4. Mir Osman Ali Khan (Wealth: $230B)
Known as the world’s richest Indian (ever), Mir Osman Ali Khan served as Nizam of Hyderabad (a monarch state) for 37 years after succeeding the throne from his father in 1911. During his time as a Nizam, Khan focused on developing the state’s transportation, electricity, irrigation, and education.
Pictured above (right) with one of his many sons (left), Mir Osman Ali Khan was known to be a stingy man, wearing the same fez cap for over three decades and even believed to eat on a tin plate. However, Khan lived in a palace which had 6,000 workers (38 of which had jobs to dust the chandeliers), had a treasury with gold, silver, and jewelries amounting to millions of dollars, as well as owning a diamond paperweight worth $200 million. When Khan died in 1967, he was reported to have left $230B in wealth, seven wives, 42 mistresses, and 149 children.
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