Rajgarh and Narsinghgarh

Rajgarh

Rajgarh and it’s successor state Narsinghgarh are ruled by Umat Rajputs, a Parmar clan. Two brothers of the Parmar clan, Umra Singh and Sumra Singh settled in the deserts of Rajputana founding the city of Umarkot. In due time, Umarsi left to Abu while Sumarsi stayed back and became the progenitor of Sodhas. Umarsi is the progenitor of Umats and the twenty first in line, Bhau Singh was given the title of Rawat from the Raja of Chittor. They stayed as vassals of Sodhas till all of them were ejected by the Sammas in 1251.

The Umat annals date the migration under Sarangsen to 1347 and the Umats settled around Dhar during the reign of Muhammad bin Tughluq. He received the title of Rawat by the Rana of Chittor and his descendants served the Delhi Sultanate ably. Rawat Karam Singh received an estate of 22 villages from Sikandar Lodhi and he ruled from Duparia. Kishan Singh served as the Governor of Ujjain and his son Dungar Singh died in the Battle of Talen in 1603. Chatar Singh was killed in a fight with the Mughals at Ratanpur. Diwan Ajab Singh from a cadet line acted as the Diwan during the minority of his son Mohan Singh. He moved the capital from Ratanpur to Dungarpur which was founded by Dungar Singh. Ajab Singh himself was killed at Nalkhera in 1668 and his son Paras Ram succeeded as the regent. Soon, both Mohan Singh and Paras Ram clashed with each other and the estate was split between both of them by 1675 – with Mohan Singh ruling from Rajgarh and Paras Ram from Patan. The dual jurisdiction didn’t work well and a formal split was affected in 1681 with the new state being called Narsinghgarh. It was an equal partition of the villages with Mohan Singh receiving five extra by virtue of him being of the senior line.

Amar Singh saw a Mughal siege of Raghogarh led by Sawai Raja Jai Singh and the siege was called off after promise of a heavy payment. As Amar Singh was not able to pay it immediately, his son Abhey Singh was sent as hostage. Abhey Singh was murdered soon after and his father died of grief. Hamir Singh, likewise, had to pay a heavy tribute to the Sindhia in return for calling off a siege. He too didn’t have sufficient money and had to send his son Pratap Singh as hostage and became a tributary. When the Raja of Kota acted as a surety, Pratap Singh was allowed to return.