The Swan Car

 

The Maharaja of Nabha had a ‘swan car’!

Nabha is a town in Punjab, India. The ‘swan car’ was commissioned by Robert Nicholl Matthewson a British engineer living in Kolkata, India. In 1910 it was sent from England to Kolkata. Soon, this ‘swan car’ caught the eye of the Maharaja of Nabha, Ripudaman Singh who bought the car from Robert Matthewson. In 1923 the British deposed the maharaja, however the car remained with the family till 1990, when it was purchased by the Louwman Museum in Netherlands.

 

The last king of Upper Burma died in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra!

Upper Burma or the Kingdom of Ava was an independent kingdom in Burma. In 1885 the British annexed the Kingdom of Ava. However, there was a problem. The last king of Ava, King Thibaw was still popular with the people of Upper Burma. And the British were worried that he may urge them to revolt against them. So, they decided to exile him to somewhere far away. The British decided to send him to Ratnagiri on the Western coast of India. King Thibaw lived in Ratnagiri in his mansion till his death in 1916. It is rumoured that King Thibaw sold his rubies, and the rubies are still there in the families of the money lenders of Ratnagiri!

 

Emperor Jahangir had a pet zebra!

Emperor Jahangir was the 4^th Mughal emperor. He was a very keen naturalist and loved to study various animals and birds. Once, some Turks gifted a zebra to his nobleman Mir Jafar, who in turn gave it to Jahangir. Initially, the emperor thought that it was a horse painted with black stripes and it is said that there were some attempts to scrub of the ‘paint’! Later, it was discovered that it was the natural colour of the zebra. Jahangir even had a painting made of the zebra. He had many other exotic pets like a pair of Sarus cranes and a turkey!