A palace for a modern maharaja
A boy king: when Maharaja Dungar Singh died in 1887 without a son, the throne passed to his younger brother Ganga Singh, then a child.
The regency: the state was governed under British supervision while he was educated at Mayo College in Ajmer.
Why a new palace: those around him judged the old fort, Junagarh, cramped, dark and unsuited to a ruler expected to entertain viceroys and run a modern state.
- Built
- 1890s to 1926, first wing finished 1902
- Built by
- Maharaja Ganga Singh, architect Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob
- Open
- Sadul Museum keeps short weekday hours, we confirm
- Allow
- An hour for the museum, longer for tea
- Best time
- The last hour before sunset, October to March
- Photography
- Exterior easy, ask inside the museum
- Getting there
- About 15 minutes by car from the old city
- Where: on empty land a few kilometres north of the walled city, rising in stages from the 1890s.
- The first wing: Laxmi Niwas, completed in 1902. By then Ganga Singh ruled in his own right and had led his camel corps on campaign in China.
- Finished slowly: the rest of the complex was completed only in 1926.
- The modest plan: a budget of a lakh of rupees and talk of cheaper stucco, ideas that did not survive the young maharaja's ambitions.
- The real cost: the first wing alone is said to have cost about ten times the original estimate.
- The name: Lalgarh, the red fort, in memory of his father, Maharaj Lal Singh. The pun on its colour was surely intended too.
- A shift of centre: when the household moved here, the old citadel became Junagarh, the old fort, and royal life left the walled city for the edge of the desert.
- The wider story: our Bikaner guide tells it.
Swinton Jacob and the Indo-Saracenic style
Stanley Reed, the journalist who reported the royal tour of India in 1905 and 1906, called Laxmi Niwas 'the most perfect modern building in the Indo-Saracenic style in India'. Stand in front of it in the evening and you may well agree.
A Jaipur engineer: Jacob spent most of his career in the service of Jaipur state, where he designed the Albert Hall Museum.
The Indo-Saracenic idea: modern buildings, with modern plans, plumbing and structure, dressed in Indian forms.
- Architect
- Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob
- Also designed
- Albert Hall Museum, Jaipur
- Style
- Indo-Saracenic
- Plan
- Three storeys around two courtyards
- The borrowed forms: domes, arches, kiosks, screens and brackets drawn from Rajput, Mughal and Gujarati traditions.
- A serious student: Jacob made careful studies of old Indian buildings and published portfolios of their details for craftsmen to use.
- The building: a three-storey palace of red Thar sandstone around two courtyards.
- Outside: long verandas, rooftop pavilions called chhatris and projecting balconies called jharokhas. The surfaces are pure Rajasthan.
- Inside: the plan of a grand Edwardian house, with drawing rooms, smoking rooms, guest suites, a vast dining room and corridors wide enough for a household of hundreds.
- The critics: not everyone loved the style then, and some architectural writers still sniff at it. Contemporaries were often kinder.
- The vocabulary: our guide to reading Rajasthani architecture explains it.
The carving, explained in plain words
Carved by hand: the glory of Lalgarh is its carving, done by Bikaner's own stone carvers.
Why this stone: the region's red sandstone is soft enough to cut finely when freshly quarried, and hardens as it weathers, which suits screens and filigree.
Jalis: pierced screens that let air and light through while keeping out the sun and the gaze of strangers.
- Morning
- Dusty brick red
- Midday
- Bleached almost to salmon
- Before sunset
- Pink, then deep rose
- Dusk
- Fading to violet
- Feel it: on a hot afternoon, stand behind one and feel the breeze it lets in. They are as practical as they are beautiful.
- Brackets: under the balconies, carved as lotus buds and scrolls.
- Cornices: deep enough to throw shade on the walls below.
- The roofline: small domed kiosks, each one a miniature pavilion.
- The same hands: the carvers' families also worked on the merchants' havelis. Walk the lanes of the Rampuria havelis the same afternoon and you will see their work in both.
- Imports inside: Italian colonnades, fireplaces, tiled floors and European furniture mixed with the local work.
- Many colours: every Bikaner child knows the stone is not one colour but many.
Lalgarh today, wing by wing
Laxmi Niwas, the first wing
What it is: the oldest part of the palace, completed in 1902, now the Laxmi Niwas Palace hotel, run on a lease by a private hotel company.
Inside: a carved courtyard, grand reception rooms and period suites, the most opulent in Bikaner.
- The evening: dining under the arches with the stone lit warmly is one of the great pleasures of a stay in the city.
- Not staying: non-residents can sometimes reserve a meal, which we arrange.
- More detail: read our Laxmi Niwas Palace guide.
The Lallgarh Palace hotel
Who runs it: a charitable trust of the royal family, using the older spelling Lallgarh.
- Its feel: quieter and more old-fashioned, with long corridors, hunting-lodge furniture and photographs of royal Bikaner.
- Who it suits: travellers who prefer character to polish.
Karni Niwas and the durbar hall
The durbar hall: built for ceremonial assemblies of nobles.
