No cenotaph yet for Gayatri Devi

Jaipur: One of the most glamorous woman of the 20th century, the Queen Mother of Jaipur Rajmata Gayatri Devi, must be turning in her grave.
 
Her second death anniversary recently did not see anybody lighting a candle on the place where she was cremated.

Not only the people of Jaipur, but her own kin have forgotten her within two years after her death. Gayatri Devi died on July 29, 2009.

Her grandson Devraj Singh, a Thai citizen and the inheritor of her property, organised an all faith meeting to remember her at her residence Lilypool on her first death anniversary. But the second death anniversary saw no such function.

Even after two years, the Maharani Ki Chhatri (queens' cenotaphs) in the ancient old walled city, the place where the queens of Jaipur were cremated and where Rajmata was laid looks barren without a cenotaph of the queen of glamour and romance who was described by Vogue magazine as one of the most beautiful women of the world in the early 50s.

Two years ago, she was cremated next to the chhatris (cenotaph) of the other two Maharanis, wives of late Maharaja Sawai Man Singh of Jaipur. This is the centenary year of the late Maharaja Sawai Man Singh, her husband.

The Jaipur royal family is involved in a legal feud over the Rajmata's legacy said to be worth $500 million (Dh1.836 billion). The Rajmata had willed her property and interest in the name of her grandson Devraj Singh and grand daughter Lalitya Kumari.

But the legality of the will has been challenged and her two stepsons Prithviraj and Jai Singh has dubbed it as "fake" and have challenged its validity and legality.

Devraj and Lalitya are the two offsprings of Rajmata's only son Jagat Singh who predeceased her and are unable to build the cenotaph because of the legal battle they are involved in.

Chhatris or cenotaphs are basically memorials for kings, queens and other Jaipur royals. The cenotaphs with a canopy at the top are built within a year after the demise of the royals.

"Primarily, it is the duty of the grandson Devraj Singh to build the cenotaph in the memory of his grand mother as her son is not alive. It's a tradition that the son builds the cenotaph in the memory of his father or mother," said the royal priest Rajguru C.B. Sharma.

"We have a plan to build a chhatri [cenotaph] which would be a marble structure with carved motifs depicting the Mughal and Rajput architecture. The cenotaphs would have carved scriptures of all religion — Hindu, Muslim and Christian as Rajmata was known as a secular person loved by one and all.

But Devraj is unable to build it as he is yet to be officially declared as the inheritor of Rajmata Gayatri Devi along with his sister," said Shaktish Singh, the ADC and secretary of Devraj Singh.