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Jats of Bharatpur

The 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.

  1. Gokula1669–1670
  2. Rajaram of Sinsinic. 1685–1688
  3. Churamanc. 1695–1721
  4. Badan Singh1722–1756
  5. Suraj Mal1756–1763
  6. Jawahar Singh1763–1768
  7. Ratan Singh1768–1769
  8. +2
Period: 1722–1948 CE (Jat resistance from 1669)Region: Braj: the country around Mathura, Agra, Deeg and BharatpurCapitals: Deeg, Bharatpur
Photo: LRBurdak · CC BY-SA 3.0

01Revolt in Braj

In 1669, the year Aurangzeb ordered temples pulled down across his empire, Gokula of Tilpat led the Jats of Mathura against the faujdar Abdun Nabi, who was killed. Gokula was taken at Tilpat in 1670 and executed at Agra. Rajaram of Sinsini kept the revolt going, and in 1688 his men raided Akbar’s tomb at Sikandra. His nephew Churaman built forts in the ravines and survived as a power until 1721. The temple of Keshav Dev at Mathura had been demolished on Aurangzeb’s order in 1670, as the Maasir-i-Alamgiri records; the Jat rising grew out of the same years and the same country.

02Suraj Mal

Badan Singh, Churaman’s nephew, made peace with Jaipur, took the title of Raja, and built palaces at Deeg. His son Suraj Mal began the fort of Bharatpur in 1733, ringed by a wide moat and thick walls of packed earth that swallowed cannon shot. He ruled in his own name from 1756, took Agra in 1761, and is remembered in the court poet Sudan’s Sujan Charit. Before Panipat he advised Sadashivrao Bhau to leave the heavy baggage and fight a mobile war; when his advice was refused he withdrew, and after the defeat he sheltered and fed the Maratha survivors. He was killed in a skirmish on the Hindon near Delhi in December 1763.

Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi, Mathura
Place · Temple of Jajja c. 1150; Keshavdev temple of Bir Singh Deo c. 1618, destroyed 1670; present shrines built 1950s–1982Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi, MathuraThe prison-cell of Kamsa where Shri Krishna was born at midnight. The Katra Keshavdev mound carried great temples that were destroyed in 1018 and 1670; the Shahi Idgah stands on part of it, and a new temple complex stands beside.Read →

03The siege of 1805

Ranjit Singh of Bharatpur gave shelter to Yashwantrao Holkar in 1804. General Gerard Lake besieged Lohagarh from January to April 1805 and launched four assaults, all thrown back with heavy British losses, before a treaty was made. The fort was finally taken by Lord Combermere in January 1826, after mines were dug under its walls. Bharatpur stayed a princely state, and in 1948 it merged into the Matsya Union and then Rajasthan.

The rulers

  1. 1GokulaLed the rising of 1669; executed at Agra1669–1670
  2. 2Rajaram of Sinsinic. 1685–1688
  3. 3Churamanc. 1695–1721
  4. 4Badan SinghFirst Raja; palaces at Deeg1722–1756
  5. 5Suraj MalBuilt Lohagarh; took Agra 17611756–1763
  6. 6Jawahar Singh1763–1768
  7. 7Ratan Singh1768–1769
  8. 8Ranjit SinghHeld Bharatpur against Lake, 18051776–1805
  9. 9Brijendra SinghLast ruler; merged into the Matsya Union1929–1948

What they left

  • Lohagarh, the fort of Bharatpur
  • The palaces and water gardens of Deeg
  • Suraj Mal’s chhatri at Kusum Sarovar, Govardhan
  • Sujan Charit, the Braj Bhasha epic of Suraj Mal’s wars

People

Maharaja Suraj MalRuler
1707–1763 CE; ruled 1755–1763

Maharaja Suraj Mal

Jat king of Bharatpur

Sadashivrao BhauWarrior
1730 – 14 Jan 1761

Sadashivrao Bhau

Commander of the Maratha army at Panipat

Yashwantrao HolkarRuler
3 Dec 1776 – 28 Oct 1811

Yashwantrao Holkar

Holkar ruler who fought the Company alone

Places

Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi, MathuraRebuilt
The Mughal era and the resistance

Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi, Mathura

The prison-cell of Kamsa where Shri Krishna was born at midnight. The Katra Keshavdev mound carried great temples that were destroyed in 1018 and 1670; the Shahi Idgah stands on part of it, and a new temple complex stands beside.

GovardhanStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Govardhan

The low sandstone ridge of Braj that Shri Krishna held up on his little finger for seven days to shelter the people of Vraja from Indra’s rain. Pilgrims walk its 21-km parikrama barefoot, and the hill itself is worshipped as Giriraj.

Agra and the Agra FortStanding
The Mughal era and the resistance

Agra and the Agra Fort

The Mughal capital on the Yamuna, where Shivaji was held under house arrest in 1666 and escaped, and which the Jats, the Marathas and finally the British each took in turn. The Taj Mahal and the red sandstone fort face each other across a bend of the river.

Lohagarh Fort, BharatpurStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Lohagarh Fort, Bharatpur

The ‘iron fort’ of the Jat kings, ringed by a moat and thick earth ramparts that swallowed cannonballs. In 1805 it threw back four British assaults under Lord Lake, and it fell only in 1826.

Kumher FortRuined
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Kumher Fort

The mud-walled Jat stronghold where Suraj Mal held out for four months in 1754 against a Maratha army and its Mughal allies. Malhar Rao Holkar’s son Khande Rao was killed by a shot from its walls.

Deeg Palace (Jal Mahal)Standing
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Deeg Palace (Jal Mahal)

The summer palace of the Jat rajas of Bharatpur, with halls set between two tanks and hundreds of fountains, built by Maharaja Suraj Mal in the 1750s and 1760s. In 1804 Yashwantrao Holkar’s army fought the British under its walls.

Battles

Third Battle of Panipat

The largest battle fought in eighteenth-century India. The Marathas came north to keep Abdali out of Hindustan and, after two months of starvation in their entrenched camp, attacked and lost.

14 January 1761 CE

Siege of Bharatpur

For four months the mud walls of Bharatpur stood against General Lake, who had just broken the Marathas in the north. The Company lost thousands of men and never took the fort.

January–April 1805 CE

On the timeline

  • January–April 1805

    Bharatpur holds out against Lord LakeResistance

    Four British assaults on the mud walls of Bharatpur fail with heavy loss. The Jat fort earned the name Lohagarh, the iron fort, and stood until 1826.