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Dādū Dayāl (1545?-1603) was a religious teacher and poet in the Sant tradition who lived in Rajasthan and gave rise to a sect named the Dādūpanth (“Path of Dādū”). Dādū is the respectful endearing Rajasthani term for “grandfather” rather than a variant of the Muslim name Dā῾ūd. Dayāl(u) (“Compassionate”), sometimes also Dīndayāl(u) (“Compassionate with the Afflicted”), is an epithet attached to his name. Both epithets were used by Dādū himself for God and were hence applied by his followers to the master himself.LifeOn Dādū’s life, the only near-contemporary sources are the h…

Jaipur (Hindi Jayapura) is the capital of the state of Rajasthan in northwestern India (latitude N 26°55′, longitude E 75°49′) and has a population of more than three million six hundred thousand (estimate for 2018). 1. Early history Its walled city, on which this article focuses, was built by King Sawāī Jayasiṃha (Jaisingh, r. 1112–56/1700–43) as the new residence of the Rājpūt Kachhavāhā dynasty. The former residence, Āmer (also Āmber), now part of Jaipur, retained its ritual function for the dynasty (Horstmann, Jaipur 1778). With construction work under way, the city’s offi…

Jālor (Jalore, ancient Jābālipura, latitude N 25°35′, longitude E 72°62′) is a town and the headquarters of the district of Jālor in Rajasthan, about 121 kilometres south of Jodhpur. In Mughal times it was the headquarters of a revenue district of the ṣūba (province) of Ajmer. It is famous as a seat of Jain religion and scholarship and for the history of its fort. The siege of the fort by ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Khaljī (r. 695–716/1296–1316) found literary expression first in the ninth/fifteenth century and figures also in the modern national discourse. 1. Fort Situated on a hill, at an elevation …