623 



SINDIA, FAMILY OF. 



SIRICIUS. 



524 



few months, waa compelled to fly. Sevajee Madhoo, the posthumous 

 son of Narrain Row, waa appointed Paishwa, and Ballajee Pundit, 

 better known as Nana Furnavese, was elected dewan, or minister. 

 The British, on the condition of his ceding to them certain territories, 

 came to the assistance of Ragoba, which occasioned a war between 

 them and the Mahrattas. This war, twice interrupted by treaties 

 which were not completed, continued till 1782, when the treaty of 

 Salbhye was concluded, by which Madhajee Sindia was confirmed in 

 all his possessions, the places taken from him by the British were 

 restored, and he was recognised by them as an independent prince. 



Madhajee Sindia had now time and opportunity to prosecute his 

 plans of aggrandisement. In 1785 he again appeared at Delhi, and by 

 the murder of two of the imperial ministers once more got the emperor 

 into his power; he also conquered Agra and Alyghur, and obtained 

 possession of nearly the whole of the Doab. About this time he 

 engaged in his service a Frenchman, De Boigne, who became of the 

 most essential service to him; for by his assistance he formed an 

 army consisting of troops regularly disciplined, he fought pitched 

 battles, besieged fortresses previously deemed impregnable, gradually 

 subjected raja after raja to contribution, and added district after 

 district to his possession?, till he became master of nearly all the terri- 

 tory south-west from the banks of the Ranges to the Nerbudda. The 

 battle of Meerta, gained by De Boigne in 1790 over the collected forces 

 of Joudpoor, had made Sindia master of that principality as well as of 

 the weaker state of Odeypoor; to these conquests was added soon 

 after that of Jypoor, which was followed in 1792 by the defeat of the 

 troops of Junkajee Holkar, when four corps of regular infantry belong- 

 ing to Holkar's army, which were commanded by a French officer. 

 were almost utterly destroyed. Sindia himself had returned to 

 Poona in 1791, where he died in 1794. 



Madhajee Sindia's life was one of incessant activity ; he was engaged 

 in a series of contests in which he displayed great talent and untiring 

 energy, and by which his power and possessions were gradually 

 extended, consolidated, and confirmed. His habits throughout the 

 whole of his career were those of a plain soldier ; he waa never 

 seduced by luxury, and he despisedj the trappings of state. Though 

 occasionally guilty of violence and oppression, his life was for the 

 most part unstained by cruelty ; his disposition was mild, and he was 

 desirous of improving the countries which he conquered. Towards 

 the British and those states which were unconnected with the 

 Mahratta government he conducted himself as an independent prince, 

 but in matters relating to the Paishwa he paid the most scrupulous 

 attention to all the forms of humility, of which (as related by Sir John 

 Malcolm) he made a curious display when Sevajee Madhoo Row, at 

 the termination of his minority in 1791, entered upon the duties of 

 his office, and Sindia came to Poona to pay his respects to him. 



Madhajee Sindia had no sons. His brother Tukajee had three, of 

 whom the youngest, Anund Row, became the favourite of his uncle, 

 who adopted Dowlut Row Sindia, the son of Anund Row, as his heir. 



DOWLUT Row SINDIA, at the death of his grand-uncle, was only 

 thirteen years of age. He was opposed by the widows of Madhajee, 

 who set up another prince in opposition to him, and he was not 

 established in his power till after several battles had been fought. 

 He married, soon after his accession, the daughter of Sirjee Row 

 Gatkia, an artful and wicked man, who became his minister, to whom 

 is doubtless to be ascribed much of the rapacity and cruelty which 

 marked the early part of Dowlut Row's reign. The seizure and im- 

 prisonment of Nana Furnavese, the murder of several Brahmins, the 

 plundering of Poona and the neighbouring places under pretence of 

 paying the expenses of his marriage, and the aiding of Casee Row 

 Holkar in the^murder of his brother Mulhar Row, are among his early 

 atrocities ; in addition to which it should be mentioned, that when 

 Sirjee Row Gatkia defeated Jeswunt Row Holkar in 1801, he plundered 

 the city of Indore, set fire to the best houses, and murdered many of 

 the inhabitants; in 1802 however Holkar defeated Sindia, and re- 

 established himself in Malwa. But the interference of the British 

 at length put a stop to his career of spoliation and bloodshed. The 

 Paishwa Bajerow, having been defeated by Jeswunt Row 'Holkar in 

 1802, fled to Basseiu, and placed himself under the protection of the 

 British, by a treaty, the chief conditions of which were, that he 

 should cede to them the island of Salsette, and they should restore 

 him to the office of Paishwa. 



