Why Is a Maratha Empire Relic With 1.5 Million Pearls In Qatar Museum?

If you ever visit Doha's National Museum of Qatar or check online its collection of precious objects spanning thousands of years, you will be stunned to see that it confesses that the Baroda carpet, often described as the most luxurious carpet ever made, holds the place of pride.

The museum's brochure online describes it thus: "The carpet is 2.64 meters long and 1.74 meters wide, woven from silk threads with a background of natural deer skin. It consists of more than 1.5 million pieces of natural marine pearls known as "Basra", originating from the coasts of Qatar and Bahrain. It is also decorated with rubies, emeralds, sapphires and diamonds.

"In the middle of the carpet are three circular floral shapes, each made up of diamonds placed on a gold and silver ground. The decorations were further enhanced with rubies, emeralds and sapphires supported by metallic foil inlaid with gold. The carpet’s border features 32 small roses, all decorated with blue and red sapphires and emerald stones inlaid with gold. Among these roses, still smaller rosettes centred on one sapphire are scattered in the middle of eight others, all surrounded by strings of pearls.

The Pearl Carpet of Baroda. (Image credit: Sotheby's)

"The carpet’s beautiful design is distinguished by its grains of coloured glass beads, and the edges are paved with inlaid gold, diamonds and precious stones. Made entirely by hand in a process that took nearly five years to complete, this unique piece of art is a stunning example of 18th-century Indian design.

Who Commissioned This Embroidered Masterpiece?

The celebrated and coveted piece of art had been commissioned by the 18th-century Indian Maharaja Gaekwar (Gaekwad) Khanderao, who was governor of Baroda State. He was part of the line descending from Damaji Rao and Govind Rao Gaekwad, who consolidated Baroda’s Maratha power during the Peshwa rule. The Gaekwad rule of Baroda began when the Maratha general Pilaji Rao Gaekwad conquered the city from the Mughal Empire in 1721. The Gaekwads were granted the city as a Jagir by Chhatrapati Shahu I, the emperor of the Maratha Empire.

Portrait of Khande Rao Gaikwad. (Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

In the 1860s, Khanderao commissioned what later became famous as the Pearl Carpet of Baroda, a silk-and-deerskin carpet embroidered with over a million Basra pearls, diamonds, rubies and emeralds. It was conceived as part of a larger five-piece set.

Legend has it that the carpet was intended to be a cover for the tomb of Prophet Muhammad in Medina. But he died before it was completed, relatively young at 42 in 1870. Courtiers and successors did not carry out the plan, and the carpet remained in the Gaekwad treasury. In March 2009, it appeared in the Sotheby's auction and was sold for a steep sum of $5.5 million to an anonymous bidder. But the sellers were not the Baroda royals or any Indian office or owner. So how did the carpet reach there? There is a shocking and riveting of a Maharaja's midlife crisis, an extramarital love, and treasures carted out of India. By the last ruling Maharaja of Baroda, Pratap Sinh Gaekwar, grandson of the illustrious but then deceased Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwar III. 

Pratap Singh's father, Yuvaraj Fatehsingh Gaekwar, was Sayaji Maharaj's heir apparent, but died at the age of 23 before he could ascend to the throne. Therefore, the grandson Pratap Singh succeeded to the throne upon the death of his grandfather Sayajirao Gaekwad III in 1939. At that time, the new King Pratap Singh's wife was Maharani Shantadevi Sahib Gaekwad (1914–2002), and bigamy was not permitted as per the laws enforced by Sayajirao Gaekwar. Prataprao had come to inherit the huge fortune of the Baroda royals by virtue of succession. 

 Photograph of Maharaja Pratapsinh Rao Gaekwad of Baroda. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The Scandalous Love Affair that Invoked Ruin

In the year 1943, at the Madras horse races, the young Maharaj met Sita Devi was the wife of Apparao Bahadur, the Zamindar of Vayyur with whom she is said to have three children. Sita Devi was also the daughter of the Telugu-speaking Raja of Pithapuramdesh, and their affair caused a major scandal in the conservative 1940s India. To marry, Sita Devi converted to Islam and then back to Hinduism to bypass legal obstacles. The British Viceroy tried to obstruct this marriage but using his royal rights and clever arguments, Pratap Singh got an exemption.

