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Rajputana Rifles.
- Rajasthan The Princely state of India

Rajputana Rifles

My limited edition solider depicts the Rajputana Rifles c.1918 a fearsome warrior race from Rajasthan the land of Maharajas, Princes and palaces.

The history of the Rajputana Rifles [the Raj Rif] stretches back to the Bombay Army of the East India Company. Rajputs [from rajputra, a sanskrit word meaning son of a king], are the dominant people of Rajputana, an historic region now almost coextensive with the state of Rajasthan in northwest India. The Rajputs are mainly Hindus of the warrior caste. Traditionally they have put great value on the military virtues and take great pride in their ancestry.

The oldest of the battalions dates back to 1775, when it formed a unit of the old Bombay Army. One or other of them saw fighting in almost every campaign since that date in which Indian troops have been employed both in and out of India

Their Great War battle honours cover France, Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, Persia and East Africa. They were composed of Rajputs and Jats from Rajputana, and Muslims from the Punjab.

On the eve of the Second World War, the 6th Rajputana Rifles consisted, like most of the eighteen Indian Infantry Regiments, of five active and one training (the l0th) battalions. About 30,000 of this region's soldiers died in First and Second World War.

British Raj Colonial Soldier Collection

Click here for details of the hand carved wooden British Raj Soldiers.

Wooden Soldier Regimental Histories

All of my wooden soldiers are made in strictly limited editions, click here for a regimental history of each soldier.