Sawai Jai Singh : Founder of Jaipur

The famous king Sawai Jai Singh is also known as Jai Singh II. He was very brave and highly diplomatic person who ruled Amer/ Amber (later called Jaipur) and one of most powerful leader of the Rajput Kachwaha clan. Jai Singh was born in Amer/Amber, the capital city of Kachwahas. Jai Singh was a good scholar and religious person from the beginning. He crowned the kingdom of Amer/Amber in 1699, at the age of 11 when his father Maharaja Bishan Singh passed away. Sawai Jai Singh also influenced many loyal diplomats and kings like Aurangzeb by displaying his extraordinary talent as a child.

Raja Bishan Singh introduced him to Aurangzeb, The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb was very pleased with his Eloquence and gave him the title “Sawai” (orally), which symbolically means that he was “Sawaya” (25% more intelligent and courageous) than his contemporaries. However, officially Sawai Jai Singh first received the title of “Sawai” in July 1713, under the Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar. Aurangzeb realized that getting the support of Sawai Jai Singh was very crucial & important in maintaining and balancing the power of the Mughal Empire.

After the death of Aurangzeb, as anarchy spread throughout his empire, the name Jai Singh II suddenly appeared and came to action. He rebelled against new emperor Bahadur Shah I, but the emperor relented and forgave him for suppressing that uprising. Later he appointed as the emperor’s representative in Malwa region and later in Agra.

Sawai Jai Singh was not only a prolific Maharaja and a heroic commander, but he also had a keen interest in mathematics, architecture, and astronomy. His reputation as an urban planner grown later, who designed the concept of the beautiful, well-organized, aesthetically rich new city of “Sawai Jainagar” (now Jaipur) based on the principles of craftsmanship in 1727, six miles south of Amber, has been immortalized in Indian history.

Raja Jai ​​Singh (II) was born on November 3, 1688 in the Amer Palace from the womb of Indra Kanwar, the Rathore queen of Raja Bishan Singh. His real childhood name was Vijay Singh, and his younger brother’s name was Jai Singh. After the death of Maharaja Bishan Singh, the emperor Aurangzeb named him Jai Singh in place of Vijay Singh and transferred his name to his younger brother who was earlier Jai Singh and accepting Jai Singh as the heir to the throne of Amer.

Achievements of Sawai Jai Singh’s rule:

1- Hurda Sammelan- To stop Maratha invasion and plunder, all the Rajputs needed to form a union. A conference (Sammelan) of several Rajput kings of Rajasthan was organized in Hurda (now Bhilwara) district to form a unified union of Rajputs, with the effort of Sawai Jai Singh, along with Mewar’s Maharana Sangram Singh II. Unfortunately, Maharana Sangram Singh II died before the conference, so the conference was chaired by his son Maharana Jagat Singh II. This conference did not achieve its goals because the kings disagreed on the leadership of the united union and could not agree on it.

2- Jai Singh himself was an expert of Sanskrit, he wrote in Sanskrit “Jai Singh Karika” about astrology.

3- Jaipur City/ Sawai Jainagar – Sawai Jai Singh founded Jaipur City on November 18, 1727, which was completed in 1729. Amer was in a mountainous area, so there was less development potential, so the Jaipur City was developed looking at the flat area. In 1733 Jaipur officially replaced Amber as the capital of the Kachwahas.

• The city of Jaipur was designed by the Bengali artisan “Pandita Vidyadhara Bhattacharya”, a well-known Indian artisan at the time.
• “Pandit Jagannath Samrat” (great astronomer and mathematician) was the chief priest (Pujari) of the basic stone rites (foundation) in the city, being Rajguru at the time of founding the city of Jaipur.
• Sawai Jai Singh built the Chandramahal (City Palace), Talkator Lagoon and “Jalmahal” on Mansaagar Lake in Jaipur.
• Ancient Kalki Temple – Sawai Jai Singh built Lord Kalki’s temple (in 1739) almost before Hawamahal, based on beliefs mentioned in the Puranas! Sawai Jai Singh was possibly the first Maharaja in the world to compose the idol Kalki and place him in a temple after imagining a deity whose avatar has not yet embodied.
• Sawai Jai Singh built the Sudarshangarh (now Nahargarh) fort.

4- Sawai Jai Singh built observatories known for the unparalleled and most accurate calculations of his time in Kashi (Varanasi), Delhi, Ujjain, Mathura, and Jaipur for astronomical studies of various constellations.

5- Sawai Jai Singh was the last Indian king to create Ashwamedha Yagya (in 1740) In Jaipur, the priest of his Yagya was “Pandit Pundarik Natnakar”.

6- Sawai Jai Singh built a cannon named ‘Jaivana’ in Jaigarh Fort in 1720. ‘Jaivana’ was the world’s largest contemporary cannon on wheels.