Etymology
The first mention of word Rajasthan appears in James Tod's 1829 publication, Annals and Antiquities of Rajast'han or the Central and Western Rajpoot States of India. Rajasthan literally means a Land of Kingdoms. George Thomas (Military Memories) was the first in 1800 A.D., to term this region as Rajputana. John Keay in his book, India: A History stated that the Rajputana name was coined by the British, but that the word even achieved a retrospective authenticity: in an 1829 translation of Ferishta's history of early Islamic India, John Briggs discarded the phrase Indian princes, as rendered in Dow's earlier version, and substituted Rajput princes. R. C. Majumdar explained that the region was long known as Gurjaratra that is Country protected or ruled by the Gurjars.
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