UDAIPUR or MEWAR, an Indian state in the Rajputana agency. Area, 12,694 sq.m. Pop. (1931), 1,566,91o. The greater part of the country is level plain. A section of the Aravalli Moun tains extends over the south-western and southern portions, and is rich in minerals, but the mines have been long closed. The general inclination of the country is from south-west to north-east, the Banas and its numerous feeders flowing from the base of the Aravalli range. There are many lakes and tanks in the state, the finest of which is the Debar or Jaisamand, with an area of nearly 21 sq.m. The ancient coinage is of the Sassanian or Persian type. The chief, whose title is maharana with a salute of 19 guns, is the head of the Sisodia clan of Rajputs, and claims to be the direct representative of Rama, the mythical king of Ajodhya. He is universally recognized as the highest in rank of all the Rajput princes. The dynasty offered a heroic resistance to the Mohamme dans, and boast that they never gave a daughter to a Mogul emperor. They are said to have come from Gujarat and settled at Chitor in the 8th century. After the capture of Chitor by Akbar in 1568 the capital was removed to Udaipur by Maharana Udai Singh. During the i8th century the state suffered greatly from internal dissension and from the inroads of the Mahrattas.
It came under British protection in 1817.
The name of Mewar is derived from the Meos, or Minas, a tribe of mixed Rajput origin, who have likewise given their name to a different tract in northern Rajputana, called Mewat, where they are now all Mohammedans. The Mewar Bhil Corps, raised as a local battalion in 184o, which was conspicuously loyal during the Mutiny, was in 1897 attached to the Indian army.
The picturesque city of UDAIPUR is 2,469 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1931), 44,035. It is situated in a valley amid wooded hills, on the bank of a large lake (Pichola), with palaces built of granite and marble. The maharana's palace, which crowns the ridge on which the city stands, dates originally from about 157o, but has had additions made to it till it has become a conglomera tion of various architectural styles. On Lake Pichola are two islands, on which are palaces dating respectively from the middle of the 17th and of the i8th centuries. In the neighbourhood are Eklingji (with a magnificent temple of the 15th century), and Nagda, the seat of the ancestors of the chiefs of Udaipur.
There is another UDAIPUR STATE in the Central Provinces (till 1905 one of the Chota Nagpur states of Bengal). Its capital is Dharmjaygarh.