Singh, 80, died of multiple organ failure at a private hospital in Gurgaon. He is survived by his wife, Maharani Padmini Devi, and daughter Diya Kumari.
Thousands of people poured into the courtyard of a sprawling palace in Jaipur on Sunday to pay their last respects to Brigadier Sawai Bhawani Singh, the city’s last titular maharaja.
Singh, 80, died of multiple organ failure at a private hospital in Gurgaon. He is survived by his wife, Maharani Padmini Devi, and daughter Diya Kumari.
Maharaja Sawai Bhawani Singh ascended the throne in 1970 following the death of his father Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II. He remained maharaja until the abolition of royal titles in 1971.
Singh, the eldest son of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II of Jaipur, was born on October 22, 1931. He studied at Sheshnag in Kashmir, Doon School in Dehradun and at Harrow School in Britain. He married Kumari Padmini Devi, princess of Sirmur, on March 10, 1967.
In 1951, Singh was commissioned into the Indian Army. His grit and ability to lead from the front won him the Mahavir Chakra, the second highest gallantry award in the army. He played a significant role in the 1971 war with Pakistan.
During the war, he commanded 10 Parachute (Special Forces) as a Lt Col and made skillful and relentless raids on strongly held enemy posts at Chachro and Virawah.
In his memoirs, Ganesh Narayan Vyas, deputy secretary, home, during the ‘71 war described how Singh planned an attack on the enemy in the middle of the night.
During one raid, Singh directed his subordinates to remove silencers from army Jongas and made them run in one row, with their headlights blazing.
The roaring noise of the engines and the headlights on the meandering roads made the enemy believe a big force led by tanks was heading towards them. This led to panic and they retreated, recalled Vyas.
Bhawani Singh also trained the “Mukti Bahini”, a rebel army in Bangladesh, before the 1971 war with Pakistan. He voluntarily retired from the Army in 1974.
When the Indian Army was in action in Sri Lanka in the 1980s, Singh went there at the request of then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to boost the morale of the soldiers. For this, the president of India bestowed upon him the rank of Brigadier for life. Singh served as the first resident high commissioner to Brunei from July 1993 to January 1997.
Singh, known as Bubbles within the family, had a keen interest in polo. In November 2002, he adopted his grandson, Kumar Padmanabh Singh, princess Diya Kumari’s son, as his heir.
He contested only one Lok Sabha election (1989) on a Congress ticket, but lost to BJP’s Girdhari Lal Bhargav.
His funeral procession will start at 11am on Monday from Jaipur’s City Palace and proceed to Gaitor Cenotaph in Amber for the last rites.
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