Yaduveer Krishnanadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar at a ritual in Mysore on Wednesday, a day ahead of his coronation ceremony.
The fortune is one of the greatest on earth - the legacy of India's richest princes, which tens of thousands have died in battle to protect.
Now, however, it will be a battery of lawyers who will defend the palaces, fortresses, jewels, crowns, paintings and the vast domains of the royal house of Mysore, once an independent kingdom that was founded more than 500 years ago, and quickly established itself as one of the most powerful in southern India.
And it will be Indian judges, not force of arms, that will decide on their ownership.
In June, a court in the southern city of Bangalore will hear the claim of Kanthraj Urs, the eldest nephew of the 28th maharaja of Mysore, the late Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar.
Urs wants the entire estate and properties - worth £8bn by some estimates - to be split equally among the family.
Urs, 42, claims that his uncle divided his immense wealth between his five sisters almost 30 years before he died two years ago, childless and without naming an heir.
But, though he performed the last rites for the dead king, it was Wodeyar's 61-year-old widow, maharani Pramodadevi, who took charge of the vast estate.
"It was expected that I would be named [as heir of the estate]. Who wouldn't be upset?," said Urs. At the centre of several key trade routes, and with its own gem and gold mines, the kingdom of Mysore swiftly became incredibly rich. It was only subdued in 1799 by the forces of the British East India Company after four bitterly fought wars.
The final battle against Tipu Sultan, the legendary king of Mysore still revered in India for his opposition to the invaders, ended in the monarch's death and is seen as one of the key military events in the British conquest of the subcontinent .
Much of the modern nation of India was once made up of more than 500 independent princely states. Some, such as Mysore, were vast. Others comprised a few fields and an old fort. When India gained independence from the British in 1947, most joined the new Indian nation. Aristocrats were stripped of any remaining honours, privileges and revenue by the government of Indira Gandhi in 1971. There have been periodic attempts to reverse the measures.
However the dynasties did not die, nor did their fortunes.
On Thursday, a new king will sit on the Mysore throne and place the gem-studded crown on his head. It is Urs' 23-year-old nephew, picked by the maharani to be the new king and formally adopted in a glittering ceremony at the Mysore palace in
February this year. Yaduveer Gopal Raj Urs' accession on Thursday was delayed due to the future monarch's desire to complete his economics degree at the University of Massachusetts first.
Maharani Pramodadevi told the Guardian that, though she has been hurt by the family dispute, the selection of the next heir was done in line with 600-year-old customs and traditions and that no one was "spurned" or "betrayed".
"In the case of childless royal couples, there is no hard and fast rule that the next heir has to be the brother's son or any specific relation," she said. "The preference is given to the brother's son. I know what my husband would have expected in an heir. I know what is expected of an heir to carry on customs and legacy. Based on these I have made the choice."
Some however blame an ancient malediction for the families problems with bearing heirs. The so-called "Talakad curse" was cast upon the dynasty in the 17th century by the queen of the neighbouring Srirangapatna kingdom when it was invaded and annexed by Mysore's kings. The queen fled with the temple jewels and hid near a village called Talakad. Discovered by her enemies, she cursed the royal house of Mysore for eternity and jumped to her death in the river Cauvery.
"Since 1610, barring one king who had a deaf and mute son, no other king in the Wodeyar line has had children," said Raja Chandra, the late Mysore king's brother in law. "People can say it is because of the curse or not, but the history is true: that cannot be denied."
India's courts system is notoriously slow, and the chances of a decision on the succession dispute any time soon appear slim. This does not discourage the royal claimant, however.
"I am not a doormat, no one can ride roughshod over me. I will fight for my rights," Urs said.
Such disputes are not rare in India. In 2013, two sisters inherited more than £2bn after a court found that the will of their father, the last maharaja of Faridkot,was void. The testament had left his estate to a trust run by servants and lawyers.