ALWAR, an Indian State in the Rajputana agency. Its con figuration is irregular, the greatest length from north to south be ing about 8om., and breadth from east to west about 6om., with a total area of 3,158sq.m. The eastern portion of the State is open and highly cultivated; the western is diversified by hills and peaks, which form a continuation of the Aravalli range, from 12 to tom. in breadth. These hills run in rocky and precipitous parallel ridges, in some places upwards of 2,20oft. in height. The Sabhi and Ruparel are the only streams of importance. The pop. in 1931 was 749,751. The maharaja Jai Singh, who succeeded in 1892 at the age of ten, represented India at the Imperial Con ference in London in 1923. Alwar was the first Indian State to accept a currency struck at the Calcutta mint, of the same weight and assay as the imperial rupee, with the head of the British sovereign on the obverse. Imperial service troops are maintained, consisting of both cavalry and infantry, with transport.
The State was founded by the Rajput chieftain Pratap Singh , and increased by his adopted son Bakhtawar Singh. The latter joined the British against the Mahrattas, and in 1803, after the battle of Laswari, signed a treaty of offensive and de fensive alliance with the British Government.
The city of Alwar stands in a valley overhung by a fortress i,000ft. above. It is surrounded by a rampart and moat, with five gates, and contains fine palaces, temples and tombs. The water-supply is brought from a lake 9m. distant. It has a school for the sons of nobles, founded to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Pop. (1931), ALYATTES, king of Lydia (609-560 B.c.), the real founder of the Lydian empire, was the son of Sadyattes, of the house of the Mermnadae. He carried on the war against Miletus begun by his father, until 604, when it was ended by a treaty of peace and alliance (Hdt. i. 18-23). He next came into conflict with the rising power of Media, but on May 28, 585, a pitched battle was interrupted by an eclipse of the sun (Hdt. i. 74). A peace was concluded, through the mediation of Babylon and Cilicia, which fixed the Halys as the boundary between the two kingdoms (Hdt. i. 202). Alyattes drove the Cimmerii (see SCYTHIA) from Asia, subdued the Carians, and took several Ionian cities (Smyrna, Colophon). He was succeeded by his son Croesus. His tomb still exists on the plateau between Lake Gygaea and the River Hermus to the north of Sardis—a large mound of earth, with a substruc ture of huge stones. It was excavated by Spiegelthal in 1854, who found that it covered a large vault of finely cut marble blocks approached by a flat-roofed passage of the same stone from the south. The sarcophagus and its contents had been removed by early plunderers of the tomb, all that was left being some broken alabaster vases, pottery and charcoal. On the summit of the mound were large phalloi of stone (Hdt. i. 93).
See A. von offers, "tlber die lydischen Konigsgraber bei Sardes," Abh. Berl. Ak., (1858) .