Umaid Bhawan Palace

Umaid Bhawan was commissioned in 1929, during a long drought, explicitly to give work to thousands of people over the years it took to build, and finished in 1943. The architect Henry Lanchester produced a hybrid of Rajput forms and art deco, in golden Jodhpur sandstone cut and interlocked without mortar, with a central dome whose inner vault rises about thirty metres over the hall. It has three hundred and forty-seven rooms. Part remains the residence of the former ruling family, part operates as a luxury hotel, and part is a museum showing clocks, weapons, an armoury and a collection of vintage cars in the forecourt.

History

The palace is named after Maharaja Umaid Singh, the 37th Rathore ruler of Marwar, who after three consecutive years of drought and famine in the 1920s decided to build it to give work to the farmers of the area. He broke ground on 18 November 1929 on Chittar hill, where there was no water nearby and little grew, had a railway line laid to the sandstone quarries and commissioned the architect Henry Vaughan Lanchester; about 2,000 to 3,000 people worked on it, and when it was completed in 1943 it had 347 rooms (Wikipedia, Umaid Bhawan Palace).

The main sights

• The deco exterior - Rajput and art deco forms in interlocked sandstone.
• The museum galleries - clocks, armoury, photographs and royal collections.
• The vintage cars - the family's car collection in the forecourt.
• The central dome - the great hall visible from the museum section.

When to go

October to March; Jodhpur summers are severe. The museum keeps standard hours. The building is best seen in late afternoon light from a distance.

Good to know

Only the museum section is open; the hotel and residence are strictly closed to visitors, which surprises those expecting to see the interiors. The museum is modest for the ticket price.

Nearby

Mehrangarh Fort lies northwest; Jodhpur old city is below it.

Key facts