Day 5 - Baroda : Exploring the legacy of Sayajirao

Today was our break day and time to explore Baroda, now officially known as Vadodara. Even though both of us had been to Baroda earlier we had never visited it as tourists. We knew little beyond the fact that several institutions in Baroda seemed to be named after Maharaja Sayajirao like the MS University. Our one-day halt in the city was quite enlightening in terms of getting to know more about this gentleman-king who now seems to me as much a renaissance man as any other in 19^th Century India. We should have heard more about him since he appears to be as benevolent a ruler as could be. I am sure there are warts, but these seem to be well hidden for now. 

Baroda Museum

Sayajirao III was an adopted son of Maharani Jamnabai. She had recently been widowed and was looking for an appropriate boy of the Gaekwad to adopt as her son, who would later be king. She sent word around and Gaekwads from all over came to Baroda to stake their claim. The queen was taken in by the confidence of the 12 year old Gopalrao, who had come with his father from a village near Nashik, many hundred kilometers away.  When the Queen asked why had he come so far the young boy had apparently declared he had come to rule.  She agreed to adopt him and get him ready to become a ruler. In 1875 Sayajirao III ascended the throne of Baroda state and remained in charge till his death in 1939, a long 64-year rule. He had apparently inherited a near bankrupt state because his predecessor, the earlier kings brother, was very profligate and was removed by the British. However Baroda, as I later learnt became one of the richest states and the British were happy to get their revenues and let the Maharaja continue with his benevolent ways.

Sound and Light show on the Museum Facade

Our acquaintance with the Maharaja was through four interactions. Dua, who we had met the previous day at Vedchhi had encouraged us to visit Kamati Baug, the Baroda city Museum and the Laxmivilas Palace. All three we learnt, 

were built by MS and in the evening, we also attended the Sound and Light Show at the Baroda Museum that filled in the details about several of his other contributions.

The Baroda Museum is housed in a very large and dramatic building within Kamati Baug, (also known as Sayaji Baug) a sprawling public park. Built between 1887 and 1894 it rivals the other mega public museums set up by the British in the 19^th Century, like the Indian Museum in Calcutta (in 1814) or the Victoria and Albert Museum in Bombay (in 1857). Inside it is huge and reminded me very much of the Indian Museum, which I have visited many eons ago, and older sections of the British Museum that I visited much later. We came across a group of architecture students and their teacher was explaining to them the technical features of the building. The amazing thing for me was that this was built by an Indian King, on his own steam, to acquaint his subjects of Baroda with the ‘wonders of the world’. The functions of a public Museum in the 19^th and early 20^th century, were very much like that of the internet and its many sophisticated search engines today. They introduced the diversity of the world as well as cutting edge knowledge in a very real-life way. Today, the exhibits look a little stodgy packed in glass cases with minimal explanation, but I can well imagine these must have awe-inspiring one hundred years ago. However, in keeping with the times there is a Museum app which is free to download and provides a commentary on the various galleries. Silently, I tipped my (invisible) hat to MS.

Laxmi Vilas Palace

Having had a brief introduction to MS I was keen to see his private residence Laxmi Vilas Palace, that he had constructed in 1890. The building is grand, apparently one of the largest residential buildings in the world, when it was built. The grounds are huge and today include a full 18-hole golf course. Unlike the Baroda Museum and the Kamati Baug which were for the public or the subjects, the Palace was a private indulgence of MS. Today this palace, said to be 4 times the size of Buckingham Palace continues to be a private residence and only a part is open to the public. The 250 rupees entry ticket entitles one to an audio guide (available in 5 languages) and takes the visitor through various rooms and stations. The palace is as opulent as one can imagine. And if I had not seen the two other of MS contributions to the city earlier, I would certainly have thought of MS as a self-indulgent Indian raja. Clearly MS also believed in the best for himself too. The public section included the armoury, ballroom and so on that is there in every palace. He was also a great patron of the arts. An Italian sculptor, Augusto Felici, was in residence in Baroda for five years between 1891- 95, and the palace is full of his creations. What was interesting were the set of six Raja Ravi Verma paintings which were unfortunately not very well displayed. The palace collection is said to include 42 of his paintings, said to be the largest collection of the famous artist. MS also had VN Bhatkhande and VD Paluskar to convene classical musicians from across the country and hosted the first All-India Music Conference in Baroda. The Durbar Hall was the venue to some of the exhilarating sessions of this music conference. The palace grounds also included a museum of his private collection and an upscale Convention Centre, all run by as private enterprise by his descendants.

Kamati Baug - Museum in the background

In the evening, we went to the Kamati Baug once again. This 113-acre public park includes a zoo, a toy train and many gazebos and spaces for public performances as well. It was very well lit in the evening and there was some ambient piped music as well. There was a large floral clock, and I was surprised to see it was working.  We were lucky that the Sound and Light show was just about to begin and we went it. The show was a film that was projected on the façade of the Baroda Museum, and used the dramatic nature of the creatively to tell the story of the city and of MS contribution. MS contribution to the modernisation of the state and I would say to the entire country was remarkable. He set up a bank that is now the Bank of Baroda, modernised agriculture, the textile industry, set up an education system. He encouraged education for girls, making it free for girls till the highest level, and we had already learnt from Dua the day before that the system was still in place and she hadn’t paid any fees till her PhD from MS University.

Floral Clock

What is also remarkable is that MS patronised some of the most famous names among the nationalists. This included Dadabhai Naoroji, one of the earliest nationalists, who was for some time the Dewan or Prime Minister of Baroda. The longest association was with Aurobindo, who spent 14 years in Baroda in various capacities. MS had met Aurobindo in England and asked to him to join the Baroda Service. Aurobindo, rejected joining the ICS and came to Baroda instead and served at one point as private secretary to MS and later was Vice Principal of Baroda College which later became the MS University. MS was also the person who sponsored the higher education of Baba Saheb Ambedkar in the US for his MA and PhD from Columbia. Ambedkar was also made a member of the Baroda Legislative Assembly. MS was also interested in the upliftment of Dalits and had opened schools for Dalit children and is said to have written an essay The Depressed Classes in 1909. MS also enacted several laws reforming discriminatory Hindu traditions. Clearly he was man way ahead of his  times.

Our hotel, Hampton by Hilton, was in Alkapuri, a very central location in Baroda. We used autos for all our trips around town and we were very impressed with the roads and auto public transport system of the city. The roads were wide, and the traffic appeared very orderly. At every crossing there were auto stands, and some even had seats for the auto drivers as they waited. The autos were in queue, so there was no issue of several auto drivers competing to get your business. We negotiated the rates before we got in and we found the rates reasonable. In one case we used a pink auto with a woman driver. She negotiated a higher rate than the auto by which we had come from our hotel. We were happy to pay. She said she was part of a cohort of nine-woman drivers and had been driving the auto for three months.  

Next morning when we drove off towards Udaipur we were very happy that we took a day’s break in Baroda. Getting acquainted with Maharaja Sayajirao III had been very enlightening. The legacy endures!

P C - Jashodhara