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With an area of of 17,279 sq km and population of over 2 million, the district of Udaipur is located in the southern part of the state at 23'460 to 25'50 North Latitude and 73'90 to 74'350 East Longitude. The district is bordered by the districts of Rajsamand and Pali in the north, Dungarpur in the south, in east by Bhilwara and Chittorgarh districts and the District of Sirohi of Rajasthan and District Sabarkantha of state Gujarat in the west.

Founded by Maharaja Udai Singh, the history of Udaipur speaks the glory of braveness of the Udaipur rulers, who gave up their lives in wars but never put their heads down in front of Mughal rulers.

Udaipur was founded by Maharaja Udai Singh when his fort located in the area of Chittorgarh was seized by the Mughal empire Akbar. The Mughal army at regular intervals attacked on the rajput rulers. During 1567 the capital of Mewar, Chittor was captured by Mughal army for third time under the regime of Akbar. Rana Udai Singh escaped and started living in the hills of Aravalli range of mountains. Here once a he met a holy saint who blessed the Maharana and asked to lay foundation of his palace at the same place as it was suitable for the foundation of fort. In 1559 following the advice of that saint Maharana Udai Singh founded the city of Udaipur.

The history of Udaipur has its roots rooted back to 2000 B.C. The rulers of Udaipur are believed to the successors of Sisodia clan of Rajputs, who are considered to be the descendants of Lord Ram of Ramayan. They originated from the borders of Kashmir and moved south in the second century B.C. and established various cities on the coasts of Gujarat one of which is Vallabhi.

The historical records reveals that in sixth century the city of Vallabhi was attacked by the strange enemies. During that time the queen of Vallabhi was going on pilgrimage to pay prayers for her unborn child. While she was passing through the hills of aravalli she heard the news about Vallabhi ruins and death of her husband. Thus, to protect herself from the further attacks she took refuge in the caves and there gave birth to a son to whom she named Guhil or ‘cave born’. After that keeping trust on her maiden servant she handed over Guhil to her and herself conducted a funeral pyre and got dead with her husband.

On the other side Guhil started growing up with the people of tribal community and got familiar with the hills. There he strengthened his power and moved towards north towards Mewar and changed their name to Sisodia after they captured the village coming in their way. In this way the later rulers who were the descendants of Guhil were known as Ranas, Rawals and Maharana of Mewar.

By the time when India became an Independent nation, the region of Mewar had given the rulers for 75 generations to the Rajput dynasty of Rajasthan.

Rulers Of Mewar