Prime Minister of Hyderabad at Aurangabad, 1908

Prime Minister of Hyderabad at Aurangabad, 1908
Raja-i-Raja-yan Maharajah Sir Kishen Pershad, G.C.I.E. (1864-1940) was the Prime Minister of Hyderabad from 1901 to 1912 and the president of the Executive Council from 1926 to 1937. He is photographed here in Aurangabad, Maharashtra at the Agri-Horticultural School.

The maharajah traced his ancestry to Raja Todermall, the finance minister to Akbar the Great. When Asfjah Nizam Mulmulk invaded Deccan, Rai Mulchand the fifth descendent of Todarmall accompanied him and since then the maharajah’s ancestors were closely associated with the Asfjah dynasty.

Sir Kishen Pershad was born in 1864. In 1892 the late Nizam appointed him Pershkar (deputy minister). In 1902 he became prime minister and continued in this office till 1912. He made many administrative changes such as forming the State Legislative Council. He was conferred the KCIE in 1903 and the GCIE in 1907.

This collection of loose photographs were taken by K.B. Padhye. The collection sustained flood damage in 1980, the second such fate to befall this collection. It seems likely that the inscription on the front cover of the original album was written by A.H. Fisher, photographer and artist to the Colonial Office Visual Instruction Committee, who was in Aurangabad at about that time.