3-028-623 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Old Palace at Bhurtpore, India, 1870. This '...native State..., under the protection and management of a British Residency, is a territory as large as Yorkshire, with half a million of people, situated west of Agra. Its inhabitants are of the Hindoo race called Jauts, who revolted against the Mohammedan empire of Delhi some thirty years before the British conquests in Bengal; and their Rajahs, [during] the eighteenth century, obtained a considerable share of power. The city...was...large and populous, and, being defended by earthen walls 60 ft. thick, and by a wide and deep ditch, which could be filled from a neighbouring lake, it seemed almost impregnable. In 1805, the ruler of Bhurtpore having taken part with our enemy, Holkar, Prince of the Mahrattahs, this city was besieged by Lord Lake, without success, and with great loss on our side. But it was captured in another war, twenty years afterwards, by an army under Lord Combermere, who undermined the walls. The fortifications have since been allowed to fall into ruin, and the palace is a mere wreck of its former magnificence. The Hindoos regard Bhurtpore as a place under the peculiar favour of their god, Krishna, who is said to have appeared fighting in its defence in the siege of 1805'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.