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There are also forts, minor castles, mosques, wells called baoris
and chattris to discover. The Rajputs mostly depicted the themes of
historical events, personages' folk-heroes and the prominent war
scenes, while the Marwaris concentrated more on religious themes but
with the passage of time the themes too began to divert towards the
modern views.
At the decline of Mughal Empire after the death of Mughal Emperor
Aurangzeb in 1707 the descendants
of Rao Shekha encroached upon areas west of Aravali Range also. The
chieftains of the region retained nominal loyalty to Amber, who in
turn honoured them with the title of 'tazmi sardars'. It was
probably this exposure to the courts of Jaipur that encouraged these
thakurs initiate their great succession of fresco. By the beginning
of the nineteenth century British had established major ports at
Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Bombay (now Mumbai) that were able to
handle larger volumes of trade than ports in Gujarat. Moreover with
Jaipur reducing its levies the Shekhawati route was almost abandoned
by traders. However the Shekhawati merchants who were seasoned
businessmen migrated en masse to the more lucrative centres of
Calcutta and Bombay. Here they earned unparallel wealth and send
huge sums home, which were used for building havelis,social welfare,
wells,reservoirs, schools etc.
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