To most westerners, the word "maharaja" evokes unfathomable wealth, limitless power, and a mysterious exoticism. For centuries maharajas ruled India’s patchwork of kingdoms or “princely states" and built the grand and luxurious forts and palaces that dot the country’s landscape today.
Virtually all the sculptures, paintings and wall murals that define “classic India” were created for and by the order of maharajas, the ruling class believed to be descended from heavenly incarnations. Today, the glory days of Indian royalty are over, but the maharajas and maharanis survive, stripped of any real authority, but clinging to their royal lineage like the few remaining European kings and queens.
One of the most famous members of this small but exclusive club is the maharajah of Jaipur, whose ancestors built "The Pink City". The royal family has long been known as one of the most glamorous ... and recently, one of the most progressive.
Nicknamed “Bubbles”, His Highness Maharaja Sawai Bhawani Singhji is the current maharajah. He is the son of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II and his first maharani, the Maharani Shri Marudhar Kanwar Devi Sahiba, daughter of the maharaja of Jodphur. Born October 22, 1931, the present maharajah assumed his position after the untimely death of His Highness Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II in 1970. Her Highness Maharani Shri Padmini Devi Sahiba, the Maharani of Jaipur, married the current maharajah in 1966.
After India won its independence from Britain in 1947, the orders and titles given by the Crown to the maharajas of the princely states were declated null and void. Along with their thrones, the subcontinent's maharajas also lost their titles. Man Singh II was the last ruler of the city of Jaipur and oversaw saw the city's transition from a princely state to a secular one. Later he served as India's first Ambassador to Spain and lived in England in the 1950s.
Flamboyant, handsome, debonair and elegant, the late maharajah had two principal passions, polo and his third wife, Maharani Gayatri Devi. In 1933, his polo team flattened England’s by winning all major tournaments, a feat never since repeated. The maharajah's romance with Gayatri Devi, the stunningly beautiful princess from Cooch Behar who Vogue magazine once called one of the world’s most beautiful women, is also legendary.
Man Singh II was such a fanatical polo player that at one time his residence, the Ram Bagh Palace in Jaipur, was the only private home in the world with its own polo grounds. It was while playing polo in England that he died after being thrown from his horse.
In the early 1970s, India’s maharajahs became a target of various reforms implemented by the autocratic Prime Minister Indira Ghandi. “Bubbles” found himself stripped of his official title and for the first time, all of the country’s remaining maharajahs had to begin paying taxes.
Sadly, the changes experienced in India during the 20th century seem to have been easier on the Jaipur royal women than on their husbands and sons. With few exceptions (including Maharaja Sawai Bhawani Singhji who fought in the Indian Army as a paratrooper), the males died young from complications of severe alcoholism.
Perhaps too much time and too much money created a lack of purpose in these men who were fabulously wealthy, well educated, and extremely powerful. At least on the surface, it seems they were in a position where they could have doned things to improve the quality of life for India’s masses who even today, must struggle mightily to make a living for themselves and their families.
Thankfully, the present Jaipur maharajah and his family seem well aware of the debt they owe their people and their country. For decades, they have worked to boost tourism in the region, encourage education for both boys and girls (Rajasthan still has a high illiteracy rate, particularly for women), and promote traditional Jaipur handicrafts. It seems their eyes are now firmly fixed on the future rather than on past glories.