Durgadas Rathore

Durgadas Rathore (Durga Das Rathore) (13 August 1638 – 22 November 1718) is credited with having preserved the rule of the Rathore dynasty over Marwar, India, following the death of Jaswant Singh in the 17th century. In doing so he had to defy Aurangzeb, a Mughal emperor.

Durgadas was the son of Askaran Rathore, a Rajput minister of Jaswant Singh, the ruler of Marwar.

Jaswant Singh was campaigning in Afghanistan when he died in December 1678, leaving no heir. Aurangzeb took the opportunity to intervene by imposing Muslim rule over Marwar. This formed a part of the Mughal strategy to destroy Hinduism and his flooding of the area with troops was successful in denying any opposition.

Soon after Jaswant Singh's death two of his ranis (queens) each gave birth to male children. One of these sons died soon after his birth, leaving the other – Ajit Singh – as sole heir. This news reached Aurangzeb by February 1679 but he chose not to recognise the child as the legitimate heir. He imposed jizya, a tax on non-Muslims, and soon after sold the kingdom to another chieftain, Indra Singh. Aurangzeb had moved his base from Delhi to Ajmer to oversee the subjugation but in April 1679 returned to his capital, leaving administrative and military support in Marwar for the unpopular new ruler.

Prominent grandees of Marwar, including Durgadas, went to Delhi to plead the recognition of Ajit Singh as heir. Aurangzeb refused their request, although he did offer to bestow a title and a grant when the child attained the age of majority. Aurangzeb required that the child be raised in the imperial harem and that the ranis live there also. According to one contemporary source, Aurangzeb also offered to give Ajit Singh the throne of Jodhpur in the future if it was agreed that the child was raised in the Muslim faith.

The attitude of Aurangzeb was not acceptable to the Rathore delegation, who resolved upon rescuing Ajit Singh and the ranis from Delhi. They were aware that many of them were likely to die in the process and this proved to be the case: as they retreated from the city on 25 June 1679 they were pursued by Mughal guards and fought several desperate and deadly rearguard actions in order to protect Durgadas, who had the ranis and child with him. The pursuit continued till the evening, when the Mughals finally tired. The infant Ajit Singh was taken to safety in Balunda, where the wife of one of the delegation kept the child for almost a year. Later, he was moved to the safety of the Aravalli Hills near Abu Sirohi, a remote town on the southern fringes of Marwar. There Ajit Singh grew up in anonymity.

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