Sindhia

The Sindhia family were the Maratha ruling family of Gwalior, a former princely state in north-central India. The dynasty was founded by Ranoji Sindhia, who the Maratha Peshwa, or chief minister, put in charge of the Maratha conquests in Malwa in 1726. Ranoji established his capital at Ujjain before his death in 1750; later, his successor Daulat Rao Sindhia moved the Sindhia capital to Gwalior. The Sindhia state of Gwalior became a major regional power in the latter half of the eighteenth century; they figured prominently in the three Anglo-Maratha Wars, held sway over many of the Rajput states, and conquered the state of Amber. After the defeat of the allied Maratha states by the British in the Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1818, the Sindhia were forced to accept local autonomy as a princely state within the British Raj and to give up Amber to the British. The Sindhia family ruled Gwalior until India's independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, when the Sindhia Maharaja acceded to India, and Gwalior was merged with a number of other princely states to become the new Indian state of Madhya Bharat in 1950.