Jai Singh II

Jai Singh II (3 November 1688 – 21 September 1743) popularly known as Sawai Raja Jai Singh was the 29th Kachwaha ruler of the Kingdom of Amber, who later founded the fortified city of Jaipur and made it his capital. He was born at Amber, the capital of the Kachwaha. He became ruler of Amber at the age of 11 after the death of his father, Raja Bishan Singh on 31 December 1699. Initially, Jai Singh served as a vassal of the Mughal Empire. He was given title of Sawai by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb before the siege of Khelna in Deccan. "Sawai" means one and a quarter times superior to his contemporaries. He received title of Maharajah Sawai, Raj Rajeshwar, Shri Rajadhiraj in the year 1723, This was in addition to title of Saramad-i-Rajaha-i-Hind conferred on him on 21 April 1721 In the later part of his life, Jai Singh broke free from the Mughal hegemony, and to assert his sovereignty, performed the Ashvamedha sacrifice, an ancient rite that had been abandoned for several centuries. He moved his kingdom's capital from Amber to the newly-established city of Jaipur in 1727, and performed two Ashwamedha sacrifices, once in 1734, and again in 1741. Jai Singh had a great interest in mathematics, architecture and astronomy. He commissioned the Jantar Mantar observatories at multiple places in India, including his capital Jaipur. He had Euclid's "Elements of Geometry" translated into Sanskrit.