Editing Rajasthan (section)

== Etymology ==
Rajasthan means "The Land of Kings" and is a [[Blend word|portmanteau]] of [[Sanskrit]] "Rājā" ('King') and Sanskrit "Sthāna" ('Land') or [[Persian language|Persian]] "St(h)ān", with the same meaning.''<ref name="etymology">{{cite book |last1=Boland-Crewe |first1=Tara |last2=Lea |first2=David |title=The Territories and States of India |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135356255 |page=208 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M2uPAgAAQBAJ&q=Tara+Boland-Crewe,+David+Lea,+The+Territories+and+States+of+India+rajasthan&pg=PA213 |access-date=26 October 2019 |language=en}}</ref>'' The oldest reference to ''Rajasthan'' is found in a stone inscription dated back to 625 CE.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Singh|first=K. S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iKsqzB4P1ioC&q=rajasthan|title=Rajasthan|date=1998|publisher=Popular Prakashan|isbn=9788171547661|language=en|author-link=Kumar Suresh Singh}}</ref> The first printed mention of the name ''Rajasthan'' appears in the 1829 publication ''Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan or the Central and Western Rajpoot States of India'', while the earliest known record of ''Rajputana'' as a name for the region is in [[George Thomas (soldier)|George Thomas]]'s 1800 memoir ''Military Memories''.<ref name="Kapil1999">{{cite book|author=F. K. Kapil|title=Rajputana states, 1817–1950|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eCZuAAAAMAAJ|year=1990|publisher=Book Treasure|page=1|access-date=15 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101121202/https://books.google.com/books?id=eCZuAAAAMAAJ|archive-date=1 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> [[John Keay]], in his book ''India: A History'', stated that ''Rajputana'' was coined by the British in 1829, John Briggs, translating [[Firishta|Ferishta]]'s history of early Islamic India, used the phrase "[[Rajput|Rajpoot (Rajput)]] princes" rather than "Indian princes".<ref>{{cite book|title=India: a history|author=John Keay|publisher=Grove Press|year=2001|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ibLUu6RlvqwC&pg=PA231|pages=231–232|quote=Colonel James Todd, who, as the first British official to visit Rajasthan, spent most of the 1820s exploring its political potential, formed a very different idea of "Rush boots" […] and the whole region thenceforth became, for the British, 'Rajputana'. The word even achieved a retrospective authenticity, [for,] in [his] 1829 translation of Ferishta's history of early Islamic India, John Bridge discarded the phrase 'Indian princes', as rendered in Dow's earlier version, and substituted 'Rajpoot princes'.|isbn=978-0-8021-3797-5|access-date=15 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101121202/https://books.google.com/books?id=ibLUu6RlvqwC&pg=PA231&dq|archive-date=1 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>