mpowered his widow, the Baiza Baee, (a daughter of the
notorious Ghatka,) in conformity with a practice sanctioned by the
Hindoo law, to adopt a son and successor for him, after his decease,
from the other branches of the Sindiah family. Her choice fell on a
youth eleven years of age, named Mookt Rao, then in a humble rank of
life, who was eighth in descent from the grandfather of Ranajee; and he
was accordingly installed, June 18, by the title of Jankojee Sindiah, in
the presence of the British Resident and the chiefs of the army,
espousing at the same time a granddaughter of his predecessor. The
regency was left, in pursuance of the last injunctions of Dowlut Rao, in
the hands of the Baiza Baee, whose administration was marked by much
prudence and ability; but the young Maharajah speedily became so
impatient of the state of tutelage in which he found himself retained,
that Lord William Bentinck, then governor-general, found it expedient to
visit Gwalior as a mediator, in December 1832, in order to reconcile him
to the control of his benefactress, in whom the government for life was
considered to have been vested by the will of her late husband.[18] The
remonstrances of the governor-general produced, however, but little
effect. On the 10th of July 1833, a revolt, fomented by the young
prince, broke out among the soldiery, whose pay had imprudently been
suffered to fall into arrear; and the Baiza Baee, after a fruitless
attempt at resistance, was compelled to quit the Gwalior territory. The
British authorities, though they had previously shown themselves
favourable to her cause, declined any direct interference on her behalf;
and after remaining for some time on the frontier with a body of troops
which had continued faithful to her, in the hope of recovering her power
by a counter-revolution, she eventually fixed her residence at Benares,
leaving her ungrateful _protege_ in undisturbed possession of the
government. This was administered in the manner which might have been
expected from a youth suddenly raised from poverty to a throne, and
destitute even of the _modicum_ of education usually bestowed on Hindoos
of rank. The revenues of the state were wasted by the Maharajah in low
debauchery, while the administration was left almost wholly in the hands
of his maternal uncle, who bore the title of Mama-Sahib; but his
influence was far from adequate to repress the feuds of the refractory
nobles, and the mutinies of the turbu