Jawahar Singh

Maharaja Jawahar Singh was the ruler and heir of the Bharatpur Kingdom. He succeeded to the throne when his father, Maharaja Surajmal, died in 1763.

Early life

Jawahar Singh was born to Maharaja Surajmal and Maharani Gauri. He was later adopted by Maharani Kishori (from Sorout clan of Palwal). He was the 22nd direct descendant of Chaudhary Sobha Singh of Bayana, who founded Sinsini in 12th century by defeating native Kalals.

During Ahmed Shah Abdali's invasion of India in 1757, Abdali attacked Ballabhgarh.In a battle between the Durranis and Prince Jawahar Singh, he managed to captured 150 Durrani horses. Jawahar Singh had to escape from the fort in the night as the defence of the fort was not possible in the face of heavy bombardments of Abdali's guns. After taking the city, Abdali sent his generals Jahan Khan and Najib Khan with 20,000 men to attack the territory and holy city of Mathura. According to historian Jadunath Sarkar, the Marathas fled from the north and not a single Maratha soldier fought for the holy city of Mathura which had the holiest of Vaishnav shrines, their "Hindupat-Padshahi" didn't involve any duty to protect it. But they were determined to defend this sacred city. Kunwar Jawahar Singh and Raja Shyam Singh Kuntal of Sonkh with 6,000 men blocked the path of the Afghans. They faced Afghans in Chaumuhan, in the fight that followed the cavalry charged the Afghan positions and almost seven to nine thousand men of Durranis were killed by Jat troops and the remnants of the Jat army had to retreat. Afghans subsequently carried out a general massacre in the unfortified city of Mathura. The people were looted, their property plundered and acts of iconoclasm followed.

The Great Mosque of Agra was changed into a market: The grain merchants had orders to expose their goods for sale there. The butchers shops were closed. They made very severe prohibition of the slaughter of oxen, cows and also of kids. All public profession of the Mohammedan religion was interdicted under very harsh treatment. One man gave the azaan but the government of Agra cut his tongue.

Victory in Delhi

In 1764, Maharaj Jawahar Singh attacked Najib ad-Dawlah and Mughals and later bombarded and plundered Delhi. He enlisted the help of the Sikh Jatt chiefs for the campaign, but they retired early. The Rohilla Pathans and Mughals were sieged inside the fort and Delhi was captured on 9 January 1765 by Maharaja Jawahar Singh corroborated by contemporary Persian record (Delhi Chronicle by Naruddin): "News from Delhi- Najib-ud-daulah has been defeated by Jawahir Singh, and has retired into the fort . The city has fallen into the hands of Jawahir Singh. The city has fallen into the hands of Jawahir Singh. Najib-ud-daulah is desirous of going to his own country through the assistance of the Marathas."

Later peace negotiations were being carried out by Malhar Holkar. Maharaja Jawahar Singh realized that Holkar was double dealing with him and were in secret negotiation with Najib Khan. Jawahar Singh got the war expenses and he took the gates of Red fort with him to Bharatpur as the sign of victory.

Both sides came in front of each other and a pitched battle was fought between the Sikh troops (hired by Jawahar Singh) and Marathas under Holkar on 13 and 14 March 1766 near Dholpur. In this battle Marathas was beaten back by Jat and Sikh troops.

On August 14, 1767, Maharaja Jawahar Singh received a request from the Khichi Rajput chief of Raghogarh to help free his state from the Marathas. However, he rejected the request and returned to the north. He, then won the Maratha police station of Jigani by defeating Gobind Sabharam and joined the Jat kings of Gohad and Pichorre. These victories of Maharaja led to a problem for the Peshwa in Poona, who wanted to maintain Maratha power in the north. In September 1767, the Maratha officers on the orders of Peshwa made a treaty with Jawahar Singh. After this treaty, Maharaja gained Jigani and Jatalwar parganas of Vitthalrao Tavardhar and parganas of Sikarwar which belonged to Mahadaji Kasi. Thereafter. Maharaja crossed Chambal and returned to Bharatpur. However, the marathas recovered the bundelkhand region in January 1768.

War with Kingdom of Jaipur

Jawahar Singh made the big mistake of leaving Pratap Singh of Machheri, the rebel noble of Jaipur, for the defence of Bharatpur. He had provided him shelter in his realms during the hour of crises in the latter's life and considered Partap Singh to be a reliable man. But his faith proved misplaced as the Rao Raja proved traitor. When Jawahar Singh was at Pushkar, he left Bharatpur and joined the camp of Madho Singh. Rather he instigated Madho Singh to take action against Jawahar Singh.

All the Rajput rulers assembled at Pushkar and held a conference in which no Jat rulers were invited. Raja Madho Singh said in this conference that the Jat ruler had injured the vanity of all the Rajputs. It was here that a witty Marwari, Raja Vijay Singh pointed out that after all the Jats were also Hindus and if they donated liberally on this auspicious occasion according to their financial position, it must not be taken as humiliation by Rajputs. Madho Singh, however, rejected this advice and appealed for war. The decision of this conference soon reached Jawahar Singh. He was expecting it.

Madho Singh laid on ambush in a valley to intercept Jawahar Singh on his return. Jawahar Singh had anticipated this and took the alternative route via Turnawati, which was a bottleneck Surrounded by hills. The column of troops with cavalry and artillery was marching under the leadership of Captain Samru.

All of a sudden Rajputs attacked them from three sides. It was a fierce battle.

It is said that 25,000 casualties occurred in this battle. Jawahar Singh reached Bharatpur. But apparently the loss did not have much of a repercussion on the strength of Jats. He was assassinated by one of his favourite soldiers (swallowing poison) in at Agra Fort, 27 August 1768.