Thursday, March 9, 2017

REMEMBERING THE ICONIC GAYATRI DEVI MAHARANI OF JAIPUR


                                                                                
                                                                           




THE  ICONIC   GAYATRI   DEVI ( 1919-2009 ) OF JAIPUR ..

She was an icon of  beauty and fashion.  A princess from royal  house of  Cooch Behar,  Bengal  , she was   wooed by the paparazzi   .Born and educated in west , she  was once  named by the VOGUE magazine  as one amongst  the ten most  prettiest faces in the world . 

She lived with her parents in the swish part of London, close to Harrods, the world's most famous department store, which boasted it could get anything in the world for its customers.She was raised in a plush palace that had  500 servants.  In a royal  hunting expedition ,   she shot her first panther when she was barely  twelve.  
And then she had her secret six-year courtship with the stylish internationally  well known  polo player Jai, the Maharaja of Jaipur  whom she finally  married  and moved to live with him  in  the “ City Palace” where she  had to adjust  with his two wives. Jai's energizing sway and  Gayatri Devi's own strong personality, took her well ahead of the traditional activities of a Maharani.

After her marriage with the Maharaja of Jaipur, she was confronted with Purdah and life as a woman in the Zenana quarters. Royal women  could only take part in ceremonies by watching them through windows of latticed stone.  But she lived mostly outside Purdah and travelled extensively  with her husband .

She loved polo , cars , horse riding , colorful chiffon sarees , Pashmina shawls, expensive jewellery , imported sandals , hunting expeditions and also champagne .

She loved to travel.  She  would spend  the summer months   in her  Knightsbridge flat in the UK  and  for winters , she would come back to Jaipur. Her  husband had built a new house  for her ( Lilypool ) after their first home or Rambagh Palace had been transformed into a luxury hotel.

At personal level , she faced many troubles . Her only son Jagat Singh, who  had married a Thai princess , died  of  liquor and drug  abuse . His wife sought separation and went back to Thailand along with her  two children . Yet Gayatri Devi  maintained cordial relations with her daughter in law and grand children. When she died, her grandson was by her bedside.

 During emergency , she was imprisoned and lodged  inside notorious Tihar jail   and made to share space with  petty criminals . And she did never lodge a complaint  for the political  vendetta that was settled through this imprisonment .

And unknown to many ,  she was a devout Shiva worshipper   never missing her daily  Pooja.



                                                                






                                              ( With her Husband and son Jagat ) )



                                                                             
                                              (with Jacqueline Kennedy)
                                  (With Queen at the Guards Polo Club in Windsor, 20050


She was all for women education. As a young bride , she started the  legendary Maharani Gayatri Devi College. She supported several charities and trusts.

 I quote from  her  Memoirs : 

“1932  was the year I had a huge crush on Jai (Maharaja Man Singh of Jaipur). I’d first met him when I was 12; he came to Calcutta to play polo and stayed with us. He cut such a dashing figure and although he was eight years older, I felt an instant connection with him.  We  started dating, going on long drives, mostly when we went to stay in England. I was too young to think of marriage, but I spent hours daydreaming about my prince charming.
My mother (Rajmata Indira Devi of Cooch Behar), concerned that her children’s  education shouldn’t suffer while we shuttled between France, England and India, had employed two governesses, to teach us French, German and English, while two local teachers came to teach us all the other subjects.
There was no special training as such in being royalty but we had an excellent role model in our mother, who was a renowned hostess. She excelled in setting up beautiful homes for us. And when I married Jai, it was she who picked my entire trousseau.”

( Avtar Mota )

Creative Commons LicenseCHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.