Idar

Idar lies among the granite hills of northeastern Gujarat, where a rocky height bears the remains of a fort above the town. The surrounding country formed a frontier between Gujarat and Rajasthan, and its rulers held a position among the Rajput houses of the region. The fort’s steep natural setting gave its chiefs a stronghold from which to command the approaches through the hills.

In the eighteenth century the political order of Gujarat shifted as Mughal authority weakened. In 1729 Anand Singh and Rai Singh, brothers of the ruler of Jodhpur, established themselves at Idar by force. Their family held the state through subsequent conflicts involving neighbouring chiefs and the Marathas. The fortified hill remained the centre of a local principality amid the wider changes of power in western India.