Word: maharajas
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...Made for Maharajas: A Design Diary of Princely India Amin Jaffer The love affair between Indian royals and European artisans began in 1573 when the great Mughal ruler Akbar met his first gift-bearing European, and demanded from then on that his courtiers bring him more "wonderful things" from the West. The relationship reached its climax at the height of the British Raj (1857-1947) when India's princes, increasingly marginalized from political life, indulged instead in lavish escapism-building and furnishing opulent palaces influenced by the fashions of European ?lites. There is no richer testament to the period than...
...first the budget-balancing National Government gave no special thought to decorating London with European royalties and Indian potentates. Suddenly that touch of splendor began to seem imperative. Cables flashed. Excited Rajas and Maharajas grabbed every de luxe suite on liners that could get them to England by May 6. Shoals of them were surging in last week, headed by the pearl-turbaned Chairman of the Indian Chamber of Princes. H. H. the Maharaja of Patiala...
...solid-gold toothpicks specially made, the family of King Edward VII ordered jeweled can openers, and W.K. Vanderbilt requested 18-karat-gold yo-yos. Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt filled a cake with Cartier jewels as a birthday gift for the Prince of Wales. And a challenge from a gemstone-laden maharaja inspired the elaborate mixes known as Tutti Frutti...
...leap. "The music, the food, the fashion, Incredible India, the IT industry--it all adds up and generates a curiosity and gets India into people's consciousness," he says. "People are riding that all the way here." Here, in this case, means India's most famous hotel, a former maharaja's palace that rises like a colossal wedding cake out of a lake in the Rajasthani desert...
...pictures in The Unforgettable Maharajas are accompanied by a commentary that delightfully lists the royals' idiosyncrasies. The King of Jodhpur had to be called "Father" by all his subjects, including his mother. The ruler of Alwar preferred the title "God." A well-stocked harem was a vital component of many a maharaja's ego, but the considerate treatment of women was not always a high priority. When he abandoned his kingdom, the nawab of Junagadh, a great fan of hunting dogs, "left many weeping wives behind so that his pampered canines could fly with him on his plane." Despite their...