Interesting Facts about Rajasthan

This article is all about historical, geographical, recent, social, religious, cultural, amazing, rare, unknown interesting facts about Rajasthan.

Quick Basic Facts about Rajasthan

• Capital – Jaipur
• Official Language – Hindi
• Main Spoken Languages – Hindi, Marwari, Mewari, Shekhawati, Bagri
• Area – 3,42,239 Sq Km
• Area Rank – 1st
• Population – 6,86,21,012 (as per 2011 Census)
• Population Rank – 8th
• Population Density – 201 /sq km
• Sex Ratio – 928 females per 1000 males
• Literacy – 67 %
• Literacy Rank – 27th (3rd lowest)
• No of Districts – 33
• Assembly seats – 200 (Unicameral)
• Lok Sabha seats – 25
• Rajya Sabha seats – 10
• Created on – 1 Nov, 1956.
• First Chief Minister – Heera Lal Shastri
• First Governor – Gurumukh Nihal Singh
• Highest Peak – Guru Shikhar in Mount Abu

 State Symbols of Rajasthan

• State Tree – Khejri (Prosopis Cineraria), also called as Sami or Shami in hindi
• State Flower – Rohida
• State Animal – Chinkara and Camal
• State Bird – Godavan (Great Indian Bustard)

Historical Facts about Rajasthan

• The literal meaning of Rajasthan is Place of Kings (Raj – Kings, Sthan – Place)
• Kalibanga the important city of Indus Valley Civilization falls in this state.
• This state is known for Rajputana warriors (of 19 princely states) and Jat warriors (of Bharatpur & Dholpur). Rajput clans rose to power in 6th century CE and posed tough resistance to Muslim invaders for more than 500 years. They also checked the Mughal expansion.
• There were many famous battles fought between Muslim invaders and Rajput Kings on this land of Rajasthan
  • Battle of Khanua between Babur and Rana Sanga.
  • Hemu (Hem Chandra Vikramaditya) which was a powerful Hindu emperor fought 22 battles against Afghans and defeated Akbar’s army twice at Agra and Delhi. He was killed in Panipat’s 2nd War by Akbar’s forces.
  • Maharana Pratap fought famous battle of Haldighati.
• Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur built total 5 Jantar Mantars which are in cities of Jaipur, Delhi, Mathura, Ujjain and Varanasi. Jantar Mantar is basically an astronomical observatory consisting of a number of astronomical instruments. The main feature of the Jantar Mantar is the Sun Dial which finds the time as per the position of Sun in sky. Jantar Mantar of Jaipur consists of World’s largest stone Sun Dial and is also a World Heritage site defined by UNESCO.

Geographical Facts about Rajasthan

• Rajasthan shares its boundary with 5 states – Punjab in northeast, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in east, Madhya Pradesh in southeast, Gujarat in south.
• Rajasthan shares international border with Pakistan in west. Length of international border with Pakistan is 1170 Km.
• Major rivers of this state are Chambal, Byas and Lumi.
• This is the biggest state by area and 8th biggest by population.
• Ajmer became the first fully literate district  of North India.
• Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan is largest in terms of area and Jaipur is biggest in population.
• Jaisalmer (39313 Sq Km) is third largest district of India in terms of area. The other three districts of Rajasthan – Bikaner (28466 Sq Km), Barmer (28393 Sq Km) and Jodhpur (22901 Sq Km) are respectively fourth, fifth and sixth largest districts of India.
• National Parks of Rajasthan: there are five National Parks in Rajasthan which includes Darrah National Park near Kota, Desert National Park near Jaisalmer, Keoladeo National Park (Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary) of Bharatpur, Ranthambhore National Park of Sawai Madhopur and Sariska Tiger Reserve of Alwar.
• Thar desert and Aravali range are the important geographic features of the state. Mount Abu lies at the southernwest point of Aravali range. The town city of Bikaner lies in the Thar desert sandy area.
• Highest peak of the state is Guru Shikhar in Mount Abu with an altitude of 1,722 m. This peak comes in Aravali range.
• Udaipur is a popular tourist destination and is known for of lakes. It is also called as Venice of East, White City and City of Lakes. This city was founded by Udai Singh in 1559 as a new capital of Mewar.
• Jaipur which is also called as Pink city of India was founded by Sawai Jai Singh II in 1727.

Social and Cultural Facts about Rajasthan

• Dilwars Temples which is a popular Jain pilgrimage site falls on State’s only hill station – Mount Abu. Mount Abu is peak of ancient aravali range.

• Hawa Mahal is the iconic symbol of Jaipur and Rajasthan. Pink sandstones were used to build it. The construction was completed in 1799 by Sawai Pratap Singh. It is designed in a honeycomb structure with total 953 small windows. It was built for the purpose that royal ladies could see the outside streets without being seen from outside.
• Khayal Dance is the important folk dance of state. It is performed mostly by Bhawai tribe.

