JHALAWAR, an Indian state in the Rajputana agency, pop. (1931) 107,890; area 810 sq.m. The ruling family of Jhalawar belongs to the Jhala clan of Rajputs, and their ancestors were petty chiefs of Halwad in Kathiawar. Early in the 18th century, a cadet of the house, Madhu Singh, found favour with the maharaja of Kotah, and received from him an important post, which became hereditary. On the death of one of the Kotah rajas (1771), the country was left to the charge of Zalim Singh, a descendant of Madhu Singh. From that time Zalim Singh was the real ruler of Kotah. In 1838 it was resolved, with the consent of the chief of Kotah, to dismember the state, and to create the new principality of Jhalawar as a separate provision for the descendants of Zalim Singh. A later Zalim Singh, who had suc ceeded in 1875 was deposed in 1896, "on account of persistent mis government and proved unfitness for the powers of a ruling chief." He went to live at Benares, on a pension of £2,000; and the administration was placed in the hands of the British resident.
After much consideration, the government resolved in 1897 to break up the state, restoring the greater part to Kotah, but forming the two districts of Shahabad and the Chaumahla into a new state, which came into existence in 1899, and of which Kunwar Bhawani Singh, a descendant of the original Zalim Singh, was appointed chief. He enjoys the title of maharaja rana and a salute of 13 guns; and under his rule the state has much advanced.
The chief town iS PATAN, or JHALRAPATAN (pop. founded close to an old site by Zalim Singh in 1796, by the side of an artificial lake. It is the centre of trade, the chief exports of the state being oil-seeds and cotton. The palace is at the canton ment 4 m. north. The ancient site near the town was occupied by the city of Chandrawati, said to have been destroyed in the time of Aurangzeb. The finest feature of its remains is the temple of Sitaleswar Mahadeva (c. 600).