Bhind

Bhind lies in the country of the Chambal ravines, northeast of Gwalior. The surrounding tract was known as Bhadawar after the Bhadauria Rajput chiefs who ruled it. Their fort at nearby Ater rose above the deep river valleys and contained palaces and gateways as well as defences.

In the seventeenth century the Bhadauria rulers built Ater as a fortified residence. Their territory later became a target of Maratha expansion: in 1736 an army led by Baji Rao attacked the ruler of Bhadawar and devastated his lands. By the early nineteenth century Bhind and its forts were drawn into the settlements between the British and the Scindia rulers of Gwalior. The ravines continued to give the region a distinctive landscape of steep, deeply cut ground.