India: Last Jaipur Maharajah Sawai Bhawani Singh dies

Brigadier Sawai Bhawani Singh, the last Maharajah of Jaipur, in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, has died.

Brigadier Singh, who continued to be revered as a social and cultural icon after India abolished royal titles, died after a long illness. He was 79.

He took over as the Maharajah after the death of his father in 1970, but royal titles were abolished shortly after.

Former royals are still associated with the wealth and glamour of the past and attract a lot of interest in India.

Jaipur was one of scores of kingdoms which existed in India until the country's independence from Britain in 1947.

The Rajasthan government has announced two days of mourning....