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Ruler

Yashwantrao Holkar

Holkar ruler who fought the Company alone

1776—1811

3 Dec 1776 – 28 Oct 1811

A son of Tukoji Holkar, Yashwantrao fought his way to the head of the Holkar house, beat the Peshwa and Shinde together at Pune in 1802, and then took on the East India Company. He destroyed Monson’s column in 1804 and helped hold Bharatpur against four British assaults in 1805.

01A house at war with itself

Yashwantrao was born on 3 December 1776, a son of Tukoji Holkar, Ahilyabai’s commander. When Tukoji died in 1797 the succession went to pieces. Daulatrao Shinde backed one brother and had another, Malharrao, killed. Yashwantrao fled, gathered a following of horsemen and Pindaris, and won back the Holkar lands by the sword. In April 1801 Peshwa Bajirao II had his brother Vithoji trampled to death by an elephant at Pune. Yashwantrao marched on the capital.

02Pune, 1802

On 25 October 1802, the day of Diwali, he met the combined armies of the Peshwa and Shinde at Hadapsar outside Pune and routed them. Bajirao II fled to the coast and, on 31 December 1802, signed the Treaty of Bassein with the East India Company, taking British troops in return for his throne. Yashwantrao had won the battle and lost the Peshwa to the English. The Company’s war with Shinde and the Bhonsle followed in 1803; Yashwantrao stood aside that year, and both were beaten.

Delhi (Indraprastha)
Place · Indraprastha of the Pandavas; Lal Kot c. 1052 by the Tomara Anangpal; many cities sinceDelhi (Indraprastha)The Pandavas’ Indraprastha stood on the Yamuna where the Purana Qila now stands, and the Tomaras and Chauhans built the first walled Delhi at Mehrauli. Seven or more cities have risen on the same ground since.Read →

03Alone against the Company

In 1804 he went to war with the Company by himself. Colonel Monson’s column, pushed deep into Holkar country, was caught by the monsoon and harried back through the Mukundra pass towards Agra in July and August; it lost most of its men and guns. Yashwantrao besieged Delhi that October without taking it, and was beaten at Deeg and surprised at Farrukhabad in November. He then joined Raja Ranjit Singh of Bharatpur, and Lord Lake’s four assaults on the mud walls of Bharatpur in 1805 all failed. He rode to the Punjab looking for allies and made peace at Rajghat on the Beas on 24 December 1805, getting most of his lands back. He died at Bhanpura on 28 October 1811.

Battles

Battle of Poona (Hadapsar)

On Diwali day 1802 Yashwantrao Holkar defeated the Peshwa and Scindia outside Pune, a Maratha victory over Marathas that drove the Peshwa into the Company’s arms.

25 October 1802

Monson’s Retreat

Yashwantrao Holkar turned on a Company column that had marched deep into his country and chased it back across Rajasthan in the rains, one of the worst Company defeats in India.

July–August 1804

Battle of Deeg

Holkar’s trained infantry and guns stood with the Jats under the walls of Deeg; they lost the battle and then the fort, and the war moved to Bharatpur.

13 November 1804; fort taken 24 December

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

Places

Delhi (Indraprastha)Standing
The long resistance: Sindh to Tarain

Delhi (Indraprastha)

The Pandavas’ Indraprastha stood on the Yamuna where the Purana Qila now stands, and the Tomaras and Chauhans built the first walled Delhi at Mehrauli. Seven or more cities have risen on the same ground since.

PuneStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Pune

The town where Shivaji grew up under Jijabai’s eye, and for nearly a century the seat of the Peshwas, from which Maratha armies rode to Attock and Bengal. Later it became the workshop of Tilak, Agarkar and the Deccan Education Society.

IndoreStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Indore

The Malwa town granted to Malhar Rao Holkar by the Peshwa, which grew round the seven-storeyed Rajwada into the Holkar capital. Its name is tied to Ahilyabai, who ruled the Holkar lands from 1767 to 1795 and rebuilt temples from Somnath to Kashi.

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.

Maheshwar (Mahishmati)Standing
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Maheshwar (Mahishmati)

Mahishmati of the Itihasa, city of the thousand-armed Kartavirya Arjuna, and later the capital of Ahilyabai Holkar, who ruled here from 1767 to 1795. Her fort and ghats run down to the Narmada.

Bhanpura, Chhatri of Yashwantrao HolkarStanding
Maratha ascendancy and the Sikh empire

Bhanpura, Chhatri of Yashwantrao Holkar

The Holkar town in north-west Malwa where Yashwantrao Holkar, the Maratha chief who fought the Company alone in 1804–05, spent his last years and died on 28 October 1811. His chhatri, with a life-size statue of him, stands on the edge of the town.