Indian Royal Families
12 Facts About Indian Royal Families That Will Even Make The Rich Feel Poor1. Krishna Raja Wodeyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore, had ordered a customized Rolls Royce to shield his servants from the sun.Crafted in 1911, the car recently went under the hammer in August 2011 and fetched over ₤400,000. At the time of his death in 1940, the maharaja was one of the world's wealthiest men and was valued at nearly ₤35billion.
http://s3.scoopwhoop.com/anj/Royals_Of_India/335615006.jpg
2. Nawab of Junagarh was said to have owned 800 dogs, each with its individual human attendant.And that's not all! When two of his favourite dogs mated, he is said to have spent nearly Rs. 20-30 lakhs in “wedding” celebrations, and also went on to proclaim the day as a state holiday.
http://s3.scoopwhoop.com/anj/Royals_Of_India/714679625.jpg
3. The last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Usman Ali Khan used the "Jacob Diamond", the fifth largest diamond in the world as a humble paper weight!The diamond is of the size of an ostrich egg, weighs 184.97 carats, is valued at over ₤5million and is currently owned by the Government of India.
http://s3.scoopwhoop.com/anj/Royals_Of_India/527856977.jpg
4. King Jai Singh of Alwar had ordered a fleet of Rolls Royce only to use them as cleaning cars for transporting the city's waste.It is said that the king was insulted by a Rolls Royce salesman on his visit to London because of which he decided to buy and use the luxury cars as garbage trucks! That's one hell of a way to prove a point. And, of course, he did stop the ordeal but only after Rolls Royce tendered an official apology.
http://s3.scoopwhoop.com/anj/Royals_Of_India/726941800.jpg
5. The Udaipur family was so fascinated with crystals that the chairs, thrones, tables and even the fans of their palace were studded with it.
http://s3.scoopwhoop.com/anj/Royals_Of_India/210612775.jpg
6. In 1926, Cartier received a trunk full of precious stones and jewelry belonging to Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, who wanted them to be remounted in Parisian style.The creation that emerged is the world famous Patiala necklace that still remains one of the grandest pieces of jewelry ever made by Cartier, perhaps even by any other jewelry brand.http://s3.scoopwhoop.com/anj/Royals_Of_India/839603947.jpg
7. The gate of the Lalbagh Palace in Indore was crafted in London and then was shipped all the way to Indore!
http://s3.scoopwhoop.com/anj/Royals_Of_India/447989086.jpg
8. The first president of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad entered the Rashtrapati Bhawan on the silver chariot owned by the Maharaja of Patiala.
http://s3.scoopwhoop.com/anj/Royals_Of_India/436008848.jpg
9. The luxury mega-brand, Louis Vuitton, always took pride in crafting something unique for Jagatjit Singh, the Maharaja of Kapurthala.An avid traveller, Jagjit Singh owned over 60 large Louis Vuitton trunks that would hold his clothes, paraphernalia, swords, turbans, suits, shoes and elaborate traditional dresses.
http://s3.scoopwhoop.com/anj/Royals_Of_India/443569778.jpg
10. The American consulate in South Bombay was earlier the property of Maharaja Amar Sinh Zala of Wankaner.Spread over 10,000 square yards, the Wankaner House, was built in the 1930s. It was sold for Rs. 18 crores ($ 4 million) in 1957 to the American government as the royal family was not able to maintain such a big property and there was huge tax due. Another property, Amar Building on Firozsha Mehta Road in Bombay, also belonged to the Wanaker royals. It was sold for Rs. 19 crores ($ 4.2 million) to the Government of India and now houses the foreign exchange department of the Reserve Bank Of India.
http://s3.scoopwhoop.com/anj/Royals_Of_India/787819590.jpg
11. Cooch Behar's Maharani Indira Devi had ordered 100 pairs of shoes, some diamond studded, from Italian shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo, one of the most famous designers of the 20th century.
http://s3.scoopwhoop.com/anj/Royals_Of_India/886329878.jpg
12. Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh II had ordered the craftsman of Jaipur to create two huge sterling silver vessels so that he could carry Ganga Jal along with him on his trip to England.The vessels were made from 14,000 melted silver coins without soldering and are officially recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest sterling silver vessels.