- The pool: an indoor swimming pool in the art deco style of the 1920s and 1930s, a wonderful period piece in a desert city.
- Access: depends on events and the hotel's arrangements, so ask us before you plan around it.
The Shri Sadul Museum
Where and why the name: the west wing, named after Maharaja Sadul Singh, Ganga Singh's son and the last ruler to reign over Bikaner as a princely state.
- The collection: photographs, documents, trophies, uniforms and personal possessions.
- Three generations: Ganga Singh the statesman, Sadul Singh who signed Bikaner into India, and Karni Singh the parliamentarian and Olympic shooter.
- Why go: one of the best places in Rajasthan to understand the last decades of princely India.
The library
What it holds: a vast private collection of manuscripts, books and paintings built up by Bikaner's rulers over centuries.
- Its treasures: including the Sanskrit manuscripts gathered by Maharaja Anup Singh in the seventeenth century.
- Visits: scholars come by arrangement. For most travellers it is enough to know that one of the great collections of Indian learning sits behind those red walls.
The family residence
- Private: one wing remains a private home of the royal family and is not open to visitors.
- Why it matters: its presence keeps the palace feeling alive rather than preserved.
The gardens and terraces
- The grounds: wide lawns, trees and paths, laid out for garden parties when Bikaner entertained princes and viceroys.
- Today: the setting for weddings and, for our guests, slow early-morning walks and late-afternoon tea.
Viceroys, shooting parties and a prime minister of France
The first great guest: Lord Curzon, viceroy at the start of the twentieth century.
Those who followed: King George V and Queen Mary, and viceroys including Lord Hardinge and Lord Irwin.
Clemenceau: in 1920 came Georges Clemenceau, who had led France through the First World War and sat with Ganga Singh at the peace conference that ended it.
- Viceroys
- Lord Curzon, Lord Hardinge, Lord Irwin
- Royalty
- King George V and Queen Mary
- From France
- Georges Clemenceau, 1920
- The draw
- The imperial sandgrouse shoot at Gajner
- Why they came: for Ganga Singh's company, his famous hospitality and, above all, the shooting.
- The sandgrouse shoot: at Gajner, the royal lodge and lake west of the city, thousands of birds came in from the desert to drink each winter morning.
- Lalgarh's part: guests stayed here before and after, and the dinners, photographs and political conversations happened here.
- Shrewd hospitality: many in Bikaner say the water of the Ganga Canal was won as much over dinner at Lalgarh and breakfasts at Gajner as in any government office.
- Seeing it clearly: it was built for a tiny elite in a desert state where most people were poor.
- On the hunting: it is not something we would want to see again.
- Wiser than its trophies: Ganga Singh's grandson Karni Singh turned the Gajner hunting reserve into a wildlife sanctuary.
The family and the palace today
A changed world: after independence and the merger of Bikaner into Rajasthan in 1949, the princely families' palaces had to find new ways to survive.
The trust: in 1972 Maharaja Karni Singh set one up in his grandfather's name and endowed part of Lalgarh to it.
Two hotels: two wings were turned into hotels whose income supports the trust's work.
- Merger
- Bikaner joined Rajasthan in 1949
- The trust
- Set up by Maharaja Karni Singh in 1972
- Two hotels
- Income supports the trust's work
- Owner today
- Rajyashree Kumari, Karni Singh's daughter
- Still the family's: the palace belongs today to Karni Singh's daughter, Rajyashree Kumari, herself a former sport shooter.
- A typical model: museum, hotel and home under one roof is how Rajasthan's royal families have kept their great houses alive.
- The same in Jodhpur: Jodhpur's Umaid Bhawan Palace, another twentieth-century palace, has a museum, a hotel and a royal residence.
- Meeting the families: our page on meeting Rajasthan's royal families explains how we arrange introductions and private visits where they are welcome.
- Lived in: you might pass a family wedding being set up on the lawns, or a member of the household crossing a courtyard.
- How to behave: as in a great country house that opens part of itself to guests, with curiosity, courtesy and a little discretion.
The best hour and season
Museum first: visit the Sadul Museum in the early afternoon, then stay for the light.
The change: from about an hour before sunset the facade goes through its slow change of colour, and the terraces and lawns are at their loveliest.
- Museum
- Early afternoon
- Facade
- From an hour before sunset
- Season
- October to March
- Book early
- January, for the Camel Festival
- Severe heat
- April to June
- Not staying: we arrange tea or an early dinner so you are there for the change, and leave in the blue light afterwards.
- The season: as for the rest of Bikaner, October to March, with bright, warm days and cold nights in December and January.
- January: the city celebrates the Bikaner Camel Festival, and the palace hotels are busy, so book early.
- April to June: the heat is severe, and the cool, high rooms show exactly why they were built the way they were.
- Month by month: our best time to visit Bikaner guide.
How to visit
The museum: the Shri Sadul Museum is the main part open to day visitors. It keeps fairly short weekday hours and closes on some days, so we always confirm before you go.
