he succeeded his father, maharaja bhupinder singh, as the maharaja of patiala on 23 march 1938 and subsequently married his second wife, mehtab kaur (1922–2017), in 1938. it was believed that his second marriage was due to the stated reason that his first wife being issueless, which was in fact, was due to the influences of akali leaders who wanted the future maharaja of patiala to marry to a sikh family in order to beget genuine sikh heirs.