Royal house of Mysore splits over vast riches following challenge to maharaja's succession
Indian judges must decide who is entitled to royal estate worth more than US$12 billion after late maharaja's nephew challenges succession
The fortune is one of the greatest on earth - the legacy of India's richest princes, which tens of thousands have died in battle to protect.
Now, however, it will be a battery of lawyers who will defend the palaces, fortresses, jewels, crowns, paintings and the vast domains of the royal house of Mysore - at one point an independent kingdom - that was founded more than 600 years ago and established itself as one of the most powerful in southern India. And it will be Indian judges, not force of arms, that will decide on their ownership.
In June, a court in the southern city of Bangalore will hear the claim of Kanthraj Urs, the eldest nephew of the 28th maharaja of Mysore, the late Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar.
Urs wants the entire estate and properties - worth US$12.3 billion by some estimates - to be split equally among the family.
Urs, 42, claims that his uncle divided his immense wealth between his five sisters almost 30 years before he died two years ago, childless and without naming an heir.
But, though he performed the last rites for the dead king, it was Wodeyar's 61-year-old widow, Maharani Pramodadevi, who took charge of the vast estate.