Kampel is a panchayat village in the Indore block of the

Indore district Indore District () is a List of districts of Madhya Pradesh, district of Madhya Pradesh state in central India. It is believed that the city is named after its Indreshwar Mahadev Temple, Where Indra is the presiding deity as Indra+Oor. The Gu ...

, Madhya Pradesh, India. It was the headquarters of a

pargana Pargana or parganah, also spelt pergunnah, equivalent to Mohallah as a subunit of Subah (Suba), was a type of former administrative division in the Indian subcontinent during the time of the Delhi Sultanate, Mughal and British Colonial empire ...

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

before the administrative center of the region was shifted to

Indore Indore (; ISO 15919, ISO: , ) is the largest and most populous Cities in India, city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The commercial capital of the state, it has been declared as the List of cleanest cities in India, cleanest city of In ...

city under the

Holkar The Holkars (pronunciation: �o(ː)ɭkəɾ were the ruling house of the Indore State of the Maratha Confederacy, and earlier held the rank of Subahdar under Peshwa Baji Rao I of the Maratha Empire. When the Maratha Confederacy began to we ...

s of the

Maratha Empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Ma ...

History

During the

Mughal era The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of pre ...

, the area under the modern Indore district was equally divided between the administrations ('' sarkar''s) of

Ujjain Ujjain (, , old name Avantika, ) or Ujjayinī is a city in Ujjain district of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the fifth-largest city in Madhya Pradesh by population and is the administrative as well as religious centre of Ujjain ...

and

Mandu Mandu may refer to: Geographic toponyms * Mandu River, a river in Minas Gerais, Brazil * Mandu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, a village * Mandu, Madhya Pradesh, a ruined city in Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh, India * Mandu, Jharkhand, ...

. Kampel was the headquarters of a ''mahal'' (administrative unit) under the Ujjain ''sarkar'' of

Malwa Subah The Malwa Subah () was one of the original twelve Subahs (provinces) of the Mughal Empire, including Gondwana, from 1568–1743. Its seat was Ujjain. It shared borders with the autonomous and tributary chiefdoms in the east, as well as Ber ...

(province). The area of the modern Indore city was included in the Kampel

(administrative unit). In 1715, the

Marathas The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Ma ...

invaded this region (Mughal territory) and demanded

chauth Chauth (from ) was a regular tax or tribute imposed from the early 18th century by the Maratha Empire in the Indian subcontinent. It was an annual tax nominally levied at 25% on revenue or produce, hence the name, on lands that were under nominal M ...

(tax) from the Mughal ''Amil'' (administrator) of Kampel. The Amil fled to

, and the local

zamindar A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the ...

s agreed to pay Chauth to the Marathas. The chief zamindar, Nandlal Chaudhury (later known as Nandlal Mandloi), paid a chauth of around Rs. 25,000 to the Marathas.

Jai Singh II Sawai Jai Singh II (3 November 1688 – 21 September 1743), was the 30th Kachwaha Rajput ruler of the Kingdom of Amber, who later founded the fortified city of Jaipur and made it his capital. He became the ruler of Amber at the age of 11, after ...

, the Mughal Governor of Malwa, reached Kampel on 8 May 1715, and defeated the Marathas in a battle near the village. The Marathas came back in early 1716, and raided Kampel in 1717. In March 1718, the Marathas, led by Santaji Bhonsale, invaded Malwa again, but were unsuccessful this time. By 1720, the headquarters of the local pargana were transferred from Kampel to Indore, due to the increasing commercial activity in the city. In 1724, the Marathas under the new

Peshwa The Peshwa was the second highest office in the Maratha Empire, next in rank and prestige only to that of the Chhatrapati. Initially serving as the appointed prime minister in the Maratha Kingdom, the office became hereditary when Shahu gave t ...

Baji Rao I Bajirao I (né Visaji, ; 18 August 1700 – 28 April 1740) was the 7th Peshwa of the Maratha Empire. He was appointed Peshwa at the age of nineteen by Shahu I, following the death of his father, Balaji Vishwanath. He is credited with establi ...

, launched a fresh attack on the Mughals in Malwa. Baji Rao I himself led the campaign, accompanied by his lieutenants Udaji Rao Pawar,

Malhar Rao Holkar Malhar Rao Holkar (16 March 1693 – 20 May 1766) was a noble subedar of the Maratha Empire, in present-day India. He was one of the early officers along with Ranoji Scindia, appointed by Peshwa Bajirao I to help spread the Maratha rule to nort ...

and

Ranoji Scindia Ranoji Scindia or Ranoji Shinde was a Maratha army commander and the founder of the House of Scindia, Shinde clan, who served the Peshwa, Peshwas of the Maratha Empire in several military campaigns. The Scindia dynasty rose to prominence in the ...

. The Mughal

Nizam Nizam of Hyderabad was the title of the ruler of Hyderabad State ( part of the Indian state of Telangana, and the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka). ''Nizam'' is a shortened form of (; ), and was the title bestowed upon Asaf Jah I ...

met the

at Nalchha on 18 May 1724, and acceded to his demand of collecting chauth from the area. The Peshwa returned to the

Deccan The Deccan is a plateau extending over an area of and occupies the majority of the Indian peninsula. It stretches from the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges in the north to the northern fringes of Tamil Nadu in the south. It is bound by the mount ...

, but left

at Indore to oversee the chauth collection. The Marathas maintained friendly relations with Nandlal Chaudhary, who held influence over the local

Sardar Sardar, also spelled as Sardaar (, , 'commander', literally 'headmaster'), is a title of royal family, royalty and nobility that was originally used to denote princes, noblemen, chiefs, kings and other Aristocracy (class), aristocrats. It ha ...

s (chiefs). In 1728, they defeated the Mughals decisively at

Amjhera Amjhira is a village in the Bhopal district of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is located in the Huzur tehsil and the Phanda block Block or blocked may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Block programming, the result of a prog ...

, and consolidated their authority in the area over the next few years. On 3 October 1730,

was appointed as the Maratha chief of

Malwa Malwa () is a historical region, historical list of regions in India, region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic plateau, volcanic upland north of the ...

. The local zamindars, who had the title of Chaudhari, came to be known as ''Mandloi''s (after

mandal A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administrative c ...

, an administrative unit) during the Maratha reign. The

dynasty of the Marathas, which controlled the region, conferred the title of ''Rao Raja'' upon the local zamindar family.Major General Sir John Malcolm, ''Central India, Part I'', pp. 68–70 After Nandlal died, his son Tejkarana was accepted as the ''Mandloi'' of Kampel by the

. The pargana was formally granted to

by merging 28 and one-half Pargana by the Peshwa in 1733. The pargana headquarters were transferred back to Kampel during his reign. After his death, his daughter-in-law

Ahilyabai Holkar Ahilyabai Holkar (; 31 May 1725 – 13 August 1795), also spelled Ahalya Bai, was the Rajamata and later the ruling queen of Indore within the Maratha Empire. She established Maheshwar (in Madhya Pradesh) as the seat of the Holkar Dynasty. ...

moved the headquarters to Indore in 1766. The

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...

of Kampel was converted into Indore tehsil by a change in the name.

moved the state's capital to

Maheshwar Maheshwar is a town, near Khargone city in Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh state, in central India. It is located on State Highway-38 ( Khargone city- Barwaha- Bandheri Highway),13.5 km east of National Highway 3 (Agra-Mumbai highway ...

in 1767, but Indore remained an important commercial and military center.

References

{{reflist Villages in Indore district

History

See also

References