Rajgarh Town, Alwar
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Rajgarh Town
(2). Head-quarters of a tahsil of the same name in the State of Alwar, Rajputana, situated in 27 14' N. and 76 38' E., 22 miles south of Alwar city, and about a mile south of Rajgarh station on the Rajputana-Malwa Railway. Population (1901), 11,008, It was built about 1767 by Pratap Singh, the founder of the Alwar State, and contains several fine buildings, notably the palace in the fort, the frescoes in which are curious. The town wall and ditch were added by Maharao Raja Banni Singh. The town possesses a post office, an Anglo-vernacular school, and a hospital with accommodation for 8 in- patients. A municipal committee looks after the lighting and sanitation of the place, the average income, derived mainly from octroi, being about Rs. 7,600 a year, and the expenditure somewhat less.
About half a mile to the east are the remains of the old town of Rajgarh, which is said to have been founded in the middle of the second century by Raja Bagh Singh of the Bargujar clan of Rajputs, and the Baghola tank close to it is attributed to the same chief. On the embankment of this tank General Cunningham found three life-size Jain figures, all standing upright and naked, and two jambs of a highly ornamented doorway of a temple, besides numerous broken figures, all apparently Jain. They were said to have been dug up when the new town was being built. Situated on a lofty range of hills some 1 8 miles to the west is Paranagar, the old capital of the Bargujar Rajas, chiefly remarkable for the holy temple of Nllkanth Mabadeo, which is the most famous place of pilgrimage in this part of the country. This temple is said to have been built by a Bargujar Raja, Ajai Pal ; and an inscription under a figure of Ganesha bears the date of A.D. 953, which was most probably the date of the construction of the build- ing, as its general style belongs to that period. In one of the ruined temples in the vicinity is a colossal Jain figure 13 ft. 9 in. high, with a canopy of 2 \ feet overhead which is supported by two elephants.
