The World at Her Ankles

The World at her Ankles

 

The temple town of Pithapuram in Andhra Pradesh’s East Godavari District is not exactly a ‘happening’ place.  Superfast trains on the Howrah Chennai route do not halt here.  The slower passenger trains, in tandem with the pace of life here do so, ferrying pilgrims who visit the town’s numerous temples.

 Temples apart, there is one other that Pithapuram has to make a its claim to be on the pages of history. It was the home town of Sita Devi, the daughter of its erstwhile Maharaja whose chequered life culminated with a place of eminence in Parisian high society, a stature no Indian lady, before or after her had ever achieved.  

 Sita Devi was of course never a plain Jane type of small-town girl. Neither is this rags to riches story.  Born into Royalty, she had been brought up, educated and lived mostly in Madras (now Chennai). Her father was one of the over five hundred Indian Princes in subsidiary alliance with the British Raj who went by the title of “Meherban-i-Dostan Sri Maharaja Ravu Venkata Kumara Mahipathi Surya Rao Bahadur Garu, Sircar, Rajahmundry Sircar and Maharajah of Pithapuram, CBE”.  Contrary to this rather vainglorious honorific,  Maharaja Surya Rao was a genial personality, a philanthropist upon who the Telugu people bestowed their own title of  "Abhinava Krishnadevaraya" in recognition to his contributions to the Telugu language through sponsoring the monumental classical Telugu dictionary, ‘Suryarayandhranighantuvu’ and for having commissioned the first Telugu typewriter.   

‘Dunmore House’ on Murray’s Gate Road, Alwarpet, was then the Madras abode of the Pithapuram Royal family.  They had a respectful presence in Madras to which the Pithapuram family contributed liberally and the city on its part gratefully acknowledged the testimony to which being a street Alwarpet named in honour of Maharaja Surya Rao and another in that of his consort, Maharani Chinnamma.

         Born in 1917, Sita Devi grew into a stunningly beautiful, glamorous, vivacious lady who exuded a captivating presence.  She married while still young, even by standards of the then Royalty,  M R Apparao Bahadur, the Zamindar of Nuzvid, another mofussil town in the Krishna District of the Madras State now in Andhra Pradesh.  Madras remained her home even after marriage and she continued to have her presence in the social circles of the city.  It was not long before she entered motherhood and was blessed with a son even before she was twenty-five years of age.

 Even as Sita Devi coped to balance her family and social responsibilities, a chance meeting with Pratapsingh Rao Gaekwad,  the then Maharajah of Baroda, at the Guindy Race course in the Autumn of 1943 was to set to change  the course not only her own life but cause tumult in the lives of her husband, of the Maharaja of Baroda and indeed impact the future of  Baroda State.

Upon the death his grandfather the late Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III in 1939, Maharaja Pratapsinghrao Gaekwad had succeeded him to the   throne of Baroda. Along with the kingdom, he inherited an estate valued, even in those times, in excess of $ 300 million.  Pratapsingh was already married to Maharani Shanta Devi, a lady of royal descent hailing from the family of a Kolhapur nobleman. They had eight children.  The new Maharaja’s reputation of being a compulsive spendthrift and jetsetter was well known to the elders of the Baroda Court and even at the time of his coronation, there were many who felt unsure of the Kingdom  indeed passing on  into capable hands. Sadly, it was not long before such  apprehensions were proven right.

In a case of instant love, Sita Devi and Pratapsingh, both already married and with children of their own,  became so enamoured and enchanted with each other that they decided to marry, causing more than mere ripples in social circles not just in Madras and Baroda, but in Palaces across India and  beyond.

The Maharaja entering bigamy faced legal impediments to circumvent which lawyers advised a two pronged approach. The first pertained to Sita Devi who was required to convert to Mohammedanism which would dissolve her existing marriage. She went by that advice only to re-adopt Hinduism after the divorce had been granted. Thereafter, she married Pratapsingh, who took her as his second wife.

It is the second legal impediment that has significant historic relevance. These were times of the British Raj and the British Authorities noted that the marriage violated the anti-bigamy laws enacted by Pratapsingh’s late Grandfather. The Viceroy summoned Pratapsingh to explain the circumstances of his actions.

