How rich were the Maharajas before Independence! Cars of the Maharajas

[Vin]

When ur a maharajah you can afford to collect garbage in RR

not anymore,

now i guess the Ambani's could perhaps think of a similar feat,

The MAHARAJA's of the new India

[v12]

Some more stories of the Maharajah's and their RR's:

One of the then British-based company’s best customers was the Maharaja of Mysore who always purchased his Rollers in sevens. His buying habits passed into company lore as “doing a Mysore”.

A 1933 Rolls-Royce that belonged to Maharani Sethu Parvati Bai of Travancore had a small stool on the floor. “On it sat a dwarf who massaged the queen’s legs while he remained invisible to onlookers,” said Baig.
Show-off. Other automobiles catered to any and every other whim, from special “Purdah” models that had drapes to hide modest Maharanis, to the Phantom II that was created in the exact shade of pink (as defined by his wife’s slipper!) that the Maharaja of Jamnagar wanted, to the 24-carat gold-plated appointments and solid silver door handles of the Maharaja of Baroda’s 1927 Phantom I.

The Maharaja of Jamnagar sent Rolls-Royce his wifes pink slipper to ensure that his Phantom II wore exactly the colour he wanted. Every Rolls had a unique feature. A Phantom III belonging to the Maharaja of Darbhanga had a peculiar feature: the driver could remove the tyres without leaving the driving seat. A small hydraulic jacks would descend to lift one or all the wheels off the ground. Many cars bought by the maharajas were purdah models with curtains to shield their maharanis from prying eyes.

Originally Posted by conceptcarz.com

This Rolls-Royce chassis was ordered by G. Mein Austin of Calcutta, Rolls-Royce Agent, for his esteemed customer, His Highness of Raja of Santosh. The car was shipped to Bombay on April 14, 1921. It was fitted with the aluminum coachwork crafted original by Stuarts of Calcutta. The Stephen Girebel headlamps and running board-mounted tiger-hunting spotlight would be original fittings, in common with many other Silver Ghosts supplied to valued Maharaja customers.
This 40/50 horsepower Silver Ghost Touring Phaeton has Chassis number 47 AG and Engine no. 0144L. The car was later owned by Hon. Raja Sir Manmath Ray Chowdhury, Kt. of Santosh, and by 1927 was in the ownership of a Mrs. Burchard in Paris. Records indicate it had valve spring problems early in its career and an engine overhaul was completed while in Paris.

Originally Posted by detnews.com

This '48 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith, owned by Bengt and Elaine Swenson of Bloomfield Hills, was specially built for the Maharaja of Mysore. Swenson, who is writing a book about Rolls-Royce, said the interior wood trim is from the Seychelles Islands, that the windshield is the first to be bent into a wraparound shape, that the rear seat was raised nine inches with a boot rail before the rear seat for the Maharaha and a platform for the feet of his wife on the right, because it would be unseemly for a woman to prop her feet on a rail.

[Samurai]

Thank god these Maharajas are history now, they were competing with each others to see who can piss away money harder and faster.

[Arnav_Kacker]

Originally Posted by navin

putting india's wealth in perspective.....
when we gained "indepandence" in 1947 India's share of world trade was in the region of 7%. Today about 50 years later India's share has dropped to less than 1%.

maybe India has progressed in the last 50+ years but the rest of the world (largely far east asia and china) have progressed almost 10 times as fast as India.

The Indian sub continent is one of the last known habitats of the polio virus (the others being Egypt, Nigeria and Niger).

Sorry for being a cynic but given our new found Leftist leanings I dont see how India is gonna pull itself out of this "hole" it has dug into.

really sad the state we've brought ourselves to....look at the last silver wraith pic and just imagine ....compare those days of the maharajas to the sh**ty days today......its gonna take decades to get back on top....that is even if we try.....damn...makes you a cynic even if you dont wanna be

[khanak]

like a famous historian said that the increase in britains wealth was is proportion to India's decrease in wealth

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by Arnav_Kacker

really sad the state we've brought ourselves to....look at the last silver wraith pic and just imagine ....compare those days of the maharajas to the sh**ty days today......its gonna take decades to get back on top....that is even if we try.....damn...makes you a cynic even if you dont wanna be

We've brought ourselves to a state where education and hard work will make you rich beyond what you could hope to achieve by birth.

All you guys talk like India rocked in the '20s. All these "Maharajas" paid tribute to the reigning British monarch, and were rather ineffectual fellows who looted their peasant citizens and used that money to compete for RRs.

I thought there would be a more realistic response from a bunch of educated people. I guess this is what makes you a cynic even if you don't want to be.

[bigman]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Thank god these Maharajas are history now, they were competing with each others to see who can piss away money harder and faster.

Yes thank god they have been replaced by elected MPs who now compete with each other to see who can piss away the most money into Swiss accounts.

[bigman]

Here is a picture of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala (grandfather of the current Punjab CM) in one of his motors. The garbage truck story is one of those far fetched fairy tales. It used to be said that it was the Maharaja of Bharatpur who did this but it has now changed to Patiala etc.

[islero]

There is a book which I have read which cxontains all these stories. I think it is called 500 Rolls Royce stories if I am not mistaken.

It is an amazing read, and I would recommend it to anyone.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by v1p3r

We've brought ourselves to a state where education and hard work will make you rich beyond what you could hope to achieve by birth.

All you guys talk like India rocked in the '20s. All these "Maharajas" paid tribute to the reigning British monarch, and were rather ineffectual fellows who looted their peasant citizens and used that money to compete for RRs.

I thought there would be a more realistic response from a bunch of educated people. I guess this is what makes you a cynic even if you don't want to be.

Well said, v1p3r.

The number of RRs used by megalomanic and decadent namesake 'kings' with a fixation for garbage trucks is not an indication of the wealth but of depravity. A few hundred RRs amongst a few hundred million wallowing in poverty, dirt, hunger, disease, squalor and servility is an indication of how easily we can be deluded into illusions of granduer and prosperity that never existed. If some of those morons had invested in a few real garbage trucks we would've had better civic sense than what we exhibit even today.

[garvit2002]

i have heard about the bharatpur and the alwar case . this is told by the grandfathers to their grandsons . everyone at t-bhp shud beleive in them they are authentic .v12 u dont need any source to provve their authencity

[Rehaan]

I totally agree with v1p3r and Steeroid.

Originally Posted by Samurai

Thank god these Maharajas are history now, they were competing with each others to see who can piss away money harder and faster.

But dont you think that we have a new breed of "maharajas" doing exactly this ?

cya
R

[typeOnegative]

Totally agree with Vip3r and Steer. Those guys (the Maharajas) sucked. Try reading other stories of theirs to put things in perspective. They had all the money in the world to go chasing women and fast cars, while the people who toiled went to sleep hungry.

And their successors are no better. One of them thinks he can go into the forest and exercise his God given right to hunt. And that he is too big for the law. Yes, I am talking about Pataudi.

Regarding MPs, we can vote them out. Against the maharajas we had no chance - poverty on one side and British oppression on the other.

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[Dud_Dodo]

Had read in "Freedom At Midnight' about one such Maharaja (don't remember his name) had his Car's Body made of Gold, guess that was a Rolls too. Don't remember much 'coz I read that book long back.

But it also did mention that the car returned a pathetic average & was sluggish due to all the weight.

[v1p3r]

Rehaan, if you are talking about the new czars of corporate India, you will notice that most of them come from families that have worked hard to get to where they are. I am told that Anil and Mukesh Ambani are respected because they work as hard as their employees.