History of Alwar

Descendants of Bahadura Nahara defended the Alwar fort against the Muslims in 1427. Alwar's fortunes were inextric bound with those of Mewar, which was contiguous with Delhi. As Alwar located on the strategic south-western tier of Delhi, this of course rankled with Mughals, who mounted numerous military forays into the region, only conquering after great difficulty. Alwar was later granted to Sawai Jai Singh of Jaipur by Aurangzeb. The Jats of Bharatpur then threw their hat into the ring, briefly overrunning the region, and installing themselves in the Alwar fort. They were evicted by the Lalawat Narukas (descendants of the Kachhwaha prince of Amber, Naru) between 1775 and 1782 under the leadership of the Naruka thakur (noble) Pratap Singh. His descendants were great patrons of the arts, commissioning the transcription of numerous sacred and scholarly texts and encouraging painters and artisans to visit the Alwar court. In 1803, the British invested the Alwar thakur with the title of Maharaja as thanks for their support in a battle against the Marathas. This friendly alliance was short-lived, however, with the Maharaja of Alwar strongly resenting British interference in governance when a British Resident was installed in the city. Following Independence, Alwar was merged with the other princely states of Bharatpur, Karauli and Dholpur, forming the United State of Matsya, a name which reflected the fact that those states all comprised the ancient Matsya kingdom. In 1949, Matsya was merged with the state of Rajasthan.