Madho Singh II

Maharajadhiraja Sawai Madho Singh II GCSI GCIE GCVO GBE (28 August 1862 – 7 September 1922), was the Maharajadhiraja of Jaipur from 1880 until 1922. He was the adopted son of Ram Singh II, Raja of Jaipur.

He was born Kaim Singh, the second son of the Thakur of Isardha, a petty chieftain related to the ruling house of Jaipur. After the death of their father, a dispute with his elder brother over the succession left the teenaged Kaim exiled and living in poverty. He found work as a risaldar in the cavalry of the Nawab of Tonk.

His fate was altered by his encounters with the guru Brahmachari Giridhari Sharan, whose disciple he became, and with the ruling Ram Singh II. When Ram died in 1880, he had no heir, and chose on his deathbed to adopt the 18-year-old Kaim, who was crowned under the name Madho.

As ruler of the large and prosperous state of Jaipur, Madho Singh embraced modern ideas on education and sanitation. He built schools, colleges, hospitals and a museum. When famine struck in 1896–1897 and 1899–1900, he used state funds to feed the population. He also appealed to the Viceroy, Lord Curzon, to start a permanent Famine Relief Fund, which Singh began with a gift of £133,000 (equivalent to £12,977,882 in 2015).

...
Wikipedia