Suraj Mal

Maharaja Suraj Mal (13 February 1707 – 25 December 1763) or Sujan Singh, was a Hindu Jat ruler of Bharatpur in Rajasthan, India. Under him, the Jat rule covered the present-day national capital Delhi and districts of Agra, Aligarh, Alwar, Bharatpur, Bulandshahr, Dholpur, Etah, Etawa, Faridabad, Firozabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Hathras, Jhajjar, Kanpur, Mainpuri, Mathura, Mewat, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Palwal, Rewari, and Rohtak.

A contemporary historian had described him as "the Plato of the Jat tribe" and by a modern writer as the "Jat Odysseus", because of his "political sagacity, steady intellect and clear vision". The Jats, under Suraj Mal, overran the Mughal garrison at Agra. Suraj Mal was killed in an ambush by the Rohilla troops on the night of 25 December 1763 near Hindon River, Shahadra, Delhi. In addition to the troops stationed at his forts, he had an army of 25,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry when he died.

Quotes

• “You profess to be a Hindu; but how is that you have kept this mosque standing so long?” said the Bhao
  “Maharaj! Of late, the Royal fortune of Hindustan has become fickle in her favour like a courtesan; to-night she is in the arms of one man and next in the embrace of another. If I could be sure that I should remain master of these territories all through my life, I would have leveled this mosque down to the earth. But of what use will it be, if I to-day destroy this mosque, and tomorrow the Musalmans come, and demolish the great temples and build four mosques in place of one? As your Excellency has come to these parts the affair is now in your hands.”
  • Suraj Mal; Attributed, K.R. Qanungo, History of the Jats, Ed Dr Vir Singh, Delhi, 2003, p. 73

Quotes about Suraj Mal

• What, have I come from the south relying on your strength? I will do what I like. You may stay here or go back to your own place. After overthrowing the Abdali, I shall come to reckoning with you.
  • The Bhao to Suraj Mal, in a conversation that ended the Jat-Maratha alliance; Attributed. K.R. Qanungo, History of the Jats, Ed Dr Vir Singh, Delhi, 2003, p. 78

• The hero of the Jats in the eighteenth century was a rude warrior named Suraj Mai. The exploits of this semi barbarous chieftain resemble those of Shivaji.
  • A Short History Of India And Of The Frontier States Of Afghanistan, Nepal And Burma" [1]

• [Suraj Mal concluded a peace treaty with the Mir Bakshi Salabat Jang in 1750, whereby latter promised:] ( a ) not to cut down pipal trees nor hinder the worship of that tree ; ( b ) not to offer any insult or injury to Hindu temples.
  • Rise of the Jat Power, Raj Pal Singh, also in Jain, M. (2010). Parallel pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim relations, 1707-1857.

• “Ahmad Shah Abdali in the year AH 1171 (AD 1757-58), came from the country of Kandahar to Hindastan, and on the 7th of Jumadal awwal of that year, had an interview with the Emperor ‘Ãlamgir II, at the palace of Shah-Jahanabad… After an interval of a month, he set out to coerce Raja Suraj Mal Jat, who from a distant period, had extended his sway over the province of Ãgra, as far as the environs of the city of Delhi. In three days he captured Balamgarh, situated at a distance of fifteen kos from Delhi… After causing a general massacre of the garrison he hastened towards Mathura, and having razed that ancient sanctuary of the Hindus to the ground, made all the idolaters fall a prey to his relentless sword…”
  • Ahmed Shah Durrani in Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), Tarikh-i-Ibrahim Khan in Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own historians, Vol. VIII, pp. 264-65. , in Hindu Temples, vol 2