Maharajas

Mahārāja (isSanskrit: महाराज, also spelled maharajah) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or "high king". A few ruled mighty states informally called empires, including Maharaja Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh empire, and Maharaja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta empire, but 'title inflation' soon lead to most being a rather mediocre or even petty real power, while compound titles were among the attempts to distinguish some among their ranks. The Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, was the last Maharaja to be an independent sovereign post the Indian independence, he ruled over the largest land area, and was one of only four Maharajas recognized with a hereditary 21-guns salute during British rule.

The female equivalent, Maharani (or Maharanee, Mahārājñī), denotes either the wife of a Maharaja (or Maharana etc.), and also in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The widow of a Maharaja is known as a Rajmata "queen mother".Maharaj(a) Kumar generally denotes a son of a Maharaja, but more specific titulatures are often used at each court, including Yuvaraj(a) for the heir. The form Maharaj indicates a separation of noble and religious offices, although the fact that in Hindi the suffix -a is silent makes the two titles near homophones.

The word Maharaja originates in Sanskrit and is a compound karmadhāraya term from mahānt- "great" and rājan "ruler, king"). It has the Latin cognates magnum "great" and rex "king". Due to Sanskrit's major influence on the vocabulary of most languages in Greater India, the term Maharaja is common to many modern languages of India such as Kannada, Tamil, Hindi, Marathi, Rajasthani, Malvi, Telugu, Odia, Punjabi, Bengali and Gujarati. The Sanskrit title Maharaja was originally used only for rulers who ruled a considerably large region with minor tributary rulers under them. Since mediaeval times, the title was used even by (Hindu) monarchs of smaller states claiming to be the descendants of ancient Maharajas.

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