• Kachchi Ghodi is the most popular folk dance which is performed by using dummy horse.The dance mixed with music is generally performed during wedding ceremonies for entertainment and recreation.
• Bhangarh of Rajasthan is considered as the haunted town. Entry in the to
• Rajasthan has fourth lowest literacy rank among all Indian States. Its literacy is staggering low at 67.06 % as per 2011 census. Only Arunachal Pradesh (3rd lowest), Telangana (2nd lowest) and Bihar (lowest) are poorer in literacy than Rajasthan.
• Rajasthani handicrafts are famous all over the world.
• Chakri, Khayal, Jhulan Leela, Ghoomar and Ganore are the popular folk dances of Rajasthan.

Economic Facts about Rajasthan

• Economy of Rajasthan is driven by Agriculture mainly. Tourism is also a fast growing source of economy.
• Agriculture Products of Rajasthan – Jowar, bajra, maize, wheat, grams, oil seeds, cotton, sugarcane and tobacco.
• Marble mines of Makrana are famous and main source of marble stones in India.
• Mineral Resources of Rajasthan -total 58 different varieties of minerals are produced here. It consists of Zinc concentrates, emerald, garnet, gypsum, silver ore, asbestos, felspar, mica, rock phosphate, marble and red stone. Rajsthan has good reservoirs of Copper which is produced from Khetri and Jhunjhunu mines. Dariba and Zawarmala mines produces Zinc.
• Industries of Rajasthan – Textiles, rugged and woolen goods, sugar, cement, glass, sodium, oxygen and acetylene units, pesticides, insecticides and dyes. Marble works, brass embroidery copper smelting industries are also important. Rajasthan handicrafts are famous all over the world.
• Rajasthan has also good reservoirs of Crude oil and many companies like ONGC and Cairn are engaged in oil exploration and production from fields of Mangla, Bhagyam and Aishwariya.
• Places of Tourist interest are Mount Abu, Ajmer, Bharatpur (Keoladeo bird sanctuary), Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Jaisalmer and Chittorgarh.

Famous Persons from Rajasthan

• Chanda Kochhar – is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of india’s largest private sector bank – ICICI Bank. She was born in Jodhpur and brought up in Jaipur. She is also called as most influential lady business tycon of India.
• Raj Singh Dungarpur – is remembered as formar Chairman of BCCI. It was Raj Singh who selected Sachin for the first time in Indian Cricket team for Pakistan tour. He was born in Dungarpur of Rajasthan in 1935.
• Jagjit Singh – is the legend of gazal singing and known as pet word in Hindi Cinema for playback singer. He was conferred with Padma Bhushan in 2003. He was born in Sriganganagar of Bikaner.
• Irrfan Khan – is the popular hindi film actor whose real name is Sahabzade Irrfan Ali khan. He got Nation Film Award for his film Pan Singh Tomar in 2012. He also received Padma Shri award in 2011. He was born in Jaipur on 7 Jan 1967.
• Asrani – is the famous hindi cinema actor who is known for his comedian roles. His full name is Govardhan Asrani. He was born in Jaipur in year 1941.
• Shreya Ghosal – the popularplay back singer has won a number of Filmfare and National Film Awards. Although she was born in Murshidabad of West Bengal, she was brought up in Rawatbhata, Kota of Rajasthan.
• Mehdi Hassan – the renowned Pakistani gazal singer who was also called as King of Gazal was actually born in Luna, Rajasthan in year 1927. His family migrated to Pakistan during partition of India after independence in 1947.
• Motilal Oswal – is an enterprenur and businessman better known as CMD of Motilal Oswal Financial Sevices Ltd. although he was born in Italy but being a Jain closely belongs to Rajasthan.
• Lakshmi Mittal – the famous UK based businessman and Chairman of Arcelor-Mittal which is world’s largest steel making industry. He was born in Sadulpur of Rajasthan in year 1950. He is 57th most powerful person of World as per 2015 list of Forbes Magazine.
• Jamnalal Bajaj – is the eminent industrialist and philanthropist of premodern India who is also known for his contribution for freedom struggle. He was born in Sikar of Rajasthan. He is remembered as the fouder of Bajaj group of companies including Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Electricals etc.
• Rajyawardhan Singh Rathore – is one of the most famous Indian shooters who won two silver medals in Paris Olympics. He was born in Jaisalmer and worked in Indian Army up to Lt Colonel rank and then joined politics. Presently serving as Union minister in Narendra Modi led NDA government.
• Limba Ram – is the famous archer who was born in Saradeet of Rajasthan. He won many national and international medals and received Padma Shri award in year 2012
• Famous Politicians who belong to Rajasthan – Jaswant Singh, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot etc