A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior

Tripoto
5th Aug 2015
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 1/53 by anumeha gupta
Jai Vilas Palace - Looks grand
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 2/53 by anumeha gupta
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 3/53 by anumeha gupta
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 4/53 by anumeha gupta
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 5/53 by anumeha gupta
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 6/53 by anumeha gupta
The founder of the palace
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 7/53 by anumeha gupta
Palace famous for its chandelairs
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 8/53 by anumeha gupta
The Royal chair made of gold and silver
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 9/53 by anumeha gupta
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 10/53 by anumeha gupta
Cushions on which Royal couples are married
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 11/53 by anumeha gupta
marriage dress worn by Jyotiraditya Scindia
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 12/53 by anumeha gupta
Dresses worn by Royal couple Jyotiraditya Scindia
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 13/53 by anumeha gupta
Saree with Spider worn by Vijay Raje Scindia
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 14/53 by anumeha gupta
Egyptian Rope found in palace
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 15/53 by anumeha gupta
Another one
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 16/53 by anumeha gupta
Royal Baghii used for marriage procession
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 17/53 by anumeha gupta
British symbol on uniforms of Scindia Army
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 18/53 by anumeha gupta
A bar
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 19/53 by anumeha gupta
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 20/53 by anumeha gupta
all glass work imported from Brussels
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 21/53 by anumeha gupta
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 22/53 by anumeha gupta
English Furniture
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 23/53 by anumeha gupta
Longest carpet made
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 24/53 by anumeha gupta
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 25/53 by anumeha gupta
Rosewood Furniture
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 26/53 by anumeha gupta
Rosewood Furniture
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 27/53 by anumeha gupta
Fan works on petrol fumes
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 28/53 by anumeha gupta
Royal Study
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 29/53 by anumeha gupta
Royal Study
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 30/53 by anumeha gupta
Quees bedroom
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 31/53 by anumeha gupta
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 32/53 by anumeha gupta
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 33/53 by anumeha gupta
Krishna Mandir imported from Belgium
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 34/53 by anumeha gupta
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 35/53 by anumeha gupta
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 36/53 by anumeha gupta
Chinese Incense burner
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 37/53 by anumeha gupta
Japanese Incense Burner
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 38/53 by anumeha gupta
Carving done on Ostrich Egg
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 39/53 by anumeha gupta
Plate used to detect poison in food
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 40/53 by anumeha gupta
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 41/53 by anumeha gupta
Royal palki used for different occasions
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 42/53 by anumeha gupta
Royal palki used for different occasions
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 43/53 by anumeha gupta
jhaad
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 44/53 by anumeha gupta
fanoos
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 45/53 by anumeha gupta
skinned tiger
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 46/53 by anumeha gupta
Indian style of eating
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 47/53 by anumeha gupta
Train used to serve liquer
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 48/53 by anumeha gupta
the track on which train moves around table
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 49/53 by anumeha gupta
Jhad
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 50/53 by anumeha gupta
Diwan-e-khas
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 51/53 by anumeha gupta
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 52/53 by anumeha gupta
Corianthan pillars plates with gold
Photo of A European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior 53/53 by anumeha gupta
7 metric tonnes of weight hanging from ceiling

An European Palace in India – Scindia’s Jai Vilas Palace, Gwalior

Jai Vilas Palace built by the Scindia’s is totally inspired by the European style of art with its Corinthian columns and royal arches.  The palace is divided in three parts. One part is owned by the Congress faction of Scindia, the other by BJP faction and third open to public viewing.

Things worth seeing in the palace are as follows:

1) Deewan-e-Khas is the most majestic hall in the palace. It has two chandeliers hanging from ceiling with each weighing three and a half metric tonnes. The columns in the halls are painted in real gold. Thus approx 500 kg gold is there in the hall. The hall is still used on special occasions. It is said that to test the ceiling whether it will be able to take the weight of the 7 metric tonne of chandeliers, elephants were used for 7 days and only after he was satisfied, they were hanged.  

2) The dining hall has three sections. The leftmost is Indian style where guest can eat sitting on ground and serves vegetarian food. The right most table is for English style of dining and serves non-vegetarian food. The centre table is for serving liquor. It has a track laid on the table on which the train carrying liquor moves. Now the train has been converted to an electric train. The whole train and track set is made of silver.

3) All the glasswork is imported from Brussels. Things worth seeing are huge wall mirrors all brought in one piece.

4) The Krishna Mandir imported from Brussels by the Scindia Family on the occasion of Janmashtmi actually shows an angel flying behind Lord Krishna, an Europian Effect.

5) Out of the few things which are actually Indian in the palace is the Malabar furniture. The rosewood furniture is very intricately carved. Each chair in the dining table weighs 45 kg and the table weighs 300 kg. Each chair has different design carved on it. The table top is made in two halves as a single wood piece of this size would be unavailable. The rosewood has a quality that it becomes black as it ages. Hence the black furniture. Also the dining set laid out on table is a mixture of fine bone china and silver.

6) There is also a wall hanging covering the entire wall. It was made in Iran was called Kirman Mash’ir and shows all the major kings of world like Chenghiz Khan, Babur and other Mughal Rulers, Jesus, Napoleon and old Shahs of Iran.

7) One of the queen was barely 4 ft. Hence very small size furniture could be seen in her room.

8) The traditional pagdi/safa (headgear) is made of 60 metre of cloth and takes about three days to make.

9) The dresses worn by Jyotiraditya Scindia and his wife on the day of marriage are also displayed. The saree weighs some 5 kg and is has silver and gold weaving.

10) The furniture was imported from France, Italy and England.

There are no doubts that Scindia’s were well rewarded by the British for siding with British against the mutiny of 1857. For supporting the British, Scindia's betrayed the brave soldiers who like Rani Lakshmi Bai who were fighting against the British to free our country in mutiny of 1857. 

The Scindias may have earned lots of material wealth which is reflected in the palace, but history will always show them as traitors of the country.