Maharaja Suraj Mal

Maharaja of Bharatpur State (1707-1763)

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 districts of the 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, Saharanpur and Rohtak. In addition to the troops stationed at his forts, he had an army of 25,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry when he died. Most of his campaigns were against the Mughal Empire whose authority in North India had weakened heavily due to the constant Maratha raids and conquests. Maharaja Suraj Mal took this opportunity to form the Hindu Jat kingdom with its capital at Bharatpur in Rajasthan. He captured the Mughal garrison of Agra. He removed the Jizya tax on Hindus imposed by the Mughals.