The Last of the Maharajahs
Nope. Not another Andy Edwards post. This is by the lady who sculpted the Fine Lady’s horse — Denise Dutton — and she’s done some nice civic sculpture herself.
The subject is interesting. It’s Duleep (or Dalip) Singh (1838–1893), the last Maharajah of the Sikh Empire. He came to the throne when he was five (or seven; the internets differ), after his father and brothers were killed during the first Anglo-Sikh War. He wasn’t there long before the British annexed the Punjab and sent him to live in England.
He Anglicized. He met Queen Victoria (who sounded smitten with him — bit of a horndog, our Vicky). He converted to Christianity. He was given an allowance and a series of castles to live in and took to typical English gentleman stuff, like hunting and horses and spending way more money than he could afford.
Toward the end of his life, he started to stew about his lost throne, reconverted to Sikhism and threw in his lot with some shady Irish and Russkies hoping for revolution, but it didn’t come to anything. Not for Duleep, anyway.
A short summary of an interesting life. Worth poking around Google or one of them library thingummies.
Good weekend, all!
Posted: January 6th, 2017 under art, britain, personal.
Comments: 5
Comments
Comment from dissent555
Time: January 7, 2017, 5:44 am
So, Singhing in the Reign, then.
I get it, I get it.
Comment from Some Vegetable
Time: January 7, 2017, 5:17 pm
And now for something entirely different:
Comment from Ric Fan
Time: January 7, 2017, 5:37 pm
Is he wearing pants?
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: January 7, 2017, 9:51 pm
This reminds me of my favorite tongue-twister.
I’ll just leave this here…
The sixth Sikh sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.
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