http://s3.scoopwhoop.com/anj/Royals_Of_India/319905368.jpg
The lavish lifestyle of India's royalty
By Rupa JhaBBC News, Delhi
[*]6 March 2015
[*]From the section
[*]
[*]http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/media/images/81376000/jpg/_81376735_624_groom-rents-maybe.jpg
India's royalty lost their official powers when the nation gained independence in 1947 but the modern-day maharajas are still wealthy and influential - what's more they still know how to arrange a lavish, fairytale wedding.One doesn't bother about the cost in matters like this, the groom's father tells me.And as I look around at elephants in gold headdresses and camels adorned with intricate embroidery, he seems true to his word.Weddings are extravagant social events in India - you're expected to stretch resources to put on a grand spectacle. This one, between Prince Jaideep Jadeja and Princess Shivatmika Kumar, is the first royal wedding I've been to and it gives a new meaning to the term "spectacle".Possibly the most opulent wedding in the history of independent India, it's certainly an overwhelming scene. And this isn't even the marriage ceremony yet.Guests spend a whole week before the actual wedding in the town of Rajkot, the historical family home of 23-year-old groom Jaideep Jadeja, son of Prince Mandhata Sinh Jadeja of Rajkot in the former princely state of Saurashtra, in Gujarat.http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/81445000/jpg/_81445923_624_horse.jpg
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/81459000/jpg/_81459733_eeaf4d79-063b-42fd-870e-1d17693776f8.jpg
His 25-year-old bride Shivatmika Kumar, the princess of the former princely state of Dungarpur, in Rajasthan, won't even be in the same state until they both meet in Bangalore thousands of kilometres away.Rajkot is a sleepy town of nearly 1.3 million residents but it comes alive for these seven days. The main attraction is a grand 8km procession - 5,000 people, including 30 princes in their regal attire, walk alongside the camels and elephants, one of which carries the groom in a golden throne.
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/81391000/jpg/_81391736_624_elephant-front.jpg
http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/81376000/jpg/_81376734_624_elephant.jpgBands belt out popular Bollywood tunes as an ocean of onlookers line the streets and watch from rooftops, trees and stairways. A human chain protects the privileged from being mobbed by well-wishers.It could be a scene straight out of a film - the glitter, the excitement, the crowds all seem surreal.Then there's the magnificently decorated Ranjit Villa, the 100-room home of the royal family of Rajkot which was built in 1870. And this party appeared to be on the house.
http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/81453000/jpg/_81453294_624_ranjit.jpg
But in the midst of all this grandeur there are stark divisions. Here are the rich and famous in expensive clothes and jewellery, watched in part-awe and part-adulation by throngs of people, many of whom do not even earn 50 cents a day.I ask a few of them what they think of this display of luxury and wealth."I love all this. They look so beautiful," says 16-year-old Geeta. "I like the royalty because it's a part of our tradition but I would not like to marry one."I would not be able to eat at the street vends and ride my scooty ," she says.One elderly lady says that it would be great to have the kings back in power, while another shoots back, "No, We love our democracy."
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/81453000/jpg/_81453295_624_stairs-watch.jpg
The groom's father seems comfortable with all the expenditure, explaining that the family have tried to include every section of society in the celebration.Prince Mandhata Sinh Jadeja adds that his family contributes to the local community in many ways. In the week leading up to the procession, they helped feed about 17,000 people in Rajkot, as well as visiting orphanages and hospitals. The family is sponsoring the poor and the needy by helping the organisations that work for them, he says.But is this enough? Many Indians make the lists of global billionaires and it could be argued that the rich of India should do more for the country's poor.The groom's father agrees, and says that rich people have a responsibility towards the poor. "In order to connect with the people, in order to respect the fact that we've been born in this house, we should serve the people one way or another," he says.After a week of traditional festivities in Rajkot, more than 600 guests fly thousands of kilometres south to Bangalore, the home city of the bride's mother. The wedding venue is the magnificent Bangalore Palace, modelled on Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of Queen Elizabeth II.
http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/81445000/jpg/_81445924_624_palace.jpgThe party here is as opulent as the one in Rajkot - a luxuriously classy affair but this time it is a private gathering of members of the former royalty.
