Bagri

The Bagri are the Indo-Aryan people of the Bagar, the dry tract where the Thar Desert meets the Indo-Gangetic plain, straddling north-western Rajputana and the Bhattiana frontier. Formerly called Jangladesh, this grassland was long the country of semi-nomadic Jat and Bhatti clans, who turned to settled farming in later medieval centuries. Their language, Bagri, belongs to the Rajasthani group but shares features with Haryanvi and Punjabi, including three lexical tones.

In 1398 Timur's army stormed Bhatner on its march, and in 1488 Rao Bika, a Rathore prince and son of Jodhpur's founder, conquered Jangladesh and founded Bikaner, which became the principal local state. The Rathores entered Mughal service under Akbar: Raja Rai Singh became a leading imperial general, and the kingdom prospered on the caravan trade between Central Asia and the Gujarat coast.

In the eighteenth century Bikaner fought repeated wars with Jodhpur and local thakurs. In 1818 it accepted British paramountcy as a princely state.