Or the Patiala House here was witness to a historic meeting that decided to hold the Asian Games every four years with the first games in the national capital in 1951.
"Princely Palaces in New Delhi", authored by Sumanta K Bhowmick and published by Niyogi Books, has several such anecdotes related to the mansions which form an integral part of New Delhi's urban topography.
"As young Raja Malvinder Singh (Bhupinder Singh's grandson) was sitting in the drawing room in the first floor at Patiala House, his father (Maharaja Yadavindra Singh) ordered him to make drinks for some assembled guests."
Sardar Satyajit Singh of Bharoli came in to join the party and in the course of conversation, asked the maharaja whether he could buy the Maybach lying unused in Patiala.
changed hands without any transaction of money. It later made way into a vintage collector's hands for an undisclosed sum," the book says.
"The book also mentions how the Asian Games federation had its birth at Patiala House on February 13, 1949.
"Representatives of Afghanistan, Burma, Ceylon, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand met in a two-day conference at Patiala House and were addressed by Maharaja Yadavindra Singh as chair and G D Sondhi as its secretary. In his speech, the maharaja highlighted the importance of sports as a catalyst for promotion of friendship and understanding among various countries.
The coffee table book replete with old photographs, letters, maps and plans, describes the seven main palaces of the states of Hyderabad, Baroda, Bikaner, Jaipur, Patiala, Darbhanga and Travancore, besides other such princely mansions in Delhi like Bahawalpur House, Bhavnagar House, Bundi House, Cochin House, Dholpur House, Faridkot House, Gwalior House, Jaisalmer House, Jind House, Jubbal House, Mandi House and Pataudi House.
The book tries to delineate the story behind the story, documenting history through archival research, interviews with royalty and unpublished photographs from royal private collections.
