Mubarak Mandi 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. The palace was the royal residence 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 ...

of Jammu and Kashmir from the

Dogra dynasty 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 ...

. It was their main seat till 1925 when maharaja

Hari Singh Maharaja Sir Hari Singh (September 1895 – 26 April 1961) was the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. Hari Singh was the son of Amar Singh and Bhotiali Chib. In 1923, following his uncle's death, Singh became ...

moved to the Hari Niwas Palace in the northern part of Jammu. The palace is located in the heart of the old walled city of Jammu and overlooks the Tawi river.

History

In medieval times, Raja Maldev founded Jammu after Tamerlane destroyed his city at Babor near Lake Mansar. He choose Mubarak Mandi as his residence. Successive generations built palaces and extended it to its zenith. The oldest building of the complex dates back to 1824. Successive maharajas added to the complex in size and building took more than 150 years. The architecture is a mix of Rajasthani architecture and European baroque, and Mughal styles. The complex is grouped around several courtyards and includes various buildings and palaces like the Darbar Hall Complex, the Pink Palace, Royal Courts buildings, Gol Ghar Complex, Nawa Mahal, Rani Charak Palace, Hawa Mahal, the Toshakhana palace and the Sheesh Mahal. The halls and galleries of the palace were used for official functions and ceremonies. Nowadays sections of the palace house government offices, courts and the Dogra Art Museum. However, other parts of the palace are in ruins as the palace has more than 36 times has been the victim of fires. Furthermore, the building suffered from earthquakes in the 1980s and in 2005. The Dogra art museum is situated within the ‘Pink Hall’. It has a rich collection containing miniature paintings of various styles of the region. The miniatures belong to the Kangra,

and the

Basholi Basohli (formerly Vishwasthali) is a town near Kathua in Kathua district in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is situated on the right bank of River Ravi at an altitude of 1876 ft. It was founded by Raja Bhupat Pal som ...

art schools. But it also has a gold painted bow and arrow of Mughal

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Shah Jahan. The pink hall owes its name to the pink plastered walls of the palace section. The Gol Ghar section is located in the southern part of the complex. It has four storeys and overlooks the Tawi river. It has been gutted down in the mid-1980s as a result of an earthquake. Consequently, roofs and floors collapsed, leaving the building as a ruin. The Sheesh Mahal is made entirely of glass. The palace, which is a heritage site declared by the state government, is proposed to be linked with a rope way running up to the Bahu Fort, another heritage site in the city.

Bibliography

* Poonam Chaudhary, and Jasbir Singh Katoch: 'Mubarak Mandi Palace - Inheritance Of An Ailing Heritage. Jammu', Jammu: Saksham Books International 2008.

External links

Forum post about the Mubarak Mandi palace

Website from a conservation enterprise working at the Mubarak Mandi

{{coord missing, Jammu and Kashmir Royal residences in India Tourist attractions in Jammu (city) Palaces in Jammu and Kashmir 1824 establishments in India Jammu and Kashmir (princely state) Rajput architecture Buildings and structures in Jammu (city) 19th-century establishments in Jammu and Kashmir