The Maharajas and Their Motor Cars: India's Golden Age of Bespoke

Before the motor car was a product, it was a commission. And in the first half of the twentieth century, few patrons commissioned more boldly than India’s princes.

1908: the Pearl of India

The romance began in 1908. A Rolls-Royce shown in Bombay, finished in cream with apple-green stripes edged in gold, was bought by the Maharaja of Gwalior. It became known as the Pearl of India, and according to the story told since, he paid in rubies. (The Irish Times) It began an association between Rolls-Royce and the Indian courts that lasted some forty years.

1911: the Delhi Durbar

In 1911 King George V was proclaimed Emperor of India at the Coronation Durbar in Delhi, and eight more Rolls-Royces were ordered for the occasion. By the 1930s, estimates of the Rolls-Royces sent to Indian rulers since 1908 ran to several hundred, perhaps as many as 900.

A chassis, and a coachbuilder

A ruler did not buy a finished car. He bought a chassis and an engine, and a coachbuilder, usually in Britain, built the body to his order. That is why no two princely cars were alike. The press of the time reported cars with instrument panels set with jewels, gold brocade upholstery, and ceilings lit like a night sky. Read what a coachbuilder is.

Patiala

Bhupinder Singh, Maharaja of Patiala, ruled from 1900 to 1938 and was one of the great patrons of the age, in cars as in jewels. His Rolls-Royce was said to have a dashboard encrusted with precious stones, guarded by armed men whenever it went for service. He was also a soldier: the photograph above shows him in an open car on the Western Front, in July 1918.

The Star of India

The most famous survivor is the Star of India, a one-off 1934 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental all-weather convertible made for the Maharaja of Rajkot. Thrupp & Maberly bodied it in saffron, with polished aluminium wings, and the Rajkot crest on each door, on the bonnet and etched into the side windows. Its fog lamps turn with the steering. The family sold it in the 1960s and later bought it back.

What the princes left behind

The maharajas’ cars set the idea that still governs the finest cars: the car is made for its owner, not for a market. Colour, crest, materials and the shape of the cabin were the client’s to decide.

DARTZ works the same way. Every Prombron’ is a commission, agreed in a private consultation. DARTZ has set a thousand and one diamonds into the Black Alligator, finished cars in gold for the Aladeen editions, and trims its interiors in rare leathers. Read how to commission a DARTZ and bulletproof cars in India.