Fort Begu
The present ruler of Fort Begu, Hari Singh, has told the following story about his great, great grandfather “great great grandfather could not abide the intense summer heat of Rajasthan and particularly the hot nights that troubled his sleeping. He therefore devised a scheme which would bring him blessed sleep. His bedroom on the fifth floor of the palace within the fort was to have a waterproofed floor and walls to a depth of 2ft while cool blue fresco’s ornamented the walls and mirror work studded the ceiling. Each of the four walls had windows with rattan blinds and the roof was arranged with split logs running transversely in a gentle slope and it was surrounded on all sides by a robust parapet wall.
When the heat became oppressive, during the months of March, April and May the order was given for a human conveyor belt of women to take water from the forts well to the maharaja’s summer bedroom on the fifth floor. The steps leading up are stone, irregular and as narrow as a ships ladder turning through 8 90 deg angles to the very top of the palace: not that this was arduous for the women carrying the buckets they simply stayed still passing buckets hand over hand! There being enough women to form a conveyor belt to the top: woe-be-tied she who spilt water though!
Supported over a gang plank, by his servants the maharaja commanded from his floating cool bed for “the storm” to begin. Additional endless buckets of water doused the rattan blinds, thereafter heavy iron cannon balls were released across the roof above creating the requisite thunder whilst Chinese fireworks provided the effect of the lightning! When his chief minister had established that the great ruler had nodded off he hopped outside to cease the production of “the storm” lest the great man should be disturbed!!!
The early 18th century English dramatist John Dennis, who coined the phrase, “to steal my thunder.” He was considerably less efficient at producing thunder as he used a long wooden trough down which 6 full grown pigs were made to run: this being done at Covent Garden theatre he was irked to find that they used his “thunder” but would not present his play!
Raj Pippla Packard
During a visit to the palace in Gujarat I asked if they had any old cars and was told the maharaja had kept 12 Rolls Royces in London, though some of these may have done service at his Sunningdale residence also, and a minimum of 12 divided between Raj Pippla and Bombay none of which are extant: however they did have a 1940’s Packard in an old elephant stall adjacent to the palace. This beautiful poly-chromatic bottle green saloon with Packard’s’ famous and silky smooth straight eight engine has less than 1,000 miles on the odometer and the tyres are so flat the rims of the wheels are burying themselves into the flooring of the stall.
The legend goes that the chauffeur having parked the car he forgot to close all the windows and returning to it several days later found a python comfortable on the Bedford cord back seat: the car has never moved from that day in 1947 to this! I asked the current maharaja why they did not remove the python to which he said the doors had been opened and they shouted “shoo” but the snake was immoveable and with it not being auspicious in Hindu custom to upset such a snake and the full disruption of Partition going on nothing more was done!
Raj Pippla’s Windsor Castle
With 24 Rolls-Royces and a property in Sunningdale, on which garden lawn Pippla’s close friend the Aly Khan used to land his aircraft when visiting the King and Queen at Windsor Castle, Pippla was accustomed to eccentric lavish building follies. As well as their palaces in India the maharaja decided to build a copy of Windsor Castle high up on the banks of the Kalubhar River. When we visited well after the rainy season the river was about 300ft down the ravine yet that mighty river swelled during a monsoon sufficient to flood the upstairs bedrooms almost to their ceilings! What was salvageable, after the monsoon floods subsided, was taken out and this Indian Windsor Castle was demolished rather than remaining as a folly and a home for monkeys!
The Headless Beater
A great hunt was organized for the maharana of Udaipur: all manner of animals would be hunted but there was only one that fired the imagination of the maharajas and the upper echelon of the British Raj; the Indian tiger. The maharana comfortably seated atop his elephant, one of 40 in this particular hunt, entered the jungle following 350 beaters each armed with a wooden stave and each calling out to dragoon the tiger into a veritable trap to receive the expert shot from the maharana’s high powered sporting gun.
After some considerable time a large male was flushed from the jungle and, poised in his howdah the maharana fired, but only wounded that magnificent beast. Now a wounded tiger is immensely more dangerous and with the daylight now beginning to fail the command was given to flush out that deadly beast: The beaters went forward clattering their staves and screaming from their tired lungs for all they were worth but one particular scream was heard above all the others and then the jungle went quiet: the beaters cried out that one of their number had been killed whereupon the headless corpse of a beater was found with no evidence of a struggle, though it was clear from pug marks and blood around, that the tiger had sort his revenge.
