FABULOUS PALACE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 900, 18 February 1930, Page 13

FABULOUS PALACE

MAHARAJAH'S £250,000 SCHEME I CEREMONIAL RITES Hundreds of dancing girls, gorgeous in silks and jewels, sang and danced as the Maharajah of Jodhpur laid the foundation-stone of his new palace, writes a special correspondent of the London “Daily Mail.” The palace will combine the glamour of the “Arabian Nights”! with the amenities of the modern i "Ideal Home,” and is being erected at : a cost of £250,000, on a site—sufficiently fantastic in itself—on a towering crag overlooking the city, opposite the 14th-century bastioned fort of the Jodhaji dynasty. Four score priests, clad in orange turbans and dhotis (body cloths) and crimson-shawled, led by the high priest with a golden head-dress, a vermilion shirt and a crimson dhoti, recited mantras (incantations) invoking the blessing of the gods and goddesses on the proceedings. They fed the flames of the sacred fire with rice, ghee (melted butter), oil and coconuts, as tokens of prosperity. Hidden from the public gaze, the Maharanee and the ladies of the court, whose murmured conversation and tinkling anklets alone betrayed their presence, watched the elaborate ceremony from a curtained shamiana (tent). The Maharajah, simply dressed in the white silk Rajput costume, with an orange turban and around his neck the famous Jodhpur diamond necklace of fabulous worth, performed his barefooted and intricate religious rites before a vast concourse of Europeans, fierce Rajput chiefs and Marwari sirdars. Two young sons of the Maharajah, in shot-silk brocade and orange turbans with bejewelled plumes and wearing tiny swords, watched fascin- • ated. Ochre-clad gurus (wise men) from Benares sang bhajans (hymns), bands played and guns were fired as, after purification by the priests, the Maharajah was anointed and laid the stone. Rich decorations in marble and coloured plaster will contribute to its splendour, and, as with most Indian palaces, it will be encircled by a verandah. Besides the Maharajah’s personal suite, there will be guest suites of great luxury, a staff court, a zenana (or women's) court, and a private swimming bath. The palace has been planned by the London architects, Messrs. Lanchester and Lodge.