Arvind Singh Mewar: Udaipur royal ensured his rich legacy stays relevant in modern times

The 81-year-old had been ailing for the past three years and was being treated at his residence Shambhu Niwas in Udaipur’s City Palace.

A descendent of the legendary and one of the bravest Rajput warriors Maharana Pratap, Shriji Arvind Singh, he was born on December, 13, 1944, in Udaipur, a city founded in 1559 by his forefather Udai Singh. He was the 76th generation of the Mewar House.

Royal challenge

In one of his many interviews he had once said, “The challenge, first for my father and now for me, is how to continue to discharge our age-old responsibilities as the head of the House of Mewar. I understand and I accept that we now have no constitutional responsibilities today. We are not in the business of active elective politics, which is also our choice. And yet the desire is that this house should continue to function in its entirety as earlier, as the legacy goes back to the 8th century AD,” said Mewar.

A challenge he lived up to, preserving the cultural ethos and heritage of Udaipur and making the Lake City one of the top tourist destinations, including turning it into one of the most sought after wedding venues.

Also read: Arvind Singh Mewar, erstwhile royal family member, passes away

Pioneer of heritage hospitality

Having taken a business course from the UK and hotel management from the US, Shriji, as he was fondly called, worked in the hospitality sector in Chicago for many years to familiarise himself with the ins and outs of the hotel industry.

In fact, many say he was one of the pioneers to invent the concept of “heritage hospitality” in India, turning the palaces and forts into heritage hotels. The concept was to present tourists a specially curated space where they not only enjoy a slice of historical memorabilia but also soak in its living heritage amid all the modern day comforts and royal regalia.

Shriji had a belief that the future of royal heritage has to be tied in with the past. He always said, “I believe in the past but my feet are firmly rooted in the present and I am constantly thinking about the future.”

He founded the HRH Group of Hotels, said to be India’s only chain of heritage palace-hotels and resorts under private ownership.

In an article in the New York Times, he had written in 2010, “In our tradition, we hold our possessions and authority in trust, passing them from generation to generation. We still uphold these traditions as a moral not a constitutional responsibility.”

In 1961, Shriji’s father Bhagwat Singh had allowed his 17th century marble summer palace in the middle of Lake Picchola to be turned into a heritage hotel. Shriji had written, “It was controversial at the time; people thought that we’d sold out. But the move anticipated the current palace-to-hotel boom. And he was the first maharaja to bring in the Taj Hotels as managing partner of any palace hotel.”

From then on, the concept of heritage hospitality spread throughout Rajasthan.

Shriji believed the royal palaces provided guests an immersive experience of the luxuries enjoyed by the maharajas along with a rich history and narrative that inevitably became a part of a broader cultural renaissance.

Top wedding destination

Ringed by the Aravallis and dotted with lakes and world-class hospitality, Udaipur today is the topmost wedding destination with the likes of actor Raveena Tandon, Mukesh Ambani's daughter Isha Ambani choosing Udaipur as the venue for their wedding functions.

According to local journalist Vivek Bhatnagar, the first such celebrity wedding took place in 1992 in the City Palace and the entire concept was approved by Shriji.

Also read: What bone, marble and glass in Udaipur tell us about the forgotten inlay tales of Mewar

Preserving the Haqiqat Bahidas

However, Shriji is famously credited with carrying on the work of the Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation (MMCF), established in 1969 by his father.

After Independence, the House of Mewar decided to continue with their duties towards their people through various initiatives like eco management, philanthropic works, academic initiatives and heritage promotion.

In 1985, Shriji set up the Maharana Mewar Research Institute (MMRI), and helped the publication of vast collection of the Haqiqat Bahidas, or hand-written court records of the State of Udaipur-Mewar, of the last 500 years and housed them in the City Palace, Udaipur.

MMRI has become the repository of City Palace’s archival material: documents, architectural drawings, maps, letters and photographs are now safely stored here.

However, the MMRI’s focus was on preserving the Haqiqat Bahidas, of which almost 18,000 had been passed on from generations of the Maharanas of Mewar. The court records of the state of Udaipur-Mewar are invaluable, meticulously hand-written in the Mewari script by royal court record-keepers, who maintained a detailed diary of each day’s events.

Every person, article entering the City Palace or leaving it was recorded, with exact time and even the lunar position!

The Bahidas are also the account books, every payment made for products and services was also documented.

Shriji said about the Haqiqat Bahidas: “It is a unique example of detailed record-keeping which the Westerners never thought we Indians were capable of.”

Over the last three decades, leading scholars and researchers from UK, US and European universities have relied on Haqiqat Bahidas to recreate different chapters of the history of Mewar.

