The result of 20 years of research, this is a detailed study on the medals and orders of the Indian Princely States. The book identifies some 266 awards created by 45 States as well as 4 by the Sikh Empire. The background of each award is described with details of the awards and, where known, description, size and ribbon metal. Includes Orders, Decorations and Medals for civilian, military, police, jubilees and accessions. Scarce and collectible.

“As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of India and Pakistan gaining their independence from the British, interest in the period of the Raj still exists and, if anything, has heightened in recent years. The lifestyle of the Indian princes has been made the subject of books, articles and television programmes but, while many of these have concentrated on the pomp and ceremony of the princely court, few have touched upon the question of honours and awards. Most surviving photographs of the ruling chiefs show them wearing a variety of insignia of British honours, usually one of the classes of the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India or the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, occasionally the Royal Victorian Order. Where they are accompanied by officers of their own court, these gentlemen are invariably shown wearing a number of medals, though the detail is often too indistinct to permit identification. Some are undoubtedly British war medals but others are less certain.

One might be forgiven for thinking, therefore, that the ruling chiefs were so totally immersed in the British Raj that they had no separate system of honours and awards. Such a view would be quite erroneous, though if the British had had their way this would certainly have been the case. Many of the chiefs were descended from ancient lineages, with their own traditions and practices which included the grant of jagirs, or lands, as well as khillats and articles of wear to reward deserving followers. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, prevented as they were by their treaties with the British from expanding their lands, they found there were limits to the number or extent of the jagirs that they could award and so attempted with varying degrees of success to emulate the British practice of rewarding good service by the introduction of orders, decorations and medals.

Sadly, the record of such awards, if ever one existed in the first place, has been largely lost or destroyed. Between 1971 and 1974 Wing Commander Eamonn O’Toole, a member of the Orders and Medals Research Society, attempted to compile a list of all State awards.”