Duleep Singh
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Image:Dalip singh winterhalter.jpg Duleep Singh (Lahore, 6 September 1838 - Paris, 22 October 1893) was the last Maharaja during the Sikh Raj of Punjab. He was the youngest son of the legendary Lion of the Punjab (Maharajah Ranjit Singh) and the Messalina of the Punjab (Maharani Jind Kaur). There are questions about the spelling of his name. Among the possibilities are Dhulip, Dulip, Dhalip, Dhuleep and Dalip but he used Duleep when writing it himself. Official British letters and documents sometimes refer to him as Dalip. Maharajah Duleep Singh, the Maharajah of Lahore and King of the Sikh Empire. He was also known as the Black Prince of Perthshire. He was born on September 6, 1838.
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Early years
The young Duleep Singh came to the throne of Punjab in 1843 succeeding his half-brother, Maharajah Sher Singh. After the close of the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the subsequent annexation of the Punjab in 1849, he was deposed at the age of eleven by the East India Company and separated from his mother. He was put into the care of Dr John Login and sent from Lahore to Fatehgarh on December 21 1849. He handed over the Koh-i-Noor diamond to Queen Victoria as part of the terms of the conclusion of the war and the 250th anniversary of the East India Company on July 3 1850. In 1853 under the tutelage of Bhajan Lal he was converted to Christianity at Fatehgarh with the permission of Lord Dalhousie. He was then sent into exile in England.
Life in exile
London
Duleep Singh's arrival on the shores of England in 1854 threw him into the European court. Queen Victoria showered affection upon the turbaned Maharajah, as did the Prince Consort. Duleep Singh was initially lodged at Claridges Hotel in London before the East India Company took over a house in Wimbledon and then eventually another house in Roehampton which became his home for 3 years. He eventually got bored with Roehampton and expressed a wish to go back to India but it was suggested by the East India Company Board he take a tour of the European continent which he did with Sir John Spencer Login and Lady Login.
Scotland
On his return from Europe in 1855 he was given an annual pension, and was officially under ward of Sir John Spencer Login and Lady Login, who leased Castle Menzies in Perthshire, Scotland for him. He spent the rest of his teens there but at 19 he demanded to be in charge of his household, eventually, he was given this and an increase in his annual pension. In 1858 the lease expired and Duleep Singh rented the house at Auchlyne from the earl of Breadalbane. He was remarkable in the area as the first indian prince to visit Scotland, and soon earned the nickname the "Black Prince of Perthshire". He was known for a lavish lifestyle, extravagant shooting parties, and a love of dressing in highland costume. His mother stayed in Perthshire with him for a short time, before he purchased the Grandtully Estate, near Pitlochry. Following the deaths of his mother and John Login in 1863, he returned to England [1].
Mulgrave Castle
Duleep Singh took on a lease at Mulgrave Castle in Yorkshire in 1858 and enjoyed the English countryside while there.
Elveden Estate
Duleep Singh bought (or was purchased for him by the India Office) a 17,000 acre country estate at Elveden on the Norfolk/ Suffolk border close to Thetford in 1863. He fell in love with Elveden and the area and restored the church, cottages and the school. He transformed the run-down estate into an efficient, game preserve and the house into a semi-oriental palace where he lived the life of a British aristocrat. Duleep Singh racked up massive expenses and this estate was sold after his death to repay his debt.
He died in Paris in 1893 and his body was brough back to be buried in Elveden Church beside the grave of his wife Maharani Bamba, and his son Prince Edward Albert Duleep Singh.
A statue of the Maharajah was officially unveiled by HRH the Prince of Wales in 1999 at Butten Island in Thetford, a town which benefitted from his and his sons generosity.
Family
Duleep Singh's mother, Rani Jindan, was in exile in Nepal and in 1860 he was finally allowed to return to India and he decided to bring his mother back to England. Sadly in 1863 Rani Jind Kaur passed away.
Duleep Singh married twice, once to Bamba Muller and another to an English lady called Ada Douglas Wetherill. He had 8 children in total, 6 from his first marriage to Bamba (Princes Victor, Frederick, and Albert Edward Duleep Singh, and Princesses Bamba, Catherine and Sophia Duleep Singh) and 2 from his second to Ada.
None of his children produced descendants of their own.
Maharani Bamba Muller
Maharani Bamba Muller was an Arabic speaking part Ethiopian, part German girl, her father was a German banker and her mother was an Abysinnian Coptic Christian slave. She and Duleep met in Cairo in 1863 on his return from scattering his mother's ashes in India and married in Alexandria, Egypt on June 7 1864. The maharani passed away in London on September 18 1887.
Ada Douglas Weatherall
Ada Douglas Weaterall and Duleep married in Paris on May 21 1889. They had two children together, one out of wedlock. Princess Alexandra Duleep Singh was born in Moscow on December 26 1887 and Princess Ada Irene Helen Benyl Duleep Singh on October 25 1889.
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Reference
External links
- "Official" Duleep Singh site
- RoyalArk on Punjab's dynasty, includes extensive bios
- Anglo Sikh Heritage Trail
Further reading
- Bance, Peter (Bhupinder Singh Bance). The Duleep Singh's. Sutton Publishing, ISBN 0750934883
- Campbell, Christy. The Maharaja's Box: An Imperial Story of Conspiracy, Love and a Guru's Prophecy. Harper Collins, ISBN 0006530788fr:Dhulîp Singh