हिंदीOn this day

Battle of Gangwana

VictorAmber (Jaipur) and its alliesSawai Jai Singh II
1741vs
Rathores of NagaurBakht Singh of Nagaur

A war among Rajput houses. Jai Singh II of Jaipur, backing Abhay Singh of Jodhpur against his brother Bakht Singh, met the Nagaur Rathores at Gangwana; Bakht Singh’s desperate charge became a legend of Marwar, but the Jaipur army held.

Date: June 1741Where: Gangwana, near Ajmer, RajasthanType: Battle
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC0
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Cite

MLA

“Battle of Gangwana.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-gangwana-1741/. Accessed .

APA

Hindu History. (2026). Battle of Gangwana. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/battles/battle-of-gangwana-1741/

Result

Bakht Singh’s small Rathore force charged through the Jaipur army with great loss and withdrew; Jai Singh held the field and peace followed.

01Brothers and neighbours

In the 1730s Rajasthan’s great houses quarrelled as Mughal authority faded. Bakht Singh of Nagaur, younger brother of Maharaja Abhay Singh of Jodhpur, had fallen out with Jai Singh II of Jaipur over Bikaner, which the Jodhpur brothers besieged in 1740 and Jai Singh came to relieve. Bakht Singh resolved to strike at Jai Singh himself. In June 1741 he came out against the Jaipur army near Gangwana with a small force of Rathore horse.

02The charge

The Rathores charged straight at the Jaipur centre and cut their way through it, and the Marwar bards sing of how few came out the other side. But the Jaipur army did not break. Bakht Singh, wounded, withdrew with the remnant of his men, and Jai Singh held the field. Both sides had suffered heavily, and a settlement soon followed. Jai Singh II, the builder of Jaipur city and the Jantar Mantar observatories, died two years later.

Rathores of Marwar
Dynasty · 13th century–1949 CERathores of MarwarRao Siha’s clan came into the desert in the thirteenth century; Rao Jodha built Mehrangarh in 1459. In the war after 1679 the Rathores, led by Durgadas, saved their infant king from Aurangzeb and fought for him for nearly thirty years.Read →
Why it matters

Gangwana showed the Rajput states spending their strength on each other just as the Marathas were taking tribute across Rajasthan.

Places near the battlefield 5

Ajmer (Ajayameru)Standing
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Ajmer (Ajayameru)

The Chauhan capital founded by Ajayaraja II, where Vigraharaja IV built a Sanskrit college and had plays carved in stone. After 1192 the college was turned into the mosque called Adhai Din ka Jhonpra.

Adhai Din ka Jhonpra, AjmerDestroyed
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Adhai Din ka Jhonpra, Ajmer

A mosque at Ajmer built after the fall of Prithviraj Chauhan from the pillars and stones of the Chahamana city, on the site where Vigraharaja IV had kept a Sanskrit college. Slabs carved with his own play, the Harakeli Nataka, were dug out of it in the 19th century.

Brahma Temple, PushkarRebuilt
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Brahma Temple, Pushkar

The best-known temple of Bhagwan Brahma, beside the lake the Padma Purana says formed where his lotus fell. Pushkar is called Tirtharaja, the king of tirthas.

Manibandh (Manivedika) Shakti Peetha, PushkarStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Manibandh (Manivedika) Shakti Peetha, Pushkar

The Shakti Peetha of Pushkar, where by the Peetha Nirnaya Tantra’s list the wrists of Sati fell. The Devi is Gayatri, the Bhairava Sarvananda; locally the shrine is also called the Chamunda Mata mandir.

Savitri Mata Temple, PushkarStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Savitri Mata Temple, Pushkar

Bhagwan Brahma’s temple stands by the lake at Pushkar; his consort Savitri sits apart on the highest hill to the south, where the Padma Purana says she went after the yajna. Pilgrims climb to her after Brahma’s darshan.