Bhagvatsingh of Gondal

Bhagvat Singh
Maharaja of Gondal
H.H. Maharaja Thakore Shri Sir Bhagwat Singhji Sagramji Sahib Bahadur, Maharaja of Gondal GCSI, GCIE (then only a GCIE),a 1911 photograph, during his visit to London, for the Coronation of King George V.
Born	(1865-10-24)24 October 1865 Dhoraji, Gujarat, India
Died	5 March 1944(1944-03-05) (aged 78) Gondal, India
Religion	Hindu

Bhagvatsingh Sahib GCSI GCIE (24 October 1865 – 9 March 1944) was the ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Gondal from 1869 till his death in 1944, in whose reign the state was raised to 11-gun salute state. He was the only Maharaja to take a medical degree and other degrees.

Bhagvatsingh was born as Kumar Sri Bhagvatsinghji Sangramsinhji Sahib, Yuvaraja Sahib of Gondal, on 24 October 1865 at Dhoraji, the third and the youngest but only surviving son of Thakurani Bai Shri Monghiba Sahiba, daughter of Jhala Shri Rartansinhji Sahib of Minapur, the third wife of Thakore Sagramji II, the Thakore Sahib, or chieftain, of Gondal, a small third-class princely state that was an offshoot of the great Jadeja dynasty.

The Gondal branch of the dynasty had split off from the dynasty ruling Rajkot in the early 17th century. During the reign of Sagramji II, modern schools, courts and police force were established. In 1869, Sagramji II died, and Bhagvatsingh succeeded his father at the age of four.

Bhagvatsingh was educated at The Rajkumar College, Rajkot followed by the University of Edinburgh in 1892, where he graduated as a medical doctor in 1895 and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the only princely ruler ever to do so. In 1894, he became the President of the Organising Committee of the 8th International Congress of Hygiene and Demography at Budapest. He later rose to become Vice-President of the Indian Medical Association.

Bhagvatsingh reformed the state administration, developed its resources, erected schools, colleges and hospitals, provided free and compulsory education for both men and women through university, built technical schools for engineers and training facilities for labourers. As well, Bhagvatsingh improved the regional livestock through modern animal husbandry, built dams and irrigation networks and introduced sewage, plumbing, rail systems, telegraphs, telephone cables and electricity, becoming also a champion for women's rights. Bhagvatsingh also published the first ever dictionary of Gujarati and a Gujarati encyclopedia, the "Bhagavadgomandal" in 1928.