The Bhatis of
Jaisalmer belonged to the
Bhati dynasty, a
Yaduvanshi clan of
Rajputs. They reportedly originated in
Mathura through a common ancestor named
Rao Bhati, who is claimed to be a descendant of
Pradyumna. According to the seventeenth-century
Nainsi ri Khyat, the Bhatis after losing Mathura moved to
Bhatner in
Lakhi Jungle, and from there to other locations in
western and
northwestern India including
Rajasthan and
Punjab. Rao Bhati conquered and annexed territories from 14 princes in Punjab, including the area of what is now modern-day
Lahore. He is also credited with establishing the modern town of
Bathinda in the Lakhi Jungle area in the 3rd century.According to
Satish Chandra, the
Hindu Shahis of Afghanistan made an alliance with the Bhati rulers of
Multan, because they wanted to end the slave raids made by the Turkic ruler of
Ghazni, however the alliance was defeated by
Alp-Tegin in 977 CE. In 1156,
Rawal Jaisal moved his capital from
Lodhruva to
Jaisalmer and the state took its name from this new capital. , founder of
Jaisalmer Fort. , built in 1156 AD by the
Rajput Rawal (ruler)
Jaisal. Around 1299 CE, Rawal Jait Singh I faced a long siege by
Alauddin Khalji of
Delhi Sultanate, who is said to have been provoked by a Bhati raid on his treasure caravan. By the end of the siege, facing certain defeat, the Bhati Rajput women committed '
Jauhar', and the male warriors under the command of Mularaja met their fatal end in battle with the Sultan's forces. For a few years after the successful siege, the fort remained under the sway of
Delhi Sultanate, before being eventually reoccupied by some surviving Bhatis. In 1541 CE, Rawal Lunakaran also fought
Mughal emperor
Humayun when the latter attacked the fort on his way to
Ajmer. He also offered his daughter in marriage to emperor
Akbar. Mughals controlled the fort until 1762. The treaty between the
East India Company and Mulraj on 12 December 1818 allowed the Mulraj to retain control of the fort and provided for protection from invasion. After the death of Mulraj in 1820, his grandson Gaj Singh inherited control of the fort. of Satto, Pithala, Loharki, Lakhmana, Didhu, Kanod, Tota, Bhadariya, and Nachna Traditionally, in the Middle Ages, the main source of income for the kingdom was levies on
caravans, but the economy was heavily affected when
Bombay emerged as a major port and sea trade replaced the traditional land routes. Maharawal Ranjit Singh and Bairi Sal Singh attempted to turn around the economic decline but the dramatic reduction in trade impoverished the kingdom. A severe
drought and the resulting
famine from 1895 to 1900, during the reign of Maharawal Salivahan Singh, only made matters worse by causing widespread loss of the livestock that the increasingly agriculturally based kingdom relied upon. The attempts of Maharawal Jawahir Singh (1914–1949) at modernization were also not entirely successful in turning the kingdom's economy around, and the drylands of Jaisalmer remained backward compared with other regions of
Rajputana, especially the neighbouring state of
Jodhpur. Nonetheless, the extensive water storage and supply, sanitation, and health infrastructures developed in the 1930s by the prime minister Dewan Bahadur Brijmohan Nath Zutshi provided significant relief during the severe droughts of 1941 and 1951. Maharawal During 1930–1947, Jawahir Singh and his ministers also promoted technical education and the academic disciplines of civil and mechanical engineering in the state. After the departure of the British from India in 1947, the Maharawal signed an
Instrument of Accession to the new
Union of India, while retaining some internal autonomy until the 1950s. ==List of rulers==