I just returned from our group dinner with a Jaipur family. We ate in the family’s home which is a regal three story structure which they have been occupying continuously since 1752. Currently 21 family members occupy the multigenerational home, with each portion of the family occupying its own so called “apartment”. An apartment is basically a bedroom with a sitting area. The family eats communally in the common dining room. There are no separate kitchen facilities for any of the nuclear families that live in the home. On the walls of the living room are photos dating back generations, illustrating the family’s important relationship with the Maharaja (King) of Jaipur. According to the patriarch of the family, prior to India’s independence, the family served as feudal lords to the Maharaja. When the maharajas lost their power at the time of India’s independence so too did the feudal lords. After that time, all they had left was the house which they continue to occupy. We were given a tour of several of the apartments and of the public meeting room where the head of the family would hear grievances from the members of the community. After the tour, we sat down for dinner accompanied by a daughter of the family and a daughter in law. The daughter of the house , who is 27, was visiting from a town about 6 hours away. She had been married almost a year ago and had gone to live with her husband and his family. At dinner she told us that hers had been an arranged marriage.
Prior to the tour we were served coke and several small hors d’oeurves. Dinner was a typical Indian dinner with a spicy chicken in curry, mustard greens, rice and roti.
A story we had heard earlier at the City Palace, one of the palaces of the Maharaja of Jaipur, intersected with our evening with the aristocratic family. The second to last Maharaja never fathered any children with his queens even though he did father over 60 children with his concubines. His astrologer had told him that if he bore any children with his queens, he would die at the hands of one of those children. Consequently, there were no heirs to the throne. He adopted a boy from an aristocratic family who became the next and last Maharaja. That Maharaja who was kwon as the “Polo King”, as he was an excellent polo player, was a cousin of the gentleman who hosted us in his home in Jaipur.
Prior to the tour we were served coke and several small hors d’oeurves. Dinner was a typical Indian dinner with a spicy chicken in curry, mustard greens, rice and roti.
A story we had heard earlier at the City Palace, one of the palaces of the Maharaja of Jaipur, intersected with our evening with the aristocratic family. The second to last Maharaja never fathered any children with his queens even though he did father over 60 children with his concubines. His astrologer had told him that if he bore any children with his queens, he would die at the hands of one of those children. Consequently, there were no heirs to the throne. He adopted a boy from an aristocratic family who became the next and last Maharaja. That Maharaja who was kwon as the “Polo King”, as he was an excellent polo player, was a cousin of the gentleman who hosted us in his home in Jaipur.
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