It
has become a fashion for wealthy Indians and even foreigners to have
Indian royal themed weddings. Just searching for the keyword “Royal
Indian Weddings” on Google would throw up hosts of wedding service
providers who would provide grand Indian royal weddings for a price. But
in this whole bling culture, the genteel elegance of old days is lost,
when thousand of guests would dine on silver plates to exotic dishes
like Shikampuri kebabs and Habshi halwas.
Royal Indian Weddings - Epitome of Elegance
We
look longingly at a more genteel era, at some of the grandest and
classiest royal Indian weddings ever, which were covered extensively in
the international news media. Thankfully then there were no glossy
tabloids and lifestyle magazines, who would offer to “sponsor” a part of
the wedding for exclusive wedding photos. This was the time when whole
villages, including poorest of the poor participated in royal weddings.
The royal weddings were always inclusive and never exclusive events.
These are some the grandest and classiest royal weddings ever celebrated:
1. Princess of Jaipur and Yuvraj of Devgadh Baria
Princess
Prem Kumari, the eldest daughter of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh of Jaipur
married Yuvraj Jaideep Singhji of Devgadh Baria in 1946. This was the
first wedding of Maharaja of Jaipur’s daughter in almost 100 years. So
the celebrations were grand. All major royal houses were invited..The
logistics and catering arrangements were prodigious and the preparations
were made with military like precision. The book of instructions to the
Jaipur staff was about two inches thick, detailing every party,
festivity, ceremony and entertainment and containing programs for each
group of guests and their staff. Even the menus for the servants and
vantage points assigned to them for watching the processions were
carefully worked out. The wedding festivities lasted for around two
weeks.
The Bride and Groom: Princess Prem Kumari of Jaipur and Yuvraj Jaideep Singhji of Devgadh Baria.
Bride’s Mother: Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur
Father of the Bride: Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II of Jaipur
For
the wedding banquet long tables were decorated with flowers and plates
loaded with rich meat curries, several kinds of pilau and sweets covered
with gold leaf. The tables glowed with bright gleam of gold and silver
thals, bowls and goblets. Throughout the meal, as thals were filled and
refilled the palace musicians played. The marriage ceremony took place
at the zenana of the city palace. This was perhaps first time in many
years that the Jaipur City palace was actually filled with people. It
was followed by gaiety and celebration all over Jaipur state. There was
magically exuberant display of fireworks, the poor were fed and some
prisoners were released. The famous photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson
came to take photographs of the special occasion.
2. Princess of Jodhpur and Yuvraj of Baroda
Perhaps
the first wedding of the Jodhpur royal family to receive big
international media coverage was that of Princess Rajendra Kanwar of
Jodhpur (Aunt of current Maharaja Gaj Sinhji) to Yuvraj Fatehsinhrao
Gaekwad of Baroda. LIFE magazine as well as all major international
publications carried full photo features of this wedding. It was a
Maratha-Rajput wedding attended by attended by 54 maharajas, 55 lesser
princes and 306 nobles.
The Bride & Groom: Princess Rajendra Kanwar of Jodhpur & Yuvraj Fatehsinhrao Gaekwad of Baroda
Images of royal wedding festivities in Jodhpur
The
wedding of scions of two of india’s premier royal families was
meticulously planned. A 12 man committee was formed to look after the
wedding and logistics. Maharaja Hanuwant Singh personally supervised the
marriage of his sister. The massive Umaid Bhawan palace and Meherangarh
fort specially decorated for the wedding. Wedding reports state that
the 4500 wedding guests were accommodated and the catering was done by
60 butlers, 60 English style cooks and 125 English style cooks!
The
barat arrived from Baroda in a special train. The men folk were housed
at Umaid Bhawan while the bride and royal ladies stayed at Meherangarh.
There was a grand ceremonial procession through the streets of Jodhpur.
This was followed by the main ceremony at Umaid Bhawan. The traditional
vedic ceremony lasted for two and half hours while the guests enjoyed
drinks and music. This was followed by series of receptions. The total
cost of the wedding? A whopping 1.4 million dollars in 1948 currency
value!
