GWALIOR, gwale-Or, India, a Mahratta state, forming part of the Central India Agency. It is of irregular form, about 420 miles long from northeast to southwest, and has an area of 25,041 square miles. The main portion form ing the Gwalior assistant agency lies between Rajputatia and the United Provinces ; other portions are contained in the Indor Residency, and the Bhopal, West Malwa, Bhopawar and Guna assistant agencies, between the Central Provinces and Rajeutana. The surface is mostly undulating, with a general slope to the north, where it comprises a part of the great plain of the river Jamna. In the south, portions of it are traversed by the Vindhya Mountains. The Chamba partly bounds it on the northwest. Other Gwalior rivers are the Sind, Betwah and Dussam, tributaries to the Jamna with their affluents, having mostly a northern course. South of the mountains the Narbada carries part of the drainage to the west. The soil is gen erally of high fertility. Opium-poppy is an im portant staple of culture, and an abundance of corn and oleaginous plants, sugarcane, barley and peas on the dry lands in winter, and cotton and tobacco are raised. The population are mostly Mahrattas, but include also Bhils, Minos and Coolies, numerous Brahmans, a few Raj puts and a peculiar sect of Mohammedans called Bhoras, who are supposed to be of Jewish origin. The chief towns are Gwalior (the cap
ital, also called Lashkar), Ujjain and Mandesur. The state, which has a population of over 3,000,000, was founded after the successes ob tained by the Mahrattas over the Mogul forces in 1738, by Sindhia, a chief who raised himself from obscurity by his own merits. He died in 1754. In 1781 Madaji Sindhia negotiated a peace between the British and the Mahrattas, and having introduced European discipline and tac tics into his army, possessed himself of Delhi, Agra and the person of the Mogul emperor, in whose name he subsequently acted. He was the most powerful member of the Mahratta confederacy. His successor, Dowlat Rao Sind hia. was defeated by Wellington at Assave, and at Delhi and Laswari by Lord Lake. After his death in 1827 the state became disorganized, and order was only restored after the battles of Maharajpur and Pennair (1843), in which the British troops were victorious. The state was then constituted subsidiary to the British gov ernment. At that time the subsequent chief, AU Jah Jaiaji Rao Sindhia, was a minor. He was loyal during the mutiny of 1857. In 1877 he was made a G.C.B., and in 1878 was in vested with the Star of India. At his death in 1886 he was succeeded by his son Madho Rao.