Battle of Gwalior

01The taking of Gwalior

After Kalpi fell in May 1858, Tatya Tope, Rao Saheb and the Rani turned on Gwalior. On 1 June the Scindia’s army went over to them, and Maharaja Jayajirao fled to Agra. The fort with its treasury and guns was theirs, and Nana Saheb was proclaimed Peshwa there. For a few days the old Scindia capital was the seat of the rising, and the leaders held durbar and paid the troops from its treasury. Rose marched at once in the summer heat.

02Kotah-ki-Serai

On 17 June 1858 Brigadier Smith’s column attacked near Kotah-ki-Serai, east of Gwalior. The Rani, dressed as a cavalry leader, fought with the horsemen against the 8th Hussars, and was struck down and died of her wounds that day or the next; the accounts differ on the day. Her attendants cremated her body nearby, at the place where her samadhi now stands in Phool Bagh. Rose took Gwalior on 19–20 June. Tatya Tope fought a running war across central India for ten more months, until he was betrayed, captured and hanged at Shivpuri on 18 April 1859.

Dynasty · 1731–1948 CEScindias (Shinde) of GwaliorRanoji Shinde rose as a commander under Bajirao I and was given northern Malwa. His son Mahadji, who survived Panipat, became the master of Delhi and the most powerful Indian ruler of the 1780s; the house later ruled Gwalior until 1948.Read →