Rajmata of Jaipur | Maharani of Jaipur Gayatri Devi

 Rajmata of Jaipur | Maharani of Jaipur Gayatri Devi

Rajmata of Jaipur

Reign

1939 - 1970

Born

May 23, 1919

Jaipur Palace

1 son

Father- Prince Jitendra Narayan

Mother-Princess Indira Raje

Maharani Gayatri Devi, Rajmata of Jaipur (born May 23 1919 as Princess Gayatri Devi of Cooch Behar), was the third Maharani of Jaipur from 1939 to 1970 through marriage to Sawai Man Singh II, and is currently styled (unofficially) as the Rajmata, or Queen Mother.

Following India's independence and the subsequent abolition of the princely states, she became an extremely successful politician. Gayatri Devi was also celebrated for her classical beauty and became something of a fashion icon in her adulthood.

Early life

Her father, Prince Jitendra Narayan of Cooch Behar, was the younger brother of the Yuvraja (Crown Prince). Her mother was Princess Indira Raje of Baroda, an extremely beautiful princess and a legendary socialite. Early in her life, her uncle's death led to her father ascending the throne (gaddi). Gayatri Devi studied at Shantiniketan, and later in Europe, where she travelled with her mother and siblings, then studied secretarial skills in London.

The Jaipur Royal Family lived a lavish life: hunting in their forests, spending summers in Europe, educating the royal children at elite schools in England, entertaining streams of famous visitors at their desert palaces, and generally living the typically flamboyant life which was normal for Indian royals.

Maharani Gayatri Devi (as she was styled after marriage) was a particularly avid equestrienne. Gayatri Devi had one child, Prince Jagat Singh of Jaipur, Raja of Isarda, who was granted his grandfather's fief as a subsidiary title, and the Maharani later became the Rajmata, or Queen Mother. Jagat Singh was thus half-brother to the present Maharaja of Jaipur, Sawai Bhawani Singh of Jaipur.

Gayatri Devi was once included in Vogue magazine's Ten Most Beautiful Women list.

Gayatri Devi started schools for girls' education in Jaipur, most prominent of which is the Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls’ Public School. She also promoted the dying art of blue pottery.

Political career

After Partition and Independence Day in India in 1947, and later the abolition of Royal India in 1970, Gayatri Devi ran for Parliament in 1962 and won the constituency in the Lok Sabha in the world's largest landslide, confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records. She continued to hold this seat on 1967 and 1971, Swatantra Party, running against the Congress Party. This enraged Indira Gandhi, who retaliated in 1971 by abolishing the privy purses, and stopping all royal privileges, breaking the treaties agreed upon in 1947. Gayatri Devi was accused of breaking tax laws, and served 5 months in Tihar Jail. She retired from politics after that experience, and published her autobiography, A Princess Remembers, written with Santha Rama Rau, in 1976. She was also the focus of the film Memoirs of a Hindu Princess, directed by Francois Levie.

There were rumors that she might re-enter politics as late as 1999, when the Cooch Behar Trinamool Congress nominated her as their candidate for the Lok Sabha elections, but she did not respond to the offer.

Her father Jitendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur was the second son of Maharaja Nripendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur and Maharani Sunity Devi of Cooch Behar. After the untimely death of his elder brother Maharaja Raj Rajendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur, a bachelor, he ascended the throne of Cooch Behar in November 1913, few month's after his marriage with Princess Indira raje Gaekwad of Baroda. Jitendra Narayan's mother Maharani Sunity Devi was the daughjter of illustrious Brahmo social reformer Keshab Chandra Sen.

Family relationships

Gayatri Devi is related to a number of other royal families in India, and not only the Rajput royals. Her maternal grandparents were Maharaja Sayajirao and Maharani Chimnabai of Baroda. Through marriage, she was related to Maharaja Hanuwant Singh of Jodhpur, the Maharaja of Dewas, the Maharaja of Tripura, and the Maharaja of Pithapuram in South India.

She had one son, Maharaj Jagat Singh of Jaipur (erstwhile Raja of Isarda), and two grand children, Rajkumari Lalitaya Kumari and Maharaj Devraj Singh, the current Raja of Isarda. She is also indirectly related to the Maharaja of Lunawada and the Maharaol of Baria.

A Tribute to Rajmata

In 2006, India's first 3D documentary movie "Rajmata Gayatri Devi's Legacy", based on her life, was made by the students of Arena Multimedia in Jaipur. Rajmata herself inaugurated the movie through the medium of a digital art exhibition on 16th of November 2006. The documentary also contained some videos along with high-end 3D animation that were reconstructed according to the script developed from the book written by Dharmendra Kanwar. Sakshi Baid played the role of young Gayatri and Maharaja Mansingh's role was played by Tarun Gupta, who also directed the film. The narration was done by Rohan Malik. The dubbing for the animated character of rajmata was done by Mrs. Sarla Gupta. This thirty-minute-long documentary depicted her childhood, marriage, life in Jaipur, political life, and many other ups and downs of her life.

HH Gaj Singh II | Maharaja of Marwar | Jodhpur

 HH Gaj Singh II Maharaja of Marwar Jodhpur

Marwar mubarak ho! I give you Marwar!" softly proclaimed Thakur Bhairon Singh of Bagri, in Akhairaj's voice, as he anointed the forehead of his four-year-old prince with his blood. And the four-year-old king replied, as had his ancestors before him, "Bagri bhadara se inayat! I grant you Bagri!" It was the morning of the 12th of May,1952, coincidentally Jodhpur Foundation Day, and in a courtyard in Mehrangarh, seated upon the white marble Shringar Chowki built by Maharaja Bakhta Singh, surrounded by senior clansmen and family priests, Gaj Singh had just been anointed the thirty-eighth Rathore Chief of Marwar. Mehrangarh had never looked happier, festooned with saffron and Panchranga flags, the nagaras beat jubilantly, cannons boomed defiantly (the last time they would), the chant of the Brahmins ascended a higher plateau of practiced fervor, the State Band broke out into Dhooso Baje ….. and high above, the cheels seemed to approve too...

