Umaid Bhawan

Umaid Bhawan Palace is one of India’s last remaining grand palaces and one of the largest in the world. It was built between 1929 and 1944 on Chittar Hill, southeast of Jodhpur, by Maharaja Umaid Singh (1918–1947).

The palace was titled as per the king’s name and is now home to his grandson, Maharaja Gaj Singh II of Jodhpur. It is also, in part, an opulent luxury hotel and was built as a drought-relief measure along with many other public structures like dams, roads, and schools; and employed over 3,000 people for 15 years at a total cost of Rs 94,51,565/-.

The palace, designed by famed Edwardian architect Henry Vaughan Lanchester, incorporates several Indian architectural forms while retaining Rajput customs.

With 347 rooms, this spectacular building is one of the world’s largest private mansions. In 1978, the palace was converted into a hotel and opened to the public.

A special exhibition about Maharaja Umaid Singh and the construction of Umaid Bhawan Palace is housed at the palace’s private museum.

A rare collection of ancient clocks are also lined up at the museum. The Lifestyle Gallery, which has art deco furniture, eating and writing sets, and a specific sporting area, re-creates life in the palace in the 1940s and 1950s. The Legacy Continues Gallery honours the current royal family and their hobbies.

The Background of Jodhpur’s Umaid Bhawan

Maharaja Umaid Singh laid the foundation stone for this majestic palace in 1929, and construction was completed in 1943. It was the last royal palace ever built in the country, as India became a free sovereign state just four years after the palace was completed, and free India had no royal families or palaces. Only the opulent mansions erected by previous rulers survived as a reminder of the past.

The Jodhpur Curse

According to popular tradition, the construction of Jodhpur’s Umaid Bhawan is tied to a saint’s curse, which stated that a prolonged drought would follow the reign of the Rathore Dynasty. Call it a curse or a coincidence, but when Pratap Singh’s almost 50-year rule ended, Jodhpur experienced a catastrophic drought and famine that lasted three years during the 1920s.

The People’s Suffering

The city’s population was mostly made up of farmers who faced unthinkable suffering due to the drought. As month by month brought no relief from the pain, the people sought the advice of the then-king, Maharaja Umaid Singh, the 37th Rathore ruler of Marwar.

Jodhpur’s Umaid Bhawan Palace construction

When the Maharaja saw his people’s misery, he was determined to provide them with jobs that would help them get through these difficult times. He commissioned Henry Vaughan Lanchester to design Jodhpur’s Umaid Bhawan Palace, which took 14 years to be constructed and provided employment to around 3,000 residents. However, the Maharaja could only enjoy the palace’s magnificence for roughly four years after it was finished. He died in 1947.

The palace complex is built on 26 acres (11 hectares) of land, including 15 acres (6.1 ha) of gardens. The palace has a royal chamber, a private conference hall, a public Durbar Hall, a domed banquet, private dining facilities, a dance hall, a bookstore, an indoor pool and spas, a billiard room, two ball fields, four marble squash courts, and extensive hallways.

The inside centre dome is located atop the sky blue interior dome. The inner vaulted dome, which rises to 103 feet (31 m) in the interior and is crowned by an outer dome of 43 feet (13 m) height, is a central feature of the palace. The palace entrance is decorated with the Rathore Royal family’s coat of arms. The front door opens into the lobby, which features a polished black granite floor. The floors in the lounge area are pink sandstone and marble. Maharaja Gaj Singh, often known as “bapji,” lives in a section of the palace. The palace’s architecture is a mash-up of Indo-Saracenic, Classical Revival, and Western Art Deco styles. 

Conclusion

It is said that the Maharaja and the architect Lanchester based the layout and design of the palace on characteristics of Buddhist and Hindu monoliths like the Temple Mountain-Palaces of Burma and Cambodia, particularly Angkor Wat. The palace’s interior is decorated in art deco style. J.S. Norblin, a refugee from Poland, is credited with creating the paintings in the royal chamber on the east wing. According to an architectural historian, “It is the pinnacle of Indo-deco design. The shapes are precise and clean.”