Introduction

The archival, non-archival, numismatical, inscriptions and archaeological data form the backbone of the historical research for all the periods. The archival sources provide valuable data on the qasbas and cities. The information on them is related to number of houses of different categories of people, taxes, markets, trade and commerce. The Jodhpur and Bikaner records are in local Marwari dialect. They contain information on revenue, agricultural, non-agricultural taxes, professional taxes in urban areas and on trade and commerce from seventeenth century onwards. The jagat bahis contain valuable evidence on the commodities of commercial importance and trade routes in the region. The sava bahi of Bikaner are useful for the study of urban areas and for the estimation of population of different castes of eighteenth-nineteenth century. The data on caste-censuses of 1931 provide extremely useful information for the comparison of the caste composition of the towns of precensus period.