What are stories and facts about Nizam of Hyderabad ?

Yet for all his intelligence and good breeding, he was not above committing the odd faux pas.

Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII was the world’s richest man in the 1930s and the 1940s, with a wealth of over $2 Billion. That was 2 percent of the entire American economy at that time!

When the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII and, after his abdication, the Duke of Windsor visited him in 1922 he wanted to make sure he felt at home. So he arranged for his chamber pot lid to play the National Anthem when it opened.

He had 7 wives, countless concubines and mistresses, 34 legitimate children and countless illegitimate children.

He was also particularly vain, so had a car specially built with an elevated rear seat because he felt he should be seated higher than his subjects.

The last Nizam was the ruler of India’s largest princely state – the size of Scotland and England combined.

But women were his real weakness. His collection of beautiful concubines lived happily, it is said, in strict purdah, kept in complete isolation from all men - except the Nizam.

The last Nizam took keen interest in the restoration of the then newly-discovered Ajanta and Ellora Caves at Aurangabad. He also initiated the Archaeology department of Hyderabad.

Eventually the Nizam's princely title was abolished by the Indian government in 1974.

He knitted his own socks, wore the same patched clothes for months and borrowed cigarettes from his guests.

Then crippling new taxes and land acts forced him to sell much of his property.
His obituary described him as a shambling old man who spent his last days wandering around in old slippers - but his funeral procession was one of the largest in Indian history.

He had a £ 50million ostrich-egg sized diamond, which he used as a paperweight

The Nizam's first grandson and technically the heir to his throne, Mukarram Jam, succeeded him - but he soon found himself immersed in financial chaos.

One story goes that at one instance, he wanted a new blanket. So he ordered a servant to buy him a new one – with strict orders not to spend more than 25 rupees (32p at today’s rates).

Mukarram emigrated to Australia and spent much of his inheritance setting up a sheep farm, which failed.

The Nizam, terrified of a revolution or takeover of his state, made plans to transport his wealth out of the country. But later he grew bored with the idea.

It was under his rule that Hyderabad started taking steps towards becoming one of the biggest cities in India.

In his absence, his grandfather's unsupervised Hyderabad properties were looted and precious artefacts sold in street markets for a few rupees.

A British politician’s wife who visited him at his peak and described him as someone who was “mad as a coot”

What was left of the Nizam's phenomenal wealth has been used to pay off debts and maintain the lavish lifestyles of his many descendants.

When TIME magazine featured him and the erstwhile rulers of other former princely states like Kashmir, Jodhpur Bikaner, Indore, and Bhopal; he was the only one who was addressed as ‘His Exalted Highness’; while all the others were addressed as ‘His Excellency’.

And so the family's fabulous fortune crumbled.

Despite his riches, he liked being frugal. He disciplined himself to live on the equivalent of £1 a day and smoked the cheapest brand of cigarettes, relighting and smoking the discarded butts. He once took a cigarette from an adviser, cut it in half and offered the man half back.

The House of Lords said the London money could only be released if all involved parties agreed and so only now after years of legal wrangling does Mukarram look set to inherit a 20 per cent share of the fortune that has grown in the vaults of the London bank.

It is said that he loved his concubines so much that he didn’t want them to be seen by anyone else; and hence, they were under strict ‘purdah’; with all the best luxuries possible.