Kishangarh, India

History

Kishangarh State was founded by the Jodhpur prince Kishan Singh in 1609. Before Kishan Singh this area was ruled by Raja Samokhan Singh.

Kishangarh was the capital of the eponymous princely state during the British Raj, which was located in the Rajputana Agency. It had an area of 2210 km2 (858 miles²) and a population in 1901 of 90,970. This figure for population represented a decrease of 27% over the census figure of 1891, something presumably attributable to the famine of 1899-1900. The state enjoyed an estimated revenue of £34,000 and paid no tribute to the British Raj. In 1840, Prithvi Singh, became the 15th Maharaja of Kishangarh, and reigned until his death in 1879, after which he was succeeded by his son, Sardul Singh.

Maharaja Madan Singh ascended the throne in 1900 at the age of sixteen, at a time when the state was reeling from the impact of a devastating drought. The administration under him and his diwan was widely deemed worthy of approbation; irrigation from tanks and wells was extended and factories for ginning and pressing cotton were started. A social reform movement for discouraging excessive expenditure on marriages made remarkable impact during his reign.

From the History section of Kishangarh on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.