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Any discussion on the History of Kota is bound to be replete with references to the large number of battles that were fought to gain possession over this land. Kota owes its existence to Rao Madho Singh, the son of Bundi ruler Rao Ratan.
Madho Singh fought against Aurangzeb who was determined to conquer the throne of Delhi from his father Shahjahan. The fierce battle which ensued near Bundi took the life of all his four brothers and he was left the sole survivor. Emperor Shahjahan was so impressed by the valor of this fourteen year old Rajput that he decided to reward him by gifting him Kota. This was an epoch making event in the History of Kota. As per the royal Farman, Kota which was formerly the domain of the Bhil tribes now passed into the hands of this brave Rajput in the year 1579.
Following his death in 1651, Kota was ruled by his five sons. After a period of time, his eldest son Mukund Singh persuaded his brothers to believing that since he was the oldest all powers should be in his hands. They complied and he became the ruler.
Meanwhile Aurangzeb had strengthened his position. The Rajputs including Raja Mukund and his brothers waged a war against him because they owed a lot to Shahjahan. With the exception of Kishore Singh, the youngest brother, all of them were killed in a violent encounter near Ujjain in 1658 A.D.
After this inevitable rout at the hands of the Mughals, History of Kota took another turn. Raja Mukund's son Jagat now occupied the throne. He ruled till 1670. After his death, Kota was left without any ruler. For lack of a better alternative, Kuniram's son was made the ruler. Kuniram incidentally was the fourth son of Madho Singh. Apart from his royal lineage, he had no capability whatsoever to deserve the position of a king. Not surprisingly within six months of his accession, his own council of ministers was disgusted with him. Kishore Singh was by now fit to be the king of Kota.
However he became too busy fighting battles on behalf of his one time enemy Aurangzeb and soon died in the year 1686 in the Battle of Arcot. His son Ram Singh ascended the throne but met with the same fate in 1708. Bhim Singh succeeded him soon after. He became the ruler of Kota but had aggressive expansionist policies in mind. He was not reluctant to wage battles one after the other with a view to increasing the boundaries of his kingdom. He ruled for 15 years and in his life time was blessed with many epithets like "Punj Hazari" and "Maha Rao". After him Arjun Singh and Durjan Singh became rulers.
Durjan Singh joined hands with the Marathas and succeeded in expansion of the Kota kingdom. After he breathed his last, Kota was attacked by the ruler of Amber in 1761 but a valiant resistance was put up by the Kota army. Zalim Singh's courageous leadership led the army to victory and won him a very respectful position in the History of Kota.
In 1771 when Umed, 10 year old son of Goman Singh became the king, Zalim Singh emerged as the real power player and started exercising his authority. Threats came from several quarters but he almost always emerged invincible. Not only did he deftly handle the enemies, he also introduced several economic measures that led to the prosperity of Kota.
The next major event in the History of Kota was Zalim Singh's ready acceptance of foreign rule. He realized that his forces were no match for the well equipped British Army and compliance was the wisest thing to do. When Pirthi Singh, son of Umed Singh of Bundi ascended the throne of Bundi, Kota came within his authority and Zalim Singh carved a completely new principality for his descendants. This set up continued until the whole of India rebelled against British domination. Finally when India became independent, Kota became a part of the state of Rajasthan.
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