Rajaram II

Rajaram Chhatrapati (13 April 1850 – 30 November 1870), also known as Rajaram I of Kolhapur, was the Raja of Kolhapur, India, from 1866 to 1870. He was one of the first princely rulers in colonial India to sail overseas, despite Hindu norms at the time against crossing oceans to foreign shores. He died toward the end of his trip in Florence, Italy, at the age of 20. A Marathi translation of his travel diary was published in 2025. On 16 November, he was still unwell and had to be carried in a chair to the station, traveling through the Brenner Pass and arriving in Bolzano. Called the Monument to the Indian, it has a canopy structure designed by Bengal engineer Charles Mant and bust of Rajaram by sculptor Charles Francis Fuller.

Personal life and legacy

Rajaram had two wives. In March 1867, he married the eight-year-old daughter of Mudhojirao Naik Nimbalkar of Phaltan, who took the name Tarabai. Later that year, he married his second wife, who took the name Sakwarbai. She was the sister of Gopalrao Sarlashkar. In 1870, Sakwarbai gave birth to a girl who died as an infant.

In the absence of a direct heir, the Rajaram Chhatrapati was eventually succeeded by Shivaji IV, a young prince who was adopted by his widow Rani Tarabai. His legacy included the renaming of Kolhapur High School as Rajaram High School, as well as Rajaram College.

Publication of diary In 1872, the diary of Rajaram Chhatrapati of Kolhapur was published in English, edited by Captain Edward West. The original title of the book was Diary of the late Rajah of Kolhapoor, during his visit to Europe in 1870.

His diary was later translated into Marathi by Raghunath Kadakane of Rajaram College in Kolhapur and published by Shivaji University, Kolhapur in 2025.