Posted on: 31 March 2011

The Pearl Carpet of Baroda

The most extravagant carpet ever made in the history of mankind, described by Sir George Birdwood, a connoisseur of Indian jewelry, in 1879 as "the most wonderful piece of embroidery ever known," the Pearl Carpet of Baroda, gets its name from the Maratha Princely State of Baroda, one of the four Princely States of the Maratha Confederacy, that was ruled by the Gaekwar dynasty since 1740. The Maharajah Gaekwar of Baroda Khande Rao who ruled between 1856 and 1870, was one of the most notable connoisseurs and collectors of jewels and jewelry in the history of the entire dynasty, who would have gone to any extent, despite the expenditure involved, to acquire any jewel that captured his interest in any part of the world, or create any fabulous piece of jewelry that took shape in his fertile mind, using the most highly skilled and experienced jewelry craftsmen, who had been trained in the Mughal tradition of jewelry crafting, who were at the disposal of his court. The Pearl Carpet of Baroda was one such creation commissioned by Geakwar Khande Rao, in 1860 and completed in 1865, that was meant to fulfill a vow he had made, to cover the tomb of the Holy Prophet of Islam, Prophet Muhammad, at Medinat-ul-Munawwara, the hallowed sanctuary, revered by Muslims all over the world. Gaekwar Khande Rao was a Hindu ruler, but was fascinated by Islam and its teachings, and ordered the carpets not only to fulfill a vow, but also to show his respect and admiration for Islam, a religion followed by a considerable number of his subjects. Covering the tombs of saints with expensive materials is a tradition prevalent among Indian Muslims to this day, and usually carried out in fulfillment of vows after their prayers have been answered. The carpet was referred to as a "Pearl Carpet," mainly because the dominant gems that were set in the carpet were seed pearls, over one million of them, even though there were other larger and more expensive gems incorporated such as diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires.

Read more at :
http://www.internetstones.com/pearl-carpet-of-baroda-rectangular-shaped-deer-hyde-silk-glass-beads-pearls.html


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Read the full article : http://www.internetstones.com/pearl-carpet-of-baroda-rectangular-shaped-deer-hyde-silk-glass-beads-pearls.html

More images of this spectacular carpet : The pearl carpet is said to measure approximately 5'8" x 8'8" and was valued at Rs 6,000,000 140 years ago (by current exchange rate ~$120,000 USD in 1865*) according to Tribune India** The Carpet will be going to auction at Sotheby's Doha Qatar on March 19th, 2009 with a starting bid of $5,000,000.00 USD. Made in India with hundreds of rubies, sapphires, diamonds, and an estimated 1,400,000+ Basra pearls, the carpet is expected to sell significantly higher than the starting bid. http://www.rugrag.com/post/Detail-Images-of-Pearl-Carpet-of-Baroda-Rare-Carpet-to-be-Auctioned.aspx

Sold at the Sothebys THE PEARL CARPET OF BARODA, GUJARAT, INDIA circa 1865 Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: 5,458,500 USD http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=159528984

That is amazing

Wow- gorgeous! Wish I knew the Baroda raja!

The Baroda royalty were amongst the most progressive among all princely states of India.Mysore and Baroda were amongst the most emancipated and model states in terms of governance and the strides they had made in the direction of public welfare and their efforts in the direction of education of their respective subjects.Incidenly both were among the ‘Big Five’ club alongwith Kashmir, Gwalior and Hyderabad in terms of their annual revenue.Female education had been made mandatory in Baroda in the late 19th century itself. Maharaja Sayajirao University was amongst the best in the country. It’s chancellor is till date a princess of Baroda, Mrunalini Devi Puar.It was amongst the first princely kingdoms to have divorced successfully the income of the state from the personal income of the Maharaja.The family also extended patronage to India’s most celebrated great master of realistic fine art Raja Ravi Verma.I have had the good fortune of having seen the studio of the great maestro inside the Laxmi Vilas palace compound in Vadodara.The works of Raja Ravi Verma have had a huge impact on the Hindu psyche to such a degree that when we today imagine goddesses Laxmi and Saraswati the images that comes to our mind respectively are that of the goddess of wealth in a vermillion nav-vari (Marathi) sari standing on a lotus and the goddess of knowledge in a white sari with a vichitra veena in her hands.Both these original paintings still adorn the walls of the the picture gallery of the LV Palace. The Laxmi Vilas palace, commissioned in the late 19th century and constructed in the Indo-Sarscenic style is amazing beautiful in it’s architure. All four principal wings of the palace follow four distinct architectural patterns Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian.The family never made any tall claims of descent from the sun or moon but were never really ashamed of their humble origins either and the same reflects in the architecture as well. There are oxen carved in stone as a reminder of the family drawing their descent from the shepherds/cowherds.Gaekwad (One who is the protector of cows) is their family name, The state museum which is part of the Kamati Bagh (Company Baugh) has an amazing collection especially notable are an Egytian mummy and oriental artifacts. Connosiers of art , the Baroda family had an impressive personal collection of paintings of the great European masters quite a few of those are on public display in the art museum inside the palace compound. Till date Baroda is called the sanskari nagri (cultural capital) of Gujarat although it’s rulers were of Non-Gujarati descent.They extended patronage to Gujarati arts, culture and cuisine. All of which flourished under their benevolent reign.The brackets carved in mahoghany and sandalwood of the female Gujarati winged angels wearing nav-vari saris and supporting the overhanging balcony in the huge durbar hall which has large stained glass windows depicting the scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and he devotional mosaics on exterior walls are no less impressive are noteworthy of mention in this regard. This be-jewlled carpet speaks volumes about the secular credentials of the Hindu Maharaja who had commissioned it as a nazrana (gift of gratitude) to adorn the mausoleum of the Prophet Mohammed in Medina. The Baroda and Hyderabad royals were the most staidly dressed among India’s royalty.They were the only ones who in their numerous public appearance in the pre-independence period show them sporting absolutely devoid of garish jewelry associated with India’s royalty.Paradoxically their personal jewelry collections were the most fabulous in India.Maharani Sita devi of Baroda had a necklace of diamonds the size of sparrows eggs. The diamonds of which were once owned by Napolean Bonaparte. Their pearl collection was at par with Mysore and Hyderabad. Maharaja Sayaji Rao ll was tacitly supporting mahatma Gandhi in his satyagraha against the British. So the Baroda royalty were singular in that department as all their contemporaries were die-hard supporters of the Raj for the simple reason that the Raj supported them. Bharat Ratna Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was granted state scholarship and sent to England to study by the erstwhile royalty as he was exceptionally good in studies.He played a pivotal role later in drafting India’s constitution and was amongst the founding fathers of our republic.

exemplarary display of class

Small correction in Digvijay Singh Kushvaha's excellent narrative,Dr.Bhimrao Ambedkar went as a post graduate student to Colombia University USA.

thanks for the wonderful history story!!!!!!!!!!! i really enjoyed it. it so happens that the maharani of baroda lent out her summer palace in poona to my spiritual master, meher baba, and his diciples during his lifetime. he held mass darshans there which i've seen on film. after the palace was torn down, the room & chair where he held darshan have been preserved. meher baba's brother, jal irani, once took me to visit that room.

His "pearl canopy" was at an auction last week in New York! Amazing workmanship!

I am Awestruck !!!!!!!

who is using this carpet now?what a magnificent carpet?