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Chitrangada Singh (née Raje Scindia; born 1967) is an Indian businesswoman and a descendant of the former ruling family of a major princely state during the British Raj in India.
She is the eldest child of the late Madhavrao Scindia, an Indian politician and a granddaughter of Jiwajirao Scindia, the last ruling Maharaja of Gwalior. Her wedding in 1987 to the grandson of Hari Singh, the last ruling Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir—an extravagant social event in a drought-ridden India—was covered widely in the Indian and international press.[1][2][3][4][5] She is the co-manager of two heritage hotels: Karan Mahal in Srinagar and Taragarh Palace in the Kangra valley.[6][7]
o most Indians, Madhavrao Scindia, member of Parliament and railways minister, is just another politician. But to Meera Shivahari, he is the maharajah. Last week Mr. Scindia, whose family ruled this Indian city for more than 100 years, married his daughter to the son of the former maharajah of Kashmir. Mrs. Shivahari, a 35-year-old mother of two, came from her village 30 miles away to watch Scindia, dressed in gold and jewels, preside over the lavish ceremony. 'I voted for him,' the woman said. 'I still consider him my king.' The Gwalior royal wedding, attended by tens of thousands of people, was a national event. The festivities, which reportedly cost $4 million, stirred bitter controversy as India has been grappling with economic hard times and its worst drought in years.
The tiny, nervous bride was practically carried to the altar by jewel-encrusted female relatives who gripped her firmly by the elbows. She was covered head to knee by a red veil spun of gossamer Benares silk as fine and sheer as a spider's web, so translucent that it barely dulled the brilliant sheen from her saree. 'Only' 40,000 Spectators. The wedding of Prince Vikramaditya Singh, a 23-year-old former polo-playing student at USC, and Princess Chittrangada Raje, 20, may have seemed grand to outsiders, but by the standards of Indian royalty, it was fairly intimate--only 40,000 or so folks gathered in front of a 455-room palace to see the offspring of two of India's noble families joined in wedlock.
The slim young prince arrived in a silver carriage, wearing a scarlet and gold tunic draped with pearls, diamonds and rubies. The princess emerged from an immense fairy tale palace that shimmered with strands of white lights. Then, as 20,000 guests applauded, the son and daughter of two of India's wealthiest and most influential former maharajahs were married under a red and gold canopy in an outdoor ceremony as rich in political and social controversy as it was in pageantry.
Maharajahs, industrialists, foreign leaders, officials, journalists and villagers watched in a drizzling rain, considered a sign of good fortune, as the bejeweled groom and the bride, diamonds glistening on her wrists, ears and nose, met under the silk canopy. And when they exchanged the symbolic garlands, enthusiastic cheers spread across the palace. 'Despite all our troubles,' said Nirmala Palherkar, a teacher in Gwalior, 'we have come to see the marriage of our princess.'
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