For a short interval at the beginning of the 16th century came a brilliant revival of Itajput strength. Tho last Afghan dynasty at Dehli was breaking up, and Malwa and Gujerat were at war with each other, when there arose the famous Rana Sanga of Mewar, the chief of the Sesodia clan. The talents and valour of this chief once more obtained for his race something like pre dominance in Central India. Aided by Medni Rao, chief of Chanderi, he fought with distin guished success against both Malwa and Gujerat. In 1519 he captured the Musalman king of Malwa ; and in 1526,in alliance with Gujerat, he totally subdued the Malwa State, and annexed to his own dominion all the fine eastern provinces of that kingdom, and recovered the strong places of the eastern marches. Rana Sanga was now not merely the chief of a clan, but the king of a country. The revival was, however, as short-lived as it WaS brilliant. A -month before the capture of the capital of Malwa, Haber, with his Moghuls, had taken Dehli ; and in 1527, Rana Sanga, at the bead of all the chivalry of the clans, encountered the invader at Futtehpur Sikri, when his army was utterly defeated after despemte fighting, and the Rajput power hope lessly shattered. Next year, Medni Rao, with the flower of his elan, fell in the defence of the Chanderi, which was sacked by Baber. Akbar took to wife the daughters of two great Rajput houses. He gave the chiefs or their brethren high rank in his armies, sent them with their contin gents to command in distant frontiers, and suc ceeded in enlisting the Rajputs generally. Under the early Moghul emperors, the chiefs constantly entered the imperial service 218 governors or generals,—there were at one time 47 Rajput con tingents, — and the headlong charges of their cavalry became famous in tho wars of the empire.
In the farnily wars which resulted in the acces sion of Aurangzeb, the Rajputs were generally found on the side of their unfortunate kinsmtm. Dara; still even Aurangzeb employed them in distant wars, and their contingents did duty at his capital. He was, however, too bigoted. to retain undiminished the hold on them acqtured by Akbar. Though one Rajput chief governed Kabul for him, while another commanded hi* annien in the Deklian, he is said to have hail them both poisoned. Towards the Cht, reign, he inade bitter, though unauccesaful, WAX U11011 the Setiodias, and devaatated parte of Rajputana; but he was very roughly handled by the united Italitors and Smocliaa, and he had thoroughly alienates! the dans before he died.
From 1647 to 1680 the great Sivaji founded • dominion in the Deklian. Ile claimed to be of ltajput descent, a claim which is now generally acknowledged, and hia relatives ruled at Tanjore till 1855, and are still ruling at Kolhapur.
About A.D. 1756, the Mahmttas got poesention of Ajinir, being called in by one of the Raluor factions ; and front this time Rajputana became involved in the general disorganization of India. In 1803, all Rajputana, except the remote states of the north-west, had been virtually brought under the Mahrattas, who exacted tribute, held cities to mnsom, annexed territory, and extorted subsidies. Tho victories of Genemls Wellesley
and Lake permanently crippled Sindia's power in Northern India, and forced him to loosen him hold on the Itajput states in tha north-east, with whom the British made a treaty of alliance against the Mahmttas. Upon Lord Wellesley's departure from India, the chiefs of Centml India and Raj putana were left t,o take care of themselves, and in 1814 Amir Khan was living at free quiuters in the heart of the Rajput states. The two principal Rajput chieftainships of Jodhpur and Jeypore bad brought themselves to the brink of extinction in a claim for the hand of a princess of Udaipur ; while the plundering3fahra.ttas and Fathoms encouraged and strenuously aided the two chiefs to ruin each other, until the dispute was compromised upon the basis of poisoning the girl. But in 1817 the Marquis of Hastings was able to carry into action his plan for breaking up the Pindari carnpe. Amir Khan submitted and signed a treaty which con stituted him the first ruler of the existing state of Tonk. By the end of 1818 all the Rajput states had executed treaties with the pammount power.
Individual families and small bodies of Rajputs are now found dispersed through all India proper, and into the Hindu ishurd of Bali in the Easteru Archipelago. Many of the Hindu castes, like tho Rachwar in the Northern Circars, claim a Rajput descent. But from Bliattiana northwards, Rajput villages are scattered about in considerable num bers amongst the Jat, and there are traces of more extensive Rajput possessions. The Itajputs v(111 t,o be here undergoing gradual submersion. . But in the extreme north of the Ban .and adjoming doabs of the Panjab, there is a strip iiinnedtatt ly under the hills which may be classed with the adjoining hill country a.s still in.ainly Raiput. Even in Itajputana proper, though it. has.ltaninta for the dominant race, the population is m.uch more Jat than Rajput, the Jat extending continu ously from the Indus to the Ganges. The great seat of Rajput population and ancient power and glory was on the Ganges. Since vanquished there by the .111iliannnadans, the pnncipal. Rajput families have retired into tho colnparan.vely un fruitful country to which they give thew name, but where, nevertheless, the Jat forms the moat numerous part of the population. Before the Rajputs were driven back from Ayoditya and tho Ganges, Northern Rajputana was partitioned into small Jat republics. The more open parts of Rajputana are shared amongst the Mina, the remains of the Brahman population, the Jat, and the dominant Rajput, but the Jat possess the largest share in the cultivation. The southern and more hilly parts of Rajputana is much occu pied by the Mina, the Mhair, and Bhil, and the province of Malwa is occupied by Rajput, Kunbi, and Jat. Rajputs and Jats occupy the plains south of the Salt Range, and seem later immi grants than the Brahmans.