Like many of India's royals, this family has done well for itself in business - it has invested in hydropower, mining, bio-fuel and other sectors. It had enough spare cash (more than $500,000, ￡330,000) to buy back the Star of India Rolls Royce - a car it had once owned but sold 40 years ago
Twenty-two-year-old Yaduveer Krishnadatta, the recently crowned king of the former princely state of Mysore, studied in the US, but returned to continue his family tradition and business. He will also soon marry a girl selected for him by his family - a princess.When I ask this very shy and quiet young man with diamond-studded headgear if he could marry a commoner, he rejects the idea. It's a duty to preserve the tradition, he tells me.The groom, whose marriage we are celebrating, Jaideep Jadeja smiles at my question. "The main reason why people like us marry in royal families only because for normal people it's very difficult to cope with the restrictions there are in the house," he says.
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/81376000/jpg/_81376736_624_prince-close-up.jpg
In fact, I'm unable to find anyone here who has married outside royal families, or anyone who'd like to.Perhaps it really isn't easy to live a life that's still etched in the past. Over the course of the wedding I've seen hundreds of men and women from royal families - all of them are educated, most study abroad but invariably they are all still tied to their old ways of thinking.The bride, Shivatmika Kumar, has a degree in psychology and was brought up in the city of Bangalore. She will work in the family hotel business and wants to start an NGO to improve animal welfare - although many of the women in these families stay at home and don't have jobs.
http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/81459000/jpg/_81459359_red.jpg
When I meet her just before the wedding, she's sitting covered from head to toe in red. She's not willing to lift her veil to show me her whole face. It's not allowed according to tradition, she says.Eventually she does lift her veil slightly, saying that she's not troubled by giving up her big city life in Bangalore for the much smaller, quieter Rajkot."I've always left everything to my parents so whatever they decide. They've made the right decisions so far, so I'm sure this one will be right as well."
http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/media/images/81459000/jpg/_81459356_princess.jpg
And until this point she's only briefly met the groom. "We didn't speak much but we both made a good first impression and we both liked each other. And our families liked each other a lot."But it's just as well that the groom is a dog-lover. "It was the only criteria I had," she says.The wedding is over in a few hours. The young bride leaves with her new husband for Rajkot and more festivities.I realise that the Maharajas are going through what India as a nation is going through - walking a tight rope trying to balance modernity and traditional values. I also realise that princes and princesses are not just the protagonists of my daughter's storybooks - for a moment I stepped into a world where the fairytale and reality meet.
wujud lagi ke royals kat India ni? iols pun nak tnya soalan yg sama.
tapi tengok la cerita hindustan lama2 tu. rumah kemain lagi besar giler.
cerita devdas tu pun tengok la rumahnya.
btw, apa sumber hasil kekayaan diorang ni ha? Saif Ali Khan pun kalu tak silap berketurunan diraja India... :o reenaz replied at 21-8-2015 10:59 AM
wujud lagi ke royals kat India ni?
Kerabat di raja India masih wujud lagi sehingga sekarang selepas kejatuhan monarki India. Gambar perkahwinan tu baru lagi March 2015 di Bangalore. nanti bila free i explain sebab kejatuhan kerajaan India ni. :)
menarikkkk! mohon TT cite lagi pls. Cerita yg menarik! thread yg menarik! menarik. pestime aku baca pasal ni More Info plsss...suke thread camni :) Nicely done :) Tau depa ada maharaja, tp taktau pulak pasal apa skrg tadak..?intereSTing teringat plak movie tamil "chandramuki" tu... menarik jgak nak tau pasal kerabat raja india ni{:1_551:} cik_gebu replied at 21-8-2015 03:12 PM
Kerabat di raja India masih wujud lagi sehingga sekarang selepas kejatuhan monarki India. Gambar p ...
tak sabar nak baca
lakalakalakalakalakalakakala...hehe candramukhi saif ali khan tu prince dari daerah ke negeri?
nak jugak tahu camne jatuhnya monarki di India?
or just like Indonesia? ade raja tapi setakat gelaran saje lah ooh..baru tau india ada lagi maharaja...igt dah terhapuss..
nak tau gakk..cer citerrr... kayanya deyoll nih.. More info please..