On his seventh birthday, in 1951, Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar's grandfather gave
him a present that made him blush — a private residence inside Udaipur's
Lake Palace. Such extravagance was quite normal for his forebear, the 74th
Maharana of Udaipur, but what embarrassed the young boy were the old king's
motives.
“He said that it was for me and my wife,” says Shriji, who took over as
Maharana (a variation of maharajah) when his father, the 75th, died in 1984.
“Can you imagine? I was so embarrassed, I went bright red.”
Fifty-six tumultuous years later, the Maharana is talking to me over a cup of
Darjeeling tea the morning after celebrating his 63rd birthday with a
14-hour marathon of festivities.
We are sitting in his study in the Shambhu Niwas Palace in Udaipur, the former
capital of the princely state of Mewar, which his family ruled from AD566
until it merged with India in 1947.
He is reminiscing about his childhood, when India's 562 maharajahs and
maharanas, although stripped of political power in 1947, could still afford
to live like kings.
“We had great times,” he says. “But I thank my father for realising that the
privileges would not last.”
The Shambhu Niwas is just one of a dozen palaces built by his family — the
world's longest current royal dynasty — around Lake Pichola in Udaipur, now
a city of 550,000 in the northern state of Rajasthan.
Next door are the Shiv Niwas and Fateh Prakash palaces, built in the early
1900s to house international visitors, who have included the Queen, the Shah
of Iran and the Kennedys.
A hundred metres across the water is the Lake Palace, built on an island in
1746 as a playpen for the Maharana's mistresses — and more recently featured
in the James Bond film Octopussy.
On a mountain in the distance lies the Monsoon Palace, completed in 1884 and
used as a hunting lodge for the maharanas' tiger shoots in the surrounding
jungle.
Looking around the Maharana's residence, decorated with stuffed tigers, Murano
glass chandeliers and antique Rajput muskets, you might think, for a moment,
that little had changed since those pre-independence days.
The Maharana still looks and sounds the part, with a bushy white beard and a
deep baritone voice, and speaking the fluent, if stylised, English of the
Indian elite. However, he is dressed in Western clothes and sitting in front
of a laptop with three mobile phones at the ready, including an iPhone (“I
was the first in India to get it,” he says).
Unlike the 75 previous maharanas, his English and his outlook were honed
during seven years abroad, working in an hotel in Chicago and a clothing
business in Manchester. And while he still owns five of the original
palaces, these have all been turned into upmarket hotels since the Indian
Government cut off subsidies to the country's royalty in 1971. As a result,
the Maharana leads a very different life to that of his forebears, balancing
a watered-down traditional role with a modern occupation as the
owner-manager of a family business.
Most visitors to Udaipur come to see the lakes and palaces that have earned
the city its reputation as the “Venice of the East”, India's most romantic
destination, and a hangout for the bohemian jet set.
But a privileged few can also meet the Maharana face to face, gaining a rare
insight into the old — and new — India. Unlike some Indian royals, the
Maharana does not charge for meetings, but invites foreign guests with
personal references to a weekly cocktail party on a terrace overlooking the
Lake Palace.
He also opens his residence on his birthday, December 13, every year to allow
local residents, Rajput nobles and overseas visitors to pay their respects
in a ceremony that dates back several centuries. The occasion was originally
reserved for relatives and retainers, but several thousand people now
attend, mostly locals from various castes and classes.
Last week, they queued up along the palace terrace, strewn with marigold
petals, and filed past the Maharana, many bending to touch his feet as a
sign of respect and offering coins as gifts.
“People come because they wish to come and I feel it's necessary to make
people feel that I'm accessible,” the Maharana says. “I don't need to do it,
it's entirely voluntary. We've been perceived as not contributing to the
national economy, of working with the British, of being anti-Indian.”
After the five-hour ceremony, he changed out of his ceremonial robes to host a
private lunch for close family and friends.
Then, in the evening, he was back in his public role at a birthday party with
300 guests on Jagmandir, another island palace built in the 17th century.
