The word
Mahārāja (also spelled
maharajah) is
Sanskrit for "great king" or "
high king" (a
karmadharaya from
mahānt "great" and
rājan "king"). Due to Sanskrit's major influence on the vocabulary of most languages in
India and
Asia, the term 'maharaja' is common to many modern languages, such as
Oriya,
Punjabi,
Bengali,
Hindi,
Gujrati, etc. Its use is primarily for
Hindu potentates (ruler or sovereign). The female equivalent title
Maharani (or
Maharanee) denotes either the wife of a Mahārāja or, in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The
widow of a maharajah is known as a
Rajmata. The term
Maharaj denotes separate noble and religious offices, although the fact that in Hindi the suffix 'a' in Maharaja is silent makes the two titles near homophones.
Indian subcontinent
Maharaja as a ruler's title
On the eve of independence in
1947,
India (including present day
Pakistan) contained more than 600
princely states, each with its own ruler, often styled
Raja or
Thakur (if the ruler were
Hindu) or
Nawab (if he were
Muslim), with a host of less current titles as well.
His Highness Sri Padmanabha Dasa Vanchi Pala Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma
Dharma Raja Kulasekhara Kiritapati Manney Sultan Maharajah Raja Rama Raja Bahadur Shamsher Jang, the Maharajah of
Travancore(1758–1798)
The
British directly ruled two thirds of India; the rest was under
indirect rule by the above-mentioned princes under the considerable influence of British representatives, such as
Residents, at their courts.
The word Maharaja may be understood simply to mean "king" (as in
Jammu and Kashmir), in spite of its literal translation as "great king". This was because only a handful of the states were truly powerful and wealthy enough for their rulers to be considered 'great' monarchs; the remaining were minor
princely states, sometimes little more than towns or groups of villages. The word, however, can also mean emperor in contemporary Indian usage.
The title of Maharaja was not as common before the gradual British colonization of India, upon and after which many Rajas and otherwise styled Hindu rulers were elevated to Maharajas, regardless of the fact that scores of these new Maharajas ruled small states, sometimes for some reason unrelated to the eminence of the state, for example support in
World War I or
World War II. Two Rajas who became Maharajas in the twentieth century were the Maharaja of
Cochin and the legendary
Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of
Kapurthala.
- "Maharajah" has taken on new spellings due to time change and migration. It has even been shortened to "Mahraj" and "Maraj" but the most common is, of course, "Maharajah" and "Maharaj."
- Despite its literal meaning, unlike many other titles meaning Great King, neither Maharaja nor Rajadhiraja ('King of Kings'), nor even its equivalent amongst Maharajas, 'Maharajadhiraja', ever reached the standing required for imperial rank, as each was soon the object of title inflation. Instead, the only Hindu title which is commonly rendered as Emperor is Samraat or Samraj(a), a personal distinction achieved by a few rulers of ancient dynasties such as the Mauryas and Guptas; the Muslim equivalent of emperor would be Padshah, applied to the Mughal dynasty.
Salute states in present India
The
gun salutes (crucial in protocolary respect) enjoyed by the
princely states that acceded to the Dominion of India on 14 August 1947, included more Maharajas than any other title, and in most of the classes, though predominantly in the higher ones:
- Hereditary salutes of 21-guns:
- *H.H. the Maharaja (title of most major Hindu princes) of Mysore
- *H.H. the Maharaja Gaekwad of Baroda (in certain states it became customary to add a unique word to the princely title, not indicating a rank but rather the dynasty or its past) of now Vadodara
- Hereditary salutes of 19-guns (21-guns local):
- Hereditary salutes of 19-guns:
- Hereditary salutes of 17-guns (19-guns personal):
- *H.H. the Maharaja of Kotah
- Hereditary salutes of 17-guns (19-guns local):
- Hereditary salutes of 17-guns:
- *H.H. the Maharaja of Rewa
- Hereditary salutes of 15-guns (17-guns local):
- *H.H. the Maharaja of Alwar
- Hereditary salutes of 15-guns (17-guns personal):
- Hereditary salutes of 15-guns:
- *H.H. the Maharaja of Datia
- *H.H. the Maharaja of Dhar
- *H.H. the Maharaja of Idar
- *H.H. the Maharaja of Sikkim (in the Himalaya; remained independent at India's independence,joined India in 1975)
- Hereditary salutes of 13-guns (15-guns personal and local):
- *H.H. the Maharaja of Jind
- Hereditary salutes of 13-guns (15-guns local):
- *H.H. the Maharaja of Nabha
- Hereditary salutes of 13-guns:
- Hereditary salutes of 11-guns:
- *H.H. the Maharaja of Morvi
- *H.H. the Maharaja of Panna
- Hereditary salutes of 9-guns:
Compound and dynastic ruler titles
In the
Mughal empire it was quite common to award to various princes (hereditary or not) a series of lofty titles as a matter of protocolary rank.
Many of these (see also above) elaborate explicitly on the title Maharaja, in the following descending order:
- Maharajadhiraja Bahadur (or Maharajadhiraj Bahadur): Great Prince over Princes, a title of honour, one degree higher than Maharajadhiraja.
