Nothing is known with certainty as to the history of this district before the period of Chandel rule, about the 11th century of our era. To this epoch must be referred the artificial reservoirs and architectural remains of the hilly region. The Chandels were succeeded by their servants the Khangars, who built the fort of Karar, lying just outside the British border. About the 14th century the Bundelas poured down upon the plains, and gradually spread themselves over the whole region which now bears their name. The Mahommedan governors were constantly making irruptions into the Bundela country; and in 1732 Chhatar Sal, the Bundela chieftain, called in the aid of the Mahrattas. They came to his assistance with their accustomed promptitude, and were rewarded on the raja's death in 1734, by the bequest of one-third of his dominions. Their general founded the city of Jhansi, and peopled it with inhabitants from Orchha state. In 1806 British protection was promised to the Mahratta chief, and in 1817 the peshwa ceded to the East India Company all his rights over Bundelkhand. In 1853 the raja died childless, and his territories lapsed to the British. The Jhansi state and the Jalaun and Chanderi districts were then formed into a superintendency. The widow of the raja considered herself aggrieved because she was not allowed to adopt an heir, and because the slaughter of cattle was permitted in the Jhansi territory. Reports were spread which excited the religious prejudices of the Hindus. The events of 1857 accordingly found Jhansi ripe for mutiny. In June a few men of the 12th native infantry seized the fort containing the treasure and magazine, and massacred the European officers of the garrison. Everywhere the usual anarchic quarrels rose among the rebels, and the country was plundered mercilessly. The rani put herself at the head of the rebels, and died bravely in battle. It was not till November 1858, after a series of sharp contests with various guerilla leaders, that the work of reorganization was fairly set on foot. Entry: JHANSI
Though the two great princes of Central India, Sindhia and Holkar, wisely and fortunately remained true to the British, troops belonging to both of them joined the mutineers. The Gwalior contingent of Sindhia's army mutinied in the middle of June, and on the 1st of July Holkar's troops revolted at Indore, and the resident, Henry Durand, was forced to leave the residency. The rani of Jhansi also rose in rebellion, to become known as "the best man upon the side of the enemy." The rising in this quarter received little attention until January 1858, when Sir Hugh Rose was given the command of two brigades, to act in concert with Sir Colin Campbell, and he immediately began a campaign which for celerity and effectiveness has rarely been equalled in India. His principle was to go straight for the enemy wherever he found him, and pursue him until he had exterminated him. He was hampered by none of that exaggerated respect for the rebels which earned Sir Colin Campbell the nickname of Old Khabardhar (Old Take-Care); but carried to an extreme the policy of audacity. Advancing from Bombay Sir Hugh Rose relieved Saugor on the 3rd of February, after it had been invested by the rebels for upwards of seven months. On the 3rd of March he forced the pass of Madanpur, and took the whole of the enemy's defences in rear, throwing them into panic. On the 21st he began the siege of Jhansi, the stronghold of the mutineers in Central India, with a garrison of 11,000 men. During the course of the siege Tantia Topi, the most capable native leader of the Mutiny, arrived with a fresh force of 20,000 men, and threatened the British camp; but Sir Hugh Rose, with a boldness which only success could justify, divided his force, and while still maintaining the siege of the fort, attacked Tantia Topi with only 1500 men and completely routed him. This victory was won on the 1st of April, and two days later Sir Hugh carried Jhansi by assault. On the 1st of May the battle of Kunch was fought and won in a temperature of 110° in the shade, many of the combatants on both sides being struck down by heat apoplexy. On the 22nd of May the battle of Kalpi was won, though the European troops were hampered by defective ammunition and Sir Hugh himself here received his fifth sunstroke. In five months he had beaten the enemy in thirteen general actions and sieges, and had captured some of the strongest forts in India. News now arrived that the rebel army under Tantia Topi and the rani of Jhansi had attacked Sindhia, whose troops had gone over to the rebels and delivered Gwalior into their hands. Sir Hugh marched against Gwalior at once, captured the Morar cantonments on the 16th of June, and carried the whole of the Gwalior positions by assault on the 19th, thus restoring his state to Sindhia within ten days of taking the field. This was the crowning stroke of the Central India campaign, and practically put an end to the Mutiny, though the work of stamping out its embers went on for many months, and was only completed with the capture and execution of Tantia Topi in April 1859. Entry: INDIAN