A Hindu may not be cremated unless his body is intact and particularly the corpse must have a head so the search began, now with lanterns, in that gloomy jungle but as night was pressing and the tiger was evidently still very dangerous the hunt was called off and the headless body of the beater was carried home. The following morning an autopsy revealed the beaters head had been pushed down into his ribcage collapsing his lungs and creating the impression by the gore all around that it had been bitten off. It is unclear what the fate was of the wounded tiger but it has been established that a tigers’ front paw can deliver a blow of 350lbs.
Attacked by bees
Following a severe skirmish on the Indo-Pak border one of the soldiers killed was from Deogarh and a military style funeral was arranged. A platoon from his regiment fired the salute over his pyre with their WW1 British Lee Enfield rifles and one bullet, instead of going skyward, went into a nearby tree and hit a bee hive. The angry bees descended on the mourners and the funeral was delayed for 4hrs as many were hospitalised because of the bee stings. That Lee Enfield rifle was deadly accurate and produced in millions from just before WW1 until the 1960’s it was made under licence and even pirated in many countries. In fact during the terrorist attacks in Bombay in 2008 the police found their guns either inoperative or a liability to use, sending the bullets many yards wide of their target, threatening bystanders more than the terrorists!
Deogarh Mercedes Benz
In the early 1960’s when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi stopped paying the Privy Purse to India’s marharajas the trappings of wealth and former glory abruptly came to an end. Expensive items such as palaces, elephants and aeroplanes had long gone and in a country like India these trappings rapidly deteriorated and so it was with their expensive cars: Rolls Royces were given away to staff members who could ill afford them and impecunious Britishers took out large quantities of these cars which inevitably ended up in America.
One such car, a 1930’s Mercedes Benz, probably of the SS type was carted away from Deogarh palace for its value in scrap metal: but this car was not scrapped and nor was it exported as it now resides in an Indian collection valued at about 1 1/2 million Pounds Sterling.
Raj Guram, the owner of the reproduction furniture company R & J Guram which makes exact replicas of the campaign furniture of the British Raj, left university with a passion for buying and selling sporting guns and tells how he was forced to buy another wonderful Mercedes Benz. The Maharaja of Bundi would only sell his Purdy shotgun, now utterly useless and unusable since Indira Gandhi made it a criminal offence to hunt any of India’s wildlife, on condition that he would take a fabulous Mercedes Benz! Raj made a telephone call to a friend who arranged to pick up the car and that was disposed of for very little money; probably to an American collector.
The backdrop to this irrational fever to rid themselves of these wonderful pieces of objets-d’art was a growing malcontempt by the mass population against their former rulers who were now perceived to have colluded with the British and lived an exotic lifestyle at their expense. The maharajas were allowed to keep six palaces but the land which supported their income and upkeep was confiscated and distributed: there was a strong backlash therefore, fired up by Communist insurgents against what was then perceived to be a medieval tyranny.
The following story may explain the sentiments of these times.
Marwar Junction Rajasthan
After the 1857 mutiny by Indian sepoys when the bloodletting was excessive both by the Indians and the British, a wind of change blew across the Sub Continent: The British East India Co established in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st was a private joint stock company whose main purpose was profit: this company was dissolved and a new liberal and enlightened administration directly under the Crown of England set about massive infrastructure development for all the major cities.
The railway had first been seen as a function of administration, control and power. Now it would be developed creating one of the biggest railway networks in the world.
The natural route between Udaipur and Jaipur would pass through Devgrah and the railway being planned would pick its way through the Aravalli Hills closely following this ancient road. In due course a senior administrator arrived at Devgah to discuss the new railway and its junction planned for that town but this is what the Maharaja dreaded: he didn’t want the noisy, Smokey and smelly contraptions in his backyard, but the rule of the British Raj would be absolute, until it was discovered over dinner one night that the chief engineer/railways administrator, an elderly man on the cusp of retirement, had one last passion before he left for England; to bag a big brown bear! The Maharaja had shown his dislike for the proposed plans and the administrator had shown his passion to hunt a brown bear!
The conversation over drinks after dinner soon came round to that shared passion between the Indian Raj and British Raj: hunting and the Maharaja courteously suggested that a hunt would be arranged thinking that leopard or even blue boar would be the quarry but the engineer wanted to take home his bear.
