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Business News/ Mint-lounge / A king among palaces
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A king among palaces

A king among palaces

Panoramic view: (left) The Rotunda under construction; the finished structure as it stands today.Premium

Panoramic view: (left) The Rotunda under construction; the finished structure as it stands today.

The architecture of the 347-room Umaid Bhawan palace of Jodhpur (originally known as Chittar Palace and commissioned in 1925 by Maharaja Umaid Singh of Jodhpur) comes under the scanner in Jodhpur’s Umaid Bhawan, The Maharaja of Palaces. With detailed captions by historian and hotelier Aman Nath, this coffee-table tome presents a spirited defence of the palace’s architecture and the fact that its roots are in Hindu and Buddhist architectural styles, rather than British imperial sensibilities, as is often alleged.

Panoramic view: (left) The Rotunda under construction; the finished structure as it stands today.

Unlike his counterpart Edwin Lutyens (who through “diplomacy, charm and subtle conniving" earned the commission for the government/Viceroy’s House—now Rashtrapati Bhavan—from under HVL’s nose) HVL’s “personal convictions would not let European classical elements intrude on Indian cultural traditions". And given the Jodhpur royal family’s history with the Mughals, there was no way Indo-Saracenic architecture would be adopted.

Jodhpur’s Umaid Bhawan Palace: The Maharaja of Palaces: By Aman Nath, text by Fred R. Holmes & Ann Newton Holmes, photographs by Amit Pasricha, India Book House, 172 pages, Rs2,500.

The book dwells not just on the history of the building but also tells us why this palace was conceived; how the structure evolved; how the decorative motifs were adapted in Art Deco style; and touches upon the lives of the royal family of Jodhpur.

For those fascinated by Indian royalty, the book is worth collecting. Anecdotes and trivia about the family and its history fill the pages: The maharaja paying an advance of £2,600 (around Rs2, now) to HVL’s firm when the deal was done; photographs of the floor plans and the construction site; and a painting of the maharaja laying the foundation stone (which now lies beneath the swimming pool).

Ten gatefolds open up to showcase larger photographs with intricate details, which add to the beauty of the book, although it would have been great if one of them had been used to juxtapose images of the Angkor Wat with the Umaid Bhawan.

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Published: 19 Sep 2008, 11:17 PM IST
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