Jai Mahal Palace
¤ Construction of The Palace
The ground on which the Jai Mahal Palace stands has always been
referred to as Natani ka Bagh or the Garden of Natani. Sawai Ishwari
Singh’s (1743-50) Military Commander and Prime Minister,
Hargovind Natani, developed it around 1745. Natani was a prominent
military figure but is also known to be something of a traitor. Unlike
Rajput warriors he did not belong to the Kshatriya caste but came from
the lower trading castes. In 1747 Natani led the Jaipur armies to
victory at Rajmahal in Tonk, against Madho Singh’s combined
forces of Udaipur, Kota, Bundi, and the Marathas of Holkar states. He
was honoured for this victory with a tower called Ishwar Lat built by
Maharaja Sawai Ishwari Singh in 1749 that overlooked Natani’s
house in Chhoti Chopar. Ishwar Lat (c. 1751) is the highest tower
dominating the skyline on the western side of the Tripolia baazar. It
is an octagonal minaret of seven storeys topped by a canopy and has
balconies on alternate floors. Locally it is called Swargasuli or a
dart piercing the heavens.
 After
accomplishing other such successful military campaigns Natani was
awarded the position of Dewan or Prime Minister of Jaipur. However,
after three years he betrayed Ishwari Singh to Madho Singh that
resulted in the former’s suicide. After Natani’s death his
property was reverted to the state as according to the state laws he
had committed an act of disgrace. Thus Natani ka Bagh became a
princely property since then. In the 1860s it was allotted as the
Residency Surgeon’s house. In 1881 during one of the occupant Dr
Thomas Holbein Hendley’s tenancy, a meteorological observatory
was built beside the garden. It was later joined into the gardens of
the palace of which only a dilapidated tower remains. When Sawai Man
Singh II (1922-1947) took over Jaipur State, Natani ka Bagh became the
official residence of the Prime Ministers of Jaipur and continued to
be so till 1948. Sometime during his reign Man Singh II changed the
name of the garden to Jai Mahal in honour either of his second son,
Jai or his great ancestor, Sawai Jai Singh II or simply after the city
itself. Jai Mahal Palace remained unoccupied from 1948 till 1955 when
it was converted into one of India’s earliest palace hotels.
¤ The Palace Converted into Hotel
The Jaipur jeweller Laxmi Kumar Kasliwal Man Singh decided that the
only available accommodation Khasa Kothi wasn’t enough for the
potential tourists of Jaipur. and thus retaining all the original
staff of the Maharaja, architect Durga Lal Nandiwal and Maharaja Man
Singh together made new architectural changes to transform the palace
into a hotel. Alterations were done between 1952 and 1955 and finally
in December 1955 it opened its doors and welcomed guests as a luxury
hotel. The first guests were the entourage of Nikita Krushchev and
Nikolai Bulganin. Jai Mahal Palace was Jaipur’s leading hotel
until 1957 when Ram Bagh Palace opened up as a heritage hotel. In 1984
the palace was turned over to the Taj Hotel Group and renovations on
the palace started in 1985 and finished in 1986. 40 rooms were
completed and within six months another 60 were added. It is probably
the most authentic palace adaptation taken up by the Taj Group.
¤ The Magnificent Waterways
The Jai Mahal garden has a tiered waterway that flows past stone
pavilions into fountained pools. Red stone steps and walkways
interlink these pools. It has been inspired and styled on the design
of the traditional Mughal Gardens, more prominently from the text of
Babur’s Lotus Garden of Dholpur
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