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Madhavi Raje Scindia, Rajmata of the royal house of Gwalior, wife of the late Congress stalwart Madhavrao Scindia and  mother of Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, was cremated on Thursday at Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh.

 

The pyre was lit by Jyotiraditya Scindia at the Chhatri Maidan in the evening after he performed a shanti havan in the presence of royal family members from Gwalior and Nepal as well as senior BJP leaders, including Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.

 

Earlier in the day, Madhavi Raje’s body was brought to Gwalior from Delhi by air ambulance and taken to the royal residence, Jai Vilas Complex. As crowds gathered at the airport and on the route to the Complex, Jyotiraditya Scindia ordered to doors of the vehicle to be opened to allow people a last glimpse of his mother.

 

Madhavi Raje, who was critically ill and on ventilator support for the last few days, passed away on Wednesday morning at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi after a three-month battle with pneumonia and sepsis. 

 

From the royal lineage of Nepal, she was named Kiran Rajya Lakshmi Kumari Devi and was daughter of General Yuvraj Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana and Rani Indira Rajya Lakshmi Kumari. Her great grandfather was the Prime Minister of Nepal and Maharaja of Kaski and Lamjung, Juddha Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana.

 

She met Madhavrao Scindia for the first time at a five-star hotel in Delhi. As the popular story goes, Madhavrao Scindia, son of Jiwajirao Scindia, the last ruling Maharaja of Gwalior, had just returned to India from the UK where he studied  at New College, Oxford. He espied and was very taken in by the young princess ordering ice-cream and chips in the hotel's restaurant and walked up to her, asking why she had to come down from the cooler climes of Nepal to eat something so cold.

 

Being too shy, however to take matters further, he asked his mother Vijaya Raje Scindia to send a marriage proposal to her family. Kiran Rajya Lakshmi's people were quicker, however, and sent out a royal invitation to the Gwalior royals before they could.

 

Her name was changed to Madhavi Raje after marriage.

 

The couple’s wedding at Delhi’s Imperial Hotel had a star-studded attendance with guests including Indira Gandhi and President S Radhakrishnan.

 

Madhavi Raje is survived by her son Jyotiraditya Scindia and daughter Chitrangada Raje Singh.