forces. After his demise, Khem Sawant II succeeded him. Khem Sawant II established his capital at Sundarwadi (now Sawantwadi), a hamlet of the village Charathe which later came to be known as Sawantwadi as the rulers were known as Sawants. Sawantwadi state, when Phond Sawant II (Annasaheb) succeeded to the seat of royalty gained one additional facet and that is beginning of its relations with the English. It was not until when Khem Sawant III married Laxmibai and thus established matrimonial alliance with the mighty Mahadji Shinde whose support to Sawantwadi brought a significant change in the internal administration and external relations. The most notable king of Sawantwadi was Pancham Khemraj alias Bapusaheb Maharaj. He was crowned on 29 October 1924. When Mahatma Gandhi visited Sawantwadi in 1927, he called Bapusaheb Maharaj as ‘Ramraja’ and his kingdom as ‘Ramrajya’. He passed away on 4 July 1937. In his small tenure from 1924 to 1937, he proved himself a great administrator and an ‘Ascently King’. He had devoted himself for the welfare and uplifting of his people and the terrain where they lived. He was succeeded by his son Shivramraje Bhonsle, but he being a minor at the time, Bapusaheb’s wife Parvatidevi looked after the State as a Regent. The administration of the Sawantwadi State during her regency was marked by several reforms and progress in education. Sovereign Queens of Sawantwadi It was immediately after a treaty with the Portuguese in 1700s that Ramchandra Sawant expired and, therefore, Janakibai, the regent-queen of sawantwadi was the first female to administer the affairs of State with the help of Jiwaji Vishram Sabnis, who acted as the kabhari of Sawantwadi. Following Janakibai’s administration, Laxmibai, eldest widow of Khem Sawant took the affairs of sawantwadi in her hands during 1800s. Laxmibai tremendously strengthened the power of Sawantwadi, thoroughly grasped the gravity of the situations between Sawants and Chhatrapati Shivaji III and found out a way to keep the forces of Kolhapur away. 1800s was the era when Sawantwadi had two sovereign-queen handling the administrations of the state, Durgabai (1809-1819) had cultivated friendly relations with the Portuguese. She thus, had the ability and foresight to maintain friendly relations with European powers, when sawantwadi was torn by internal conflict and confusion. In order to preserve the sawantwadi state, she adopted submissive attitude especially when there was no one to help sawantwadi against aggressive of the English. Sawantwadi