Battle of Chaksana

01After Lalsot

The desertion of the Mughal battalions at Lalsot in 1787 had cost Mahadji most of the Doab. Ismail Beg, a Mughal noble who had gone over to the Rajputs, now joined hands with Ghulam Qadir, the young Rohilla chief, and laid siege to Agra fort, where Mahadji’s officer Lakhwa Dada held out. Mahadji, short of money, leaned on Ranjit Singh of Bharatpur and sent Rane Khan and other commanders to relieve Agra.

02A check, not a rout

The armies met at Chaksana, in the flat country between Bharatpur and Agra, in April 1788. The fighting was long and bloody. Ghulam Qadir’s Rohilla horse and Ismail Beg’s Mughal troops held the field, and the Maratha and Jat force fell back toward Bharatpur in order. Ghulam Qadir then left for Delhi on his own errand. That parting proved costly for Ismail Beg, who was beaten near Agra two months later.

Dynasty · 1722–1948 CE (Jat resistance from 1669)Jats of BharatpurThe Jat peasantry of Braj rose against the Mughals in 1669 under Gokula, and out of that long revolt Badan Singh and his son Suraj Mal built a kingdom with its capitals at Deeg and Bharatpur. Lohagarh, the mud-walled fort of Bharatpur, threw back a British army four times in 1805.Read →