Brigadier Sawai Bhawani Singh, the Last Maharaja of Jaipur & Head of Kachwaha Clan died

Brigadier Sawai Bhawani Singh, the last Maharaja of Jaipur died on 16 April 2011. Singh, the head of the Kachwaha clan of Rajputs was born to Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II and his first wife Marudhar Kanwar of Jodhpur on 22 October 1931. He took over as the Maharaja after the death of his father in 1970 and remained the official Maharaja of Jaipur until the abolition of royal entitlements by the government. Singh had also served in the Indian army and was given a gallantry award, the Mahavir Chakra, for leading troops into Pakistan in the 1971 war. He was also promoted to the rank of Brigadier in 1974.

Bhawani Singh was the 40th Maharaja of Jaipur and the 11th ruler as per the tradition of Amber.
Bhawani Singh was commissioned into the Indian Army in the 3rd Cavalry Regiment as a second lieutenant in 1951. Singh also served in the Indian Army and received numerous honours including a promotion to the Presidential Bodyguard. He was awarded India's second-highest gallantry award, the Mahavir Chakra, for leading troops inside Pakistani territory in Sindh region and attacking and destroying many Pakistani posts during the Indo-Pak war of 1971.
He contested Lok Sabha elections in 1989 from Jaipur on Congress ticket but was defeated by rival party BJP's Girdhari Lal Bhargav.

Singh was married to Sirmur princess Kumari Padmini Devi, the daughter of Rajendra Prakash Bahadur and the royal couple had a daughter by the name of Diya Kumari. He adopted Padmanabh - the son of his daughter Diya Kumari and son-in-law Narendra Singh - who will now be ascended to the throne as per the tradition of the royal family.