The winter woollies are safely in the trunk, the sun has declared the summer alive and the royal designers are all set to present their look for the summer of 2021. Let’s first catch the young royal designers at work in the many quaint cities they call home. And at the quaint little town of Indore is taking place a cozy tea party for three. ‘Just Chiffons’, steered by Rohini Gupta and her mother Kanwarani Dipti Singh Kachhi Baroda, dress up two of their favourite muses Vijaya Singh and Shreya Somaya. A floral porcelain tea charlie, a stunning array of scones and teacups, and a beautiful collection of lime to lemon saris. Sheer chiffon in pastel shades for all your summer soirées this season. These saris are handcrafted with exquisite embroidery in silk thread, pearls, and net.

Next up is a stopover at Kishangarh where Princess Vaishnavi Kumari is recreating the divine imagery of the Kamdhenu on white muslin dupattas and hand-painted shirts. Adding to it the stunning imagery of the verdant flowers that fill the fort of Kishangarh. Talking of hand painting, the young Kanwarani Sunita Singh of Khajurgaon is keeping the legacy of her mother-in-law, the late artist Sandhya Singh’s hand painting studio alive. She has for you the most stunning florals hand painted. While Mayank Raj of Shikaarbaag enthralls all with his luscious beautiful chiffon and lace saris. It sure is time for some regal magic to unfurl.

On 25 December 2020, the rustic roads leading to the sleepy village of Bujra near Udaipur suddenly buzzed with action. A convoy of cars could be seen ferrying excited patrons to the Chunda Polo Club. As the players enthusiastically took on their opponents for the Bedla Cup, constant cheers of “Go Veeram” and “Go Himmat” echoed in the stands. Clearly, the overflowing gusto of spectators could not be contained under their masked mouths amidst the pandemic. Now this may seem like a regular scene from the polo circuits of Jaipur or Jodhpur, but it was a welcome change for Udaipur. The fervour for polo, which had mellowed in Mewar over the years, is once again taking confident strides with the efforts of the city’s next generation of polo exponents.

Veeramdev Singh Krishnawat of Thana, one of Mewar’s finest polo players and the man behind the establishment of the Chunda Polo Club, is a first-generation player who was inducted into the world of equestrian sports while studying at Mayo College, Ajmer. Veeram recalls how he had formed an instant kinship with his first horse, Ganga, during childhood. Such was their bond that when Veeram got married a few years ago, he decided to mount the same mare for his Toran ceremony. 

“My passion for polo was primarily ignited by my love for the animal.” Veeram’s words remind me of the time when I was working on a documentary with celebrated filmmaker Mr. Muzaffar Ali in 2002 and we shot a riding sequence with him on his school grounds. Veeram had been a novice then, but watching him gallop smoothly into the dust was like poetry in motion. The soul-connect between the boy and the beast was not just cinematically beautiful, it was awe-inspiring. 

When questioned about what motivated him to establish the Chunda Polo Club, he says that it was solely a love for the game. Veeram and his school friend Rao Himmat Singh Bedla had nurtured a childhood dream of bringing glory to Mewar in the field of polo. Destiny made its play by creating favourable circumstances in 2018 and they got the ball rolling, churning out a factory of polo players from Udaipur. “There are almost fifteen polo players associated with the club at present and we have an ever-increasing number of riders which makes me hopeful for the future,”says an optimistic Veeram. 

Some of the regular poloists at the club include Maharaj Raghavraj Singh of Shivrati, Rao Himmat Singh and Kunwar Karanvijay Singh of Bedla, Kunwar Veeramdev Singh and Yaduraj Singh of Thana, Kunwar Tejveer Singh and Rajveer Singh of Jhadol, Bhanwar Abbheraj Singh of Baansi, Kunwar Bhupendra Singh of Agria, Kunwar Aryaveer Singh of Piplaj, Kunwar Akshay Singh Kushwaha, Kunwar Deovrat Singh and Manuvardhan Singh of Sadas, and the only woman player in the Mewar brigade, Kumari Vijayashree Shaktawat of Jagat.  

