Royal Preserver

Maharana Arvind Singh Mewar considers it his duty to portect the monuments and culture he inherited.

- Vijaya Pushkarna

The City Palace in Udaipur seems to rise from the edge of the sapphire water of Lake Pichola, and it meanders along for a good 2.5km. Most tourists find it difficult to find the best photo spot in the palace—every backdrop is prettier than the other. The many galleries in the palace display all that the Maharanas of Mewar owned—from the brocade and chiffon of generations of maharanis to the angrakhas of the men, jewellery, paintings and the sculptures. There are musical instruments, armoury, silverware and crystal ware. A silver palna (cradle) and the silver mandap made for the wedding of princess Padmaja in 2011 also find a place.

The palace is a mini empire of Arvind Singh Mewar. Shriji, as he is affectionately called, was four years old when his grandfather Bhupal Singh, the 74th Maharana of Mewar, was at a crossroads. Bhupal Singh said on April 18, 1948: “My choice was made by my ancestors. If they had faltered they would have left us a kingdom as large as Hyderabad. They did not. Neither will I. I am with India.” And, Mewar became the first princely state to merge with the state of Rajasthan, and then became part of India.

The royal life in Udaipur, however, remained large, with pomp and show, silver and gold, chiffon and brocade. When Shriji was 12, his father, Bhagwat Singh, received an invitation from prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to visit the Red Fort. The Maharanas had “resolutely upheld an ancient vow of their family never to enter Delhi so long as it remained in the hands of a foreign power”. Bhagwat Singh went because the foreign rulers had gone. “The effect of his visit was a powerful inspiration to free India, an endorsement of the supreme prize of Independence,” said British historian Brian Masters, author of Maharana— The Story of the Rulers of Udaipur.