Umaid Bhawan Palace, located at Jodhpur in Rajasthan, India, is one of the world's largest private residences. A part of the palace is managed by Taj Hotels. Named after Maharaja Umaid Singh, grandfather of the present owners of the palace, this monument has 347 rooms and serves as the principal residence of the erstwhile Jodhpur royal family.

Umaid Bhawan Palace was called Chittar Palace during its construction due to its location on Chittar Hill, the highest point in Jodhpur. Ground for the foundations of the building was broken on 18 November 1929 by Maharaja Umaid Singh and the construction work was completed in 1943.

History of the Palace

Mehrangarh was the soul of the Rathore clan that would never change. But tireless builders that they were, Rao Jodha's original masterpiece had been altered repeatedly. And some of the alterations were in the powerful Mughal style that dominated much of the country's landscape. Its scalloped arches, domes, floral carvings, botanical paintings, water courses etc. Umaid Singh's Chittar Palace, on the other hand, brought back the Rajput tradition.

The majesty of the palace was only to be expected. It was, after all, built by a blood line that probably went back all the way to the Rashtrakutas, the Kshatriya kings responsible for creating one of the oldest Hindu architectural traditions in India with the Kailashnath temple strewn from living rock.

Umaid Singh grew up on the cusp of a world in transition. The East India Company (aka the John Company) had been humbled by the great uprising in the Indian sepoy troops. The rebellion ushered in the British Imperialist era, and since the Rajputs remained loyal to the John Company, the British aristocracy grudgingly welcomed the princely states into their club. Umaid Singh, already integrated into the traditions of the past, was educated in one of the Princes' Colleges in the tradition of Eton, Rugby, Winchester and the other great British public schools of the time. He, like most of his clan at the time, was educated to be sophisticated, worldly and competitive. At the tender age of sixteen, he was pushed unexpectedly into the role of a Maharaja. Five years later, he gained full monarchical powers. The British and his regent, Sir Pratap Singh, used those intervening years to open the monarch's eyes to the possibilities that order and bureaucracy held for Marwar.

The lead project that would usher Jodhpur into the twentieth century was to be the new palace. It had to be large enough, grand enough, breathtaking enough to deserve taking the place of Mehrangarh Fort as the symbol of Jodhpur. In 1924, the Maharaja met with Henry Vaughn Lanchester. He had spent decades travelling the world as architect and town planner, and was no stranger to the traditions of Hindu architecture. While discussing his vision for the palace, Lanchester outlined his strong stand against the Mughal aesthetic, arguing that the States of Rajasthan came under Muslim domination only to a limited extent, and their traditions very rarely made use of Mughal features. Umaid Singh knew he had found his man.

Determined to incorporate the traditions and unique world view of the land in his concept, Lanchester went eons back to the Hindu mountain temples for his inspiration behind Umaid Bhawan Palace. Umaid Singh knew immediately it would be a fitting tribute to his ancestors. But it is by no means a new antique. Umaid Singh was free of the archaic nineteenth-century lifestyle and in love with progress. While his palace may have been inspired by tradition, it was, at the insistence of the forward-thinking monarch, built on the cutting edge of progress.

The eclectic blend of art deco and millennia-old Hindu architectural traditions is still a powerful symbol of the Rathore clan's identity. While Mehrangarh was, in the words of Kipling, “the work of Angels, Fairies and Giants”, Umaid Bhawan is, in the words of an anonymous poet, “a majestic, handsome warrior, his arms spread wide for a loving embrace.”