- Maharajadhiraja (or Maharajadhiraj): Great Prince over Princes, a title of honour, one degree higher than Sawai Maharaja Bahadur.
- Sawai Maharaja Bahadur: a title of honour, one degree higher than Sawai Maharaja. (the term bahadur, originally 'brave' in Mongolian, was often used for 'one degree' higher', and 'sawai' is 'one and a quarter higher', i.e. just a step above bahadur)
- Sawai Maharaja: a title of honour one degree higher than Maharaja Bahadur.
- Maharaja Bahadur: a title of honour, one degree higher than Maharaja.
Furthermore there were various compound titles simply including other princely styles, such as :
- Maharaja-i-Rajgan: great prince amongst princes
- Maharaja Sena Sahib Subah of Nagpur, another Mahratta state
- For details concerning various titles containing sahib, see there
Certain Hindu dynasties even came to use a unique style, including a term which as such is not of princely rank, e.g.
Maharaja Gaikwar of Baroda,
Maharaja Scindia of Gwalior,
Maharaja Holkar of Indore, three of the very highest ranking ruling houses
Nobiliary and honorary use
Like
Raja and various other titles,
Maharaja was repeatedly awarded to notables without a princely state, such as
zamindars
- One Raja of Lambagraon, a Jagir (in Himachal Pradesh) who served in the colonial army was granted personally the non-hereditary title of Maharaja of Kangra-Lambagraon and a personal 11-guns salute, so neither honor passed on to his son and heir
- In the major, Muslim realm of Hyderabad & Berar, there was a system of ennobling titles for the Nizam's court retainers, conferring a specific rank without any (e)state of their own, not unlike peerage titles without an actual fief in the UK, the highest titles for Hindu nobles being Maharaja Bahadur and Maharaja, above Vant, Raja Rai-i-Rayan Bahadur, Raja Rai Bahadur, Raja Bahadur, Raja and (the lowest) Rai; for their Muslim counterparts there were alternative titles, the highest being Jah and Umara; e.g. the Diwan (Prime Minister) Maharaja Sir Kishen Pershad, held such a Maharaja-title.
Derived style for princes of the blood
Maharaj Kumar (or
Maharajkumar) means son of a Maharaja; the female equivalent is
Maharaj Kumari (Maharajkumari): daughter of a Maharaja.
Malay world
Indonesia
As many Indonesian states started out when the archipelago was still predominantly Hindu (
Bali still is) or
Buddhist, some have been ruled by a Maharaja, such as
Srivijaya and
Kutai Karta Negara (until that kingdom converted to Islam in 1565, when the Muslim title of
Sultan was adopted). Traditional titles remain in use for the other members of this dynasty, such as
Pangeran Ratu for the heir.
Malaysia
In peninsular
Malaysia:
- Maharaja was the title of the Monarch of the peninsular Malay state of Johor(e) from 1873 to 1885. The Arabic, Muslim title Sultan, often considered of higher rank, was re-adopted later and remains in current usage.
- the title Bendahara Seri Maharaja was used by the ruler of Pahang (1623–1853 in personal union with Johor, eventually becoming a fief of the Bendahara family), till on 6 August 1882 Tuanku Ahmad al-Muadzam Shah ibni al-Marhum Tun Ali adopted the title sultan
In northern
Borneo, the title Maharajah of Sabah and Rajah of
Gaya and
Sandakan was used
29 December 1877 -
26 August 1881 by
Alfred Dent (compare
White Rajah)
Philippines
In the
Philippines, more specifically in Sulu, Maharaja (also spelled "Maharajah") was a title given to various subdivisional princes. Parts of the Philippines may have also been ruled by a Maharajah under the
Srivijaya and
Majapahit empires.
Compound titles
The word can also be part of titles used by
Malay nobility
- Maharaja Lela was the title of the ruler of the State of Naning (founded 1641), until it was annexed by the UK to Malacca in 1832
Most famous was
Bendahara Seri Maharaja
Tun Mutahir of Malacca (executed 1509) and Datuk
Maharaja Lela Pandak Endut of
Perak (executed
1876).
The
palace marshal of the
Yang di-Pertuan Agong (federal elective Paramount ruler) of modern
Malaysia is called
Datuk Maharaja Lela Penghulu Istana Negara.
Philippines
Sulu
The name
Maharajah Adinda was given to one of the lineages of the
Sulu Royal Family. As a result, sultans under this lineage prefix their names with the title "Maharajah Adinda".
Indonesia
Aceh
Maharaja was also part of the titles of the nobility in the Sumatran sultanate of
Aceh. In the past the title of Maharaja is given to leader of the unreigning noble family and the Prime Minister
Maharaja Mangkubumi. The last Prime Minister of Aceh who was installed to be the Maharaja Mangkubumi,
Habib Abdurrahman el Zahir, also acted as the foreign affairs minister of Aceh but was deposed and exiled to
Jeddah by the colonial
Dutch east Indies authorities in October 1878.
See also
Sources and references
- select first present country, then state/dynasty
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