Jagat Singh (1786 – 21 November 1818) was the

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, a ...

of Amber and

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known ...

. He was a son of Pratap Singh, Raja of Jaipur.

Biography

Maharaja Sawai Jagat Singh ascended to the throne of Jaipur on 3 August 1803 at the age of 17. The early years of his reign were comparatively free from

Maratha The Marathi people ( Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as ...

and Mughal inroads but a dispute with

Marwar Marwar (also called Jodhpur region) is a region of western Rajasthan state in North Western India. It lies partly in the Thar Desert. The word 'maru' is Sanskrit for desert. In Rajasthani languages, "wad" means a particular area. English tra ...

(Jodhpur) on a point of honor brought the two states, which had worked closely during Maharaja Pratap Singh's time, into confrontation, which however ended in peace and a matrimonial alliance. An important event at the commencement of his reign was the signing of an offensive and defensive alliance on 12 December, 1803 with the British. This treaty was likely to free Jaipur from Maratha depredations, but after

Lord Wellesley Richard Colley Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, (20 June 1760 – 26 September 1842) was an Anglo-Irish politician and colonial administrator. He was styled as Viscount Wellesley until 1781, when he succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of ...

's departure, it was annulled by the Governor General, George Barlow who was an advocate of the policy of non-interference. As a result of this, territories of the state were depredated by the Maratha's and Amir Khan Pindari till the signing of the historic treaty of 1818 ‘defensive alliance, perpetual friendship, protection and subordinate cooperation’ with the British. Barely nine months later Sawai Jagat Singh died at the young age of 32.

Arts & Culture

Like his father, Sawai Jagat Singh was also a patron of the arts and crafts. He was very much interested in sports as well as in literature. All the Karkhanas that have been thriving for long in Jaipur and came down to him as heritage were bursting with activities. Many Painters prospered in the Suratkhana, a number of paintings depicting Durbar scenes and Zenana Majlis were painted. Painter Sahib Ram painted a life size portrait of him. The latest group of artists, who were the direct descendants of the Ustads (master artists), were trying their best to keep alive the old tradition, despite new equipment entering Jaipur, producing photographs and other modern improvements in the field of drawing and painting.

References

Maharajas of Jaipur 1786 births 1818 deaths {{India-royal-stub