The Great Treasury Heist

The couple's dramatic exit from India would come to define Sita Devi's legacy. Post World War II, in 1946 - the couple became known for their lavish, jet-setting lifestyle in Europe, specifically Monte Carlo, and spent millions on jewels and racehorses. What followed was a life of unparalleled opulence, rivalling even the most extravagant royals of India. Sita Devi's jewellery collection, which included a remarkable seven-strand natural pearl necklace from Cartier and the Star of the South diamond weighed at over 128 carats, became legendary for its excesses. In her kitty was an array of bespoke ornaments crafted by renowned French and American luxury jewellers, like Van Cleef & Arpels and Harry Winston, and often repurposed anklets as necklaces and toe rings as brooches. 

Pratap Singh and Sita Devi carried out a systematic transfer of Baroda state treasures to Europe. That heist included the famous Pearl Carpet, which was worth millions of dollars. Also taken away by the couple were the legendary seven-strand pearl necklace, the Star of the South diamond (128.80 carats), the English Dresden diamond (78.53 carats --  the current estimated value per carat being approximately $736,000), among hordes of other jewellery.

After the country gained Independence in 1947, and kingdoms acceded to the Indian Union, the audit of the treasury of Baroda state threw up a shocking revelation. They were facing an empty treasury. Due to the scandal, misappropriation of Baroda state jewels, and financial irregularities, they were deposed by the Indian government in 1951. 

Sita Devi, often described as a charismatic socialite, was known for her immense collection of jewels and high-fashion lifestyle, sometimes referred to as the "Wallis Simpson of India". In fact, there is a very interesting anecdote out the comparison. According to one popular anecdote, in 1953, the Maharani sold a pair of bejeweled anklets to Harry Winston, which were set with precious emeralds and diamonds. These anklets were later reset into a necklace purchased by Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. The Duchess wore the necklace to a ball at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York in 1957, where Sita Devi remarked that the jewels looked better on her feet. Embarrassed, the Duchess returned the necklace to Harry Winston. 

This incident led the Western media to dub Sita Devi "the Indian Wallis Simpson", drawing parallels to the American socialite who had similarly shaken an empire through marriage and scandal. 

The glamour of Sita Devi's jet-setting lifestyle faded in her later years. The once-fabled Baroda jewels were auctioned off by Sotheby's and Christie's, disappearing into private collections and museums around the world. The runaway royal couple separated. After his divorce in 1956 from the 'dancing queen' as he was called - the Maharaja  lived in London until his death in 1968. Meanwhile, Sita Devi and her son with the Baroda royal (Sayaji Rao Gaekwad aka Princie, born 8 March 1945 and died 8 May 1985) received citizenship of Monaco from Prince Rainier, and she lived between Monaco and Paris for the rest of her life.

Years after Sita Devi's death in 1989, traces of the Baroda treasure began to resurface in different parts of the world. In 1994, the renowned Baroda Pearl Carpet was discovered in a Geneva vault. It is said to have been sold to a Gulf royal for $31 million or was it $5.5 million? The exact sum is disputed. But with 1.6 million pearls - authentic Basra original natural pearls - mind you, not the cultured variety now available - its value can be sky-high. Today, it is housed in the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. Meanwhile, other missing jewels, including the legendary Star of the South diamond, were traced to private jewelers in Amsterdam, their provenance entangled in decades of exile, inheritance, and discreet transactions. That is how the beautiful runaway Maharani whom even Vogue recognized as one of the world's best-dressed women, ended up squandering the royal treasury of the Baroda royal family.

Pratap Singh's first wife Maharani Shanta Devi who continued to stay in Baroda with her three sons and five daughters, died of old age at 88 in the year 2002. The current titular Maharaja of Baroda - Samarjit Singh Gaekwar is the grandson of Pratapsingh Gaekwar and his first wife Maharani Shantadevi kwar.

That is how the famous bejewelled Pearl Carpet of Baroda is no more with the Baroda royals.