SCINDIA, DAULAT RĀO (1780-1827), Marāṭhā chief of Gwālīor, who in the closing decades of the eighteenth century succeeded in becoming viceregent of the shrunken Mughal empire. He held in his power the blind titular emperor Shāh Ālam, whom he had rescued from the clutches of the Ruhīlās, and ruled in his name through his deputies Comte de Boigne and Pierre Cuillier Perron, who commanded large Marāṭhā armies. Daulat Rāo established Marāṭhā supremacy in Delhi and Āgrā and in the trans-Jamunā region, but, unlike his predecessor Mahādjī Scindia, who in 1788 had come to an understanding with the Sikhs, he wanted to curb their power. In 180l, the cis-Sutlej Sikh chiefs of Paṭiālā, Nābhā, Jīnd, Kaithal, Lāḍvā and Thānesar approached his all-powerful deputy Perron, to afford them protection against the ravages of George Thomas, the Irish adventurer, who, after a short period of employment under Appā Khaṇḍe Rāo, had carved out the independent kingdom of Hāṅsī. A Marāṭhā force 12,000 strong, marched under Louis Bourquien, expelled Thomas from the Mālvā region and liquidated his tiny principality, but Perron subjected the Sikh chiefs to heavy exactions and tributes.

        Daulat Rāo's influence over the cis-Sutlej region was, however, short-lived. In September 1803, he was defeated by the English at Delhi and in November at Lāsvārī. He ceded to the British the districts of Delhi, Gurgaon, Rohtak, Hissār and Āgrā. The Marāṭhās thus lost their influence in northern India.

        Daulat Rāo Scindia died on 21 March 1827.