CHAPTER XII
CENTRAL INDIA—AGRA

INDUR

INDUR, the capital of Holkar's widely scattered
dominions, which was the next scene of mutiny
and massacre, is 400 miles south of Agra and 40 miles
north of the Narbada River. Holkar, the Maharajah
and ruler of a million people, scattered over 8000
square miles much broken up by intervening States,
was twenty-one years of age. He had enjoyed the
inestimable advantage of a mental training under
Colonel Sir Robert Hamilton, who had done all that
was possible to improve the mind and capacity of a
weak character. The youth, though by no means
heroic, was at heart loyal to the rulers of India.

Sir Robert Hamilton was in England when the
signs of unrest in the Bengal arm^ appeared, and his
place had been taken on April 5 by Colonel Durand,
whose character in some respects resembled that of
Outram. Unfortunately there was no time for him to
understand the workings of the young Maharajah's
mind ere his troops, gradually getting beyond what had
always been a loose control, broke out in mutiny and
rebellion. On May 14, Durand, hearing the Meerut May
news, took steps to isolate by pickets of Holkar's ^^57
troops, the trained  Regulars   at  Mau, a cantonment

12    miles   distant,   from   the   Contingents   of   the

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