India: A New Experience of Palatial Splendor

India’s palace hotels are living links to the era of the maharajahs, the 200 years prior to independence when semi-autonomous princes ruled much of the country. The best-known are in the state of Rajasthan, southwest of Delhi. But in the current economic boom, new areas are on the rise. Today, Hyderabad hosts the Indian headquarters of Microsoft. And the newly restored Taj Falaknuma Palace is now perhaps the most opulent palace hotel of all.

Located in central southern India, Hyderabad lies 460 miles southeast of Mumbai and 350 miles north of Bengaluru, the country’s first high-tech hub. The new high-rise Hyderabad (nicknamed “Cyberabad”), with its office towers and irrigated lawns, has been built 10 miles to the northwest of the historic center. As a result, the Old City is still a place of shadowy mosques and teeming bazaars clustered around the Charminar, a 16th-century landmark with four distinctive minarets. By Indian standards, however, all of Hyderabad is fairly new, the city having been founded in 1591. Initially, it was administered by a governor on behalf of the Mughal emperor in Delhi. But the Mughals’ power declined, and in 1724, their representative proclaimed his independence, becoming the first of seven hereditary Nizams.

Not only was Hyderabad the largest of the princely states—bigger than Great Britain—it was also the wealthiest. When he was deposed in 1948, the last Nizam was adjudged the richest man in the world. And in 2008, Forbes magazine placed him fifth on its “all-time wealthiest” list, with a personal fortune in inflation-adjusted dollars of $210.8 billion. (Bill Gates came in 20th.) His legendary jewel collection contained more than 25,000 diamonds, among them the 185-carat Jacob Diamond, valued at $150 million. (The Nizam discovered it in one of his father’s shoes and used it thereafter as a paperweight.) Indeed, the chief source of his ancestral riches was the diamonds from the Kollur Mine on the banks of the Krishna River. These were stored in the fortress at nearby Golconda, seven miles west of Hyderabad. Among the most famous were the Koh-i-Noor, which later belonged to Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan—who commissioned the Taj Mahal—and which today is part of the British Crown Jewels; and the Hope Diamond, once the property of French King Louis XIV and now on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

A 40-minute drive from the Hyderabad airport brought us to the gatehouse of the Falaknuma Palace. There, we were ushered into a horse-drawn carriage for the short ride uphill to the main entrance. Along the way, a member of staff pointed out the residence of Princess Esra Jah, who has overseen a painstaking 10-year restoration by Taj Hotels. The work was completed in November 2010.

“Falaknuma” means “Mirror of the Sky,” and the name refers to the palace’s elevated position about 500 feet above the city. From the garden that fronts the main entrance, Hyderabad appears as an expanse of white and pastel-colored cubes punctuated by minarets and framed by ridges of tawny rock. Set on a 32-acre estate, the palace was designed in 1894 by a British architect, William Ward Marret, who employed an idiosyncratic combination of Renaissance and baroque styles to create an immense structure that was clearly intended to rival the palaces of European royalty.

Ascending a sweeping exterior staircase, we were suddenly showered by thousands of pink rose petals, flung by an unseen hand high above (apparently the customary greeting for the Nizam’s guests). The extraordinary lobby of the palace is centered on a marble fountain supported by cherubs, while the sky-blue walls are frescoed with cotton-ball clouds, birds, garlands and idealized rural scenes. For a moment, I felt I had been transported to Venice. Beyond, the main entry hall contained an immense ceremonial staircase flanked by formal portraits in extravagant gilded frames. Escorted to our room by an elegant receptionist, the folds of whose sari swished across the checkered marble floor as she walked, we passed through a library lined with teak and rosewood bookshelves and furnished with a table inlaid with marquetry of breathtaking intricacy and skill. The whole room, our guide informed us, was a replica of one at Windsor Castle in England.

The palace has been converted to contain 60 rooms and suites on an ascending scale of splendor. (The Nizam’s personal chambers are now the Grand Presidential Suite.) Our Historical Suite was spacious and comfortable. The prolonged restoration has resulted in quiet and effective air-conditioning, as well as speedy Wi-Fi. And the bath provided a powerful walk-in shower, a soaking tub, black marble surfaces and art deco ornamental mirrors.

At 5:30 each evening, newly arrived guests are invited to accompany the in-house historian on an escorted tour. The itinerary includes the Dining Hall—with, purportedly, the world’s longest dining table—the Jade Room, the venue for soirees held for both British King George V and Czar Nicholas II of Russia; and the Nizam’s study (though, alas, the Jacob Diamond paperweight is no longer in evidence, having been confiscated by the Indian government in 1948).

After 45 minutes or so, I began to find the cumulative effect of all the magnificence rather overwhelming, so it was a relief finally to be able to stroll through the palace gardens to a magical belvedere that commanded a view of the glinting lights of the city below. An open-sided structure of filigreed cast iron topped by a stained-glass roof, it proved one of the most pleasant settings for an evening cocktail—the house jasmine martini in this instance — that I have ever had the good fortune to discover. We were entertained by a group of Hyderabadi musicians, whose folk songs ranged from rousing to haunting.

The Falaknuma Palace has two principal restaurants: Celeste, serving European dishes; and Adaa for Indian cuisine, in particular Hyderabadi specialties prepared in the so-called dum, or slow-cooked, style. Hyderabad is also famous throughout the subcontinent for biryanis, or rice-based dishes of Persian origin. Throughout our stay, the food was delicious, elegantly presented and served by polished and attentive staff. At lunchtime, we tended to opt for a simple salad in the Rotunda next to the swimming pool. Although the pool itself meanders through a tropical garden and hence is better for cooling off than for swimming laps, it provides a tranquil setting in which to relax with a book or to recover from the rigors of the morning’s sightseeing. There is also a spa offering a variety of traditional Indian therapies.

The Taj Falaknuma is a self-contained world, and for a day or so, it is hard to find any incentive to leave. Most visitors to Hyderabad go to see the huge ruined fortress at Golconda, but frankly, the history of the place is far more romantic than the current reality. Hyderabad itself does not have the variety of monuments and museums to be found in a place like, say, Jaipur, but nonetheless, there are bazaars where you can buy fine embroidered textiles, as well as bidriware dishes and bowls, made from a black alloy of copper and zinc intricately inlaid with silver.

The city’s one unmissable sight is the 18th-century Chowmahalla Palace, the original seat of the Nizams and the place where their coronations were staged in the vast Khilwat (Durbar Hall). In fact, there are four palaces, surrounded by 14 acres of gardens and fountains, all of which have been restored by Princess Esra Jah, a labor of love for which she received an award from UNESCO. Many Indian museums contain remarkable artifacts, but they are often poorly displayed in dilapidated surroundings — Hyderabad’s Salar Jung Museum being a sad case in point. In contrast, Chowmahalla is impeccably clean and well-organized, with an evocative range of exhibits. And as the evening shadows lengthen, it is not difficult to summon the ghosts of Scheherazade and King Shahryar from the pages of the “Arabian Nights.”

Taj Falaknuma Palace 98 Palace Room, $415; Historical Suite, $770; Royal Suite, $1,255. Engine Bowli, Falaknuma, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Tel. (91) 40-6629-8585 or (866) 969-1825.

Illustration © Melissa Colson