the British; but he wisely avoided any serious collision with them.
Mahadji died in 1794, and was succeeded by his adopted son, Daulat Rao Sindhia, a grandson of his brother Tukoji. When, during the period of unrest that followed the deaths of the peshwa, Madhu Rao II., in 1795 and of Tukoji Holkar in 1797, the Mahratta leaders fought over the question of supremacy, the peshwa, Baji Rao II., the titular head of the Mahratta confederation, fled from his capital and placed himself under British protection by the treaty of Bassein (December 31, 1802). This interposition of the British government was resented by the confederacy, and it brought on the Mahratta War of 1803. In the campaign that followed a combined Mahratta army, in which Daulat Rao’s troops furnished the largest contingent, was defeated by General Arthur Wellesley at Assaye and Argaum in Central India; and Lord Lake routed Daulat Rao’s European-trained battalions in Northern India at Agra, Aligarh and Laswari. Daulat Rao was then compelled to sign the treaty of Sarji Anjangaon (December 30, 1803), which stripped him of his territories between the Jumna and Ganges, the district of Broach in Gujarat and other lands in the south. By the same treaty he was deprived of the forts of Gwalior and Gohad; but these were restored by Lord Cornwallis in 1805, when the Chambal river was made the northern boundary of the state. By a treaty signed at Burhanpur in 1803 Daulat Rao further agreed to maintain a subsidiary force, to be paid out of the revenues of the territories ceded under the treaty of Sarji Anjangaon. When, however, in 1816 he was called upon to assist in the suppression of the Pindaris, though by the treaty of Gwalior (1817) he promised his co-operation, his conduct was so equivocal that in 1818 he was forced to sign a fresh treaty by which he ceded Ajmere and other lands.
Daulat Rao died without issue in 1827, and his widow, Baiza Bai (d. 1862), adopted Mukut Rao, a boy of eleven belonging to a distant branch of the family, who succeeded as Jankoji Rao Sindhia. His rule was weak; the state was distracted by interminable palace intrigues and military mutinies, and affairs went from bad to worse when, in 1843, Jankoji Rao, who left no heir, was succeeded by another boy, adopted by his widow, Tara Bai, under the name of Jayaji Rao Sindhia. The growth of turbulence and misrule now induced Lord Ellenborough to interpose, and a British force under Sir Hugh Gough advanced upon Gwalior (December 1843). The Mahratta troops were defeated simultaneously at Maharajpur and Punniar (December 29), with the result that the Gwalior government signed a treaty ceding territory with revenue sufficient for the maintenance of a contingent force to be stationed at the capital, and limiting the future strength of the Gwalior army, while a council of regency was appointed during the minority to act under the resident’s advice. In 1857 the Gwalior contingent joined the mutineers; but the maharaja himself remained loyal to the British, and fled from his capital until the place was retaken and his authority restored by Sir Hugh Rose (Lord Strathnairn) on the 19th of June 1858. He was rewarded with the districts of Neemuch and Amjhera, but Gwalior fort was occupied by British troops and was only restored to his son in 1886 by Lord Dufferin. Jayaji Rao, who died in 1886, did much for the development of his state. He was created a G.C.S.I in 1861, and subsequently became a counsellor of the empress, a G.C.B. and C.I.E.
His son, the maharaja, Madhava Rao Sindhia, G.C.S.I., was born in 1877. During his minority the state was administered for eight years by a council of regency. He was entrusted with ruling powers in 1894, and in all respects continued the reforming policy of the council, while paying personal attention to every department, being a keen soldier, an energetic administrator, and fully alive to the responsibilities attaching to his position. He was created an honorary aide-de-camp to the king-emperor and an honorary colonel in the British army. He went to China as orderly officer to General Gaselee in 1901, and provided the expedition with a hospital ship at his own expense, while his Imperial Service Transport Corps proved a useful auxiliary to the British army in the Chitral and Tirah expeditions.
