If alive, Maharaja Bhupinder Singh would have been 125-year-old today. Crowned the Maharaja of Patiala at the mere age of nine, he went on to become one of the most indulgent princes of India.

The book — Freedom at Midnight, narrates that “it had been the custom of the Maharaja to appear once a year before his subjects naked except for his diamond breastplate, his organ in full and glorious erection.”

Married five times, the Maharaja of Patiala, who fathered 88 children, had numerous concubines. Some accounts say that during the summer days, Bhupinder Singh would make his concubines sit bare-chested at the rim of his pool while he enjoyed a swim.

But it was the excessive pleasures of opulence that defined Bhupinder Singh’s lifestyle. Be it a 1,400-piece gold and silver dinner set to 2,930-diamond necklace, the Maharaja, reportedly, had a penchant to impress the royal households of Europe.

Read in the pictures below about the amazing life story of the Maharaja of Patiala: