At the British Museum, Gayatri Devi is remembered as a former maharani of Jaipur who moved with unusual ease between glamour and politics, and who later spent time in Tihar during the Emergency rather than bend. Her image stayed tied to French chiffon, pearl necklaces and a public life that reached far beyond Rajasthan.
Jaipur school visits
Writer Dharmendra Kanwar recalled Gayatri Devi’s visits to Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls’ School in Jaipur, where students tried to leave class just to catch a glimpse of her. Kanwar said, “The highlight of those days was when this extraordinarily attractive maharani visited the school in her French chiffon. It was something to be able to tell our classmates: I saw her,” capturing how the maharani’s appearance became part of the city’s memory.
Gayatri Devi was also a Swatantra Party MP, a role that added political weight to a public image already shaped by fashion. UK Vogue placed her among the world’s ten most beautiful women, and her signature look included soft chiffons in pastels, sleeved blouses, and polki or pearl necklaces. Gayatri Devi said she was not aware of how much of an influence her style had.
From London to Santiniketan
Born on 23 May 1919 in London, she was the fourth of five children of Prince Jitendra Narayan of Cooch Behar and the Maratha princess Indira Raje of Baroda. Her mother called her Ayesha after the heroine of H Rider Haggard’s novel She. Gayatri Devi studied in Santiniketan during Rabindranath Tagore’s lifetime, then later studied in England and Switzerland.
In A Princess Remembers, she described a carefree tomboy childhood. She shot her first panther before she turned thirteen, travelled across Europe with her mother and siblings, and learned to ride and drive. After her father died young, her mother ran the princely state of Cooch Behar alone, and Gayatri Devi grew up understanding that women could run kingdoms.
Marriage and resistance
Her courtship with Sawai Man Singh II, the Maharaja of Jaipur, unfolded in secret. Gayatri Devi later wrote, “There was the challenge of outwitting our elders, of arranging secret meetings,” and added, “And every now and again, there was a marvellous, unheard-of liberty of going for a drive in the country with Jai, of a stolen dinner at Bray, or of an outing on the river in a boat. It was a lovely and intoxicating time.” The obstacle was simple and public: the maharaja already had two wives and four children.
Sharmila Tagore later said of Gayatri Devi, “She was great fun to be with,” and, “Not one of those boring people. She was genuinely, thoroughly fun.” Gayatri Devi’s last interview captured the same directness: “I’ve had a very happy life. I have no regrets. I’m not a nostalgic person. I live in the present…Why grumble about things that don’t go your way? Make the most of life,” a line that sits uneasily beside the years she later spent in Tihar during the Emergency. The public memory left behind is of a royal figure whose elegance never stood apart from her refusal to yield.