Vijayashree had learnt how to ride in her childhood with her father, but she entered the realm of polo two years ago with the Chunda Polo Club. Besides playing regularly on her home grounds, she recently had the opportunity to play for the US Polo Assn. in February 2021 in Jaipur. Just like her, Abbheraj Singh Baansi also learnt how to ride as a schoolboy. He nurtured his talent for show jumping and dressage for a few years but put a halt to it during board exams. Almost a decade later, he resumed his affair with the sport at the Chunda Polo Club.  

“Udaipur is witnessing a meteoric rise of new polo players under the aegis of this civilian platform,” says Maharaj Raghavraj Singh Shivarti who has risen to the rank of Major since joining the Territorial Army in 2014. “We indulge in practice chukkers all year round and host a Polo Season in December where players from other cities are invited for exhibition matches,” he says. Having participated in the Polo World Cup and President’s Cup, he has also played for a few fundraisers with Prince William, forging a deep friendship with him. In fact, Major Raghavraj and his wife were the only people from India to be invited to the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011. On being asked if he ever felt intimidated while playing with such a revered member of the royalty, he answers with his signature wit: “Horses are the greatest equalisers in the world!”  

Where equines are regarded as the greatest equalizers, it does not come as a surprise when Tejveer Singh Jhadol mentions how the Chunda Polo Club is such a close-knit fraternity: “Even though all the players own and raise their horses individually, most of us keep our animals in the areas around the Club as it harbours a sense of camaraderie and coexistence among us.” Tejveer has played for teams like Sahara Warriors and Jindals, represented India in horseback archery in Poland, and also worked as a horse wrangler for Bollywood films like Mirziya and Padmaavat. So, what advice would he give to aspiring players? “Start young”.

Rao Himmat Singh Bedla certainly started young at the tender age of four. “I used to trot to school on my horse Naughty Boy in my childhood. Later, when Shriji Arvind Singh Ji Mewar observed my passion for horses, he encouraged me to ride at Shikaarbadi where he bred polo ponies in those days.”Himmat is known for having democratized polo by founding the International Polo Group (IPG) which increases awareness and patronises the game. 

Himmat has been generously sponsoring the Bedla Cup in the memory of his parents for the last three winters at the Chunda Polo Club. He has also facilitated the visits of some international polo stalwarts to encourage the upcoming players of Mewar. He informs how polo was popular in Udaipur in the era of Maharana Fateh Singh Ji. “The area behind Field Club in the heart of the city is where polo was played in the yesteryears. It was later developed into a residential area and came to be known as Polo Ground Colony. After Fateh Singh Ji, Shriji Arvind Singh Ji emerged as the pioneering civilian patron of polo in the 1990s.”

Shriji’s son-in-law, Thakur Lokendra Singh of Ghanerao, is a former captain of the Indian polo team and is one of the first professional players in India. Fondly known as Loku Dada by others, he generously shares his polo wisdom with the Mewar contingent whenever he is in town. In fact, generosity is an attribute shared by all these players as the Club often hosts charity fundraisers in association with organisations like the Round Table India, the proceeds of which go towards building better classroom infrastructure in rural areas.  

I have known most of these boys since childhood. I remember them riding during our school days. I also remember the years in between when they got entangled in the vagaries of life and their horses got left behind. Yet, as I glance upon their contented smiles while they play practice chukkers with child-like exuberance, I can say with certainty that with the renewed interest of these young nobles, polo is surely expanding its roots into the landscape of Mewar.

Oprah Winfrey’s interviewing of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, which was aired in the US and UK on 7 and 8 March respectively, has created speculative ripples across the world. The bold and candid exchange that was filmed in the distant, sunny lands of California unearthed a host of grim family disputes and prejudices that have rocked Britain’s royal foundations. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s contestation over racial discrimination and familial alienation triggered mixed reactions amongst their discerning audience, near and far. While some empathised with the couple’s challenging journey and praised their courage to be openly vulnerable, others slammed the interview as a publicity gimmick worthy of collective dismissal. 

Almost a fortnight since the interview’s first broadcasts, condemners of racial discrimination remain firmly placed against indifferent realists who shrug stating, ‘What else did she expect as an outsider?’. Joining the latter, an entire bandwagon bemoans the evil influences cast by Markle on the otherwise innocent Prince Harry. In the meantime, I scoff and ponder over the relevance of this news sensation that sparked overnight while I was busy making an Eastward voyage to attend a dear friend’s wedding. 

