RAS question
At whose invitation did Swami Dayanand Saraswati make his first visit to Rajasthan in 1865 CE?
Correct answer: (A) Madanpal of Karauli.
Swami Dayanand Saraswati made his first visit to Rajasthan in 1865 CE at the invitation of Madanpal of Karauli.
Explanation
Madanpal fits the 1865 visit because his rule over Karauli ran from 1854 to 1869 CE. He came to the throne after the East India Company's Board of Directors declined Lord Dalhousie's 1852 annexation proposal. Karauli's proposed merger was cancelled on the Court of Directors' advice, Madanpal was installed as ruler, and Swami Dayanand Saraswati visited Karauli in 1865 AD. This was Dayanand Saraswati's first trip to Rajasthan. Harbakshpal, Narsinghpal and Pratappal were all out of the chronology before 1865, so they could not have hosted the visit.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Harbakshpal had died in 1837 CE, so he could not have invited Swami Dayanand Saraswati for a visit made in 1865 CE.
- (C) Narsinghpal died in 1852 CE, and the Karauli throne remained under consideration until 1854, placing him outside the 1865 visit.
- (D) Pratappal's reign ended in 1848 CE, well before Swami Dayanand Saraswati's first Rajasthan tour in 1865 CE.
Concept
This tests the chronology of Karauli's rulers alongside the spread of nineteenth-century reform movements in Rajasthan. RAS often asks such items because they connect social-religious reformers with the specific princely states and rulers associated with them.