Mewari

The Mewari are the people of Mewar, the hilly south-eastern Rajasthan country around Chittor and Udaipur. Their name goes back to ancient Medapata, land of the Meda tribe, and their speech is an Indo-Aryan Rajasthani language. The Guhila Rajputs built the first kingdom of Mewar around Chittor, a fortress taken by Bappa Rawal in 728 and lost to Ala-ud-din Khalji of Delhi in 1303 amid the rite of jauhar.

The Sisodia branch restored the dynasty in 1326 and led it to its height under Maharana Kumbha and Rana Sanga, who humbled the sultans of Malwa and Gujarat before Sanga fell to Babur at Khanwa in 1527.

Akbar stormed Chittor in 1568, and Udai Singh II moved his court to the new city of Udaipur; Maharana Pratap resisted from the hills. Later ranas reasserted independence in the Rajput-Mughal war of 1708 to 1710, and after Maratha pressure Mewar accepted British suzerainty in 1818 as the Udaipur princely state.