India Sublime: Princely Palace Hotels of Rajasthan

Vivid colors, delicate stonework, and opulent décor are the trademarks of the palaces, forts, and mansions of India’s maharajas. With their vast marble halls, jewel-box mirrored rooms, mosaics, and tapestries, these palaces present a veritable visual feast. In styles ranging from Art Deco to modern, from Indian folk style to English Colonial, the palaces of Rajasthan, dating from as early as AD 760 to as recently as the middle of the last century, are astonishingly innovative and modern. Many of the most luxurious of them have been converted to hotels. Lavishly illustrated with more than 250 specially commissioned photographs, India Sublime offers twenty-one of the most sumptuous palace hotels, displaying their interior decoration in great detail, as well as showing their pleasure pavilions, gardens, and pools. Now travelers–both real and armchair–can experience the lifestyles of the princes and princesses of old.

Mitchell Shelby Crites, an American art historian, has lived in India for thirty-five years. He is the personal friend of the owners of numerous heritage hotels. Ameeta Nanji has directed documentaries and collaborated with Crites on numerous exhibitions and design projects. Melba Levick is a widely published and exhibited photographer who works and lives in Paris, Los Angeles, and Spain. She is the photographer for Rizzoli’s California Mediterranean, Casa California, Estate Gardens of California, and many others.