3. Princess of Gwalior and Maharaja of Tripura
The
SUN, a famous tabloid published in London carried the headline ‘Gems
dazzle as Princess weds in India’ followed by ‘Rich Rajas turn out for
colorful rites at Bombay Palace’. This was princely pageantry at its
best. The occasion was the wedding of Princess Padmaraje Scindia, the
eldest child of Maharaja Jiwajirao Scindia and Maharani Vijayaraje
Scindia to Maharaja Kirit Bikram Deb Barman of Tripura. The backdrop of
the wedding was Samudra Mahal, the spectacular waterfront palace of the
Scindias in Bombay.
Bride
& Groom: Princess Padmaraje Scindia of Gwalior and Maharaja Kirit
Bikram of Tripura, flanked by bride’s parents Maharaja Jiwajirao Scindia
and Maharani Vijayaraje Scindia.
Wedding banquet at Samudra Mahal palace in Worli, Bombay.
The
wedding began with the series of cocktails and receptions in Gwalior
and Calcutta. A special train was chartered to bring the groom’s party
from Calcutta. Invitations were sent to more than 10,000 guests and
every hotel room in Bombay was booked for the occasion. The who’s who of
Bombay society turned up for the wedding. Guests included royals from
Gwalior, Kolhapur, Indore, Morvi as well as the Parsi aristocracy of
Bombay. Thousands of flowers were specially imported from abroad for the
wedding. After the wedding ceremony, hundreds of guests ate off plates
of solid silver. But the most notable aspect of the wedding was the mile
long baraat. This baraat was mile long and found a special mention in
TIME Magazine. Princess Padmaraje was given gifts worth 1 million
dollars which would be worth hundreds of crores today.
4. Princess of Jaisalmer and Maharaja of Rajpipla
This
was the first Indian wedding to be covered by National Geographic
magazine. The Magazine wanted to cover an authentic Hindu ceremony and
the Rajpipla-Jaisalmer wedding was the perfect occasion. Maharaja
Raghubirsinhji Gohil of Rajpipla married Princess Rukmani Devi of
Jaisalmer in a grand ceremony at the Jaisalmer fort. The wedding
festivities began with lavish parties and processions at Rajpipla. Then,
a special train took the bridegroom and the members of the Rajpipla
court to Jaisalmer. The wedding had the spectacular backdrop of the
golden fort of Jaisalmer.
The Groom: Maharaja Raghubir Sinhji of Rajpipla
The Bride: Princess Rukmini Devi of Jaisalmer
Wedding Festivities in Jaisalmer Fort
The
wedding guests included the who’s who of Gujarati royalty and virtually
all of Rajasthan aristocracy. The bride was bedecked in finest
Rajasthani heirloom jewellery which had been passed down from
generations. The wedding festivities reflected the highly sophisticated
tastes of the jet setting Rajpipla family as well as the extremely
orthodox Jaisalmer family. The National Geographic carried it all in
detail with great solemnity wanting to decode a Maharajah’s wedding for
all their readers around the globe. Raghubir Singhji and Rukmani Devi’s
son is the famous Prince Manvendra of Rajpipla.
5. Princess of Gwalior and Yuvraj of Kashmir
Termed
by New York Times as the ‘Wedding of the decade’ and considered to be
the last of the grand royal weddings-- Chitrangada Scindia, daughter of
Madhavrao Scindia of Gwalior to Vikramaditya Singh, son of Dr Karan
Singh of Jammu & Kashmir. The wedding was covered in NY Times,
Washinton Post, San Fransico Chronicle and of course all well known
Indian magazines and newspapers.
The Bride & Groom: Princess Chitrangada Scindia of Gwalior and Yuvraj Vikramaditya Singh of Kashmir.
The bride, Princess Chitrangada Scindia of Gwalior on wedding day
Father of the bride: Madhavrao Scindia of Gwalior.
The
Jai Vilas Palace glistened with a fresh coat of white paint and shone
with thousands of tiny yellow lights and musicians played traditional
ragas from all corners. The platforms of Gwalior railway station were
paved with gleaming marble to welcome the wedding guests. More than
40,000 guests, including villagers who arrived in bullock carts, filled
the grounds of Jai Vilas Palace A special helipad was built for
convenience of various dignitaries who included the entire cabinet as
well as Kings of Nepal and Bhutan. In the gold plated banqueting hall,
the famous Scindia silver train carried wine and port for guests
chugging on its rails of silver. The wedding of Chitrangada Scindia is
remembered as one of the most opulent royal weddings ever and is used as
a benchmark to measure the grandeur of the weddings almost two decades
later!\
By Akshay Chavan
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