Sugaur

Sagar lies around a lake in the central Indian uplands, among low wooded hills and the country drained by the Sonar River. Its name is commonly connected with the large expanse of water beside the town. A fort and settlement grew here as power in Bundelkhand passed between local chiefs and the Marathas.

Around 1660 Udan Shah built a small fort and founded the nearby village of Parkota. After the district came into the Peshwa’s possession in the eighteenth century, his officer Govind Rao Pandit built a larger fort and developed the settlement beneath its walls. Sagar became a centre of Maratha authority in the surrounding country. In 1818 Peshwa Baji Rao II ceded much of the territory to the British, bringing another change of rulers to the lakeside town.