Bikaner State

This article is about the princely state during the British Raj. For the natural and historical region, see History of Bikaner.

Kingdom of Bikaner बीकानेर रियासत
1465–1947
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "Jai Jungaldhar Badshah" Victory to the king of deserts
Bikaner State with Rajputana, in the Imperial Gazetteer of India (1909).
Official languages	1 Rajasthani dialects - Bagri in the North, North-west, Centre and East, Marwari in the south , 2 Hindi
Religion	Hinduism (state religion)
Demonym	Bikaneri
History
• Established	1465
• Independence of India	1947
Area
• Total	61,355 km2 (23,689 sq mi)
Population
• 1931 estimate	936,218
Succeeded by India
Today part of	Rajasthan, India

Bikaner Laxmi Niwas Palace

Maharaja Anup Singh of Bikaner hunting elephants

Honorific insignia in gold offered to the Maharaja of Bikaner by the Mughal Emperor.

Raja Karan Singh of Bikaner, Aurangzeb's ally and enemy.

Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner with his son Sadul Singh in 1914.

Bikaner Camel Corps

Board of combat daggers at the Darbar Hall

Bikaner State was a princely state in the north-western most part of the Rajputana province of imperial British India from 1818 to 1947. The founder of the state, Rao Bika, was a younger son of Rao Jodha, the ruler and founder of the city of Jodhpur in Marwar. Rao Bika chose to establish his own kingdom instead of inheriting his father's. Bika defeated the Jat clans of Jangladesh, which today refers to the north and north-western Rajasthan, along with his uncle Rao Kandhal and his adviser Vikramji Rajpurohit, whereupon he founded his own kingdom. Its capital was the city of Bikaner. The emergence of the Mughal Empire witnessed the Kingdom of Bikaner pledging fealty to Mughal emperors, which led to the Kingdom becoming a loyal constituent of the Empire.

Covering a vast area of 60,391 km² (23,317 sq mi), Bikaner State was the second largest state under the Rajputana Agency after Jodhpur State, with a revenue of Rs. 26,00,000 in 1901. Acquiescing to the 1947 call of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to integrate the princely states into the new independent India, Bikaner's then ruler, Lt General Maharaja Sir Sadul Singh, advised by his dewan K. M. Panikkar, was one of the first rulers of a princely state to be receptive to integrating with the Indian Union. The Maharaja of Bikaner set an example for the other heads of the princely states of India to follow by issuing a public appeal in April 1947 to join the Constituent Assembly of India.

The state was noted for the Bikaner style of miniature painting.