Dungar Singh

Who was Dungar Singh?

Sri Raj Rajeshwar Maharajadhiraja Narendra Maharaja Shiromani Sri Dungar Singh Bahadur was a Maharaja of the princely state of Bikaner from 1872 to 1887. The eldest of three sons of Maharaj Sri Lal Singh a relative of a distant branch of the Rathore clan, Dungar Singh was an enlightened and progressive monarch. He aided the British during the Second Afghan War in 1878 by supplying 800 camels. Deeply involved in education, he opened the first Bikaner public schools and college during his reign, also organising the first modern police force, an up-to-date budget and fiscal standards, dispensaries, a post office, and a civil surgeon, reforming the jails as well.

Dungar Singh died in 1887, only a few days shy of his 33rd birthday, his father following him in death a month later. He was succeeded by his youngest brother, Ganga Singh, whom he had adopted for himself as his son.