Art historians have found incredible details about the now-famous paintings from the Mewar School of Art; similarly, conservation architects have pored over old maps and drawings to discover water sources and general layouts of the palace compounds.

Unique crystal bed and sofa

One of the fascinating attractions of the City Palace is its Crystal Gallery.

Maharana Sajjan Singh (1874-1884) had ordered the entire crystal collection, which included a unique crystal bed and sofa from Birmingham-based F&C Osler company.

The Maharana died the day the consignment arrived and it was locked up as it was considered inauspicious.

Shriji unlocked the consignment lying as it was in 1994, almost 110 years after it arrived in Udaipur.

The collection includes a bewildering number of objects d'art, dinner sets, perfume bottles, decanters, glasses, washing bowls and even furniture. The collection has been customised for the House of Mewar; the Crest of Mewar being delicately etched on the crystal, adding yet another amazing facet.

Cricket aficionado

Shriji was a sports enthusiast as well, akin to his father Maharana Bhagwat Singh.

Maharana Bhagwat Singh founded the Rajputana Cricket Association in 1936, which later got renamed as Rajasthan Cricket Association in 1956. Shriji paired with his father and played in 1969-70.

Maharana Bhagwat Singh gave patronage to players like Vijay Manjrekar, Salim Durani, Vinu Mankad and others. During his time, Rajasthan cricket team reached the finals of Ranji Trophy matches eight times but unfortunately was not able to win.

Shriji always said he was never the academic type and surrendered to the game of cricket. He wrote in the NYT article, “Eventually, I captained teams at university levels and played for the national championship for Rajasthan. After I earned my BA from Rajasthan University, my dad recognised I needed a global perspective, so he sent me to England to study. I took some correspondence courses in hotel management at Metropolitan College in St. Albans. But mostly I played cricket in Lancashire and Cheshire.”

Royal family intrigues

One of the richest and oldest royal families, the Mewar family has wealth approximately to the tune of ₹40,000 crores. However, the family got embroiled in an ugly public spat, when Shriji’s elder brother Mahendra Singh Mewar passed away in November 2024.

The family has been involved in a property dispute ever since Mahendra Singh, the elder son filed a suit against his father Bhagwat Singh in 1983 accusing him of wasteful expenditure and had sought division of property.

In 1984, father Bhagwat Singh willed his entire property to Shriji and made him the executor of the will but also included his daughter Yogeshwari Kumari. The elder son was left out on the grounds that only Arvind Singh was efficient enough to look after the legacy.

Mahendra Singh, the Maharana by rule of primogeniture, could have stayed put in the palace but moved out to nearby Samor Bagh, preferring to fight it out legally.

In 2020, a Rajasthan court ruled that the property would be divided three ways — between Mahendra Singh, Arvind Singh and their sister Yogeshwari Kumari. Until the final division is implemented, the court ruled that the three siblings would have rotational access to the properties, with each having a four-year tenure. However, Arvind Singh secured a Rajasthan high court stay order, in 2022 allowing him to retain control of the properties pending further legal resolution.

Vishwaraj Singh anointed head of Mewar family

Following the death of Mahendra Singh in November 2024, his son Vishwaraj Singh, present BJP MLA from Nathdwara was anointed head of the erstwhile royal Mewar family in Chittorgarh. But when Vishwaraj Singh tried to enter the City Palace to offer prayer at Dhuni, the sacred fire, he was denied entry.

Shriji had issued a public notice against Vishwaraj’s visit to the Eklingnath temple of the family deity and the City Palace as part of the rituals of the royal ceremony. There was stone pelting by supporters of both sides and trading of charges with the administration having to impose prohibitory orders.

Later, Vishwaraj Singh was allowed to have a darshan under tight security.

Custodian of royal legacy

Shriji, who donned several hats, always prioritised his role as the MMCF head. He firmly believed that as the custodian of the Mewar legacy, he has a responsibility to protect the heritage and pour wealth back into the region.

But he was an innovator as well and receptive to the idea of adding value to experience. He always said, “We cannot be offering the same music, food, camel rides and desert safaris as one can get in Jaipur and Jodhpur. We need to work our niche area. My effort has been to make the legacy I come from relevant to the 21st century.” And, that he did pretty well.

The Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and the Indian School of Business did a case study on the Mewar Royal family and analysed how the royals have endured as the reigning family in this region for 1,200 years.

Shriji then had said, “It surprised me that in all these centuries no one had laid down a system preparing us for leadership, a sort of Maharana’s management manual. So, I have taken it upon myself to put one together for any family business that wants to last as long as ours.”

Shriji is survived by his wife Vijayraj Kumar, son Lakshyaraj Singh and daughters Bhargavi Kumari and Padmaja Kumari.

The last rites are set to take place on Monday.