Paramount ruler

The term paramount ruler, or sometimes paramount king, is a generic description, though occasionally also used as an actual title, for a number of rulers' position in relative terms, as the summit of a feudalistic pyramid of rulers of lesser polities (such as vassal princes) in a given historical and geographical context, often of different ranks, which all recognize the single paramount ruler as their senior, though not necessarily with effectively commanding authority (as in a true empire), but often rather a notion like the Western suzerainty. Whether the term is used where it could apply is essentially a matter of convention, and as the relatively vague, similar definitions overlap, its use may in certain cases coexist with the use of another term as those mentioned in the See also section. In the Indian subcontinent, including present Pakistan and Bangladesh, the Muslim Mughal emperors managed to bring most rulers of the so-called princely states, in majority Hindu, under their imperial authority. This was expressed in the majestic style of Padshah (like the Ottoman Sultan of Sultans and the Persian Shahanshah) of Hindus. After a few generations they lost most of their power over the princes, and could hence rather be considered mere paramount rulers, at best receiving tribute and honorary trappings, while the true political hegemony progressively shifted to the new players, the European colonial powers. After a struggle against France and its ally, Tippu Sultan (a short while styled Padishah Bahadur of Khudadad, a Muslim state in southern India), the British emerged victorious, mostly in the guise of the British East India Company. Later they encouraged the ruler of Awadh (Oudh) to reject the Mughal's suzerainty and assume the style of Padishah themselves, until the British finally toppled both; still later, the British Crown declared itself, as successors to the Mughal Paramountcy, Emperors of India.