Now as brown bears or any form of bear does not habituate Rajasthan some lateral thinking had to be done and an old dancing bear was found in Pushkar and purchased. Of course it was tame, arthritic and pretty shabby and would not go about alone after a life of being conditioned to be with its handler.
The great day came when the rather geriatric chief engineer, sightless in one eye and rather uncomfortable in his hot hide was ready with his sporting gun to bag his bear. Meanwhile the bear handlers were having trouble prodding the old bear out into the field of fire as push though they may he kept coming back to them and after a lot of cajoling of the bear and distracting of the engineer the bear was held back behind some rocks while the handler quickly scooted across the field of fire to another outcrop and called to the bear who was now released: two simultaneous shots were fired, the other by the Maharaja’s own marksman as they feared the old engineer was not a good shot but the bear fell to one bullet.
There was great rejoicing that evening and Marwar Junction, a small town 30 miles west over that Aravalli range was confirmed as the junction and somewhere in England a stuffed brown bear will grace the hallway of a country residence.
MOTORING STORIES FROM THE TIMES OF INDIA AS TOLD TO US BY THE MAHARAJA OF SHARPURA
Motoring in India story I
A little car carrying 4 people travelling through a crowded town with a narrow road in a forest area came an elephant walking slowly in the same direction; the little car could not pass though he tooted loudly. After some time the driver got agitated and tooting all the more drove the little car to just touch the elephant’s leg. The elephant now looked round and seeing the little car, sat on it. The little car was crushed and all 4 occupants were taken to hospital with broken legs, arms and broken ribs etcetera. The elephant trudged on disappearing into the jungle the other side of town!
Motoring in India story II
A lorry travelling down the major trunk road NH8 was loaded with a very large sheet of steel that hung over the lorry bed by several feet each side. As night was approaching 3 cars in line were slowly overtaking the lorry when a motorbike passed them on the inside at a fast speed. As it came to the lorry, not having seen the steel sheet hanging over the lorry sides, his head was cut clean off. The head went up in the air then landed on the first car shattering its windscreen and covering it with blood and gore. That car spun off the road crashing badly. The 2nd car not having seen what had happened now saw a headless driver on a motorcycle which was driving perfectly but with a spurt of blood going into the air and covering his windscreen. Thinking this was a ghoul and the reason the first car had crashed this driver now panicked and also crashed badly.
The 3rd car now crashed into the headless driven motorcycle which had fallen over his path and the roadway was completely blocked by the carnage.
Motoring in India story III
A large tanker lorry was driving down the Grand Trunk Road between Calcutta and Benares carrying a very flammable liquid. A car following was closely keeping out of the wind in order to conserve his fuel suddenly ran into the back of the tanker lorry as it stopped abruptly. The collision set off a great fire so powerful it was described as an atom bomb by the newspapers as a crater in the road was of a cars depth and across both lanes which it remained blocked for days.
Few remains of the car or lorry were found which were identifiable: only the burnt teeth of one person. The lorry owners were not traced as nobody came forward to claim the responsibility!
Jodhpur’s UMAID BHAWAN
Calcutta, though it had been the origins of the British East India Company and the seat of power of the British Raj was thought to be too remote from a new dynamic being played out, real or imagined: “The Great Game”.
Certainly Russia was advancing its borders south and east and Afghanistan had caused far too many anxieties let alone the perennial problems of the North West Frontier and so the old Moghul capital of Delhi was to have a British brother, New Delhi.
Tenders went out to British architects to build a vast new city suitable as a capital for the British Empire: rivers would be diverted, forests would be razed and mountains would be moved and a neo classical architecture would rise with broad boulevards and meticulous parks and gardens. There were three principal architects capable of filling this broad canvas with their art but only one would shine head and shoulders above the other two: Henry Vaughn Lanchester had come up through his father’s architectural business in St. Johns Wood London and though born with the incapacity of a paralyzed left leg he had pursued his art to all the major and interesting cities of Europe: Rome, Athens, Dresden, Paris and of course he knew all the best examples of his home town London but he had also visited Cambodia to study Angkor Wat stopping on the outward and return journey at Mandalay, Calcutta, Bombay, Istanbul and Cairo in his post student days.
