{{cleanup rewrite|date=December 2018}} {{Use Indian English|date=April 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}} {{Infobox building | name = Lake Palace | image = Udaipur Lake Palace.jpg | caption = Boats moving near the Lake Palace | pushpin_map = Rajasthan | coordinates = | location_town = Udaipur | location_country = India | client = Jagat Singh II | engineer = | construction_start_date = rebuilt in 1743 | demolished_date = | cost = | architectural_style = Rajput architecture }} '''Lake Palace''' (formerly known as '''Jag Niwas Palace''') is a former summer palace of the royal dynasty of Mewar, now operated as a hotel. The Lake Palace is located on the island of Jag Niwas in Lake Pichola, Udaipur, India, and its natural foundation spans {{convert|4|acre|m2}}.<ref name=tajhotels1>{{cite web |url=http://www.tajhotels.com/palace/Taj%20Lake%20Palace,Udaipur/ |title=Taj Lake Palace, Udaipur |publisher=Taj Hotels |access-date=2010-07-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100805074811/http://www.tajhotels.com/palace/Taj%20Lake%20Palace%2CUdaipur/ |archive-date=5 August 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
The Jag Niwas palace was constructed of white marble circa 1743–1746 by Maharana Jagat Singh II, the 62nd custodian of the House of Mewar. The palace, built to look like it is floating on the lake, was extensively used as a summer retreat for the Mewar royal family.
Currently, IHCL is managing the hotel and has done so for the last 50 years. The palace has attained global fame for its appearance and as a location for several hit movies.
==History== Lake Palace, and Pichola Lake was built by Rana Lakshasimha (Laakha) of Parmar Rajputs, in 1362 AD. The Lake Palace was rebuilt between 1743 and 1746<ref name="tajhotels1"/> under the direction of the Maharana Jagat Singh II (62nd successor to the royal dynasty of Mewar) of Udaipur, Rajasthan as a summer palace. It was initially called ''Jagniwas'' or ''Jan Niwas'' after its founder.
The palace was constructed for facing east, allowing its inhabitants to pray to Surya, the Hindu sun god, at the crack of dawn.<ref name="indiasite1">{{cite web |url=http://www.indiasite.com/rajasthan/udaipur/lakepalace.html |title=Jag Niwas Lake Palace, Jag Niwas Palace in Udaipur India, Lake Palace Udaipur Rajasthan |publisher=Indiasite.com |access-date=2010-07-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822082159/http://www.indiasite.com/rajasthan/udaipur/lakepalace.html |archive-date=22 August 2009 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> Jagat Singh felt that the City Palace was too public to invite the beautiful young ladies of Udaipur with decadent, moonlit picnics. Therefore a palace in the centre of Lake Pichola would offer much more privacy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://millispotter.com/hotel/lake-palace-hotel/|title=Lake Palace Hotel History|access-date=2021-08-03}}</ref> The successive rulers used this palace as their summer resort, holding their regal durbars in its courtyards lined with columns, pillared terraces, fountains, and gardens.
The walls are made of black and white marbles and are adorned by semi-precious stones and ornamented niches. Gardens, fountains, pillared terraces and columns line its courtyards.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://tourism.rajasthan.gov.in/udaipur|title=Udaipur Tourism: Places to Visit in Udaipur - Rajasthan Tourism|website=tourism.rajasthan.gov.in|language=en-IN|access-date=2016-11-16}}</ref>
{{wide image|Lakepalace-udaipur.jpg|1150px|align-cap=center|Relation of the palace to the city of Udaipur Panorama from Jag Mandir Island}} The upper room is a perfect circle and is about {{convert|21|ft|m}} in diameter. Its floor is inlaid with black and white marble, the walls are ornamented with niches and decorated with arabesques of colored stones, the dome is exquisitely beautiful in form.<ref name="indiasite1"/>{{According to whom|date=December 2018}}
During the famous Indian Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, several European families fled from Nimach and used the island as an asylum, offered to them by Maharana Swaroop Singh. To protect his guests, the Rana destroyed all the town's boats so that the rebels could not reach the island.<ref name="indiasite1"/>
By the latter half of the 19th century, time and weather took their toll on the extraordinary water palaces of Udaipur. Pierre Loti, a French writer, described Jag Niwas as "slowly moldering in the damp emanations of the lake." About the same time bicyclists Fanny Bullock Workman and her husband William Hunter Workman were distressed by the 'cheap and tasteless style' of the interiors of the water palaces with "an assortment of infirm European furniture, wooden clocks, coloured glass ornaments, and children's toys, all of which seems to the visitor quite out of place, where he would naturally expect a dignified display of Eastern splendor."<ref name="indiasite1"/>
{{wide image|Lake-palace-udaipur-rajasthan.jpg|1000px|align-cap=center|Lake Palace in Udaipur}} The reign of Maharana Sir Bhopal Singh (1930–55) saw the addition of another pavilion, Chandra Prakash, but otherwise the Jag Niwas remained unaltered and decaying. Geoffrey Kendal, the theater personality, described the palace during his visit in the 1950s as "totally deserted, the stillness broken only by the humming of clouds of mosquitoes."<ref name="indiasite1"/> thumb|210px|Lily Pond at Lake Palace, Udaipur Bhagwat Singh decided to convert the Jag Niwas Palace into Udaipur's first luxury hotel. Didi Contractor, an American artist, became a design consultant to this hotel project. Didi's accounts gives an insight to the life and responsibility of the new ''Maharana'' of Udaipur:
