Royals In India Who Owned Ridiculously Expensive Things: Maharaja Of Junagadh’s 800 Dogs, Mir Osman Ali Khan’s Diamond Paperweight And Ganga Singh’...

There is wealth, then there is old-world Indian royal wealth – limitless, audacious, whimsical, often bordering on ridiculous, but undeniably fascinating. Before taxation, abolition of privy purses and modern governance arrived, the princely rulers of India lived inside an economy shaped entirely by opulence. Gold was currency, extravagance was inheritance, and the meaning of "too much" simply did not exist. Their lives read less like history and more like satire. They bought cars only to convert them into dustbins. They threw weddings for dogs. They ordered crystal furniture knowing fully well that if anyone bumped into a chair the palace would hear a shatter. These men lived in a universe where imagination was the only spending limit. And

perhaps that is why the stories below – verified through archival notes, documented museum accounts and palace records – continue to shock even in 2025. After all, billionaires today may own islands, but how many can claim a 184-carat diamond paperweight or a silver toy train serving cigars at dinner? That level of extra belonged to Indian royalty alone.

The Maharaja of Junagadh: 800 dogs, personal staff and a Rs 20-lakh canine wedding

Junagadh’s Maharaja loved his dogs more than most monarchs loved their kingdoms. Not twenty. Not one hundred. Eight hundred. Each with a private bedroom, personal attendant, imported diet and immediate medical care from British veterinarians whenever a cold dared strike royal snouts. If one pup died, normal people mourned. Junagadh declared a state holiday. The bizarre pièce de résistance, however, remains the royal wedding. Two favourite dogs were married with a ceremony funded like a five-star luxury shaadi. Reports claim nearly Rs 20 lakh was spent – in an era when that amount was unimaginable wealth. Streets were lit. Feasts were held. Subjects attended in finery. The kingdom went on leave because It Was A Canine Wedding Day.

Jay Singh of Alwar: The man who bought 10 Rolls Royce cars out of pure rage

Humiliation is a terrible motivator for most people. For Maharaja Jay Singh, it triggered a shopping spree history still laughs about. On a London visit, dressed casually and mistaken for someone “not wealthy enough”, he was dismissed by a Rolls Royce salesman. Offended beyond repair, he returned wearing jewels, entered the showroom again and bought 10 cars instantly, paying in full. Revenge, however, was sweeter. Back in Alwar, he ordered panels torn off, roofs chopped and all ten Rolls Royce beauties assigned a new job – garbage collection vehicles. They carried city refuse until Rolls Royce headquarters themselves begged forgiveness. Luxury, meet sarcasm.

Mir Osman Ali Khan: The Nizam who used a giant diamond as a paperweight

There are rich men, and then there was Hyderabad’s last Nizam – Mir Osman Ali Khan – the man Time Magazine once called the richest person in the world. More than $2 billion in wealth. Mountains of gold. Relentless streams of revenue. And on his desk sat his casual accessory – a 184.97-carat Jacob Diamond, nearly the size of an ostrich egg, functioning not as jewellery, but as a paperweight. Today, that diamond sits under Government of India ownership, but in its heyday, it held down files like an office clip. Some rulers decorate crowns. This one decorated stationery.

Sawai Madho Singh II: Melting 14,000 silver coins just to carry holy water

When the Maharaja of Jaipur travelled to England for King Edward VII’s coronation, he refused to consume foreign water. Solution? Commission two enormous hand-beaten sterling silver urns – now recognised by Guinness World Records as the largest silver vessels ever crafted. To create them, artisans melted 14,000 silver coins. Their purpose? To transport Ganga jal across the sea. One could argue that devotion is beyond mathematics. Jaipur treasury records might disagree.

Maharaja Jagatjit Singh: The man who travelled with more Louis Vuitton trunks than clothes

Kapurthala’s Maharaja Jagatjit Singh lived in suits tailored in Paris, spoke fluent French, and was Louis Vuitton’s dream customer before Louis Vuitton became every influencer’s dream. He owned over 60 Louis Vuitton trunks – giant, embossed, customised containers that travelled with him everywhere carrying turbans, swords, silks and jewels. Imagine an airport baggage carousel today trying to process 60 identical LV trunks from one family. Not even first class could cope.

Ganga Singh of Bikaner: Distributing his weight in gold to the poor

Once a year, Maharaja Ganga Singh sat on a scale. On the other side, gold was added until the balance tilted equally. All that gold – no limit, no reduction, no hesitation – was distributed in charity. Depending on the year, the amount changed with his fluctuating weight, but eyewitness accounts say even pets sometimes gleamed with gifted ornaments. A ruler who literally measured generosity.

The Maharaja of Gwalior: A silver toy train that served cigars at dinner

Great hosts serve wine. Better hosts add cigars. The Maharaja of Gwalior did both, but through a moving miniature railway made entirely of real silver, chugging across a banquet table delivering tobacco and liquor to guests at the push of a lever. Dinner was a performance. A statement. A spectacle. And that silver train made sure nobody ever forgot his dining room.

Maharana Sajjan Singh: A palace built like a jewellery box of crystal

Udaipur’s Sajjan Singh fell in love with crystal and decided liking wasn’t enough. He ordered entire collections from F&C Osler, England, and turned rooms into a prism of light. Chairs, tables, vases, perfume bottles, chandeliers and even a crystal bed – the only one of its kind in the world. Walk into Udaipur’s Crystal Gallery today inside Fateh Prakash Palace and you’ll understand. The place glows like a palace built for Tinkerbell.

Shah Jahan: The Taj Mahal wasn’t just love, it was logistics

Every tourist knows the Taj Mahal story, but few understand the absurdity of scale. More than 1,000 elephants hauled marble, jasper, jade and turquoise across continents. The white mausoleum’s walls contain 28 varieties of gemstones, each sourced from far-off lands in Asia. Shah Jahan didn’t just raise a monument to love – he built an economic pipeline for beauty.

Because when you’re born royal, logic is optional and luxury is mandatory

Indian maharajas didn’t simply spend – they performed expenditure. Their wealth wasn’t silent. It barked at dog weddings, sparkled in silver goblets, rolled down streets in Rolls Royce garbage carts and shimmered across crystal furniture no one could comfortably sit on. In a modern country where billionaires invest in stocks and startups, these stories remind us that history was once written by men who used diamonds like paperweights and built fountains of extravagance for the sheer pleasure of doing so. Excess ended, kingdoms fell, palaces opened as museums. But the folklore of their spending still glitters – louder, stranger, funnier than any billionaire headline today.