Born on 13th January,1948 to Their Highnesses, the Maharaja Hanwant Singh and Maharani Krishna Kumari, princess of Dhrangadhra State, Gaj Singh was destined to succeed his father at the tender age of four. In those dramatic years between his birth and his father's tragic and fatal air accident in 1952, the Rathore State of Marwar-Jodhpur had merged into the Union of India, contributing an area of 36,000 Sq Miles and a history of upwards 700 years. The young head of the Rathore clan was recognized The Maharaja of Jodhpur by Presidential decree, the thirty-eighth of his dynasty.

The Maharaja's early years were spent in the care of his mother, the Regent Rajmata, the Queen Mother, in Pune and Jodhpur, before, at the age of eight, he was launched into a classical liberal english education; Prep School at Cothill, on to Eton College, to finish with a Batchelor's Degree in Philosophy, Politics & Economics (PPE) from Christ Church, Oxford. Holidays, however, were always spent in Jodhpur, in the performance of social duties and the exploration of a glorious heritage.

In 1970, after finishing from Oxford, when the Maharaja returned to Jodhpur to assume control of his vast inheritance as well as the manifold social and cultural responsibilities that accompanied it, he encountered, on the one hand, a tumultuous and unprecedented welcome from the citizens of Marwar; an unbridled display of love and respect that, he recalls vividly, touched him to the core and was forever to leave him with an indelible sense of humility and responsibility.

On the other hand, in New Delhi, the Princes of India found themselves pawns in a power-game, through which the Prime Minister, Mrs.Indira Gandhi would emerge supreme in Indian politics. By and by, in the December of 1971 the Constitution was amended and the Princes "de-recognized", their privy purses and privileges summarily withdrawn.

A period of traumatic adjustment followed; in a totally unfamiliar, and indeed hostile, political environment beset with hardship, Maharaja Gaj Singh II faced adversity with a dignity and resolve beyond his years and personally lead the re-organization of his affairs and estates; laying the foundations of his future existence through social and political re-alignments, commercial enterprise and the creation of charitable foundations and trusts.

Today the Rathore colors fly proudly once again. The Maharaja's major thrust has been in tourism, a sector with widespread benefits which has emerged the life-line of modern day Marwar, indeed Rajasthan. Besides the conversion of his own palaces into hotels, foremost among them the Umaid Bhawan, one of the great palace hotels in the world, and the Mehrangarh Fort into an internationally acclaimed museum, the Maharaja has provided dynamic leadership to the innovative Heritage Hotel movement, undoubtedly the future of tourism in Rajasthan. The Maharaja has also served, until recently, as the Chairman of the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation, Government of Rajasthan. The preservation of traditional arts & crafts, the arts and music, sport, particularly equestrian sport, and the conservation of our natural and man-made heritage remain other areas of strong interest and activity.

The Maharaja is currently on the Governing Council of the Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural Heritage (INTACH) besides being the Convenor of it's Rajasthan Chapter. In these capacities he has made a significant, and indeed pioneering, contribution to architectural restoration and conservation in Rajasthan as well as in spreading a greater awareness on environmental and other connected issues. His own forts, Mehrangarh (15th C) in Jodhpur and Ahhichatragarh (12th C) in Nagaur, both managed by the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, are outstanding examples of conservation and restoration work in the country. The Mehrangarh Museum Trust also actively promotes the arts, music and other cultural traditions of Marwar. Other Charitable Foundations settled by the Maharaja are involved in the education of girls, the re-habilitation of defense personnel and families, environmental projects in rural areas, the medical care of weaker sections, the management of ancestral temples...; an impressive array of activity through which he fulfills, in no small measure, his personally perceived responsibility to the peoples of Marwar-Jodhpur.

The intervening years have also seen Gaj Singh II serve as India's High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago as well as a term in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Parliament in New Delhi.

Running fifty three years now, a long way down the road from that hazy day in January,1952, Maharaja Gaj Singh II, universally known as Bapji or Father, can look back at his life with a measure of satisfaction; the journey into manhood as one of India's midnight's children, the transition from Kingship to Trusteeship of an unparalleled heritage, and from Maharaja at four to a productively involved and beloved democrat, has been an absorbing adventure that may well have daunted his warrior ancestors.

Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Wikileaks

 Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Wikileaks

He was born in a modest village to the Thakur and Thakurine of Isarda. At the age of eleven he was adopted as the heir to the Jaipur gaddi (throne) and would lead a very privileged life. His reign coincided with the demolishing of royal India and the transformation of the subcontinent into a modern democratic state. Even though he was part of a medieval feudal system he was very much a revolutionary prince, and before the independence of India he foresaw the future of the state of Jaipur as a constitutional monarchy rather than an autocracy. This prince who was a renowned polo player, a veteran of World War II, an ambassador to Spain, and a revolutionary monarch was the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh the Second and titular head of the Kachwaha Rajputs.

On August 21, 1911 the future Maharaja Man Singh II was born to Lieutenant-Colonel Raja Sawai Singhji (Thakur of Isarda) by his wife the daughter of Thakur Shri Umrao Singh of Kotla as their second son. He was given the name Mor Mukut Singh.