By James Pomfret

NEW DELHI, July 26 | Tue Jul 26, 2011 8:16am EDT

NEW DELHI, July 26 ( Life!) - Auction house Bonhamswill put under the hammer a rare Rolls Royce Phantom modifiedfor tiger hunting by an Indian maharaja during the days of theBritish Raj, featuring a mounted machine gun and a cannon, thatmay fetch up to $1 million.

The custom-made 1925 Rolls Royce was originallycommissioned by Umed Singh II, the maharaja of Kotah in the1920s at a time when tiger hunting was hugely popular in India.

The flaming red vehicle, with a convertible canvas roof andbespoke hunting features including a double-barrelled shotgun,spotlights for night hunting and a mountable Lantaka cannon, isexpected to fetch up to $1 million when it goes on the block inmid-August in Carmel, California.

"It was quite common, most of the maharajahs had specialisedcustomised cars manufactured in the U.S. and they even hadgilted frames and all sorts of things," said Pran Nevile, awriter and expert on India's colonial era known as the BritishRaj.

The car's 8.0-litre, 6-cylinder engine with a low gearingratio allowed "it to creep powerfully through the roughshodjungles of Rajasthan", wrote Bonhams.

For centuries, big game hunting of tigers, leopards andAsiatic lions in India's forests was a favoured pastime ofIndia's rulers from the Mughal emperors to the British elite.

While much tiger hunting was carried out on elephant-back,some Indian maharajahs, or "great kings" of princely statesacross India including arid Rajasthan, took things to theextreme.

"It was more for a show but everything would be ready andthen they would then go and take this Rolls Royce up to a pointor the hills and from there shoot the tiger that was alreadycaptured by their servants," Nevile told .

Indiscriminate hunting, however,louis vuitton m92643, decimated India's Bengaltiger population from an estimated 40,000 a century ago to about1,700 today. Tigers are now a protected keystone speciesthroughout Asia from Indonesia's Sumatra to Indochina and India.

Indian maharajas were known for their high living andextravagant spending on all manner of trappings including ornatepalaces, vintage cars and Louis Vuitton bags.

The nawab, or ruler, of southern Hyderabad state used thefamed Koh-i-Noor diamond, once the largest known gemstone in theworld,louis vuitton n23205, as a paperweight, while the nawab of tiny westernJunagadh state was renowned for spending lavishly on his dog'swedding.

"They wanted to live in ostentatious style. Being a princelylot they had their own grand style and it was even copied by theBritish," said Nevile. (Additional reporting by C.J. Kuncheria; Editing by RobertBirsel)

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