Home to the erstwhile royal family of Jodhpur, Umaid Bhawan Palace is located in the heart of the city. The palace is a shining example of Indo-Saracenic architecture, with the highlight being its special Chittar sandstone that gives the palace a dazzling appearance. Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India, is the 6th largest private residence in the world. A part of the palace is managed by Taj Hotels, as a heritage hotel since 1971. The palace is named after Maharaja Umaid Singh, the grandfather of the present owner Gaj Singh, has 347 rooms and can accommodate 300 people.
One of the most important parts of the palace is the grand Umaid Bhawan Palace Museum, which showcases a massive collection of vases, vehicles used by the maharaja, furniture, clocks etc. The ground-breaking for the foundations of the Umaid Bhawan Palace was carried out on 18 November 1929 by Maharaja Umaid Singh and the construction work was completed in 1943. The building of Umaid Bhawan Palace is reportedly linked to a curse by a saint who had said that a period of severe drought would follow the good rule of the Rathore Dynasty. After end of the about 50-year glorious reign of Maharaja Pratap Singh, Jodhpur faced severe drought and famine situation in the early 1920s for 3 consecutive years.
The farmers of the area, facing constant hardship, sought help from the then Maharaja Umaid Singh, he was the 37th Rathore ruler of Marwar at Jodhpur. Umaid Singh to provide farmers with some kind of employment opportunity in the prevailing harsh conditions, decided to build a lavish palace for himself. He commissioned services of Henry Vaughan Lanchester, as the architect to prepare plans for a grand palace. Lanchester, was a contemporary of Edwin Lutyens, who had planned the buildings in the New Delhi government complex area. Lanchester patterned the Umaid Bhawan Palace on the lines of those buildings with focus on domes and columns.
The palace was designed from the outset as a blend of western technology and Indian architectural features. The architectural style represented the then in vogue, Beaux Arts style or Indo-Deco style. The site chosen for the construction of the palace was on a hill, that is still known as Chittar hill on the outer limits of city of Jodhpur. Interior decoration of the palace is credited to J.S. Norblin, a Polish refugee in World War 2, who created the breathtaking frescoes in the throne room.
The palace was built at a slow pace, as its main objective was to provide employment to the famine-stricken farmers in the area. in all about 2,000 to 3,000 people were employed in construction of the grand palace. The building materials required for construction were not available close by, sandstone quarries were located at quite a distance. The Maharaja had the foresight to bring his project to fruition, so he first built a railway line, right to the quarry site to transport all the building material. The sandstone transported by rail was dressed at the site into large blocks with interlocking joints, to ensure they could be laid without the use of mortar. Then donkeys were used to haul soil to the construction site to complete the construction.
The Umaid Bhawan Palace is set in an area of 26 acres of land including 15 acres of gardens. The palace known for its long passages, consists of everal huge rooms; these include the king’s throne chamber, private meeting hall, a vaulted banquet hall, private dining halls, Durbar Hall for meeting with general public, fully equipped billiards room, ballroom, library, indoor swimming pool, spa. The palace also has 4 tennis courts, and 2 marble squash courts on the outside. The royal family moved into the palace, in the months leading up to the independence of India in 1947. The estimated cost of building the palace was around Rs 11 million, something which was heavily criticized but it was meant to provide employment to drought-stricken people of Jodhpur.
Umaid Bhawan Palace was built with “dun-coloured” or golden – yellow sandstone; with Makrana marble and Burmese teak wood used in the interiors. However, for several years the palace did not fully function the royal family residence due to tragic events leading to deaths in the royal family. The biggest attraction of the palace is the massive interior central dome that sits above the sky-blue inner dome. The inner vaulted dome rises to 103 feet (31 m) while the outer dome rises an additional 43 feet (13 m) in height. This is accentuated more by the massive white marble staircase.
The entrance gate of Umaid Bhawan Palace has the motifs of ‘Coat of Arms’ of the Rathore Royal family of Jodhpur. This leads to the lobby which has flooring of polished black granite. The lounge area dazzles with pink sandstone and marble flooring. The Umaid Bhawan Palace is located a mere 20 minutes from the local airport, and is close to the main shopping area, and the Balsamand and Kalyana lakes. The 5-star hotel offers 70 utterly breath-taking Art Deco-style rooms and suites; as well as spa bar and other facilities. The museum has a variety of exhibits belonging to the Jodhpur Royal family. These include stuffed leopards, and other animals, a very large symbolic flag given to Maharaja Jaswant Singh by Queen Victoria in 1877, lighthouse shapes, paintings, artefacts, and much more. A collection of classic cars owned by Maharajas of Jodhpur, are displayed in the garden in front of the museum.
