Singh’s death. From then on Man’s fortunes ascended and very soon he occupied Jodhpur. It is said that Man’s fortune was predicted by a seer who prophesied ‘that at the very zero of adversity his stars would rise’.However he made a very powerful enemy in Sawai Singh of Pokhran, whose dagger would remain suspended over his head from his coronation to Sawai’s death bed like the ‘sword of Damocles.’ It was only a matter of time before Sawai Singh the pretender to the throne of Marwar assembled a large army, which along with the support of the rulers of Jaipur, Mewar and Ambar beseiged the Jodhpur fort. He would have succeeded too, had it not been for the valour of Mir Khan, the generalissimo of Man’s army who created divisions within the ranks of Jodhpur’s opponents and broke up the seige. He defeated the army of Jaipur so comprehensively that Maharaja Jagat Singh had to pay a sum of 200,000 pounds to secure his safe passage.In honour of Man’s victory over Jaipur the Jai Pol, or victory gate was built in the fort in 1808. It was also the end of the road for Sawai Singh, as Mir after inviting him to his quarters slaughtered him with 500 of his followers. The heads of the most distinguished were then sent to Raja Man. However Man’s victory over his rivals was not an unmixed blessing; the flip side was that Mir Khan was virtually the arbiter of Marwar. and with the death of his only son Chattar Singh, Raja Man lost all interest in affairs of the state and was deemed to be certifiably insane. However, although officially he was said to be suffering from melancholy mania, many believed it to be an act to escape the snares laid for his life. Governance of Jodhpur was in the interim carried out by Salim Singh (son of Sawai Singh). But Raja Man remained until the British arrived in 1818 and concluded a treaty with Jodhpur under which the district became a protectorate of the British. With the British came political stability and a modicum of prosperity and relations between the Anglo-Saxons and the house of Jodhpur were relatively cordial.