What had initially served as the primary fodder for tabloid news has now become the new buzzword for the better-reputed media houses, even in India’s politically saturated mediascape. But the peculiarity of India’s speculation over this interview is particularly hard to ignore, given the nation’s inaccessibility to the original two-hour-long footage via legal streaming sources. In other words, the larger national populace that is yet to learn its way around torrential streaming is left resorting to mere snippets of Oprah’s conversation with royal Britain’s dismembers over YouTube. India’s access to one of the modern world’s favourite soap operas that it has revised time and again, thus stands limited to secondary sources of speculation such as tweets, tabloids and social media forwards that are detrimental to one’s mindset for obvious reasons. 

I too count amongst the majority of non-American and British residents, who lack access to the interview’s original footage. But instead of joining the empty speculation and hearsay, I find better relevance in assessing India’s fixation towards transnational royal spectacles and hopefully, to help point towards its larger social consequence. 

Our unity in diversity doesn’t spare an overwhelming pool of democratic citizens that outrightly denounce the validation of erstwhile royals, while sneakily curling up on their couches to indulge in an identical fascination for their present-day remnants. This duality of guilty pleasures and political righteousness excessively blotch modern-day discussions, sensibilities and outlooks of a large chunk of Indians who themselves seem unclear on what they are disagreeing upon. 

Is it the present-day continuation of our democracy’s disenfranchised noble lineages, or one’s ability to divorce their fascination vis-à-vis their princely roots? Does their cultural dividend cease to be of suitable convenience in our nation’s validation for democracy?

All in all, an underpinning public disapproval towards its own failure to let go of royal fascination percolates into a more vicious sense of prejudice against all those who inherited associations with India’s former-ruling classes by an accidental matter of birth. 

The irony of a democracy contradicting itself in this elementary manner is obvious and yet, is found dismissed as an elitist argument. How does democracy prevail if a nation is to constantly flout the very elitism that bears its cultural dividends? What connects Oprah’s interview of the Sussexes to India’s gnawing disunity with its living cultural heritage is the common confusion that both nations hold in terms of their understanding of royalty. 

Does royalty reside solely in its embodiment by what many perceive as undeserving, over-entitled and rich inheritors of bygone legacies? Or does it dwell in the collective mindsets of people, and their repeated citation of that royalty? 

A singular answer is unlikely to arise, but another question overarches its importance: How have we chosen to mediate our understanding of royalty? Are we ready to stand accountable for our rendition of familial identities as active perpetrators of pageantry? Or will we continue to feign a passive tolerance of princely shenanigans as if it played no role in ascribing our mundane lives with a momentary fantasy?

A classic example of this cliché can be found in an episode of Respectfully Disagree, a weekly podcast by The Swaddle titled ‘Are Royal Families Relevant Anymore?’. Barring one of the panellists, Carla, who was eloquent and well-informed of the matter being discussed, the other two, Aditi and Rajvi made careless speculations while citing Bollywood entertainers like Khoobsurat as the holy grail of their limited knowledge on India’s present-day conceptions of royalty. Instead of grasping on the more pressing matters of racism and mental health that governed Oprah’s discursive intentions, the duo at this podcast spelt out their fascination for regal collections of taxidermy. Of course, had these trophies been collected in more recent times, they could be counted upon as fervent protesters for animal rights. So, what if it spells some moral discord? Aesthetic is aesthetic, right? Much to Clara’s hesitation, their armchair idealism carries on in similar spirit. 

Which brings me back to a very valid concern that Markle raised in hindsight: What happens to the futuristic protection of her children from a pandemonium that clearly jeopardised her husband’s childhood? Is history repeating itself, as it often does? What must she do to avoid such consequences for her children? How is it not obvious to Markle’s professedly well-meaning speculators, that we and our speculation is the very source of that dreaded media contagion, and that our irresponsible manoeuvres around commonplace follies only reduce our chances finding the exit door from this judgemental house of mirrors. Will our generation serve as the tipping point? Do we even want to? Our choices actively determine our media. And vice versa. We are our media. And our media is us.

