Sawai Pratap Singh (2 December 1764 – 1 August 1803) was the Kachwaha Rajput ruler of the Kingdom of Jaipur. He was brought on the throne by his mother Maji Chundawatji after the suspicious death of his elder full brother Sawai Prithvi Singh II in 1778. He is known for constructing the magnificent

Hawa Mahal The Hawa Mahal is a palace in the city of Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. Built from red and pink sandstone, it is on the edge of the City Palace, Jaipur, and extends to the '' Zenana'', or women's chambers. Hawa Mahal is known as the “palace of ...

in Jaipur in the year 1799.

Biography

Sawai Pratap Singh was born as a younger son of Sawai Madho Singh I on 2 December 1764. Pratap Singh became the Maharaja at the age of 14 after the death of his elder full brother Sawai Prithvi Singh II. He ruled from the year 1778 to 1803. His 25-year rule witnessed many spectacular achievements and strategic failures. Being constantly goaded by the

Marathas The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Ma ...

and the

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of pre ...

, he had to face repeated threats and a heavy drainage of funds by the former. He also made his raj guru Pandit Shiv Narayan Misr the king of Jaipur for 3 days, when he was busy performing religious rituals. Due to court politics, Pandit Shiv Narayan Mishr was later forced to commit suicide. The fountains behind the Govind Dev temple are credited to him, his poetic talent and patronage of arts and crafts. During his time, the art of paintings reached its peak. By the time of his ascension to the throne, the Mughal Empire was almost in shambles and the artists were fleeing the once imperial capital of Empire i.e

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh gave them patronage and they came and settled in Jaipur. It was these artists who brought recognition to the Jaipur school of painting. The finest example of his connoisseurship is the unique architectural marvel

(the palace of the Winds) and few rooms of the City Palace, which he got constructed. A large number of scholarly works were produced during his time. He himself was a good poet and wrote poems in

Braj Bhasha Braj is a language within the Indo-Aryan language family spoken in the Braj region in Western Uttar Pradesh centered on Mathura. Along with Awadhi, it was one of the two predominant literary languages of North-Central India before gradually ...

and

Dhundari language Dhundhari (ढूंढाड़ी), also known as Jaipuri, is a Indo-Aryan language variety of the Rajasthani languages group. It is spoken in the Dhundhar region of northeastern Rajasthan state, India. Dhundari-speaking people are found i ...

under the pen name of Brijnidhi.

References

Pratap 1764 births 1803 deaths {{India-royal-stub

Biography

See also

References