The majority of the inhabitants are Bhatti Rajputs, who take their
name from an ancestor named Bhatti, renowned as a warrior when the
tribe were located in the Punjab. Shortly after this the clan was
driven southwards, and found a refuge in the Indian desert, which was
thenceforth its home. Deoraj, a famous prince of the Bhatti family, is
esteemed the real founder of the present Jaisalmer dynasty, and with
him the title of _rawal_ commenced. In 1156 Jaisal, the sixth in
succession from Deoraj, founded the fort and city of Jaisalmer, and
made it his capital. In 1294 the Bhattis so enraged the emperor
Ala-ud-din that his army captured and sacked the fort and city of
Jaisalmer, so that for some time it was quite deserted. After this
there is nothing to record till the time of Rawal Sabal Singh, whose
reign marks an epoch in Bhatti history in that he acknowledged the
supremacy of the Mogul emperor Shah Jahan. The Jaisalmer princes had
now arrived at the height of their power, but from this time till the
accession of Rawal Mulraj in 1762 the fortunes of the state rapidly
declined, and most of its outlying provinces were lost. In 1818 Mulraj
entered into political relations with the British. Maharawal
Salivahan, born in 1887, succeeded to the chief ship in 1891.
JAJCE (pronounced _Yaïtse_), a town of Bosnia, situated on the Pliva and
Vrbas rivers, and at the terminus of a branch railway from Serajevo, 62
m. S.E. Pop. (1895), about 4000. Jajce occupies a conical hill,
overlooking one of the finest waterfalls in Europe, where the Pliva
rushes down into the Vrbas, 100 ft. below. The 14th century citadel
which crowns this hill is said to have been built for Hrvoje, duke of
Spalato, on the model of the Castel del' Uovo at Naples; but the
resemblance is very slight, and although both _jajce_ and _uovo_ signify
"an egg," the town probably derives its name from the shape of the hill.
The ruined church of St Luke, said by legend to be the Evangelist's
burial place, has a fine Italian belfry, and dates from the 15th
century. Jezero, 5 m. W. of Jajce, contains the Turkish fort of
Djöl-Hissar, or "the Lake-Fort." In this neighbourhood a line of
waterfalls and meres, formed by the Pliva, stretches for several miles,
enclosed by steep rocks and forest-clad mountains. The power supplied by
the main fall, at Jajce, is used for industrial purposes, but the beauty
of the town remains unimpaired.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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