Battle of Bagru

01The Marathas take a side

After his defeat at Rajmahal, Madho Singh and his uncle the Maharana won over Malhar Rao Holkar with a promise of a large payment. Peshwa Balaji Bajirao, whose officer Gangadhar Tatya was also involved, had wavered between the two brothers; now the Holkar weight went to Madho Singh. In the monsoon of 1748 a combined army of Marathas and the Rajputs of Mewar, Kota and Bundi advanced on Jaipur, and Ishwari Singh came out to meet it at Bagru, the town of block-printed cloth west of the city.

02A settlement forced

For several days in August the armies fought in heavy rain, with the Maratha horse cutting Ishwari Singh’s supplies. Short of food and outnumbered, he came to terms: Madho Singh was to receive five parganas, and the Marathas their payment. It did not last. In 1750, with Holkar’s army at the gates demanding money he could not pay, Ishwari Singh took poison, and Madho Singh became Maharaja of Jaipur. The Marathas’ hold on Rajput affairs was now complete.

Dynasty · c. 11th century–1949 CEKachwahas of Amber and JaipurThe Kachwahas ruled Dhundhar from Amber. Allied with the Mughals from 1562, they became the empire’s great generals; Sawai Jai Singh II then built Jaipur and its observatories.Read →