The automobiles of Maharajas

Arindam Sarkar

The story goes – according to vintage car expert Gautam Sen in his book on Maharajas and their cars – one Maharaja of Eastern India in early 20^th century went to London to buy a car. After reaching London, he visited the showrooms of Rolls Royce. But he felt insulted, when the sales agent did not take him seriously and showed him the door.

Next day, the peeved Maharaja sent his minister and purchased three Rolls Royce without coachwork and paid for the shipment to Kolkata. On reaching Kolkata, the angry Maharaja converted all the Rolls Royce as trucks to carry rubbish and gifted them to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

There are many such legends and myths associated with Maharajas and the cars of their times which are now called vintage.

Most of the 526 Princely States in India in late 19^th and early 20^th century possessed foreign cars. Today, many of these cars are either in the museums of Europe and the USA or with Indian collectors.

According to the records, a British gentleman imported the very first car, a Benz, to India in 1897. Soon cars arrived in Kolkata. In 1898, a European firm imported three “horseless carriages” which found their way to the Princely States. And with that, sources said, began the love affair of the Maharajas with automobiles.

By the first quarter of 20^th century thousands of fascinating and wonderful machines with intrinsic designs became part of the royalty in India.

Nizam of Hyderabad was the wealthiest man of his times and it is no surprise that he had an awesome and enviable fleet of cars. Nizam’s Palace had 200-odd cars such as Bentleys, Buicks, Delahayes, Duesenbergs, Cadillacs, Humbers, Jaguars, Mercedes Benz, Napiers, Oldsmobiles, Packards and, of course, Rolls Royce.

The arrival of “horseless carriages” changed the lifestyles of Maharajas in India. Unusual coachworks made their way to suit the passion and taste of the royalty. Ceremonial throne cars, hunting cars with Stephen Grebel search lamps and gun racks, wedding cars and cars for ladies with purdah became part of the automobile stable of the Maharajas.

Passion for cars endured for many decades in India and each ruler with strange tastes tried to outdo the other in pomp, glamour and splendour of their “horseless carriages”.  For instance, there was a landowner of Gujarat who possessed a Ford model with intricate silver work and laced curtains.

Seth Hukumchand of Indore possessed a gold-plated Daimler and the strangest was the famous Swan Car of Kolkata. It was a 1912 Brooke with its front looking like a swan.

  

But being strange was not the norm. There were flamboyant Maharajas too like the Nizam of Hyderabad. The famous “Pearl of the East”, a 1908 40/50 HP Rolls Royce, the thirty-seventh car in the series, is probably the first Rolls Royce imported into India.

Maharaja Madhavrao Scindia of Gwalior who had a passion for pearls owned a beautiful Rolls Royce painted with powdered pearl mixed with pigment. Maharaja of Indore Yashwantrao Holkar II owned cars like Bentleys with J Gurney Nutting coachwork; a fantastic supercharged open two-seater Duesenberg; Lagonda drophead coupe; Hispano Suiza; Alfa Romeos; and a Figoni-bodied Delage.

The stable of the Maharajas of Udaipur, Jodhpur and Gondal were also mind-blowing. Apparently, one Maharaja was not satisfied with his Limousine so he got the head chopped off and altered it to a four-door Cabriolet for hunting. Maharaja of Rewa Sir Ghulab Singh was an accomplished hunter and he converted his 86XJ into a “hunting car” in Rewa Motor Workshop and fitted it with four guns with a tiger skin inside. This car is at Zach Museum now.

From Sixties, many Maharajas sold their cars off to the collectors in the West. But with the ban in export of vintage and classic cars in 1972, the “horseless carriages” began to be purchased by Indian vintage car collectors. The most famous vintage car collector is Pranlal Bhogilal whose collection of vintage cars runs into hundreds.

Other major collectors are Vijay Mallya, Sharad Sanghi, Dr Ravi Prakash, Diljet Titus and Nitin Dossa. According to Gautam Sen, most of the vintage cars are either part of private collection or are kept in some museum in Europe and the USA. “All of them have fascinating stories to tell: the men, the woman and their magnificent machines,” claimed Gautam Sen.