The enchanting Dogra heritage
By Shallu Jamwal & Shiv Chander Sharma

ON the plateau of a hillock overlooking the Tawi river in the city of Jammu, there is a splendid French-style building, commonly known as Amar Mahal Museum.

The building, which was the palace of the last Dogra ruler, Maharaja Hari Singh (father of Karan Singh), was converted into a museum 25 years ago. The museum celebrated its silver jubilee this month. The celebration was marked by specially organised exhibitions.

This enchanting palace was built by Raja Amar Singh, father of Maharaja Hari Singh in the beginning of this century. Hari Singh shifted his residence here in 1925, after he was enthroned as the Maharaja of the state after the death of Maharaja Pratap Singh. After he shifted his residence here, he named it after his father, Amar Singh.

Earlier, all the Dogra rulers used to live in another palace which also served as Royal Courts but since Maharaja Hari Singh was educated in England, he preferred to live in this French-style building. French designers were invited to design and construct this structure.

Although the entire palace is enchanting, the main attraction in the building, besides its elegance, is a throne made of pure gold.

It is a three-storeyed building with splendid halls, corridors, lobbies and of course, elegantly decorated living rooms. The ground floor consists of two big halls, three corridors and a lobby. The whole area of this floor has been converted into the museum named after the mother of Karan Singh — Maharani Tara. The first floor possesses miniature paintings and set of ‘Nal-Damayanti’ paintings in the Pahadi style is especially eye-catching. The adjoining hall contains royal furniture. From here one enters a gallery through a narrow corridor. There is a gallery on the panels of which paintings of the celebrated artists of the country are displayed and almost all contemporary artists are represented with their best art pieces.

Tourists as well as pilgrims of Mata Vaishno Devi shrine visit this palace, which is hardly one-and-a-half km from the Jammu bus stand on the Jammu-Srinagar highway.