I am from Shekhawati (Sikar), Rajasthan India located in South Asia. Shekhawati gets its name form the great Rajaput Kachhwaha chieftain Rao Shekha. The decendents
of Rao Shekha are called Shekhawat. The history of Shekhawati can be traced back to the 14th Century, a number of Muslims clans moved into the area and
the towns which developed became important trading posts on the caravan routes emanating from the ports of Gujrat .
As the Mughal Empire fell into decline after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, the descendants
of Rao Shekha , who had already installed themselves in areas to the east of the Aravalli Range, began to encroach on the
regions to the north and west. Covering an area of some 30,000 sq km, today this region encompasses the administrative districts
of Churu, Jhunjhunu and Sikar, and is known as Shekhawati.The chieftains of the region retained a nominal loyalty to the Rajput
states of Jaipur and Amber, who in turn honored them with hereditary titles known as tazimi sardars. It was probably exposure
to the courts of jaipur and Amber which encouraged the chieftains, who were known as thakurs, or barons, to commission the
first of the thousands of murals which decorated their havelis, or mansions.By 1732, two of these chieftains, Sardul Singh
and Shiv Singh, had overthrown the nawabs of Fatehpur and Jhunjhunu and British Ports at Bombay and Calcutta were able to
handle a much greater volume of trade than those at Gujarat. |