Jhabua is a town and a municipality in Jhabua district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of Jhabua District.
Recently the district has got international recognition because of its endemic hen species "kadaknath". It has been granted the GI tag.
The ancestor of the family was Rao Bar Singh a.k.a. the Birji, fifth son of Jodha of Mandore of Marwar. His descendant, Kunwar Kesho Das or Kishan Das, founded Jhabua in 1584.
Raja Kesho Das was first Raja of Jhabua 1584/1607. He was granted the title of Raja by the Emperor of Delhi, as a reward for a successful campaign in Bengal, and for punishing the Bhil chiefs of Jhabua who had murdered an Imperial Viceroy of Gujarat.
Khushal Singh was the ruler of Jhabua in 1698, he gave much of his lands to his brothers and sons and was too weak to rule his state effectively. This allowed the Marathas to actively invade Jhabua on a regular basis. Raja Shiv Singh was an infant and therefore the states administration during this time was managed by the raja's mother and the nobles. The Marathas under Holkar took advantage of this situation to take control of Jhabua. The threat from Jai Singh of Sailana forced the nobles of Jhabua to rely on Maratha protection, Holkar thus sent his officers to manage the states affairs.[1] Jhabua later came under British protection in 1817 A.D. and was under the Bhopawar Agency[2][3] of the Central India Agency and in 1927 it became part of the Malwa Agency.There were 20 families of rank in the state who paid £1500 to the Holkars and £2500 to their own chief. In 1875 the state had a population of 55,000 and a revenue of £22,500.[4] After India's independence in 1947, Jhabua's last ruler signed the accession to the Indian Union on 15 June 1948, and Jhabua became part of the newly created Madhya Bharat state, which in 1956 was merged into Madhya Pradesh.[5]
Jhabua was the capital of a princely state of the British Raj's Central India, in the Bhopawar agency. Its area, with the dependency of Rutanmal, was approx 1,336 square miles (3,460 km2).[6] The Rajas of Jhabua belonged to the Rathor dynasty.[7]