Indore ) is the largest and most populous city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is consistently ranked as the cleanest city in India. It serves as the headquarters of both the Indore District and the Indore Division. It is also considered as the state education hub and houses campuses of both the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Management. Located on the southern edge of Malwa Plateau, at an average altitude of 553 meters (1,814 ft) above sea level, it has the highest elevation among major cities of Central India. The city is 190 km (120 mi) west of the state capital of Bhopal. It is 57 km (35 mi) from Ujjain and 35 km (20 mi) from Dewas. Indore had a census-estimated 2011 population of 1,994,397 and 3,570,295. The city is distributed over a land area of just 530 square kilometres (200 sq mi), making Indore the most densely populated major city in the central province.

The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian empire and later a confederation that controlled large portions of the Indian Subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of Shivaji of the Bhonsle dynasty as the Chhatrapati. Although Shivaji came from the Maratha caste, the Maratha empire also included warriors, administrators, and other nobles from the Maratha and several other castes from what is known today as Maharashtra. The Maratha Kingdom was expanded into a full-fledged Empire in the 18th Century under the leadership of Peshwa Bajirao I.