Battle of Laswari

01Mahadji’s army

Mahadji Scindia had raised regular battalions with drilled infantry and well-served guns, and with them he had ruled Delhi in the emperor’s name. In 1803 Lake took Aligarh, Delhi and Agra one after another. The brigades that had escaped retreated west towards Alwar, and Lake chased them with his cavalry ahead of his infantry, catching them at Laswari at dawn on 1 November.

02A hard day

The first cavalry charges broke against chained guns and steady infantry. Lake had to wait for his foot soldiers, who came up after a forced march of many miles, and the fighting went on into the afternoon, much of it hand to hand. The Maratha battalions were destroyed almost to a man. Lake wrote afterwards that they had fought like devils. Within weeks Scindia signed the treaty of Surji-Anjangaon.

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 →