A combination of Hindu, Art-Deco/Nouveau and British Empire Colonial architectural styles, itself based on Colonial Greek & Roman styles would be combined to produce the finest and most expensive palace ever built: Jodhpur’s Umaid Bhawan.
But we get ahead of the story for the great prize of any architect, possibly ever, would be a new World class city, New Delhi. The Delhi Durbar of 1911 for the coronation of the King Emperor, George V was held in a vast field under canvas and although the British had set up head quarters in Delhi they were of a very temporary nature and whilst architects pored over their drawing boards accountants were becoming alarmed at the staggering costs which were being mooted and in all, New Delhi would not be completed until 1946, just in time for the British Raj to hand it over to the Indian Congress!
HVL was of a firm opinion that while the style of the architecture should suit the times it should also pay homage to the host country and India was after all, to use that most hackneyed phrase, “The jewel in the Imperial Crown” therefore the predominate style should be fresh and Hindu Indian combined with the contemporary and fashionable Art-Deco/ Nouveau, such as one might see in the erection of the Chrysler building going up in New York.
Like all the Lanchester brothers, Henry Vaughan was a tireless and choleric worker: he rarely had to revise his plans and his team of draughtsmen would work long hours to achieve what Henry Vaughan’s intellectual capacity would conceive: another Lanchester trait was his insistence on the very best materials to be used on his designs: Adolph Hitler may have planned for a 1,000 year Reich but his architecture, the portion that survives of Germania, looks tired and shabby today while HVL’s looks fresh and absolute: it may not continue for 1,000 years but it is wearing well on its way to its 1st century.
H.V.L. was the first to submit his plans, 4 complete different sets; for New Delhi and he was the first to be rebutted by Viceroy Hardinge as the costs were staggeringly high and beyond the scope of the combined British Raj and London’s financial might! A third Lanchester trait was his lack of a courtly style which came naturally to his adversary Edwin Lutyens of Baker and Lutyens London architects. It is rather interesting to superimpose the drawings of Umaid Bhawan over Viceroy’s House which of course it dwarfs, with 347 rooms over 320. It is immediately apparent that there is more than a hint of plagiarism! If one considers that Lutyens had been hard set against any style with a hint of an Indian architectural echo one has to become sceptical as to what happened with those plans that HVL had submitted.
Back at home and licking his wounds HVL received a messenger from the Maharaja Umaid Singh Rathore offering him the opportunity to build a new palace within sight of Mehrangarh Fort Jodhpur the ancestral fort palace of the Rathore’s. True to form Henry took the first steam ship to Bombay and then train to Jodhpur: after a couple of weeks of discussions with the Maharaja a set of plans was prepared.
The style would of course be influenced by contemporary architecture and demonstrate the Hindu temple – mountain design which HVL had picked up from Angkor Wat: the Rathore’s were one of the few Hindu rulers never to lose battle to the Moghul’s though as many as 7 of them had died fighting Moghul expansionism. The decoration would be Art-Deco/Nouveau. Every room, hall and passageway would receive refrigerated air conditioning to cope with those blistering Rajasthani summers. Though HVL’s design with high ceilings and that vast dome kept the need for refrigeration necessary only during the monsoon.
There was a basement swimming pool, possibly the most beautiful indoor swimming pool ever created; it would be heated for those winter months when ice can form just before dawn! This vast palace would be built from locally quarried stone, that gorgeous pink-amber coloured sandstone exclusive to the state of Jodhpur and each huge block would be precision fitted with dowels and guided perfectly into position by being gently lowered on blocks of ice which as it melted gave sufficient time for the masons to pull and push it onto its pegs: no mortar was needed. Each of the four giant finials was a massive water tower sufficient to see the palace through any drought! The furnishing details, designed by HVL came from Maples of London.
What, one wonders, would New Delhi have looked like today had Henry Vaughn Lanchester been its architect?
Anybody unlucky enough not to have visited India and seen Lutyens “Viceroy’s House” and compared it with Lanchester’s Umaid Bhawan has a great opportunity in store as the new film “Viceroy’s House”, dealing with the 1947 Partition will notice a few long shots of the Viceroy’s House, now Rashtrapati Bhavan, , while the rest of the filming was done at Umaid Bhawan Jodhpur! Even in this film one can see the sheer grandeur against Lutyens faint copy, easily distinguishable, even in the long shots, by Lutyens elongated dome.