Bikaner

Bikaner, city, north-central Rajasthan state, northwestern India. It lies in the Thar (Great Indian) Desert, about 240 miles (385 km) west of Delhi.

The city was the capital of the former princely state of Bikaner. About 1465 Rao Bika, a Rajput chieftain of the Rathor clan, began to conquer the area from other Rajput clans. In 1488 he began building the city of Bikaner (“the settlement of Bika”). He died in 1504, and his successors gradually extended their possessions. The state adhered loyally to the Mughal emperors, who ruled in Delhi from 1526 to 1857. Rai Singh, who succeeded as chieftain of Bikaner in 1571 and ruled until 1612, became one of the emperor Akbar’s most-distinguished generals and was named the first raja of Bikaner.

As Mughal dominance ebbed, wars between Bikaner and the princely state of Jodhpur raged intermittently in the 18th century. A treaty establishing British paramountcy was concluded in 1818, and order was restored in the country by British troops. The rebellious behaviour of the local thakurs, or subsidiary chiefs, continued, however, until the princely state was made subject to the Rajputana Agency (the British administrative unit in the region) in 1883. The state’s military force included the Bikaner Camel Corps, which gained renown in China during the Boxer Rebellion (1900) and in the Middle East during World War I. In 1949 Bikaner, which by then totaled more than 23,000 square miles (60,000 square km) in area, became part of the Indian state of Rajasthan and was divided into three districts.

The old part of Bikaner city is surrounded by a stone wall that is 15 to 30 feet (5 to 9 metres) high and has five gates. Its architecture features numerous buildings of bright red and yellow sandstone. The area is overlooked by Junagarh Fort, which was built in the late 16th century by Rai Singh. Within the fort are several palaces of different periods, a museum housing Rajput miniature paintings, and a library of Sanskrit and Persian manuscripts. Nearby is the Lalgarh (or Lallgarh) Palace, home to the royal family of Bikaner as well as to a luxury hotel.

Bikaner is now a trade centre for wool, hides, building stone, salt, and grain. Bikaneri woolen shawls, blankets, carpets, and candy are famous, and there are also ivory and lacquerware handicrafts. The city has electrical and mechanical engineering works, railway workshops, and factories that manufacture glass, pottery, felts, chemicals, shoes, and cigarettes. The city’s colleges (including a medical school and a teachers’ training institute) are affiliated with the University of Rajasthan in Jaipur.

Bikaner is situated in an arid region of undulating sand hills where the breeding of camels, horses, and sheep is the principal occupation. Because there are no rivers, irrigation is by means of deep tube wells, but rainwater harvesting has become common. Bajra (pearl millet), jowar (grain sorghum), and pulses are the chief crops grown in the locality. Pop. (2001) 529,690; (2011) 644,406.