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Rawat Gokul das ji II

In many ways, the reign of Gokuldas ji marks Deogarh's heyday. Unlike Maharana Bhim Singh and many other members of the Mewar nobility who seem to have been reduced to beggary by the Maratha raids, Gokuldas ji seems to have successfully resisted the 'Marathas and led Deogarh through a period of considerable prosperity. The five defensive forts that he built around the town must have done the trick! His reign was also the period when many of the finest parts of the palace were built, along with the small summer palace on the lake side, known as Gokul Vilas where the present Rawat has resided, since moving out of the palace in 1968.

Probably built at the end of Rawat Gokuldas's reign, the room has some of the most refined decoration in the palace. A low dado of richly coloured elephant processions skirts the room at floor level, whilst the walls shimmer with delicate plant motifs created with inlaid reflective glass. But perhaps not quite as striking as the ceiling to be found in Room 11 'Jaswant Niwas" – of which more in a moment. The suite is often referred to as the Crown Prince's room because it was used for a number of generations as the private apartment of the heir apparent.

The particular Crown Prince after whom it is named was Jaswant Singhji, the son of Rawat Kishan Singhji (see Room 6). Unfortunately he had done that which no father-fearing young Rajput was supposed to do. He had married for love against his father wishes. The bride was Ajab Kunwar, a princess from Badnore - another of the Mewar thikanas - and a perfectly respectable consort for the future Rawat. But Kishan Singh ji and his courtiers had planned a more prestigious alliance with the daughter of Jodhpur's Sir Pratap.

A plot was hatched to poison the bride and thus restore Jaswant Singhji's eligibility. The instigators of the plot-appear to have been Jaswant Singhji's stepmothers and the manager of the Deogarh estate rather than Kishan Singhji's himself. But whoever may or may not have been implicated, the plan misfired. In the best of melodramatic traditions, Jaswant Singh ji arrived unexpectedly just as his wife was making a start on the poisoned food and helped himself to a fatal portion o fhis own.

Against which background, it may seem ironic that the room is so often allocated to newly-weds on their honeymoon. But maybe the secret lies in that ceiling. Because not only are each of the bedroom, sitting room and bathroom ceilings flamboyantly mirrored, but the one in the bedroom is also bordered with a frieze of vividly etched erotic drawings showing a generous assortment of copulating couples, both human and animal!

In contrast with all of this, the more restrained elegance of Room 12 "AJab Ovary" immediately underneath and of almost identical size - seems positively chaste. But somehow, that seems appropriate to the room that commemorates Jaswant Singhji's innocent and ill-fated bride.

Rooms 14 and 15 are located on the south Side of the palace, a floor below the level of the central courtyard and thus clearly some of the older rooms in the palace. They share a shaded terrace, with a swing and a curtained window seat overlooking one of the gardens. Together they are dedicated to Rawat Raghodasji (1776-1786) and his wife. Raghodasji's major contribution to life in Deogarh was the making of the lake the RaghoSagar that bears his name a project financed with money paid on the marriage of his sister, Kundan Kunwar to the Maharaja of Jaipur (see Room 18).

Room 14 "Medtaniji Ko Mahal", is named after Raghodasji's wife. It has numerous old wall paintings, discovered beneath many layers of whitewash at the time of the room's restoration. The best-preserved are those of the low dado at floor level, with various lively scenes of pigsticking, elephant fights and the like. Room 15 "Ragho Revas" with a similar dado, albeit slightly less well-preserved, is named after Raghodas ji himself.

Also on this same level is Room 16 "Dwarka Chopaad" with another shaded terrace looking down onto the garden. It is named after Dwarkadasji, the Rawat who founded the present town in 1670.

In the back right-hand corner of the central courtyard, you will find Rooms 17 and 18 which were used together as private apartments by Rawat Nahar Singh II and his new wife, Rani Bhooratna Prabha Kumari when they were first married. But both of these rooms are named after brides who married out of rather than into the Deogarh dynasty. Room 17 "Shringar Ovry" commemorates Shringar Kunwar,who was the daughter of Gokuldas II (see Room 10) who married Maharao Kishore Singh of Kota, while Room 18 "Kundan Kunj" honours Kundan Kunwar who was the daughter of Rawat Jaswant Singh and sister of Raghodas. She secured huge prestige for Deogarh when she married Maharaja Madho Singh ji of Jaipur. When Madho died in 1768, she assumed the role of regent to his successor, their five¬ year-old son Prithvi Singh. When Prithvi was killed in a riding accident in 1778, his younger brother, Pratap Singh succeeded him, aged 14.

A wrought iron gallery leads along the western side of the central courtyard at first floor level and the first of the rooms encountered here is Room 19 "Sangram Sadan" - the room where Rawat Sangram Singh (1943-1965) lived throughout his adult life. The niches on the side used to open directly into the Durbar Hall next door.

Rawat Sangram Singh ji

Rawat Sangram Singh ji was a much more impressive ruler than his father. Where Bijay Singhji often seems to have lived rather remote from reality, Sangram Singh ji appears to have been exceptionally focussed and clear thinking on all matters legal, administrative and financial. He was also determined to reject many of his father's westernised ways. He did away with the use of cutlery, took down the palace's European chandeliers and, sitting cross-legged on cushions, and always spurned the quintessentially western use of chairs.

