Maharaja: The Splendor of India’s Royal Courts

Women in the Court

The royal household included members of the ruler’s extended family as well as his immediate dependents. Polygamy was common in Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh courts, where rulers usually married for political reasons and, as a result, had multiple families.

Royal women, especially a ruler’s mother, favorite wife, daughter, or sister, were often influential figures at the court and important patrons of religion and the arts.

Palace Life

The palace complex was not just a residence for the extended royal household. It was where state business was conducted and the court held; it also housed troops and maintained artisan’s workshops.

Courtly pastimes for the ruler and his family members might include hunting, watching sporting events, playing games, listening to music and poetry, enjoying dance performances, and looking at paintings.

Palace Life

The palace complex was not just a residence for the extended royal household. It was where state business was conducted and the court held; it also housed troops and maintained artisan’s workshops.

Courtly pastimes for the ruler and his family members might include hunting, watching sporting events, playing games, listening to music and poetry, enjoying dance performances, and looking at paintings.

The Mughal Empire

The Mughals were a dynasty of Central Asian origin that established power in north India in 1526. At its height, the large, stable, and immensely wealthy Mughal Empire encompassed virtually all of the Indian subcontinent, except for the far south.

Despite their political decline in the 1700s, the Mughals continued to exert a strong and lasting cultural influence on the rulers of both established and newly emerging kingdoms. Aspects of Mughal art, architecture, music, and fashion were adopted into other cultural traditions and that helped shape the concept of kingship in India.

The English East India Company

Founded in 1600, the English East India Company was just one of many trading companies that maintained armies with British officers and Indian soldiers to protect the trading facilities.

By the mid-1700s, the English East India Company had become increasingly dominant and oppressive, until a full-scale rebellion broke out in 1857 when Indian soldiers mutinied against the British army. The conflict ended in 1858, when the British government took control of the former company territories, and much of India itself.

The British Imperial Spectacle

By staging their own impressive durbars (court assemblies) and royal processions, the British took on the symbolic language and regalia of Indian kingship. Indian rulers were expected to publicly show loyalty to their imperial overlord during such pageants.

Conversely, a new system of imperial orders integrated Indian rulers into a western-style feudal hierarchy. For example, important states were ranked by gun salutes: Queen Victoria was entitled to 101 guns, the viceroy and members of the royal family to 31, while the princes had between 21 and 9, depending on their status.

A Difficult Duality

During and after British rule, the Indian princes found themselves in an almost impossible position. They were obliged to live within traditional boundaries and appear as the stereotypical “maharaja” when required, but educated by English tutors, they were also encouraged to think along western lines and behave as English gentlemen.

Some refused to countenance these conflicting demands, but most accepted the dominant British model of modernity and were viewed as exotic beings who epitomized India’s role as the crown jewel in Britain’s imperial crown.

Gandhi & The Maharajas

A sustained movement for self-rule emerged under the visionary leadership of Mohandas Gandhi, giving voice to widespread discontent with British rule. The maharajas were increasingly marginalized within this shifting political environment, both by the pro-independence and pro-democracy movements within India and by the British.

Conspicuous consumption of foreign goods also confirmed the stereotype of the maharajas as extravagant and frivolous. Their behavior was viewed as in opposition to Gandhi’s ideology of self-sufficiency, which stressed reliance on domestic products.

Gaddi (Royal Seat) City of Murshidabad, circa 1850
Velvet, silk, and metallic threads

© Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 0761 (IS)

In India, a ruler often sat on a gaddi, a richly embellished textile that constituted the seat of power and was the focal point of the durbar. When a ruler, often but not exclusively the eldest son, succeeded to the throne, he was said to have “sat on the gaddi.”

But on certain special occasions—such as the investiture, when the ruler was formally recognized as king—the ceremony often took place on a fixed seat of marble, stone, or precious metal.

Sword and Scabbard Former kingdom of Indore, circa 1800
Steel, gold, diamonds, emeralds, rubies

© Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.24©A-1888

The king’s primary duty was to maintain internal and external security in the kingdom. This sword, richly encrusted with gemstones and engraved with the symbol of the royal umbrella, probably belonged to the maharaja of the Maratha kingdom of Indore.

One of the most important kingdoms of the Maratha confederacy, Indore long resisted British supremacy. By 1817, British forces defeated Indore’s young ruler and captured the state treasury.

Portrait of Pratap Singh, Ruler of Orchha By R. Hotz
City of Simla (Shimla), circa 1903
Modern photographic print from an original negative

National Portrait Gallery, London, © R. Hotz

The changing world for maharajas is reflected in this portrait of Pratap Singh. He stands in a professional photographer’s studio against a backdrop of European-style architecture.

Pinned to his robes are medals of the Order of the Indian Empire, established by Queen Victoria. But these new symbols of rank are combined with elements of traditional royal costume, such as the jeweled turban ornament.

Procession of Ram Singh II Former kingdom of Kota, circa 1850
Opaque watercolor on paper

© Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.564-1952

Demonstrating the concept of darshan, Ram Singh II, the ruler of Kota, a small state in northern India, rides proudly on a richly adorned elephant through the streets of his capital.

His high status is shown by the green halo, his many necklaces, and the attendants who wave ceremonial fly whisks around him. A dancer entertains him by performing on a platform mounted on his elephant’s tusks.

Patiala Necklace By Cartier, 1928 (reconstructed 2002)
Platinum, diamonds, yellow zirconias, white zirconias,
topazes, synthetic rubies, smoky quartz citrine

Nick Welsh, Cartier Collection, © Cartier

An extraordinary highlight of the exhibition is the Patiala necklace by Cartier, which originally contained 2,930 diamonds (including the yellow, 234.69-carat DeBeers diamond).

On display for only the second time in the U.S., the necklace is part of the largest single commission that Cartier has ever executed.