Polo, palaces and fashion – the billionaire Indian royal family who call Jaipur’s City Palace home, led by 21-year-old Maharaja Padmanabh Singh
Decades after they were stripped of their official role, Jaipur’s maharaja and family continue to live a life of riches and privilege – but you can get a taste with a post-Covid-19 Airbnb stay at the city’s historic City Palace – for just US$7,774 a night
Long after they lost their official role as rulers of Jaipur, the remaining members of the state’s erstwhile royal family continue to live extraordinary lives.
The immediate members of the royal family consist of the dashing Maharaja Padmanabh Singh; his mother Princess Diya Kumari, Maharani Padmini Devi; and the maharaja’s siblings Princess Gauravi Kumari and Lakshya Raj Singh. The 21-year-old Padamanbh, who was adopted by his grandfather the late Bhawani Singh as his heir, controls a fortune that is estimated to be worth between US$697 million and US$855 million, while the combined family’s wealth sits somewhere between that figure and US$2.8 billion, according to Business Insider.
An impressive portfolio of properties sustains the family’s wealth
Bhawani Singh’s only daughter, Diya Kumari, keeps busy by running the family’s vast portfolio of properties. These duties include looking after the City Palace in Jaipur, the Jaigarh and Fort, and a summer residence called Jaipur House, while juggling the management of two family-owned schools: The Palace School and the Maharaja Sawai Bhawani Singh School. The family calls the 300-year-old City Palace their home, though it is also typically open to the public.
Padmanabh Singh and Princess Gauravi Kumari received a world-class education
The maharaja left for Ajmer’s Mayo College boarding school at the age of four, went on to Millfield School in the UK, then enrolled at New York University for college, before leaving for Rome to study art. His younger sister Gauravi also studied at NYU, and has been vocal about her love for the city. Like her brother, she also announced plans to study art in Florence in the summer of 2018.
The family is accustomed to a life of constant travel