KALPI, or CALPEE, a town of British India, in the Jalaun district of the United Provinces, on the right bank of the Jumna, 45 m. S.W. of Cawnpore. Pop. (1901), 10,139. It was founded, according to tradition, by Vasudeva, at the end of the 4th century A.D. In 1196 it fell to Kutab-ud-din, the viceroy of Mahommed Ghori, and during the subsequent Mahommedan period it played a large part in the annals of this part of India. About the middle of the 18th century it passed into the hands of the Mahrattas. It was captured by the British in 1803, and since 1806 has remained in British possession. In May 1858 Sir Hugh Rose (Lord Strathnairn) defeated here a force of about 10,000 rebels under the rani of Jhansi. Kalpi had a mint for copper coinage in the reign of Akbar; and the East India Company made it one of their principal stations for providing the "commercial investment." The old town, which is beside the river, has ruins of a fort, and several temples of interest, while in the neighbourhood are many ancient tombs. There is a lofty modern tower ornamented with representations of the battles of the _Ramayana_. The new town lies away from the river to the south-east. Kalpi is still a centre of local trade (principally in grain, _ghi_ and cotton), with a station on the Indian Midland railway from Jhansi to Cawnpore, which here crosses the Jumna. There are manufactures of sugar and paper. Entry: KALPI
The earliest dynasty recorded to have ruled in Bundelkhand were the Garhwas, who were succeeded by the Parihars; but nothing is known of either. About A.D. 800 the Parihars are said to have been ousted by the Chandels, and Dangha Varma, chief of the Chandel Rajputs, appears to have established the earliest paramount power in Bundelkhand towards the close of the 10th century A.D. Under his dynasty the country attained its greatest splendour in the early part of the 11th century, when its raja, whose dominions extended from the Jumna to the Nerbudda, marched at the head of 36,000 horse and 45,000 foot, with 640 elephants, to oppose the invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni. In 1182 the Chandel dynasty was overthrown by Prithwi Raj, the ruler of Ajmer and Delhi, after which the country remained in ruinous anarchy until the close of the 14th century, when the Bundelas, a spurious offshoot of the Garhwa tribe of Rajputs, established themselves on the right bank of the Jumna. One of these took possession of Orchha by treacherously poisoning its chief. His successor succeeded in further aggrandizing the Bundela state, but he is represented to have been a notorious plunderer, and his character is further stained by the assassination of the celebrated Abul Fazl, the prime minister and historian of Akbar. Jajhar Singh, the third Bundela chief, unsuccessfully revolted against the court of Delhi, and his country became incorporated for a short time with the empire. The struggles of the Bundelas for independence resulted in the withdrawal of the royal troops, and the admission of several petty states as feudatories of the empire on condition of military service. The Bundelas, under Champat Rai and his son. Chhatar Sal, offered a successful resistance to the proselytizing efforts of Aurangzeb. On the occasion of a Mahommedan invasion in 1732, Chhatar Sal asked and obtained the assistance of the Mahratta Peshwa, whom he adopted as his son, giving him a third of his dominions. The Mahrattas gradually extended their influence over Bundelkhand, [v.04 p.0798] and in 1792 the peshwa was acknowledged as the lord paramount of the country. The Mahratta power was, however, on the decline; the flight of the peshwa from his capital to Bassein before the British arms changed the aspect of affairs, and by the treaty concluded between the peshwa and the British government, the districts of Banda and Hamirpur were transferred to the latter. Two chiefs then held the ceded districts, Himmat Bahadur, the leader of the Sanyasis, who promoted the views of the British, and Shamsher, who made common cause with the Mahrattas. In September 1803, the united forces of the English and Himmat Bahadur compelled Shamsher to retreat with his army. In 1809 Ajaigarh was besieged by a British force, and again three years later Kalinjar was besieged and taken after a heavy loss. In 1817, by the treaty of Poona, the British government acquired from the peshwa all his rights, interests and pretensions, feudal, territorial or pecuniary, in Bundelkhand. In carrying out the provisions of the treaty, an assurance was given by the British government that the rights of those interested in the transfer should be scrupulously respected, and the host of petty native principalities in the province is the best proof of the sincerity and good faith with which this clause has been carried out. During the mutiny of 1857, however, many of the chiefs rose against the British, the rani of Jhansi being a notable example. Entry: BUNDELKHAND