The City of Gwalior is 76 m. by rail S. of Agra, and had a population in 1901 of 119,433. This total includes the new town of Lashkar or “the Camp” which is the modern capital of the state and old Gwalior. The old town has a threefold interest: first as a very ancient seat of Jain worship; secondly for its example of palace architecture of the best Hindu period (1486–1516); and thirdly as an historic fortress. There are several remarkable Hindu temples within the fort. One, known as the Sas Bahu, is beautifully adorned with bas-reliefs. It was finished in A.D. 1093, and, though much dilapidated, still forms a most picturesque fragment. An older Jain temple has been used as a mosque. Another temple in the fortress of Gwalior is called the Teli-Mandir, or “Oilman’s Temple.” This building was originally dedicated to Vishnu, but afterwards converted to the worship of Siva. The most striking part of the Jain remains at Gwalior is a series of caves or rock-cut sculptures, excavated in the rock on all sides, and numbering nearly a hundred, great and small. Most of them are mere niches to contain statues, though some are cells that may have been originally intended for residences. One curious fact regarding them is that, according to inscriptions, they were all excavated within the short period of about thirty-three years, between 1441 and 1474. Some of the figures are of colossal size; one, for instance, is 57 ft. high, which is taller than any other in northern India.
The palace built by Man Singh (1486–1516) forms the most interesting example of early Hindu work of its class in India. Another palace of even greater extent was added to this in 1516; both Jehangír and Shah Jahan added palaces to these two—the whole making a group of edifices unequalled for picturesqueness and interest by anything of their class in Central India. Among the apartments in the palace was the celebrated chamber, named the Baradari, supported on 12 columns, and 45 ft. square, with a stone roof, forming one of the most beautiful palace-halls in the world. It was, besides, singularly interesting from the expedients to which the Hindu architect was forced to resort to imitate the vaults of the Moslems. Of the buildings, however, which so excited the admiration of the emperor Baber, probably little now remains. The fort of Gwalior, within which the above buildings are situated, stands on an isolated rock. The face is perpendicular and where the rock is naturally less precipitous it has been scarped. Its greatest length from north-east to south-west is a mile and a half, and the greatest breadth 900 yds. The rock attains its maximum height of 342 ft. at the northern end. A rampart, accessible by a steep road, and farther up by huge steps cut out of the rock, surrounds the fort. The citadel stands at the north-eastern corner of the enclosure, and presents a very picturesque appearance. The old town of Gwalior, which is of considerable size, but irregularly built, and extremely dirty, lies at the eastern base of the rock. It contains the tomb of Mahommed Ghaus, erected during the early part of Akbar’s reign. The fort of Gwalior was traditionally built by one Surya Sen, the raja of the neighbouring country. In 1196 Gwalior was captured by Mahommed Ghori; it then passed into the hands of several chiefs until in 1559 Akbar gained possession of it, and made it a state prison for captives of rank. On the dismemberment of the Delhi empire, Gwalior was seized by the Jat rana of Gohad. Subsequently it was garrisoned by Sindhia, from whom it was wrested in 1780 by the forces of the East India Company, and to whom it was finally restored by the British in 1886. The modern town contains the palace of the chief, a college, a high school, a girls’ school, a service school to train officials, a law school, hospitals for men and for women, a museum, paper-mills, and a printing-press issuing a state gazette.
Gwalior Residency, an administrative unit in the Central India agency, comprises Gwalior state and eleven smaller states and estates. Its total area is 17,825 sq. m., and its population in 1901 was 2,187,612. Of the area, 17,020 sq. m. belong to Gwalior State, and the agency also includes the small states of Raghugarh, Khaniadhana, Paron, Garha, Umri and Bhadaura, with the Chhabra pargana of Tonk.
GWEEDORE, a hamlet and tourist resort of Co. Donegal,
Ireland, on the Londonderry & Lough Swilly & Letterkenny