As tartan-clad bagpipers played on the shore, guests were ferried by boat to
the island for a performance of classical Indian dance and a banquet
featuring a whole roast sheep.
Among the guests were members of the 36 Rajput noble families, Indian
politicians and a handful of foreigners, including a leading Greek fashion
photographer and a former governor of the Kazakh Central Bank.
Wandering through Jagmandir's torch-lit marble courtyards, or watching the
guests arrive by boat, it is easy to imagine similar scenes on the island
50, 100 or 300 years ago. But like the morning ceremony, the party was not
purely about tradition.
The next morning, the Maharana explains that it was held on Jagmandir for the
first time to help to publicise the restaurant that his son and heir had
recently opened there. His family operates nine hotels and is developing
plans to expand into information technology and conferencing.
Business has never been better, the Maharana says, but the worry now is that
his traditional duties hold diminishing appeal for his offspring.
“There is very little personal life as far as this position is concerned and
that's one reason the younger generation may not like it,” he says. “There's
no such thing as I or me.”
As we say our farewells, he gestures to a pile of birthday presents spread
across a table. He has not had time to open them, but one thing is sure:
they do not include a private wing of a palace.
Need to know
Abercrombie & Kent (0845 6182214, www.abercrombie
kent.co.uk) offers a Palaces of Rajasthan tailor-made tour that includes
cocktails with the Maharana of Udaipur at his palace and a breakfast at the
Monsoon Palace. The 11-night tour also takes in Delhi, Samode, Mandwa,
Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Khimsar and Rankpur. The cost, from £2,449, includes B&B,
guided sightseeing and return flights with British Airways.
Abercrombie & Kent can also arrange dinner at the Chandra Mahal, the
private palace of Maharajah Bhawani Singh at the city palace museum complex
in Jaipur. After arriving by vintage car, to be met by jewelled elephants,
camels, horses and champagne, you will be taken on a tour of the private
rooms of the 18th-century palace. Dinner, hosted by the Maharaja (or another
member of the royal family if he is away) is served at a Lalique table in a
gilded dining room hung with 19th-century Mogul paintings. The cost is from
£349pp as part of a tailor-made holiday.
Reading: White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-century India
by William Dalrymple (Harper Perennial, £8.99); The Story of India by
Michael Woods (BBC Books, £20).
Another India: five treats to tempt you off the tourist track
Caroline Hendrie
Gain first-hand insights into Tibetan culture in Dharamsala, the
headquarters of the Dalai Lama, with one of the Tibetan Buddhist leader’s
aides as your guide. Details: A full-day tour, which includes nearby
McLeod Ganj, is from £45 as part of a tailor-made trip with Audley Travel
(01993 838300, www.audleytravel.com).
Spend a romantic night on the banks of the sacred Narmada river. From
Ahilya Fort hotel, right, you can visit the holy island temple of
Omkareshwar, then step aboard a wooden boat for a gentle two-hour sail to a
secluded camping spot. After sundowners, dinner is served under the stars
while your luxurious tent with canopied bed, is set up. Next morning sail
downstream to the village where temple shivlingams are carved. About £330
per couple. Details: www.ahilyafort.com.
Visit a traditional gem therapist in Jaipur who will prescribe the
right gemstone, then dowse it, to bring you peace, prosperity, happiness and
health. No fee, but visitors make a small donation if they wish. Details:
Greaves Travel (020-7487 9111, www.greavesindia.com).
Wine tasting, anyone? Board a privately chartered Cessna for a day trip
from Bombay to the Sula vineyards in Maharashtra. The private tour includes
lunch and tastings. Details: with Greaves Travel, as before, £3,285pp.
Welcome the dawn from the terrace of the early-19th-century Peshwa Haveli
overlooking the Ganges in Varanasi, and hear Brahmins at prayer
followed by breakfast. Details: From £98pp with Abercrombie &
Kent (0845 6182210, www.abercrombiekent.co.uk).
