Umaid Bhawan Palace

Umaid Bhawan Palace can qualify for several firsts: the largest private residence in the world, the finest extant example of art-deco, the only palace to have paintings from the Ramayana painted by a Polish artist, the first to use air-conditioning, electricity and elevators, and the most impressive for its size and dimensions. Yet, that should be hardly strange, for the architect, H.V. Lancaster, who planned it, wanted it to rival the Viceregal Lodge (now Rashtrapati Bhawan) then being planned by Sir Edward Lutyens in the new capital at New Delhi, also then under construction.

Attractions Within The Heritage Palace - Hotel Umaid Bhawan Palace

For starters, Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur is a formal building that is perfectly symmetrical, and its 347 rooms offer few concessions to Rajput architecture other than such devises as concealed corridors and balconies for the women of the 'Zenana', and the use of courtyards around which the several wings of the palace are arranged. Built at the height of the art deco period, there are several embellishments on the outer walls, such as the eagle carved from sandstone. All original fittings have been retained.

While many of its accoutrements are in use, others have been placed in a museum within the premises. Here, you can find out for yourself the fine china used by the royal family, trace the history of the clocks and telephones that were once put to use in the different rooms, and discover a bit of your own past in a nostalgia driven journey through a time not so long ago.

Fittingly, you can end the journey in a room of your own, one of 95, in Hotel Umed Bhawan Palace.

If there is one palace that combines architectural extravaganza with aesthetic triumph, it is the Umaid Bhawan Palace. If there is something that is best experienced than described, it is absolutely a stay at the Umaid Bhawan.

From the time of the origin of Jodhpur to the present day, the Rathore capital suffered severe scarcity of water and drought followed with unfailing regularity every third or fourth year. A tradition developed among the Maharajas to alleviate the suffering of people by creating work. The work usually took the form of building canals, roads, temples, stepwells and palaces.

Rosita Forbes, travelling in the 1930s through Jodhpur, experienced first hand the severe rainless times in Jodhpur, and described the goings-on:
"The scarcity of water in the city has been remedied by the erection of a reservoir with eight pumping stations. Roads are spreading. Fine buildings are springing up on the outskirts of the lovely town......"

The majority of the 'fine buildings' was actually one single complex ! An architectural extravaganza called the Umaid Bhawan Palace - among the biggest private residences in the world ! A colossal 347 room structure with two monumental wings separated by a central dome soaring to a height of 185 feet.

Given the scale of construction, Rosita Forbes could be excused for the misplaced observation. Even the members of the royal family describe how as children they 'used to take stones and mark our way while going on so that we would be able to retrace our steps and find your way out!'

Maharaja Umaid Singh conceived the Palace as a centrepiece of his massive famine-relief scheme. The acclaimed designs of Henry Lanchester for Cardiff City Hall and Law Courts / Central Hall, Westminster, impressed Maharaja Umaid Singh, and Lutyen's protégé was entrusted with the job.