After many fruitless negociations with Sindia and the Raja of Berar, 

 the British resident left the court of Sindia, August 3, 1803, and war 

 was commenced on the 8th by an attack on the fortress of Ahmed- 

 nuggur by Major-General Wellesley, which he soon took, and followed 

 up on the 25th of September 1803, by the battle of Assaye, when he 

 gained a complete victory over the confederated forces of Sindia and 

 the Raja of Berar, which were under the command of the French 

 general Pdron, and greatly more numerous than his own. In Hindus- 

 tan Proper, General Lake, on the 29th of August 1803, defeated 

 Sindia's forces in the Doab, took the strong fort of Alyghur, [and 

 afterwards the cities of Delhi and Agra. In the short period of five 

 months was included a series of the most brilliant and decisive 

 victories ; the battles of Delhi and Laswaree, of Assaye and Argbauin, 

 the reduction of the strong forts of Ahmednuggur, Alyghur, Agra, 

 Gwalior, Asserghur, and Cuttack, besides a number of inferior con- 

 quests. The two Mahratta chiefs were compelled to sue for peace 



separately. Sindia's brigades, which had been trained under De 

 Boigne and Pe"ron, and which amounted to at least 40,000 well-dis- 

 ciplined infantry, were destroyed; 500 guns, cast in the foundries 

 which Madhajee had established, were taken; and by the treaty of 

 December 1803 he was compelled to cede to the British the Upper 

 Doab, Delhi, Agra, Saharunpoor, Meerut, Alyghur, Etawah, Cuttack, 

 Balasore, the fort and territory of Baroach, &c., amounting altogether 

 to more than 50,000 square miles. By a treaty of defensive alliance, 

 February 27, 1804, he engaged to receive a British auxiliary force in 

 those dominions which he was suffered to retain, which were still large, 

 and which were considerably increased, after the subjugation of Holkar, 

 by the territory of Gohud and the strong fort of Gwalior, whicli were 

 given up to him by the treaty of Muttra, November 23, 1805, one of 

 the conditions of which treaty was, that his father-in-law Sirjee Row 

 Gatkia should be for ever excluded from his councils. 



Dowlut Row Sindia, though he retained for a considerable time no 

 friendly feeling towards his British allies, by whom he had been so 

 severely humbled, never again ventured into a direct contest with 

 them ; and after he was freed from the influence of his father-in-law, 

 he became by degrees better disposed towards them ; so that in the 

 war of 1818, by which the Mahratta power was entirely destroyed, 

 he prudently kept aloof, though the Paishwa urgently called upon 

 him for his assistance. The consequence was that he retained hi* 

 territories, and continued on friendly terms with the British till his 

 death, which took place March 21, 1827. He left an army of about 

 14,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and 250 pieces of ordnance, with 

 territories worth about 1,250,000?. per annum. 



(Malcolm, Political History of India ; Malcolm, Central India ; Mill, 

 British India,) 



SINGLETON, HENRY, was born in London, 1766. His father 

 died while he was an infant, and he was brought up by an uncle, 

 William Singleton, a miniature-painter, who gave him instruction in 

 drawing : the etchings of Mortimer also were favourite studies with 

 him. At , the age of eighteen he obtained the first silver medal for 

 drawing in the Royal Academy ; and in 1788 he obtained the gold 

 medal for the best historical painting : the subject was Dryden's ' Ode 

 on Alexander's Feast.' 



Singleton painted portrait and history. The first remarkable 

 picture which he produced was a large portrait piece of all the 

 Academicians assembled in the Council Chamber ; this picture was 

 painted in 1793. Singleton was for more than half a century a 

 constant exhibitor in the Royal Academy, and he exhibited many 

 attractive pictures, both portraits and historical pieces, but it was not 

 until 1807 that he put down his name as a candidate for the honours 

 of the academy ; he was however passed over, and he did not make a 

 second attempt. 



Singleton was versatile and ready in invention, though his style of 

 drawing was uniform ; and both his pictures and his designs are 

 very numerous; he was much employed by publishers. West has 

 been heard to say "Propose to Singleton a subject, and it will be on 

 canvas in five or six hours." The range of his works is very great, and 

 comprises figure-pieces of almost every class; many of them have 

 been engraved, and some on a large scale. Among his best works 

 are Christ entering Jerusalem ; Christ healing the Blind ; John 

 Baptizing; Coriolanus and his Mother ; and Hannibal swearing enmity 

 to the Romans ; the Storming of Seringapatam ; the Death of Tippoo 

 Saib ; and the Surrender of Tippoo's Sons ; of all of which there are 

 engravings of a large size. In his later years he was almost wholly 

 employed upon an extensive series of illustrations from Shakspere, 

 which are his principal works : the series includes several designs from 

 each play, and many of them appear to be taken from, the favourite 

 dramatic representations of Shakspere which in Singleton's time were 

 so abundant. He died on the 15th of September, 1839. 



SIRI, VITTO'RIO, born at Parma in 1625, became a priest, and 

 afterwards went to Paris, where he found favour with Louis XIV., 

 who appointed him his almoner and historiographer." Siri wrote a 

 journal in Italian, entitled ' Mercurio Politico,' which he continued for 

 many years, and as Louis acted for a long period the principal part on 

 the political stage of Europe, he was flattered at having by him a 

 writer who contributed to spread his fame in a foreign language. Siri 

 however was not a fulsome flatterer, and although he often praised 

 Louis, he did not always spare his ministers and other powerful men 

 of that and the preceding reign ; and this freedom passed unheeded 

 chiefly from the circumstance of his writing in a language foreign to 

 France, and which was not understood by the people in general. 

 Besides the 'Mercurio Politico,' the collection of which consists of 

 fifteen thick volumes, Siri wrote another journal, entitled ' Memorie 

 Recondite,' which fills eight volumes. Lo Clerc (' Bibliotheque 

 Choisie,' vol. iv., p. 138) observes that both these works contain a vast 

 number of valuable authentic documents. The general style of the 

 writer is however prolix and heavy. Siri died at Paris in 1685. (Cor- 

 niani, Secoli della Letteratura Italiana.) 



SIRI'CIUS, a native of Rome, succeeded Damasus I., as bishop of 

 that city, A.D. 384, under the reign of Valentiuian II. We have 

 several letters by him written to various churches on matters both of 

 dogma and of discipline. Some of them are in condemnation of the 

 Priscilliamsts, Donatists, and other heretics ; one is directed to Any- 

 cius, bishop of Thessalonica, on matters of jurisdiction; another to 



