Battle of Maonda and Mandholi

01The march to Pushkar

Suraj Mal had kept on good terms with the house of Jaipur. His son Jawahar Singh did not. He had a strong army with European officers and artillery, coveted Jaipur land, and was angry that Jaipur had sheltered his rebel half-brother Nahar Singh. In late 1767 he took his army across Jaipur territory to Pushkar for the Kartik bathing, and ignored Madho Singh’s protests. The Jaipur nobles gathered their men to cut him off on the way home.

02The fight in the hills

The Rajputs struck the Jat army in the broken country by Maonda and Mandholi, near today’s Neem ka Thana, in December 1767. The fighting was savage. The Jat army was routed, lost its baggage and much of its artillery, and Jawahar Singh got away with difficulty. The victory cost Jaipur dearly: a large number of its chief Kachhwaha thakurs fell on the field. Madho Singh died a few months later.

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 →