JODHPUR, MARWAR, NORTH INDIA, CIRCA 1800

Durgadas Rathore (1638-1718) came to fame for resisting the Mughal rule of Aurangzeb over Jodhpur and Marwar between 1679 and 1708. Aurangzeb considered him as one of the most serious threats to his rule and is said to have exclaimed upon seeing his picture "this dog is born to be my bane" (R. Crill, Marwar Painting, a History of the Jodhpur Style, Jodhpur, 1999, pp.56-57). At the emperor’s death in 1708 he succeeded in expelling the Mughal forces from Jodhpur and re-establishing the Rathore rule of Ajit Singh over Marwar. Although Ajit Singh later on banished Durgadas Rathore from Marwar, "the old soldier’s popularity as a heroic figure who sacrificed personal ambition for the struggle to place his master on the throne endured both in Marwar and Mewar" (Crill, op.cit., p.57).

A portrait of Ajit Singh with Durgadas is in the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, Jodhpur (no. 4322; Crill, op.cit., fig.36, p.64).