His simple lifestyle may not quite have reached Ghandian austerity but he was, nonetheless, a great supporter of the Gandhi movement and made it a gift of one of Deogarh's five forts. He was also a staunch supporter of the Congress Party after Independence and personally won two elections for them.

Sangram Singh ji married Krishna Kumari, the daughter of the Maharaja of Dumrao in Bihar and Room 20 "Krishna Vihar" is where she lived throughout her marriage. Like Room 19. , it has blocked-off niches which once gave directly onto the Durbar Hall next door.

Immediately above the Krishna Vihar is Room 21 "Hawa Mahal". The name means "Wind Palace", reflecting the fact that the room was originally open to the sky, for sleeping on hot summer nights. The reciprocal room, above the Sangram Sadan, is Room 22 "Badal Mahal", meaning "Cloud Palace". The spacious private terrace outside offers one of the palace's best views of the surrounding landscape and it has always come into its own in the rainy season.

The whole family used to migrate to this terrace to enjoy the dramatic skies, eating and sleeping there until the start of the rains drove them inside, where they could continue to watch the storms from this room.Both rooms have further blocked-off niches where windows used to look down onto the elegant sitting room that is now Room 23, The Durbar Hall a large, two-storey-high reception room that was used for ceremonial functions and dances. The large oil paintings on the left are portraits of Rawat Bijay Singh ji and his young son, Sangram Singh ji. The canvases facing them are two of the Maharanas of Udaipur, Bhopal Singh ji on the right and Fateh Singhji.

Maharana Fateh singh ji of Udaipur (1884-1930)

Maharana Sahib's personal life was comparatively austere but he was always exceptionally quick to insist on his special dignity as the head of the oldest and most prestigious royal family of
Rajputana. Reversing the trend of his two immediate predecessors towards co-operation with the British, he refused to regard George V as anything more than (possibly) an equal and was consistently absent from royal and vice regal photocalls. Yet, for all his snubs, the British administration continued to treat him with extraordinary respect.

As did much of the Indian population. For them, he was not merely the head of all the Rajputs but the leader of all the Hindus as well. When he died in 1930, the public reaction suggested the passing of a divinity. And yet he had become intransigently out of touch with his people, obdurately blind to the growing tide of social unrest among the poor. So much so that, in 1921, he was formally deposed by the British. He retained his titular right to the throne but effective power devolved to his son; Bhopal Singh ji.

The "'West 'Wing”
Rooms 24 and 25 are the first of a series of rooms on the western side of the palace, which formed part of the "zenana" or women's quarter. The small room adjoining Room 24 used to be specially set aside for giving birth an approach prevailing in all the best Rajput houses. It was here, for instance, that Rawat Sangram Singhji's daughter, Laxmi Kumari (see room 8) was born.

Although still part of the old zenana, Room 26 “Bijai Mangal" is not named after any of the rulers' wives. Instead, it commemorates a favourite family elephant one of seven that they used to keep three of them tethered in the enormous elephant houses that you can see from this room, in the front courtyard.

Room 27 "Moti Mahal". The Pearl Palace was part of a suite of rooms built for the mother of
Rawat Gokuldas ji II. Apparently she was more or less confined here after the premature death of her husband, Anop Singh. But there are certainly worse fates. Along with Room 28, with which it used to connect, the Moti Mahal has some of the finest wall paintings in the palace. Those here are dominated by the sumptuous (and especially expensive) blues associated with Lord Krishna and they depict an assortment of scenes from his life.

The equally generous supply of wall paintings in Room 28 "Mayoor Mahal" has used a warmer, richer palate, particularly for an impressive, russet-red dado of vividly characterized hunting scenes. Gokuldas ji II himself makes another appearance adoring the figure of Krishna, in the company of his contemporary Bhim Singh ji from Udaipur (distinguishable by his Maharana's "halo") on the left. But "Mayoor Mahal" has nothing to do with any of these paintings. It means "Peacock Palace" and the peacock in question in a mosaic of inlaid coloured glass and semi-precious stones, set into one of the walls a design recalling the later, but more famous mosaics in the Mor Chowk of the City Palace in Udaipur.

Maharana Bhim Singhji of Udaipur (1778-1828)

When Bhim Singh ji ascended the Udaipur throne, relations between recent Maharanas and the Rawats of Deogarh had seriously deteriorated and Bhim Singh ji made a personal visit to meet Roghodas ji and secure a rapprochement. These cordial relations continued under the reign of his grandson, Rawat Gokuldas ji II and there are numerous miniatures, as well as wall paintings (see also Room 10) depicting Bhim Singh ji and Gokuldasji together in Deogarh.

While Deogarh reached an undoubted highpoint under Rawat Gokuldas II, Udaipur hit a definite low point under Bhim Singh ji. He was described by Colonel Tod (who knew him personally) as "inefficient and averse to business. Vain shows, frivolous amusements and an irregular liberty alone occupied him. But it does seem that he was not entirely idle, since debate still rages over whether the total count of his male offspring alone numbered 95".

Udaipur during this period was effectively under the control of the rapacious Maratha general, Ambaji, whose crippling demands for tribute money left Maharana Bhim Singh ji so hard up that he had to borrow from the Maharaja to finance his own wedding. When Tod first came to Mewar in 1817, the state had reverted to the political and administrative conditions of the 12th century a weak ruler surrounded by disaffected nobles. When he returned in 1818 with a treaty promising British protection, Bhim Singh ji welcomed him with undisguised relief.