The Hari Niwas Palace is a
palace in
Jammu
Jammu is the winter capital of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is the headquarters and the largest city in Jammu district of the union territory. Lying on the banks of the river Tawi, the city of Jammu, with an area of ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. It overlooks the
Tawi river on one side and on the other side the
Trikuta
Trikuta is a three-peaked mountain. The Lanka of Ravana was located in it
Significance to history and Hinduism
Trikuta is one of the twenty mountains surrounding Maha Meru (Mount Meru) the home of Brahma. The height is said in the Bhagavata Pura ...
hills
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit.
Terminology
The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be not as ...
.
History
The palace was built for
Sir Hari Singh, the last reigning
Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir
The Dogra dynasty of Dogra Rajputs from the Shiwalik Himalayas created Jammu and Kashmir when all dynastic kingdoms in India were being absorbed by the East India Company. Events led the Sikh Empire to recognise Jammu as a vassal state in 1820, ...
(1895 - 1961), in the early 20th century, as a separate extension of 'Amar Mahal' (built in 1890) so he could entertain his guests after 1925, rather than at the older
Mubarak Mandi Palace. Here he spent the last days of his stay in Jammu & Kashmir, before moving to
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...
(now Mumbai).
The building is an
art-deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the United ...
structure. The descendants of the
Maharaja
Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king".
A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, a ...
converted the palace into a heritage hotel in 1990. In the same compound "Amar Mahal Museum and Library" displays the 120 kg gold throne of Sir Hari Singh.
References
External links
Hari Niwas Palace, website
Royal residences in India
Tourist attractions in Jammu (city)
Palaces in Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir (princely state)
Buildings and structures in Jammu (city)
Heritage hotels in India
Rajput architecture
19th-century establishments in Jammu and Kashmir
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