19th century painting of Raja Serfoji, son stolen from Thanjavur Saraswathi Mahal traced to U.S. museum
- July 22, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
No Comments
19th century painting of Raja Serfoji, son stolen from Thanjavur Saraswathi Mahal traced to U.S. museum
Subject : History
Section: Art and Culture
- Maharaja Serfoji II was the scion of the Bhosle dynasty, ruled over the dominions of the Maratha principality of Thanjavur from 1798-1832
- Thanjavur became a casualty of Lord Dalhousie’s infamous ‘Doctrine of Lapse’, and it got absorbed into British-ruled Indian provinces.
Doctrine of lapse
- The Doctrine of Lapse was an annexation policy followed widely by Lord Dalhousie when he was India’s Governor-General from 1848 to 1856.
- According to this, any princely state under the direct or indirect (as a vassal) control of the East India Company where the ruler did not have a legal male heir would be annexed by the company
- As per this, any adopted son of the Indian ruler could not be proclaimed as heir to the kingdom. This challenged the Indian ruler’s long-held authority to appoint an heir of their choice.
States annexed under this doctrine
Satara, Jaitpur, Sambalpur, Baghat, Udaipur, Jhansi, Nagpur, Awadh