MAHARAJA

This book gathers stories from the private world of India's royal households, told by someone who moved among the powerful as one of them. Diwan Jarmani Dass draws on his own first-hand experience to recount tales of love, betrayal, valor and sacrifice that have been passed down through generations.

The stories take in the harems of Maharajas in India and Europe, along with palaces, queens and courtesans, horses and cavalries, Rolls Royce cars, lion hunts, royal feasts and grand durbars. It is a close look at a vanished age of extravagance and lavish spending.

The book is also a record of the author's own intimate reflections on that life. Its accounts are based on events after the fall of the British Raj, and they open up the hidden lives of Maharajas and Maharanis.