Udaipur today witnessed a row within the erstwhile royal family following the coronation of BJP MLA Vishvaraj Singh Mewar as the 77th Maharana of Mewar. A standoff with his cousin Dr. Lakshay Raj Singh Mewar followed at the gates of the historic City Palace after Mr Singh was denied entry into the palace, which is now managed by a trust managed by his cousin and uncle Shreeji Arvind Singh Mewar. The argument it caused escalated as the day progressed. After 10 pm, the MLA's supporters started throwing stones and tried to storm the palace gates. Others take revenge from within the palace. Frantic images from the palace gates show stones landing from both sides. Three people have been injured and police are trying to control the crowd.
According to reports, Vishvaraj Singh has been at the spot with his supporters for the past five hours. The district administration has now decided to intervene.
Vishvaraj Singh – the BJP MLA from Rajsamand where his wife Mahima Kumari is the sitting MP – was formally declared the heir apparent of the Mewar dynasty at a traditional coronation ceremony at the historic Chittorgarh Fort, 12 days after the death of his father Mahendra Singh. Mewar.
At the coronation ceremony, led by priests who performed pujas and a havan, Vishwaraj's raj tilak was performed by a former nobleman who cut his finger on a sword and anointed him with blood. This is a tradition that dates back hundreds of years to the Mewar dynasty, dating back to Bappa Rawal in the 8th century. The most famous royal was Rana Pratap, who fought the Mughals in the battle of Haldi Ghati.
After the symbolic coronation, Mr Singh had decided to take blessings from family deities – the Dhooni Mata Temple in the City Palace and the Ekling Shiv Temple, about 50 kilometers from Udaipur. But because both temples are managed by the trust, he was denied entry to the city palace. The administration had tried to convince the Museum Trust to allow not the entire procession but a few former nobles to accompany Vishwaraj Singh to the palace for darshan.
Anticipating trouble, police had set up barricades and deployed additional personnel in the area around the city palace gates. But when Mr Singh was denied entry to the palace, his angry supporters broke the barricades and tried to get close to the city palace gates.
“The situation we are seeing today is unfortunate,” Vishvaraj Singh told the media. “I am grateful for your support. On the one hand there are properties, but there are also traditions in which we seek blessings. This is wrong when it comes to traditions and societal norms,” he added.
Mewar's new generation of royals have been involved in a legal dispute over palaces, temples and forts now run and managed by nine trusts. All these trusts are handled by Vishvaraj Singh's uncle and nephew.
Early this morning, the Maharana Mewar Charitable Trust published in the local newspapers that they would not allow anyone to enter the trust buildings as they anticipated that this might be done with the intention of entering and damaging the trust properties.
The dispute dates back to 1984, when former Maharana of Mewar Bhagwat Singhji made his younger son Arvind Singh director of the trusts, effectively ousting eldest son Mahendra Singh from the royal properties.
As the standoff continues in Udaipur, this is a royal row that will reverberate in the City of Lakes for some time to come.
