New Delhi, July 30: The feisty princess Ayesha, daughter of the erstwhile maharaja of Cooch Behar, shot her first panther at the age of 13, stunning everyone.
Six years later, the beautiful woman who came to be known as Maharani Gayatri Devi stunned her family again by falling in love with prince Sawai Man Singh of Jaipur.
She called him Jai and insisted on marrying him, knowing that he already had two wives and that her own family was against the match.
Gayatri Devi the grand queen mother or rajmata of the Jaipur royal family who was listed as one of the most beautiful women in the world by Vogue – remained spirited till the end of her colourful life.
Her death on Wednesday, barely two months after her 90th birthday on May 23, came after complications caused by an intestinal endoscopy that she underwent two months ago. She died in a Jaipur hospital.
She had one son, who died a few years ago, and three stepchildren.
Gayatri Devi, who was maharani of Jaipur state from 1939 to 1970, was an excellent marksman, a tennis player and a keen rider, with a deep knowledge of horses. She was attached to all her children, fond of flowers like lilies and gladioli and birds.
The maharani, who spent the early years of married life in luxury, forayed into politics in 1962 by contesting and winning Lok Sabha elections from Jaipur.
She took interest in social activities, built an exclusive school for girls in Jaipur and promoted the traditional blue pottery of Rajasthan.
She spent the last three decades of her life after her husband’s death in 1970 at the picturesque Lilypool, a bungalow that she built with her husband at Rambagh Palace.
Lilypool resembled a simple and warm Bengali home from Cooch Behar staffed by people from her home state, West Bengal. The staff spoke Bengali and would entertain visitors with water and lemonade even in her absence.
-IANS