Royal Splendour

Last Maharaja of Jaipur

2011-04-18T16:48:00.001-07:00

HH Brigadier Sawai Bhawani Singh, who died aged 79 on April 17, 2011, was the last recognized Maharaja of Jaipur.

The Telegraph

Sawai Bhawani Singh Bahadur was born on October 22 1931 to Sawai Man "Jai" Singh II (Maharaja of Jaipur from 1911) and Marudhar Kanwar of Jodhpur. Given the nickname "Bubbles" by his British nanny because of the gallons of champagne consumed at his birth, Bhawani Singh became 39th head of Kachwaha clan of Rajputs and Maharaja of Jaipur following the death of his father, Sawai Man "Jai" Singh II, at a polo match in Cirencester in 1970.

The Crown Prince was educated at the Doon School, Dehradun, and later at Harrow. As a young man he served in the Indian Army, becoming commanding officer of the elite Commando formation: the 10th Parachute Regiment in 1968. During the 1971 war with Pakistan, he led his troops deep into Pakistani territory, attacking and destroying several enemy posts including the Indus Rangers HQ at Chachro. During the fighting, he was said to have duped Pakistani troops into believing that a formation of Indian tanks was advancing on their position when in reality the vehicles were revving jeeps. For this, he was awarded the Mahavir Chakra, and was promoted to the rank of brigadier in 1974.

However the Maharaja's services to his country were soon forgotten as Indira Gandhi's rewriting of the Indian constitution in 1971 signalled a new and ugly phase in Indian politics. During the 1960s, the Maharaja's formidable stepmother, Gayatri Devi, had joined the anti-Congress Swatantra Party and, in 1962, won a seat in the Lok Sabha in the world's largest electoral landslide. In July 1975 both she and her stepson were arrested and incarcerated in Tihar Jail near Delhi, one of the worst prisons in India. No serious charges were ever laid against either the Maharaja or his stepmother, and after protests from Lord Mountbatten and senior Indian Army officers, he was released on bail. Styled Rajmata Gayatri Devi after the death of her husband, and freed a few months later, Jaipur's beloved people's princess passed away in 2009.

In Jaipur, the Maharaja continued to behave very much in the old Indian princely spirit – if not with quite the same regal opulence. He held regular durbars at which people could come for help and advice and took a full traditional part in Hindu festivals. Many villagers in Rajasthan continued to regard him as a king. The Maharaja served as president of Rajasthan Polo Club and, during his retirement, as Indian High Commissioner to Brunei from 1994 to 1997.

In 1966 he had married Princess Padmini Devi of Sirmour, the daughter of his father's polo-playing friend Rajendra Singh. Among the scandals in this royal family was the marriage of his daughter within the Kachwaha clan, which though consistent with modern law went against Rajput tradition. In 2002 the Maharaja, who had a daughter but no son, stunned his family by announcing his intention to adopt his three-year-old grandson, Padmanabh Singh, as his heir, overriding the claims of his stepbrothers. Thus, while he passed away as the last recognized Maharaja of Jaipur, Bhawani Singh leaves behind his name and properties to his daughter's son whom he adopted in 2002, and who is also a Kachwaha Rajput on his father's side of the family.

HH Brigadier Sawai Bhawani Singh gets a state funeral

The body, draped in the Tricolour, was kept on a gun-carriage and driven in a procession through the Walled City localities such as Hawa Mahal (below photo), Tripolia, Bari Chaupad and Gangauri Bazaar on way to the royal crematorium. Thousands of residents paid floral tributes to the departed Maharaja even as the attendants threw consecrated rice into the ranks of mourning people. The procession was accompanied by caparisoned and decorated elephants and horses marching in tandem with the tunes of a military band. The elephants and horses were bereft of riders as a mark of bereavement.
The Hindu

Acting Rajasthan Governor Shivraj Patil and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot joined the mourners at Chandra Mahal in the City Palace before the procession started, while soldiers belonging to Brig. Bhawani Singh's 10 Para Commando battalion carried his body and put it on the gun carriage. All government offices in the entire Jaipur district were closed following a public holiday and two-day State mourning declared to condole the former ruler's death. The national flag at Government buildings flew at half-mast across the desert State.

At the cremation ground, Brig. Bhawani Singh's 12-year-old grandson and adopted heir Padmanabh Singh lit the pyre amid chanting of Vedic hymns. Hindu priests recited mantras from ancient scriptures as the Maharaja's mortal remains were consigned to flames. According to the royal family's traditions, Padmanabh Singh will now ascend the titular throne of Jaipur.