The hotels: their areas are for residents and diners.
Seeing the courtyards: reserving lunch, tea or dinner is the best way, and we arrange it for guests staying elsewhere.
- Open to visitors
- The Shri Sadul Museum, west wing
- Allow
- An hour for the museum, one or two more for gardens and tea
- Access
- Ground floor, courtyards and gardens largely level
- From Junagarh
- About 15 minutes by car
- The family wing: please respect it. Don't wander through doors marked private or photograph staff and family without asking.
- Getting there: the palace is on the edge of the city, about fifteen minutes by car from the old city and Junagarh. Your driver will wait.
- Access: easier than in the old forts. The ground floor, courtyards and gardens are largely level, though some rooms involve steps.
- Planning around stairs: our accessible travel guide explains how we do it.
- Photography: the exterior is easy and rewarding. Inside the museum, ask about current rules.
- Time: an hour for the museum, and as long as you like for tea on the terrace.
What most visitors miss
The Sadul Museum's photographs: hunt for Bikaner's camel corps, the canal works and the city in the 1920s. They reveal more than the trophies.
The upper jalis: their detail is best seen from the lawns with binoculars or a long lens.
- The contrast with Junagarh: see both on the same day and you understand in an afternoon how Indian kingship changed between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries.
- The link with Jaipur: if you have seen the Albert Hall, look for Swinton Jacob's habits here, the same balance of symmetry and ornament and the same respect for local craft.
- The evening: most visitors leave before the light does its best work.
- If you have seen Umaid Bhawan: Lalgarh is older, smaller and far more richly carved, with filigree screens that Umaid Bhawan's art deco lines don't attempt. Seeing both shows two very different ideas of a modern palace.
An afternoon at Lalgarh, hour by hour
After lunch, the Sadul Museum
Arrive early afternoon: the museum is quiet, and the heat outside makes its cool rooms welcome.
- An unhurried hour: with the photographs and documents, ideally with a guide who can put names to the faces.
- Look for: the camel corps, the canal and state occasions.
- The family's passions: objects that show them, from cars and aircraft to sport.
Mid-afternoon, a walk around the outside
The facade: walk slowly along it and into the gardens.
- Lengthening shadows: the screens and brackets begin to stand out in relief.
- Symmetry and variety: symmetrical in its large forms, endlessly varied in its detail, a balance Swinton Jacob took from the old palaces he studied.
Before sunset, tea on the terrace
- Settle in: on a terrace or lawn, with tea and something from the Bikaner kitchen, perhaps fresh bhujia and a sweet.
- Watch: the stone go from red to rose. Conversation tends to slow here, exactly as it should.
Dusk, dinner or departure
Stay on: for dinner in one of the palace dining rooms.
- Or drive back: into the city in the blue light, past the walls of Junagarh, for dinner at your own hotel.
- Fitting it in: our Bikaner itinerary shows how this afternoon fits into a longer stay.
Photographing the palace
The main facade: shoot it in the last hour before sunset, when the stone is warmest and the shadows give the carving depth.
A longer lens: for the upper jalis and chhatris. The best detail is high on the building, well above eye level.
- Winter mornings: frame the domes and pavilions against a clear blue sky for a crisper, cooler image.
- Avoid midday: the flat glare makes it easy to photograph badly.
- People: ask before photographing staff, wedding guests or anyone in the private wing, and respect any signs inside the museum.
- Across the state: our photography tips for Rajasthan cover light, etiquette and equipment.
What to pair with Lalgarh
Junagarh Fort in the morning
- The order: the painted rooms of the old fort first, then Lalgarh in the afternoon.
- Why: the two are the before and after of royal Bikaner.
The camel research centre at dusk
- What: the National Research Centre on Camel, on the edge of the city, where the herds return from grazing in the late afternoon.
- The link: it connects neatly with Ganga Singh's camel corps, and with the camel milk tea you can taste there.
Gajner
Where: the royal lake and lodge west of the city, now a heritage hotel and a sanctuary.
- Why: to see where Lalgarh's guests spent their winter mornings.
- How long: a peaceful half-day, or a night away from the city.
Deshnoke
- The link: Ganga Singh gave the Karni Mata temple its marble facade and silver doors.
- When: a dawn visit the next day completes the picture of the ruler and his faith.
Staying in the palace
The grander choice: Laxmi Niwas Palace, with the original 1902 wing, its carved courtyard and its period suites.
Choosing a room: rooms vary a great deal in size, light and outlook, so tell us what matters to you and we will ask for the right one.
- The quieter choice: the Lallgarh Palace hotel, run by the family trust, is more old-fashioned and suits travellers who like a palace with its edges showing.
- Smaller and more playful: Narendra Bhawan, the former home of the last maharaja, a short drive away.
- In the old city: Bhanwar Niwas puts you in a merchant's haveli.
- Compare them: our guide to luxury hotels in Bikaner.
- Across Rajasthan: our page on palace hotels compares Lalgarh with the state's great palace stays.
