Shrimant Daulat Rao Shinde (also Sindhia; 1779 – 21 March 1827) was the Maharaja (ruler) of Gwalior state in central India from 1794 until his death in 1827. His reign coincided with struggles for supremacy within the Maratha Empire, and wars with the expanding East India Company. Daulatrao played a significant role in the Second and Third Anglo-Maratha wars. Ascent of Scindias Daulatrao was a member of the Sindhia dynasty, and succeeded to the Gwalior throne on 12 February 1794 at the age of 15, upon the death of Maharaja Mahadji Shinde (Mahadji left no heir, and Daulatrao was a grandson of his elder brother Tukoji Rao Scindia, who was killed in the Third Battle of Panipat, 7 January 1761). Daulatrao was recognised and formally installed by the Satara Chhatrapati and Peshwa, 3 March 1794, and conferred the titles of Naib Vakil-i-Mutlaq (Deputy Regent of the Empire), Amir-al-Umara (Head of the Amirs) from Emperor Shah Alam II on 10 May 1794. Gwalior state was part of the Maratha Empire, which was founded by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in the 17th century. De facto control of the empire passed from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's successors to the hereditary chief ministers of the Empire, entitled peshwas and the empire expanded greatly in the 18th century at the expense of the Mughal Empire. As the empire expanded, commanders of the Maratha armies were given authority to collect chauth (tribute) in the conquered territories on behalf of the Peshwa. Daulatrao's ancestor Ranoji Sindhia had conquered territories in the Malwa and Gird regions from the Mughals, eventually establishing a state which was initially based at Ujjain, but was named after the strategic fortress of Gwalior. His wife Baiza Bai was a powerful and an intelligent lady of her time. She played an important role in the affairs of the Gwalior state. The Maratha defeat at the Third Battle of Panipat checked the Maratha expansion towards the Northwest, and hastened the decentralization of power in the empire to a 'pentarchy' made up of the five most powerful Maratha dynasties: the Peshwas of Pune, the Sindhias of Gwalior, the Holkars of Indore, the Pawars of Dhar and Dewas, the Bhonsles of Nagpur and the Gaekwads of Baroda. Daulatrao's predecessor Mahadji Shinde had, in the aftermath of Panipat, turned Gwalior into a chief military power of the empire, developing a well-trained modern army under the command of Benoît de Boigne.