01The siege of 1754
In January 1754 a Maratha army under Raghunathrao and Malhar Rao Holkar, called in by the Mughal wazir Imad-ul-Mulk, demanded tribute from Suraj Mal. He refused and shut himself into Kumher, a fort of thick mud ramparts and deep ditches that cannon shot sank into rather than broke. The siege dragged into spring. In March Khande Rao Holkar, inspecting the trenches, was killed by a shot from the walls. Malhar Rao swore to raze Kumher and throw its earth into the Yamuna, but by May the Jat queen Kishori and Jayappa Scindia had brokered a settlement, and the army marched away with a promise of payment.
02Ahilya at Kumher
Khande Rao’s death at Kumher shaped the next half-century of Malwa. His wife Ahilyabai was ready to become sati, and Malhar Rao begged her to live and help him rule. She did, and after his death in 1766 she governed the Holkar lands from Maheshwar for nearly thirty years, rebuilding temples and ghats from Somnath to Kashi. Of the fort itself only broken ramparts and a palace of the Jat rajas survive in the small town.
The life of this place
- January 1754The Maratha army besieges Suraj Mal in Kumher.
- March 1754Khande Rao Holkar is killed in the trenches.
- May 1754A settlement ends the siege.