Maharaja Pratapshingh’s justification is a legal gem He deftly argued that while a law enacted by the Maharaja applied to his subjects in Baroda State, the Maharaja himself, being the authority which enacted the law,  was personally exempt from it.

The Viceroy's legal counsel affirmed the Maharaja’s argument resulting in the British government accepting the marriage, though with a caveat that  second Maharani would not formally be entitled to be referred as "Her Highness" as per the then prevalent protocol.  This was deemed trivial and did not obstruct Sita Devi from assuming the title of “Her Highness Shrimant Akhand Soubhagyavati Sitadevi Sahib Gaekwad” within the precincts of Baroda and take her place and position in the Royal Palace of that State.   In 1945, a son was born out of this wedlock who was named Sayaji Rao but later to be famously known as ‘Princie’.

In 1946, the Maharaja, his second consort Maharani Sita Devi and the year-old child Princie went on a long trip to the United States. They reputedly spent upwards of $ 10 million on the visit, making a formidable name for themselves by their extraordinary lifestyle as ‘class royalty’. This visit gave the couple an enticing ‘Taste of the West’ resulting in their deciding to settle abroad. Though Europe was where they initially thought of, it was Monte Carlo where they eventually moved to.

In the run up to Indian Independence, accession of Indian States required difficult choices for the then royalty. The Princes were independent rulers and their states were private domains. The British withdrawal from released the Princes from their subsidiary alliances to the British throne leaving the Princes to accede to either India and Pakistan. Pratapsingh was so distraught after he signed the Instrument of Accession for Baroda to the Indian Union, that he wept in the arms of the then Secretary for States, V P Menon.

As he planned his migration to Monte Carlo, the Maharaja made substantial withdrawals from the Baroda State Treasury, including many of its fabulous jewels and heritage antiques.  These withdrawals were so substantial that Sardar Patel summoned Pratapsingh and ordered return the jewels and repayment of the money drawn.   Some pieces were returned, understandably with great reluctance.   Without much notice, Pratapsingh left Baroda with a very large portion of its wealth, in cash jewellery and other assets to settle in Monte Carlo, never again to return to India. Sardar Patel then pursued the matter of restoring the ‘stolen’ wealth with the first Maharani who now found herself burdened with the responsibility to answer for the actions of her runaway husband. 

After protracted discussions, the Government of India deposed Pratapsingh of the titular Maharajah and he was replaced on the throne of Baroda in 1951 by Fatehsinghrao, Prataprao’s son from the first Queen. In fairness to Pratapsingh, it must be mentioned that he founded the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda as per the wishes of his grandfather, as also instituted the "Sir Sayajirao Diamond Jubilee and Memorial Trust" which caters to educational and other needs of the people of Baroda.

The jewels moved to Monte Carlo included some of Baroda’s most exquisite pieces including the famed Pearl Carpets, an equally famed seven-strand necklace of priceless pearls (called the Baroda Pearls), a three-strand diamond necklace with the famous Pink Brazilian Star of the South 128.80-carat diamond and the English Dresden 78.53-carat diamond. There were of course several more ‘lesser’ pieces.

         Life in Monte Carlo was exotic. Pratapsingh and Sita Devi made regular visits to Europe and the United States.  Their wealth, lifestyle and the jewels they flaunted made them popular in social circles but somewhere deep down, Pratapsingh felt a deep void and perhaps a realisation that his travails are all due to his glitzy wife.  Cracks formed in their domestic happiness and quickly widened to become unbridgeable. The couple divorced in 1956.   Pratapsingh moved to London to live a largely reclusive in remorse and sorrow on the twists and turns in his life and remain relatively unknown until his death in 1968.

Sita Devi and her son Princie  continued to live in Monte Carlo.  Prince Rainier of the Kingdom awarded them citizenship of Monaco and she continued to use the title ‘Maharani’ even after divorce with her Rolls-Royce sporting the Baroda Arms.  She also maintained a lavish apartment in Paris to which she travelled frequently, which was laden with exquisite Louis XVI furniture.  Her impressive wardrobe is said to include over a thousand sarees and several hundred pairs of shoes.  Both she and Princie were regular attendees at high profile parties and social functions all across Europe. Royalty carries its own status!    

