Ancient Names of Rajasthan and its Cities

Hawa Mahal
Ancient Names of Rajasthan
There was no single name used for modern day Rajasthan. Different parts of Rajasthan were known by different names during different times. And it was only in the nineteenth century, the word "Rajasthan" was first used for modern day state.

In Mahabharata, the present day region combining Bikaner and Jodhpur was referred as Jangal Desh. This is the reason why Bikaner King was known as the Jangaldhar Badshah.

Similarly, region comprising of present day Ajmer and Nagaur was known as Spadalksh. The region comprising of northern part of present day Alwar used to fall under Kuru Empire and its southern and western part used to fall under Matsaya Kingdom. The eastern part of Alwar used to fall under Sursena Kingdom. The present day Bharatpur, Dhaulpur and Karauli used to fall under Sursena Kingdom. The capital of Sursena Kingdom was Mathura, the capital of Matsaya Kingdom was Viratnagar and the capital of Kuru Kingdom was Indraprastha.

The present day Udaipur was used to be referred as Shiv and its capital used to be known as Madhyamika. The region comprising of Dungurpur and Banswara was known as Wangad/Bangar. Jodhpur was referred as Gujaratra and Sirohi was known as Aburd, Jaisalmer was known as Mand, the region combining Kota and Hadauti was known as Hadauti. The southern region of present day Jhalawar used to be part of Malavdesh.

Again, the region comprising of Jaipur, Dausa, Alwar, Bharatpur, Sawai Madhopur, Tonk and Karauli ruled by Meena Kings used to be known as Dhundhar state. Similarly arid region in the western Rajasthan was used to known as Marusthali or Marwar (the Land of Death).

In 1820, it was George Thomas who first used the term "Rajputana" to refer present day region of Rajasthan. In 1829, James Tod referred the modern day state as Rajasthan and Raethana.

Ancient Names of Rajasthani Cities, Districts and Region


Modern City/District/RegionAncient Name
AlwarAlaur
AravalliAdhwal
TaragarhGadhbarili
SanchoreSatyapur
BundiHadauti
BrijnagarJhalrapatan
BairathVirat
DhaulpurKothi
ChittorKhijrabad
HanumangarhBhatner
JaisalmerMaadh
KarauliGopalpal
MewarMedpad
NagariMadhyamika
NagaurAkshaypur
BikanerJangal
DungurpurBangar
PratapgarhKothal
SirohiAburd
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