Ancient Names of Rajasthan and its Cities

Ancient Names of Rajasthan

There was no single name used for modern day Rajasthan. Different parts of Rajasthan were known by different names during different times. And it was only in the nineteenth century, the word "Rajasthan" was first used for modern day state.

In Mahabharata, the present day region combining Bikaner and Jodhpur was referred as Jangal Desh. This is the reason why Bikaner King was known as the Jangaldhar Badshah.

Similarly, region comprising of present day Ajmer and Nagaur was known as Spadalksh. The region comprising of northern part of present day Alwar used to fall under Kuru Empire and its southern and western part used to fall under Matsaya Kingdom. The eastern part of Alwar used to fall under Sursena Kingdom. The present day Bharatpur, Dhaulpur and Karauli used to fall under Sursena Kingdom. The capital of Sursena Kingdom was Mathura, the capital of Matsaya Kingdom was Viratnagar and the capital of Kuru Kingdom was Indraprastha.

The present day Udaipur was used to be referred as Shiv and its capital used to be known as Madhyamika. The region comprising of Dungurpur and Banswara was known as Wangad/Bangar. Jodhpur was referred as Gujaratra and Sirohi was known as Aburd, Jaisalmer was known as Mand, the region combining Kota and Hadauti was known as Hadauti. The southern region of present day Jhalawar used to be part of Malavdesh.

Again, the region comprising of Jaipur, Dausa, Alwar, Bharatpur, Sawai Madhopur, Tonk and Karauli ruled by Meena Kings used to be known as Dhundhar state. Similarly arid region in the western Rajasthan was used to known as Marusthali or Marwar (the Land of Death).

In 1820, it was George Thomas who first used the term "Rajputana" to refer present day region of Rajasthan. In 1829, James Tod referred the modern day state as Rajasthan and Raethana.

Ancient Names of Rajasthani Cities, Districts and Region

Modern City/District/Region	Ancient Name
Alwar	Alaur
Aravalli	Adhwal
Taragarh	Gadhbarili
Sanchore	Satyapur
Bundi	Hadauti
Brijnagar	Jhalrapatan
Bairath	Virat
Dhaulpur	Kothi
Chittor	Khijrabad
Hanumangarh	Bhatner
Jaisalmer	Maadh
Karauli	Gopalpal
Mewar	Medpad
Nagari	Madhyamika
Nagaur	Akshaypur
Bikaner	Jangal
Dungurpur	Bangar
Pratapgarh	Kothal
Sirohi	Aburd