The Lakhota Palace and museum in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Ranjitsinhji firmly refused to move Nawanagar towards republicanism or ‘undiluted democracy,’ believing that a better model for a society used to hereditary sacral kingship was provided by English institutions of an earlier generation. ‘Probably’ he said when he founded the Advisory Council in 1919 ‘this body will occupy a position similar to that of the old Privy Council in England’ — more Charles II than George V. The Jam Sahib felt that the security and steady development of Nawanagar was his sacred duty; to throw open the kingdom to the restless politics of interwar Europe would be a betrayal.
IN the Dwarka Puri Temple,* where in 1879 he had been solemnly and secretly adopted as heir by Jam Vibhaji,* he went through the long and tiring ceremonial of the sacred bath in water from the Ganges. The building rang with the chanting of the sacred Vedas. Outside, the populace waited, reverent and solemn. In the silver chariot of State, he rode to the Palace dressed in the historic costume of a Kshatriya king,* through the thousands of his subjects, preceded by Princes. Eighty thousand of the poor were fed at his expense. Every caste celebrated with a ceremonial dinner, thousands being seated in the open air and in shamianas.* The Jam Saheb flung custom to the winds and visited the feasts of Untouchables, and when the headman ran to him with a garland to place at his feet, he insisted on it being put round his neck. Then he weighed himself, wearing the full armour of the founder of Nawanagar,* against silver ingots, giving these to the poor. It was a page out of pageantry, a glittering and emotional reconstruction of olden days.
* The Hindu Dwarkadhish Temple in Jamnagar, a short walk from the palace.
* More modern historians suggest that the paperwork and ceremonies proper for the adoption of Ranjitsinhji as Vibhaji’s heir (Vibhaji was cousin to Ranji’s grandfather) may never have been completed. In 1884, six years after the process was begun, Vibhaji nominated Jashwantsinhji, the child of one of his court ladies, as heir. Jashwantsinhji, who ruled as Jam Jasaji III when he reached his majority in 1903, died after a brief illness in 1907.
* That is, a warrior king. Kshatriya refers one of four hereditary social orders in Hindu society, which in highest to lowest rank are brahmin (priests and teachers), kshatriya (warriors), vaishya (merchants) and shudra (labourers and servants). The Untouchables, mentioned later in this passage, lay outside this caste system.
* An Indian ceremonial tent.
* Jam Sri Rawalji, who founded the kingdom in 1540.
