Maharaja Sir Ishwari Prasad Narayan Singh

His Highness Highness (abbreviation HH, oral address Your Highness) is a formal style (manner of address), style used to address (in grammatical person, second person) or refer to (in grammatical person, third person) certain members of a reigning or formerl ...

Maharaja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, an ...

Bahadur

Sri Shri (; , ) is a Sanskrit term denoting resplendence, wealth and prosperity, primarily used as an honorific. The word is widely used in South and Southeast Asian languages such as Marathi, Malay (including Indonesian and Malaysian), Javanese, ...

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

Ishwari Prasad Narayan Singh,

GCSI The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes: # Knight Grand Commander (GCSI) # Knight Commander ( KCSI) # Companion ( CSI) No appointments ...

(1822-13 June 1889) was the Maharaja of Benares. He ascended the throne at the age of 13. During the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the fo ...

, he remained neutral for the sake of his people, as he has not forgotten the treachery of his countrymen in the battle against Hastings. As a reward, he was promoted to the rank of ''Maharaja Bahadur'' in 1859. In 1867, he was granted a personal 13-gun salute; a decade later he was knighted with the GCSI, becoming Sir Ishwari. He eventually became a member of the Viceroy's Legislative Council, and in the crowning achievement of his reign, he restored all the family lands that had been lost for over a century. He was a great poet-scholar and established Sanskrit College in

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

(now known as Sapoornaand Sanskrit University). He was the mentor of Babu ' Bhartendu' Harischandra, the father of modern Hindi. He was a saint-King, and his name is mentioned in Naveen-Bhaktamaal along with the eminent saints of the nineteenth century. He was a disciple of Dev Swami and Shyamacharan Lahiri Mahashy. He was very popular among his people, who kept small earthen busts of him in their homes. He was a great patron of Art, Music and Literature. He was also the chief patron of Gulabi Minakari work and company school miniature painting style (Benares school), which saw a steep decline after his death. He started the first Hindi Theater and the Benares School of Art, thus he is called 'The Second Jahangir'. He was given the title of His Highness in 1889. HH Maharaja Sir Ishwari Prasad Narayan Singh died several months later at the age of 67, and was succeeded by his adopted son, Prabhu Narayan Singh Sahib Bahadur.

References

{{S-end Narayan dynasty Maharajas of Benares 1822 births 1889 deaths