ABSTRACT
The State of Rajasthan lies in north-western India, a landlocked, rough-hewn square of territory along the international border with Pakistan, which lies to the north-west. Southwards, Pakistan abuts slightly into India, so that it also lies, for a lesser distance, beyond the south-western border. The rest of the south-western border is with another Indian state, Gujarat, while Madhya Pradesh is to the south-east and the north-eastern border is shared with Uttar Pradesh (beyond the eastern corner of the state), Haryana and Punjab (a very short border in the north of Rajasthan). Rajasthan, the ‘land of kings’, was once known as Rajputana, or the land of the Rajputs, the ‘sons of kings’, and the modern state was formed from 19 princely states and three chieftainships between 1948 and 1956. Since eastern Madhya Pradesh was made into the separate state of Chhattisgarh in 2000 Rajasthan has been the largest state in India, at 342,239 sq km (132,190 sq miles) almost the size of Germany.