Jodhpur royalty 2010 events

2011-01-04T22:43:00.000-08:00

Maharaja Gaj Singh and Yuvaraj Shivraj Singh of Jodhpur featured in the Hurlingham Polo magazine, back in October 2010. The close of the year traditionally marks the end of the Jodhpur polo season, and from the 26th to 30th December Jodhpur hosted the invitation only "Royal Salute Maharaja of Jodhpur Golden Jubilee Cup". Indian and international teams competed on the historic polo field beneath the magnificent Umaid Bhawan Palace. The sport of polo is the modern legacy of traditional equestrian skills and has been patronized by royalty and the military. "Polo was an ideal outlet during peace times and also provided for healthy competition with British regiments and other princely states," says Maharaja Gaj Singh.

Gaj Singh himself missed out on playing polo, and the sport lost royal patronage, because of the merger of princely states into Independent India. At the event Gaj Singh said, "Polo has been towards the last century part of Jodhpur's heritage and we took a downturn after the war when the states got merged in the late 40s and so I thought that's why I missed out on polo myself. I thought when I came back from England, I saw a lot of polo there, I'd like to revise things here, we got started and we set up this ground and my son took to it and now we've got a lot of young people coming forward and its encouraging to see them."

Gaj Singh with the winners of the Golden Jubilee Cup, the local Jodhpur Knights, who beat the Hyderabad Polo and Riding Club by 10 to 7 1/2 goals. This polo event also included the Royal Salute Golden Jubilee Ball and the Maharaja's exclusive New Year's Eve celebrations at the historic Merhrangarh Fort, attended by Indian and foreign patrons of polo, like the Duke of Argyll. Gaj Singh's son Shivraj had been responsible for polo's revival in Jodhpur.....sadly he suffered a serious head injury during a 2005 polo match.

One of the most significant events in Jodhpur last year was the wedding of Shivraj with Rajkumari Gayatri Kumari of Askote in Uttarakhand. The wedding took place on November 18, 2010, at the Rambagh Palace Hotel in Jaipur. In the photo below, by Anu Malhotra, a galaxy of former royals took part in the prince's barat procession.

Extreme left Nawab Kazim Ali of Rampur, third from left Yuvraj Vikramaditya Singh of J&K, Maharawal Brijraj Singh of Jaisalmer, Maharana Mahendra Singh of Mewar, Maharaja Gaj Singh of Jodhpur, King Gyanendra of Nepal, Maharaja Ranjit Singh Gaikwad of Vadodara, Maharana Mahipendra Singh of Danta (second row grey sherwani), Maharaja Brij Raj Singh of Kishangarh, Maharaja Vishvendra Singh of Bharatpur, and Maharaj Amar Singh of Idar.

Royal cooking

2010-04-20T23:39:00.000-07:00

Cooking with traditional implements at the erstwhile princely state of Sailana in Madhya Pradesh (photo by Nilanjana S Roy). Late Digvijaya Singh of Sailana wrote The Cooking Delights of the Maharajas with the express aim of preserving the traditional Indian art of cooking. That book leans more towards game meat recipes of the Maharajas but also has the recipes for many vegetarian dishes. Many other Indian Princely States now have their wealth of traditional dishes now being served at their palaces-turned-hotels:

From the Maharaja's kitchen

The Maharajahs were proud of their kitchen and the food had a unique flavour. Says Arvind Singh Mewar, erstwhile Maharana of Udaipur, "It’s not what we have forgotten, it’s what we have abandoned! The dishes were cooked over slow fire, using heavy utensils. We’ve given the ‘sula’ to the world. I now find ‘Maas ka sula’ in the menus of restaurants in London. The liqueurs brewed in Mewar like ‘Aasha’ was our gift to the world."

When the Maharajah’s chefs returned from training in France and England, they experimented with local food. In Indore, Maharaja Yeshwant Rao Holkar had four chefs — Swiss, Indian, French and one just to cook meat! Says Padma Kumari, the erstwhile Maharani of Bikaner, "We used to see a lot of experimentation. Food went fusion. There was a time at Bikaner Palace when the menu cards were printed in French. A popular dish from our state is Lapsi. I was born in the Chamba royal family, where the Madra was popular, made by mixing rajma, curd and ghee. Food meant grandeur."

Every chef in the royal kitchen challenged himself to better chefs in other states. Says Sangita Kathiwada of the Kathiwada royal family, "The Maharajahs were proud of their chefs. In Kathiwada, the Ustad or head chef was respected as someone who turned out unusual dishes. We’ve given dahi-vada, dal ka halwa to the world. One dish from the Sailana family that was my husband’s favourite was Hari Mirch ka Maas, made with one kg of meat, one kg of hari mirch and one kg of ghee, soaked overnight, and then cooked the next day."