Malvi

The Malvi are the people of the Malwa plateau, volcanic upland north of the Vindhya Range in west-central India, whose ancient centre Ujjain was capital of the old Avanti kingdom. Their language is an Indo-Aryan tongue of the Rajasthani group, now written in Devanagari and formerly in the Mahajani script.

In 1401 Delhi governor Dilawar Khan Ghuri made Malwa independent, with Mandu his capital; his Ghurid line was replaced in 1436 by the Khalji sultans under Mahmud Shah, who carried Malwa's arms into Gujarat and the Deccan. Rana Sanga of Mewar overran much of the sultanate in 1519, Bahadur Shah of Gujarat stormed Mandu in 1531, and in 1562 Akbar annexed Malwa as a Mughal subah.

As Mughal power faded after 1700 the Marathas moved in: Malhar Rao Holkar received most of the region from the Peshwa in 1733, Ranoji Scindia making Ujjain his seat. The Holkars ruled from Indore until the Third Anglo-Maratha War of 1818 made their state a British princely state.