But such high-profile lifestyle comes at great cost.  There being no source of income to support her and Princie, Sita Devi was soon compelled dispose some of her jewels to support herself. Pieces of jewellery and artifacts from the Baroda collection began to appear in the market – a diamond studded cigarette case, a turquoise and diamond ring, a ladies’  diamond cocktail watch which had all been purchased directly from Princie were listed for sale in the "Fine Jewels auction." 

There were also other pieces such as a rectangular case of basket weave design, applied with the Baroda Arms, set with circular and single-cut diamonds, signed by French Jeweller Van Cleef and Arpels which then had an estimated value of  Pounds 4,000 - 6,000, a  turquoise and diamond ring, also by Van Cleef and Arpels,  set with a cabochon turquoise with brilliant-cut diamonds and an estimated value of Pounds 5,000 to 7,000.  

A third piece put on auction was a lady's diamond cocktail watch by Piaget with an oval dial with Roman numerals and baton indicators, within a frame of brilliant-cut diamonds, priced at Pounds 3,000 - 4,000.  These were the larger pieces in a total of 476-lot auction with pieces signed by leading makers such as Cartier and Giuliano. The auction also featured replicas of the Crown Jewels.

Van Cleef and Arpels were her favourite store and she was referred to by them as Mrs Brown due to her complexion.

Amongst Sita Devi possessions was a rare and valuable Picasso ‘The Scene of the Bullfight’ more famously known in global art circles as the “Baroda Picasso’.

Sometime during early 1980s, Sita Devi and Princie moved permanently to Paris though they continued to also maintain impressive establishments at   London and Palm Beach,  besides her home in Monaco. Life for both mother and son continued at its ‘fashionable’ pace but somewhere under the glitter was a silent realisation that the ‘good times’ were fast reaching an end.

 One Parisian evening, the pampered Princie, doted by his mother, locked himself up in a room that he illuminated with a hundred candles and slashed his wrists in the dazzle of their glowing light.  As the burning candles smouldered and extinguished, this scion of the Baroda Royalty descended into a slow death and eventual oblivion. 

 Sita Devi, was heartbroken.  Her enormous will power and resolve that had sustained her through so many of her life’s difficult decisions, were now gone. Her grief on the passing of Princie, the only ‘real’ jewel that mattered to her, overwhelmed her and it not long after that she too lapsed into coma, never to  regain consciousness until death on the 15^th of February 1989.  

 Years after their passing, many more of Baroda’s precious assets came to surface.  In 1994 one of the four Pearl Carpets were found in a Geneva vault.  It was bought by an Arab prince for $31 million and is on display at the Museum of Islamic Art at Doha, Qatar even though ironically, it had been commissioned by an Indian Hindu Maharaja and not by an Islamic ruler. Among other famous gems, including ‘The Star of the South’ were located with leading jewellers in Amsterdam.

Akshay Chavan, a royal enthusiast and historian sums up Sita Devi’s passion and as that she “loved her jewels and she knew how to capture attention.  At a time when most Indian women and maharanis were photographed with their heads demurely covered, she was often seen at the Waldorf Astoria or The Dorchester, her hair thrown back to show off earrings and necklaces, hands posed so as to show off her bracelets and rings to best effect. Even her cigarette holder was studded with rubies.”

A story about Sita Devi goes that in 1953, she had sold a pair of anklets with several large emeralds and diamonds to the London Jewellers, Harry Winston who had set the stones of the anklet into a spectacular necklace that was bought by the Duchess of Windsor.  At a New York Ball at which both the Duchess and Sita Devi were present, while the Duchess revelled in the admiration and awe that guests poured upon the necklace, Sita Devi stunned everyone by exclaiming that those stones in the Duchess’ necklace had looked just as nice on her feet. The much embarrassed Duchess never wore the necklace again and returned it to the Jewellers.  

Pithapuram can rightly be proud of a girl hailing from this small town who rose to ride the high horse with such aplomb and pride to veritably have  ‘the world at her ankles’!