As soon as you glimpse the Deogarh Mahal, you can see that its rulers must have been major players in the aristocracy of Mewar - their magnificent fort a fitting stronghold for one of the sixteen "umraos" - the most senior feudal barons attending on the Maharana of Udaipur. But you might not necessarily guess that the Rawats of Deogarh (a local title equivalent to "Raja") once ruled over the fourth largest feudal estate or "jagir" in all of Rajasthan. At its most extensive, their territory comprised of some 210 villages, with one of their defensive forts as far as 100 kms away. Yet there is little ostentation and even less gold to be found in their palace. Like most of the Mewar nobility, they spent too much time fighting to have much to spare for amassing great wealth.

Deogarh's relationship with Udaipur had its ups and downs but it was probably closer than most because it was by family ties of distant cousinship. Indeed, if the Rawats' ancestor, Prince Chunda had had a less sense of pride, the throne of Mewar might even have been theirs...

Chunda ji renounces the throne

At the beginning of the 15th century, Chunda Sisodia was the Mewar heir apparent. His family was the oldest and pre-eminent dynasty of all Hindu India. But the rising stars at this time were undoubtedly the Rathors of Marwar. Although they had yet to found Jodhpur, they had already conquered important territory, including the forts of Ajmer & Nagaur, and made themselves the unchallenged rulers of the ancient capital of Mandore. And nothing would endorse this new found prestige better than a Sisodia marriage.

So Ranmal, the heir apparent to the throne of Marwar set off for Chittor (the Sisodia- capital in these early days before the founding of Udaipur) bearing a coconut, the traditional symbol of a marriage proposal. He was offering the hand of the Rathor Princess Hansabai, as a bride for Prince Chunda. But Chunda ji was inconveniently out when he arrived, so his elderly father, Rana Lakha, was forced to entertain the emissary in his absence.

"Surely," he said, "this beautiful young bride can't be for an old greybeard like me. "

Momentarily forgetting that his visitor possessed a notoriously fiery temper, he had ventured a joke that, for all its feebleness, would shortly change the course of his family history. Not that the coconut-carrying Rathor seemed to mind. Ranmal chuckled politely enough. It was Chunda ji who showed the spectacular sense-of-pride, on his return. He declined to marry a princess that his father had "spurned", whereupon Rana Lakha suddenly did remember Ranmal's temper. And simply to keep the peace, he found himself marrying Hansabai after all.

But there was one condition. Chunda ji had to renounce his claim to the throne in favour of any son born of this marriage, which he duly did. And so it was Hansabai's young son, Mokal, who succeeded to the throne of Mewar when Rana Lakha died in 1421.

Chunda ji to the rescue

Unfortunately for the peace of Mewar, Maharana Mokal's reign lasted only twelve years. He was murdered in 1433. And this was the cue for the appalling Ranmal's reappearance. His top priority was avenging the murder (something he carried off with particular aplomb chopping off the murderer's head and then forcing a grief-stricken daughter to sit on her father's decapitated body and marry him!). But then he soon persuaded himself to stay on as regent to Maharana Mokal's infant son, Kumbha ji the future builder of Kumbhalgarh. And gradually the Sisodias saw Ranmal and his cronies assume every important office in the state. The last straw was a tactless promise to make his lover Bharmali, one of the palace maids, Queen of Mewar. At which point, the cries went out for Chunda ji to come to their aid.

Ranmal was understandably unenthusiastic about the prospect of Chunda's ji return and wanted to lock the gates against him. But Mokal's widow persuaded him that Chittor could not exclude the man who had so nobly renounced the throne of Mewar. And once inside, Chunda ji could take advantage of Ranmal's two main enthusiasms in life - alcohol and women. As he lay in one of his characteristic drunken stupors, the treacherous Bharmali (never trust a palace maid!) tied him to his bed with his turban and ushered in the Sisodia death squad.

Ranmal's young son, Jodha, had meanwhile taken the hint and fled but Chunda ji pursued him as far as Mandore where he captured the Rathor capital and left it under the control of two of his sons. Twelve years later, in 1453, Jodha returned to win it back and, this time, he chased the Sisodias all the way back to Chittor, killing both of Chunda ji's sons in the process. At which point it was agreed that enough was enough and the spot just north of Ghanerao where the younger son fell became the dividing line between Marwar and Mewar for the next three centuries.

Chunda ji founds a separate dynasty

It was all very well making peace with Marwar but Chunda ji was still effectively homeless. So, while Jodha famously went off to found a new capital in Jodhpur in 1459, Chunda ji and his descendants set about conquering their own semi-independent territories north-west of Chittor for a new "Chundawat" dynasty. Of course, the notoriously fierce tribespeople who already lived there had other ideas and at least four of the Deogarh family's ancestors, including Rawat Isardas ji, paid for their land with their lives.

The founding of Deogarh itself had to wait until 1670 but it was the great-grandson,Sanga ji, coming to power in 1521, who we can identify as the first of the separate "Sangawat" sub-clan that was ultimately to build this palace.

The Rawats of Deogarh at a glance

Rawat Sanga ji (1521-1574)
Rawat Duda ji (1574-1611)
Rawat lsardas ji (1611-1641)
Rawat Gokuldas ji I (1641-1669)
Rawat Dwarkadas ji (1669-1706)
Rawat Sangram Singh ji I (1706-1737)
Rawat Jaswant Singhji (1737-1776)
Rawat Raghodas ji (1776-1786)
Rawat Gokuldas ji II (1786-1821)
Rawat Nahar Singh ji I (1821-1847)
Rawat Ranjit Singh ji (1847-1867)
Rawat Kishan Singh ji (1867-1900)
Rawat Bijay Singh ji (1900-1943)
Rawat Sangram Singh ji II (1943-1965)
Rawat Nahar Singh ji II (1965- )

But perhaps a detailed exploration of the palace itself has now been deferred for long enough.

The building has a colourful story to tell but we can best uncover the rest of Deogarh's history as we go, letting individual parts of the palace reveal their particular associations with its various chapters.. .

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