Pirana, Rajasthan

Pirana was a republic of Jats in Tonk during the fourteenth century. It was a well-organized state, collecting one fourth of the goods of passing traders and rich travelers as a tax. In exchange, for providing equal rights to all brothers and castes, they conscripted nine people for war- including the young and elderly.

When a caravan of Begams of Badsah Jahangir attempted to pass through the state, it was stopped by the Jat chieftain and forced to pay taxes. When Jahangir caught wind of this incident he sent his subedar, Malook Khan, to suppress the Jats. Khan knew the capabilities of the Jats, and decided not to attack them directly. He camped at a village called Sherpur near Ranthambore, and allured a Doom. He asked the Doom how he could defeat the Jats, who told him that on bhadwa badi 12 the Jats celebrate ‘Bachchh baras’ and all are unarmed. Malook Khan attacked on this date, and killed many of the Jats, destroying the Jat republic.

Jiwan Singh and Raimal from Pirana were two chieftains who were killed during the above attack. The pregnant women at the time of the attack were evacuated and sent to Sanganer where they founded a town nearby. The boys on their birth were named after the killed warriors, Jiwan and Raimal, as decided prior to the war. Jiwan later chose to live at the place of his ancestors and founded a new village named ‘Pirana’, after the previous village's name.

Several women were killed or chose to become sati after the death of their husbands. Terraces constructed in the memory of these women are located at Pirana, locally known as ‘Satiyon ke chabutre’. The inscriptions on this site bear years up to samvat 1478 (1421 C.E.), indicating the period of war between Malook Khan and the Jats in the fourteenth century when Khalji was the ruler at Delhi.