Numerous
exotic, massive Indian palaces at lots of places
in India are remainders of past legacy and by-gone era of prosperity
and plenty of the royal families. It shows how Indian Maharajas
and Nawobs had lived lavishly and built elegant buildings of architectural beauty and workmanship. The colonial rulers were very much
impressed by their affluence and easy way of life and the hoards of
rich treasures they had in their secret vault. The British sahibs at last took over their rich, prosperous kingdoms using various pretexts.
Umaid
Bhawan Palace Rajasthan,
India,
is world's second largest private residence – a palatial place. Named after Maharajah
Umaid Singh, grandfather of the present owners of the palace, this
monument has 347 rooms and once served as the principal residence of
the erstwhile Jodhpur royal family. Also called Chittar
Palace
due to its location atop a hill and use of stones commonly known as
Chittar (pink sand stones) in the building. It
has a total of 347 rooms with a beautifully ornamented 110 feet high inspiring central dome. The art deco façade incorporates traditional Indian accents, while the interiors showcase incredible Polish frescoes, marble and an immense central dome. The palm court marble (as in the Taj) stores are carefully used to give accent to to its majesty.
Presently the palace has three functional parts –
royal museum, residence of the present royal family of Raja Umaid
Singh and a luxury hotel - Taj Palace hotel (operating since 1972).
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| Umaid Bhavan palace cars owned by the royal family mandore.com |
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Umaid Bhavan palace, Jodhpur. esamskititi. com
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The
architect of the palace was Henry Vaughan Lanchester (1863–1953). An astonishing feature
of the palace is that no mortar or cement was used in its
construction. Rather, carved stones were used and joined together by
a system of interlocking positive and negative pieces - something like dove-tailing. It is said
that about 5000 men were employed by the ruler in the construction of
the Umaid Bhawan Palace during the time of famine. The
Maharajah was humane and kind and helped his subjects who had faced starvation. He kept them alive in return for work when
building the palace.
Work began on the 18th
November of 1929 and completed in 1943, four years before India's
independence. At that time the cost of construction came to somewhere
around a whooping sum - one crore (ten million) rupees.
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