House of Holkar
noble family
The Holkars (pronunciation: [ɦo(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 weaken due to internal clashes, the Holkars declared themselves the rulers of Indore in Central India, existing as an autonomous member of the Maratha Confederacy until 1818. Later, their kingdom became a princely state under the British protection.
Usha Devi Holkar, 15th Maharani of Indore, is the current titular head.
Rise of Holkar as Subahdar
The Holkars were of Dhangar Maratha origin.
Malhar Rao Holkar (1694–1766), was born in Murum in Satara district in a Dhangar family and was a Maratha chief serving under Bajirao I, was given the area of Indore to look after by Bajirao I, the Peshwa of Shahu I. In the 1720s, he led Maratha armies in the Malwa region under the Peshwa Bajirao, and in 1733 was granted 9 parganas in the vicinity of Indore by the Peshwas. The township of Indore already existed as an independent principality established by Nandlal Mandloi of Kampel. Nandlal Mandloi was won over by the Maratha forces and he allowed them to camp across the Khan River. In 1734, Malhar Rao established a camp later called Malharganj. In 1747, he began construction of his royal palace, the Rajwada.
“House of Holkar” enters the record as noble family. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what House, Holkar and noble can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q138633. VIAF identifies the subject as 62388809. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1818, 1694, 1766 and 1733.
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This entry incorporates text from “House of Holkar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.