<blockquote>I worked from 1961 to 1969 and what an adventure! His Highness, you know, was a real monarch – really like kings always were. So one had a sense of being one of the last people to be an artist for the king. It felt the way one imagines it was like working in the courts of the Renaissance. It was an experience of going back in time to an entirely different era, a different world. His Highness was actually working on a shoestring. He was not in dire straits, mind you, but when he came to the throne he inherited big problems like what to do with the 300 dancing girls that belonged to his predecessor Maharana Bhopal Singh. He tried to offer them scholarships to become nurses but they didn't want to move out of the palace so what could he do? He had to keep them. They were old crones by this time and on state occasions I remember they would come to sing and dance with their ''ghunghats'' [veils] down and occasionally one would lift hers to show a wizened old face underneath. He had something like twelve state elephants, and he had all these properties which were deteriorating. The buildings on Jag Niwas were starting to fall down and basically the Lake Palace was turned into a hotel because it seemed the only viable way that it could be maintained ... It was really a job of conservation.<ref name="indiasite1"/></blockquote>
Maharana Mahendra Singh, the current head of the Mewar dynasty was managing the Lake Palace Hotel when it got its 5 star rating. In 1971, Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces took over management of the hotel<ref>Warren, Page 60.</ref> and added another 75 rooms.<ref>[http://www.mewarindia.com/comm/indexcom2.html Retrieved 14 April 2008.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509163437/http://www.mewarindia.com/comm/indexcom2.html |date=9 May 2008 }}</ref> In 2000, a second restoration was undertaken.
The "Royal Butlers" in the hotel are descendants of the original palace retainers.<ref name="tajhotels1"/>
Former guests have included Lord Curzon, Vivien Leigh, Queen Elizabeth, the Shah of Iran, the king of Nepal and US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. thumb|800px|center|{{center|Lake Palace on Lake Pichola, Udaipur, India.}} The palace was used to film several movies: * 1959: Fritz Lang's ''The Tiger of Eschnapur'' and ''The Indian Tomb'' as palace of Chandra, the maharajah of the fictitious town of Eshnapur.{{Citation needed|date=December 2018}} * 1983: the James Bond film ''Octopussy'', as the home of titular character Octopussy (played by Maud Adams). It was also shot in the other palaces of Udaipur: Jag Mandir and Monsoon Palace.{{Citation needed|date=December 2018}} {{Coord|display=title|24.57507|73.68022|type:landmark_region:IN}} center|thumb|880px|{{center|Lake Palace Hotel}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Literature== *{{cite book|author1=Crump, Vivien |author2=Toh, Irene | title= Rajasthan| location=London| publisher=Everyman Guides|year=1996| type = hardback| isbn = 1-85715-887-3| pages = 400 pages}} *{{cite book|author1=Crites, Mitchell Shelby |author2=Nanji, Ameeta |title= India Sublime – Princely Palace Hotels of Rajasthan| location=New York| publisher=Rizzoli| year=2007|type = hardback| isbn = 978-0-8478-2979-8| pages = 272 pages}} *{{cite book|author1=Badhwar, Inderjit |author2=Leong, Susan |title=India Chic| year =2006| location=Singapore| publisher=Bolding Books|isbn = 981-4155-57-8| page = 240}} *{{cite book|author=Michell, George, Martinelli, Antonio| title=The Palaces of Rajasthan| year = 2005| publisher=Frances Lincoln| location=London| isbn = 978-0-7112-2505-3| pages = 271 pages}} *{{cite book| last = Preston | first = Diana & Michael | title = A Teardrop on the Cheek of Time | year = 2007| type = Hardback| edition = First| publisher = Doubleday | location = London | isbn = 978-0-385-60947-0| pages = 354 pages}} *{{cite book| last = Tillotson | first = G. H. R| title = The Rajput Palaces - The Development of an Architectural Style| year = 1987| type = Hardback| edition = First| publisher = Yale University Press| location = New Haven and London| isbn = 0-300-03738-4| pages = 224 pages}} *{{cite book|author1=William Warren |author2=Jill Gocher | title=Asia's Legendary Hotels: The Romance of Travel| location=Singapore| publisher=Periplus Editions| year=2007| type = hardback| isbn = 978-0-7946-0174-4}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Lake Palace}} *{{Official website|https://www.tajhotels.com/en-in/taj/taj-lake-palace-udaipur/}} {{Udaipur}}
{{Subject bar|portal2=India |commons=yes |s=yes |s-search=1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Udaipur |voy=yes}}
Category:Palaces in Rajasthan Category:Royal residences in India Category:Hotels in Rajasthan Category:The Leading Hotels of the World Category:Tourist attractions in Udaipur Category:Heritage hotels in India Category:Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces Category:Hotels in Udaipur Category:Houses completed in 1746