Jagatjit Singh ruled Kapurthala from 1877 to 1947 and built a French palace in the Punjab plain.
The Jagatjit Palace, completed in 1908, was modelled on Versailles and Fontainebleau, designed by a French architect, with furnishings brought from Europe. It is now a Sainik School.
He also built the Moorish Mosque at Kapurthala in 1930, modelled on the Koutoubia at Marrakesh, for his Muslim subjects, and it stands and functions.
He travelled constantly, spoke French, published travel books, and represented India at the League of Nations.
Kapurthala state was small, largely non-Sikh in population despite its Sikh ruling house, and administered well enough that its town has a planned quarter and public buildings out of proportion to its size.
A Sikh maharaja built a Versailles and a Moroccan mosque in the Doaba and both are still standing and in use.
The palace became the Sainik School in 1961 and has been a school since, which is why it survives in reasonable condition while comparable buildings elsewhere have not.
The Moorish Mosque was built for the state's Muslim subjects, who were the majority of its population, and took thirteen years to complete. Its architect was French.
He was the longest reigning of the Punjab princes and his state was among the best administered by the standards the British applied. What that administration cost its cultivators is not recorded.