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was also an able ruler who patronised art,              learning. He ordered to cut down expenditure on
            literature and architecture. He ruled up to 1754        weddings, so that the evil of female infanticide
            and brought peace to the state.                         could be eradicated. He also built up astronomical
                                                                    observatories in Delhi, Mathura, Ujjain, Jaipur and
             Jats
                                                                    Banaras. He founded the city of Jaipur.
            The Jats were chiefly peasants who lived in Delhi,
            Agra and Mathura on both sides of the Yamuna                   F ind Outind Out
            River. When the revenue was increased from one-
            third to one-half during the Aurangzeb’s rule, they      Find out the places where Sawai Raja Jai Singh
                                                                     established observatories.
            revolted   under    the  leadership    of  Gokula  .
            However,     they   were   suppressed.    The   Jats     Sikhs
            continued to rise repeatedly. They were against         The Sikhism started as a spiritual cult under Guru
            the Mughal policy of land revenue and religious         Nanak  ; however, it became a strong political and
            discrimination. After the death of Aurangzeb, they
                                                                    military force by the time of Guru Gobind Singh    ,
            established an independent state of Bharatpur           the tenth Sikh guru (1664-1708). The institution of
            under   the   command     of   Badan    Singh   and
                                                                    Guruship was vested in the Guru Granth Sahib       ,
            Churaman  . The Jat state reached its glory under
                                                                    the holy book of the Sikhs. After Guru Gobind
            Surajmal . The special feature of the Jat state was     Singh, Banda Bahadur     rose as the leader of the
            that whenever the state was at war, the peasants
                                                                    Sikhs. He struggled against the Mughals.
            too picked up arms and fought by the side of the
            regular army. However, after his death, this state      After the invasion of Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah
            declined and broke up into a number of small            Abdali, the Mughal empire became very weak.
            lands controlled by zamindars.                          Taking advantage of this situation, the Sikhs
                                                                    brought the Punjab and Jammu under their
             Rajputs
                                                                    control. They organised themselves into 12 misls
            The Rajputs both fought and befriended the              or confederacies. These misls were equal in status
            Mughals since the beginning. As the early Mughal        and cooperated with each other; but with time,
            rulers promoted them, they often cooperated with        they started to fight among themselves. Maharaja
            them. However, Aurangzeb stopped promoting              Ranjit Singh  brought all these misls together and
            them, so they turned against the Mughals. The           became a formidable power in the Punjab, west of
            religious policy of Aurangzeb too played a key          the river Sutlej. He was an able ruler and
            role in this.                                           commanded a very strong and disciplined army.
                                                                    His officers and soldiers included both Hindus
            When the Mughal empire became weak under
                                                                    and Muslims. He built the Golden Temple at
            Aurangzeb,    many     independent    states   were     Amritsar. The other Sikh states were Nabha,
            established in Rajasthan. Sawai Raja Jai Singh    of    Kapurthala and Patiala.
            Ambar was an outstanding ruler of the eighteenth
            century. He ruled from 1699 to 1743. He was an
            able administrator and a great warrior. He also
            took interest in social reform and scientific







                                                                        Maharaja Ranjit Singh      Guru Gobind Singh

                                                                     Satnamis
                                                                    The Satnamis were traders and peasants who lived
                                                                    in and around Narnaul, now in Mahendragarh
              Sawai Raja Jai Singh     Jantar Mantar in Delhi
                     Contemporary Social Science-7
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