Madhya Pradesh—or the heart of India—is one of the largest states in the country and has lots to offer. It boasts of prehistoric paintings, majestic forts and palaces, and religious sojourns. It is blessed with lush forests with abundant wildlife and several national parks. The beautiful temples of Khajuraho and Orchha are a delight for tourists. The state is rich in mineral resources like diamonds and copper. It also had renowned dynasties, apart from the Rajputs, the Marathas of Gwalior, Indore and Dhar, and possibly the only women rulers of Bhopal! And lately the tourism footfall has also been adding to the national GDP. MP truly is a bouquet of incredible beauty.

MP is home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites—the Khajuraho temples, the Sanchi Stupa and the Bhimbetka cave shelters—but I am sure most of you know all about these marvellous treasures. Here I would like to talk about my favourite subject, prehistoric wildlife and dinosaurs, which is also an area where Madhya Pradesh does not lag behind. 

How many of you are aware that the first dinosaur fossil in Asia was found from the Lameta Formation of rocks at the Bara Simla hills near Jabalpur in 1828? Interestingly, this was just four years after the world’s first fossil was discovered in the UK. It was a time when the term ‘dinosaur’, which means ‘terrible lizard’, had not even been coined yet! 

The dinosaur fossil, which was named Titanosaurus indicus, was discovered by Major General Sir William Sleeman, a British soldier and an administrator, also famous for eradicating the organised crime of thuggee. The character of Mowgli in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book was also inspired by Sleeman’s writings.

A large number of dinosaur eggs, fossilised bones and coprolites (feces) has been discovered from Madhya Pradesh over the years, especially near Dhar, Mandu, etc. Some other Indian dinosaurs which have proper Indian names and now feature in the world dictionary of dinosaurs include my two Gujju dinosaurs: the Rajasaurus narmadensis and the Rahiolisaurus gujaratensis. The Rahiolisaurus has been named after the village of Rahioli, Balasinor where its remains had been found and the Rajasaurus narmadensis is named so because the horn on its head looked like a crown, making him the mighty king of the Narmada, on whose banks most of its fossilised remains had been found.

Likewise, there were the Alwalkeria, the Barapasaurus tagorei—big-footed and discovered in the centenary year of Tagore’s birth—and the Bruhathkayosaurus, which many scientists considered the largest in the world but unfortunately we lost all the fossils in a flood. Then there was the Compsosuchus, which was the size of a chicken, the Dandakosaurus, the Indosaurus, the Indosuchus, the Isisaurus, which was named after the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata (it also made for a question in Kaun Banega Crorepati once), the Jainosaurus, named after the prominent palaeontologist Sohan Lal Jain, the Jaklapallisaurus, the Jubbalpuria, named after the town of Jabalpur, and Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis, named after the Kota formation of rocks in present-day Telangana and the village of Yamanpalli.

Madhya Pradesh also boasts of the isolated remains of the Homo erectus found in the Hathnora valley of the Narmada region which indicates that there was a human settlement in the middle Pleistocene. It has been aptly called the ‘Narmada Human’ and could have been an individual aged around 25 to 30 years old.

Bhimbhetka, considered as India’s oldest art gallery is also a UNESCO-certified World Heritage Site. It was discovered by accident in March 1957 by V.S. Wakankar who over a period of time carried out an active and detailed excavation which led to the discovery of 60,000 years of human occupation! The Bhimbhetka caves recently came under the limelight for the discovery of the world’s oldest animal, which has been named Dickinsonia and is approximately 570 million years old, on the roof of one of the caves. 

In Ghughua and Umaria are the standing, petrified trunks of trees which have been identified as gymnosperms and angiosperms (monocotyledons) and palms. Some experts have not only found stems, leaves and roots, but also intact fruits with the palm trees, which is something new. 

In November 2020, a new site was discovered in Mohantola near Mandla. It has dinosaur eggs possibly belonging to a new species, hitherto not known to be from India. And we thought this state was only about tribes, temples and forts!

‘Doctor Dinosaur’ Aaliya Babi of Balasinor is known for her vast knowledge of the extinct species and her enchanting tours of the dinosaur park that surrounds her garden palace.

Cheent, or chintz, as the European high-fashion ateliers like to call it, is an ancient technique of hand-painting and resist dyeing that was practised across many historic textile hubs in India, especially in Gujarat and Rajasthan, where it still remains a symbol of tribal revelry and rustic dressing. 

