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Today we will talk of the architecture of
the princely states of india these were political

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formation that began in the 18th century with
the downfall of the mughal empire as the mughal

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empire fragmented weakened and lost a number
of its provinces governors that the mughals

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had appointed declared independence in addition
a number of small independent states also

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became more assertive and started building
grand buildings while feuding with each other.

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Through the 18th 19th and even the early 20th
century the whole indian subcontinent was

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a complete patchwork of territories held by
these small princely states variously titled

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rajas maharajs nawabs and nizams these princely
states were eventually absorbed into a patchwork

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of territorial holdings that the british acquired.

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While the british had their presidencies in
bombay madras and calcutta all three of whom

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have changed names since the rest of the country
almost a third of it was under the control

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of these princely states in an effort to outdo
each other initially they built in the style

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of the mughals building grand palaces using
a mogul architectural vocabulary.

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But once they sign treaties of subsidiary
alliance with the british their new masters

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were the british and in many ways they started
absorbing british architecture and needless

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to say british architects we will look at
some of these palaces today and look at how

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their architecture changed through time many
of these palaces were built in the 18th century

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but over the course of the next hundred and
fifty to two hundred years there were additions

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accretions and modifications and thus what
you have is a palimpsest in any one palace

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of at least 150 years.

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Let us look at the palace of the maharaja
of patiala built in the beginning in the 1780s

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it was added to by every successive king the
whole complex known as kila mubarak is in

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the middle of the bustling city it has at
least ten courtyards which control the flow

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of traffic and people throughout.

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What you see is an aerial shot of this palace
displaying the complexity within because it

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is in the heart of the city today one enters
it through a maze of narrow streets it has

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all the usual trappings of a mughal palace
a big gateway evan a gallery on top for musicians

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and guard chambers flanking the big entrance
the entrance is large because the king if

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he ever moved in and out publicly would do
so on the back of an elephant.

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There are large parts of it which now front
the commercial streets around and you can

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only get the pristine grandeur of this palace
if you concentrate on the upper stories the

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lower stories are all shops large parts of
the palace betray english and european influences

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once you enter through the main gate there
is a massive courtyard which would be about

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the limit to which the public and that too
only the privileged public would be allowed

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nobody else would be allowed further in that
was so because this was the big maidan the

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assembly point for the whole palace in front
of it is a building called durbar hall where

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the king would sit in audience look at the
roofline of the palace which is borrowing

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forms completely from a mughal idiom you have
the bangla roofs and the chatris that punctuate

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the skyline completely.

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Durbar hall is a curiously european structure
which has ornament that is indian but the

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whole scale the proportions and even some
of the details such as the gable roofs are

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completely european but beyond this big public
square inside what is known as the kila and

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rune or the inner palace are rooms that surround
a series of courtyards these courtyards appear

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in a bewildering set of scales and sizes they're
also laid out differently because they serve

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completely different purposes this courtyard
for example was very obviously a pleasure

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garden again deriving its plan from the mughal
char bagh of a quadripartite garden with some

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kind of focus in the middle.

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Other courtyards might have solitary fountains
terraces all around these one can surmise

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were used for residential quarters within
the palace grounds you also have buildings

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that have to be built in the nineteenth century
and they're incredibly Europeans style not

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just because of the classical columns that
they use but also because in places you have

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gothic arches fluted columns with capitals
marble fireplaces and the likes this building

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was built as a museum the roofline as we mentioned
before completely borrows on mughal forms

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and for most people it is the skyline it is
the roofline that defines the building because

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that is all you could see at a distance.

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Now we look at another palace which is really
used in the 19th century built being built

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in the late 18th this is at a place called
chandwad close to nasik this palace was built

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by the this palace was built by the holkars
when they control large parts of central india

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even the village itself which has the palace
has an enormous gatehouse in Portal the actual

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palace just like the palace at patiala is
set in the middle of a congested semi urban

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fabric one enters through great stone walls
passing enormous doors that are clad with

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spikes to prevent elephants from charging
once inside similar to Patiala you have a

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big courtyard and this would be the extent
to which most of the public would be allowed

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beyond that you see an imposing façade.

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Looking back the gatehouse itself is very
different from what you find in this period

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if one looks at the gatehouse from the palace
itself one sees the picturesque landscape

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that this palace had set in before entering
the palace proper one must appreciate the

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woodwork and the stucco plaster work that
ornament this palace in its entirety the front

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facade of the palace would be the place where
people would be stopped screened and most

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likely only members of the royal household
would be allowed to pass a lot of the designs

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that you see in the wood are also replicated
in the plaster on the wall behind inside one

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enters the large courtyard which is grand
in scale but not really for the public this

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would be the kind of semi public courtyard
where only people who had real business were

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allowed the palace is three stories tall with
enormous amounts of timber framing and decorative

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woodwork the first courtyard is incredibly
ornate and has fine examples of the kind of

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woodwork one would expect in a palace.

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The third story has undergone serious restoration
and therefore doesn't have the same kind of

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style as the bottom two stories the ornamental
woodwork which you see in the first courtyard

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is not quite replicated in the second one
so as we leave the first courtyard and go

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through a set of rooms we see that the rooms
are actually painted large parts of it are

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in disrepair and the maharashtra state department
of archaeology and museums is carrying out

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an extensive program for conserving this palace
the second courtyard is of a much more intimate

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scale and of a domestic nature what has to
be appreciated though is simple devices like

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railings and screens also create beautiful
patterns so not all ornament has to be seen

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on the walls a lot of it also is the interplay
of nature and built form.

