Teenager set to inherit maharaja's title and assets

Jaipur Its official. The 13-year-old ‘maharaja' Padmanabh Singh, as the adopted son of the late Maharaja Brig Bhawani Singh of Jaipur has now moved an application in a local court of the Pink City seeking probate and a letter of administration as the legal heir of the late maharaja.

The maharaja, who had no son, adopted his daughter Diya Kumari's eldest son as his own on November 22, 2002, when he was five years old.

The court order, which is a formality, could be issued next month and after that Padmanabh, who is studying at the Mayo College at Ajmer would ‘ascend to the throne' and own all the personal properties and assets of the late maharaja which amounts to millions of rupees.

The teenager could transfer all bank accounts in the name of Bhawani Singh to his own name and could own the majestic City Palace and its various interior properties such as the Chandra Mahala, Shibha Niwas, Sarvatrobhadra, Moto Doongari and Jaigarh fort.

Common practice

The young maharaja stayed with his adopted mother Padmini Devi in the City Palace.

A large number of rulers of the Jaipur state adopted children. Bhawani Singh's father Man Singh was also adopted by Maharaja Madho Singh who had no son.

In India, the principality vanished in two phases. After the Independence all the princely states were merged with the Indian Union and later in 1971 the late Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, propagating socialism, abolished the annual privy purse and stripped all the rajas and maharajas of their titles.

Thus the maharajas and the rajas lost their identities as royalty and were treated as ordinary people. But some of the maharajas, because of their iconic status and the love they received from their former subjects, were still called maharaja out of respect.

The heir apparent of the Jaipur royals is a student of Mayo College. He is bright and has won six colours in his first year at the ‘Eton of the East'.