The Malwa Subah was one of the original twelve

Subah A Subah was the term for a province (State) in the Mughal Empire. The word is derived from Arabic and Persian. The governor/ruler of a ''Subah'' was known as a '' subahdar'' (sometimes also referred to as a "''Subeh''"), which later became ''subed ...

s (imperial provinces) of the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

, including

Gondwana Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages ...

, from 1568-1743. Its seat was

Ujjain Ujjain (, Hindustani language, Hindustani pronunciation: Help:IPA/Hindi and Urdu, �d͡ːʒɛːn is a city in Ujjain district of the States and territories of India, Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the fifth-largest city in Madhya Prad ...

. It bordered Berar, Kandesh, Ahmadnagar (Deccan), Gujarat, Ajmer, Agra and Allahabad subahs as well as the independent and tributary chiefdoms in the east.

History

Malwa was earlier an independent sultanate. Its last ruler

Baz Bahadur Bayazid Baz Bahadur Khan was the last Sultan of Malwa Sultanate, who reigned from 1555 to 1562. He succeeded his father, Shuja'at Khan. He is known for his romantic liaison with Roopmati. Baz Bahadur as sultan did not bother to look after his ...

was defeated and its capital Mandu was conquered in 1562 by the

Mughal Emperor The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled t ...

Akbar Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...

’s army led by Abdullah Khan, the Uzbeg. He was appointed its first governor. In 1564 he was replaced by Qara Bahadur Khan. In 1568 it became a subah of Mughal empire. One of its last governors was

Sawai Jai Singh Jai Singh II (3 November 1681 – 21 September 1743) popularly known as Sawai Jai Singh was the 29th Kachwaha Rajput ruler of the Kingdom of Amber, who later founded the fortified city of Jaipur and made it his capital. He was born at Amber, th ...

, who was the governor of the Subah for three times, from 1714-17, from 1729-30 and from 28 September 1732 to 4 August 1737. The Mughal hold on Malwa ended in 1743, when

Peshwa The Peshwa (Pronunciation: e(ː)ʃʋaː was the appointed (later becoming hereditary) prime minister of the Maratha Empire of the Indian subcontinent. Originally, the Peshwas served as subordinates to the Chhatrapati (the Maratha king); later, ...

Balaji Baji Rao Baji Bajirao (8 December 1720 – 23 June 1761), also known as Nana Saheb I, was the 8th Peshwa of the Maratha Confederacy in India. He was appointed as Peshwa in 1740 upon the death of his illustrious father, the Peshwa Bajirao I. During ...

obtained the formal grant of ''Naib-subahdari'' (deputy governorship) of Malwa.

Administrative divisions

Malwa Subah comprised 12 '' sarkars'' (districts): Ujjain, Chanderi, Raisen, Garha Mandla, Sarangpur, Bijagarh, Mandu, Handia, Nandurbar, Mandsaur, Gagron and Kotri-Parava. These ''sarkar''s are further divided into 301 ''

pargana Pargana ( bn, পরগনা, , hi, परगना, ur, پرگنہ) or parganah, also spelt pergunnah during the time of the Sultanate period, Mughal times and British Raj, is a former administrative unit of the Indian subcontinent and each ...

s''. The city of Ujjain was the capital of the subah.Abul Fazl-i-Allami (1949, reprint 1993). ''Ain-i-Akbari'', Vol.II (English tr. by H.S. Jarrett, rev. by J.N. Sarkar), Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, pp.206-31 The ''sarkar''s (districts) and the ''pargana''s (tehsils) of Malwa Subah were:

Mughal Subahdars (Governors) of Malwa (1561 - 1737)

Notes

{{reflist Mughal subahs History of Malwa History of Ujjain 1568 establishments in India

History

Administrative divisions

Mughal Subahdars (Governors) of Malwa (1561 - 1737)

See also

Notes