Very close to the heart of the beautiful Maharani Mandakini Devi of Santrampur, cheent has been revived today as one of the many cultural projects undertaken by the Santrampur royal family, with a tiny little studio coming alive within their home, Sri Joravar Palace. Recreating this textile both as yardage as well as beautiful saris, she collaborates with the Rani of Baria Jaykirti Singh to create interesting silhouettes of the lehenga, aabha kurta, jacket and choli under the revivalist banner Ambarhue. Daughter of the legendary politician Digvijay Singh, who is the head of the Raghogarh princely state of Madhya Pradesh, Mandakini was struck by the beauty of this textile after marrying into Gujarat. “It has held the whole world spellbound. While what you see as chintz is very European in its influence, cheent, as recreated by Amberhue is rustic and close to the tribal floral forms of Gujarat,” she says. 

“It is also a textile tradition close to Rajasthan, and when Mandakini asked me to create silhouettes out of it, I was thrilled,” shares Jaykirti. Originally inspired by Mughal motifs, chintz floral prints were inspired by Islamic art—the arabesque and the Safavid art of Persia. The tree of life motif, that now also graces the Victoria & Albert Museum, was the first chintz pattern to gain popularity in Europe. 

“Chintz, polished cotton of verdant foliage and leaves coloured in multiple rich hues, was unlike anything the Europeans had known. Its lustrous beauty evoked visions of strange cultures and unknown lands. The print was bright, the colours were fast, the pattern exotic, and the cotton – which was new to the West – was highly desirable in itself. It was far superior to anything produced in Europe at the time and there was an immediate demand. It initially entered European homes as an interior fabric. Much later it was used to dress up the genteel folks. It was exported as “Palampore” fabrics, which is an Anglicized term for the Hindi word palanposh meaning bed cover!” writes Hemlatha in her researched essay on softpowermag.com

Eye-catching for the Europeans then, it is equally bewitching for visiting tourists from France and Germany now, “who interestingly buy the typical tribal skirt of Gujarat in that print”, shares Mandakini. Through this project, she is keeping an entire village of block printers employed. “Rajput families like ours live in distant towns and rural belts, surrounded by villagers that our families ruled for centuries. The local milieu in these regions is employed either in the business of farming or craft,” she says.

“Besides Ambarhue, we also promote local produce through our project Santrampur Field and Flowers,” she informs. Digging into her grandma’s recipe book to create organic sorbets, sherbets, honey and jams, this project adds yet another dimension to the revivalist role Mandakini loves to play.

On the occasion of Maha Shivratri we look into two iconic genres of miniature and calendar art that is directly attributed to princely India and generously depict Lord Shiva, his wife, Goddess Parvati, and their son Ganesha. A product of the many mystical tales that surround Shiva the destroyer, Ganesha is considered the symbol for starting all things auspicious. He is a God of prosperity and well-being.

The most famed depiction of this trio was by Raja Ravi Varma who dressed this mystic and his family in royal robes, placing him on a throne-like seat, Parvati and Ganesha flanking him while Nandi languorously sits by their side. Hailing from the royal family of Travancore, Raja Ravi Varma broke barriers in bringing details and realism to Indian imagery. Through a delicate interplay of light and shadow, he defined the images of our gods and goddess, with his most famous work being of ‘Lakshmi paintings.’

He used European realism and art techniques for depicting Indian gods and mythological characters, which gradually shaped Indian ‘calendar art’ and deeply influenced our literature as well as film industry.

While Ravi Varma looked towards grandeur, the Guler artists of Kangra captured Lord Shiva in a pristine sense of simplicity. Linear lines, gentle hills, a use of tonal shades, these miniatures are a celebration of the simple life of the hill folks.

The forms of Shiva riding his mount Nandi, his bull, or leaning on it or just in a posture suggestive of leaning on it when it is actually absent, with or without Parvati, are known as Vrishvahana Shiva. In the painting, Lord Shiva is riding his mount and Parvati is seated behind him, and the enthused Nandi is galloping like a horse. Ordinarily, a stream of water gushing from his hair symbolises the presence of the river Ganga. But, instead of that, the artist has painted a female face, obviously the humanised form of Ganga, locked within the knots of Shiva’s hair and the stream of water gushing from its mouth. Similarly have been dramatised Nandi’s gesture, modelling and adornment of its horns and curvature of its tail, both completing a circle.