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The rooms themselves are long galleries which
might have housed staff servants and soldiers

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on the outside beyond the second courtyard
is another courtyard within the enclosure

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which has an enormous well but it is here
that you can look back and appreciate the

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fancy brickwork.

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We shall now move back north to rajasthan
And take a quick look at the Palace of udaipur

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again very typical of the rajput palaces emulating
all models of rajput mughal architecture the

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gateway to the palace itself which is outside
through which one enters and sees the palace

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you enter through a series of portals where
visitors would have been controlled they diminish

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in size you have all kinds of ornamental beautiful
details and from right on top you have magnificent

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views of the city of udaipur because this
palace is built on the highest ground inside

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again courtyards do define all these palaces
this really is the essence of domestic indian

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architecture.

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The courtyards are very often flanked by long
galleries where people can sit and live out

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parts of their day and again the top has a
mughal architectural vocabulary a number of

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these palaces in the 18th and particularly
19th century used to import large amounts

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of materials from europe or other places in
the world so for example timber from burma

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tiles from italy glass from belgium were the
kind of stock tropes in the palace of udaipur

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even the finials are made out of belgian glass
again the palace was added to over time and

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there are all kinds of extensions that show
different kinds of architectural changes.

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We will quickly look at lucknow we're not
exactly a palace but the emam badas get built

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by the nawabs in the 1780s and a style that
might be thought of as very late mughal with

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european touches really gets invented here
a number of european buildings also exist

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in lucknow side by side with this late mannerist
mughal architecture gates like the rumi gate

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which really are one of a kind are part of
this new or very late post mughal expression

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these have been celebrated in paintings in
prints as this one from the british library

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for a very long time.

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And of course the big imam bada and mosque
was meant ultimately as an exercise in social

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welfare because all the people employed on
building this were employed to relieve from

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the big drought that had struck lucknow now
last we will look at hyderabad which has a

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number of

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palaces but the one we look at is called the
chowmahalla palace which again like all these

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palaces was built over 200 years and what
you see is some of the last traditions a clock

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tower over a gatehouse.

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As you enter the palace you see a number of
chatris and trees and then big courtyards

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in which you have pools of water with buildings
on all four sides now wonderfully restored

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the chowmahalla palace also has the qilwa
hall which is the grand durbar hall again

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if you look at the architecture of this there
are elements that are european that are elements

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that are very mughal and there are elements
that can only be described as hyderabadi a

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style that they invent for themselves.

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The point of showing all these palaces and
we cannot cover all of them because every

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princely state in india will build a palace
a trend that you see over time is that from

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a mughal architectural vocabulary they slowly
start moving towards a european vocabulary

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and in some cases they will hire british architects
to design for them buildings that are described

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as indo saracenic a style that we shall see
under the british and under the colonial administration

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in a later session here you have on top left
the palace at chipauk in madras now chennai

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on the top right you have the mysore palace
on the bottom left you have the laxmi vilas

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palace in baroda and right here on the bottom
right you have the umaid bhavan Palace in

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jodhpur.

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All these palaces are built between the very
late 19th or the early 20th century almost

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all designed by british architects these designs
try to fuse victorian european planning with

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ornament and detail taken from all over india
imagining that this is the way the new mughals

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will build so thus to summarize the four important
things we see in all palace buildings from

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the princely states are the use of courtyards
the profusion of mughal ornament details that

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are sometimes european and an aspiration to
emulate the highest rulers of the land once

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the mughals and later the british.

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Thus we now see in the 18th century a very
important transitional time when not only

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tastes change but the political formation
of the country is changing rapidly the mughals

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are notionally and nominally the emperors
of india but a number of small principalities

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have decided increasingly to assert their
independence one of the ways in which they

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achieve this is by creating for themselves
a unique and identifiable architectural style

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yet the contingencies of climate labor available
material and historical baggage which they

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all share leads to certain common forms as
we mentioned courtyards are unavoidable so

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are certain cultural forms of projecting power
like hosting a durbar eventually the british

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will also have aspirations to do the same
they will invent an architectural style that

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they think is suitable for india they think
that in order to govern india they have to

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do as the last emperors of india have done
they design for themselves durbars they embrace

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courtyard planning but they also bring with
them elements of architecture from home but

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they learn to adapt these elements to suit
the local climate.

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Princely states fragmenting and creating regional
identities is a process that we've seen earlier

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when the delhi sultanate loses grip over most
of the indian subcontinent and you have the

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rise of various smaller sultanates and kingdoms
all across india that is when you have new

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ideas of what it means to be from a certain
region and these sultanates will vary in their

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use of materials ornament and even sometimes
design similarly the princely states will

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try and assert their independence architectural
but as soon as you have a strong political

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power in the british all of them will emulate
the british the british will invent for them

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a style that they think is appropriate and
all the princely states will build for themselves

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new palaces or sometimes add to existing ones
in a style made for them in that sense the

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political value of architecture and who controls
the discourse can clearly be seen in the case

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of the princely states again in architecture
there are no victors or losers it is after

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all just a movement of ideas just as the princely
states follow the mughals and then the british

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let us not forget that the british also learned
a lot architecturally in india which they

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will take back home with them building garden
follies and big palaces for their own king

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the royal pavilion and brighton which we will
see later thank you