In an unusual turn of fortunes, a nine-year-old Jaipur prince is being prepped to take over as the titular maharaja of Sirmaur, an erstwhile princely state located in the hills of southern Himachal Pradesh.
On April 13, Lakshya Raj’s paternal gotra (clan) was formally changed from ‘Manav’ to the ‘Attri’ of the Sirmaur royals.
The young prince sat a trifle impatiently through the hour-long ritual at Jaipur’s City Palace amid the chanting of mantras.
The event was performed under the watchful eyes of three former Sirmaur nobles – Arak Singh, Ajay Bahadur Singh and Abhay Bahadur Singh.
Lakshya is the younger son of Diya Kumari, the only child of Jaipur’s last maharaja late Brigadier Bhawani Singh and Padmini Devi.
A ceremonial coronation is planned at Nahan’s royal palace on May 15.
But the move is certain to provoke a minor storm in royal corridors over the decision to adopt an heir from outside Sirmaur.
The Rajput community did not take it kindly when Diya married Narendra Singh, a commoner of her father’s gotra, in 1997.
Despite this, Bhawani adopted her older son Padmanabh, 14, as his legal heir in 2002.
The teenager was made titular maharaja of Jaipur upon his grandfather’s demise in 2011.
Lakshya’s ascent to Sirmaur’s throne is similarly complicated because he is getting there via Padmini Devi, his maternal grandmother and daughter of the last ruling maharaja of Sirmaur, Rajendra Prakash, who died without a suitable male successor in 1964.
The child’s coronation is already being contested.
“I have the first right to the gaddi (throne),” says Padmini Devi’s 58-year-old half nephew Udai Prakash pointing to the fact that Durga Devi, his grandmother and the first of the late maharaja’s two wives, had legally adopted him in 1965.
However former nobles like Arak, Ajay Bahadur and Abhay Bahadur, who call the shots in Sirmaur’s royal household, are vehemently opposed to Udai’s bid for the crown.
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