COOCH BEHAR, MAHARANI OF

Neg. No: 3305

Neg. Size: 15"x12"

Neg. Date: None

Sitter: Maharani Siniti Devi, CI (18.3.1887) (b. at Sens House, Calcutta, 1864; d. at Ranchi, 10^th November 1932), sometime Regent of Cooch-Behar and President of the State Council, eldest daughter of Babu Keshab Chandra Sen.  Married 5 March 1878 Colonel Maharaja Shri Sir Nripendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur, Maharaja of Cooch Behar (Biographical information provided by Christopher J Buyers, The Royal Ark http://www.dreamwater.net/regiment/
RoyalArk/royalark.htm ).

Just as at the time of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations five years earlier, the 1902 Coronation of King Edward VII brought to London an enormous pageant of ruling Indian princes. Some, like the Maharani of Cooch Behar (1864-1932) and her Anglophile husband, had already made a name for themselves in England as the progressive rulers of their small state in Northern India.

Back in 1881 in order to encourage Hindu women to come out from behind purdah, the Maharani set up a pioneering educational institution in Cooch Behar. To avoid any controversy, she had the girls transported daily from home to school in carriages with curtained windows. Named after her, the Suniti Academy exists to this day.

For this portrait, the Maharani had set aside her usual unstructured sari and put on her own version of Court dress complete with a lace train and an ostrich feather fan which she wore to the Coronation of King Edward VII on 9 August 1902.

Her gown, worn over a gauze blouse, is of white satin with the Empire wreath design embroidered in gold. It is notable that the Maharani is still not prepared to reveal her arms and her blouse completely covers her back, chest and neck. It would have struck people as unusual for her spectacular diamond and gemstone necklace to nestle against cloth rather than against bare skin.

In recalling her presence at the coronation, Maharani noted: “I stood between Princess Frederica of Hanover and Princess Henry of Pless, and people remarked on the contrast between us, as Princess Frederica had the loveliest grey hair and Princess Henry of Pless beautiful fair hair, and my locks were raven black. I heard that my tiara was voted the prettiest there.”

The Maharani also wears the Badge of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India with the letters V R (Victoria Regina) picked out in diamonds, pearls and turquoises and surrounded by a border of pearls surmounted by the Imperial Crown. This was an Order instituted by Queen Victoria herself in 1878 when she became Empress of India. The second medal is the Queen Victoria Jubilee Medal 1887, with 1897 bar.

The Prince and Princess of Pless first met the Maharani and Maharaja on their big game hunt in Cooch Behar in 1896. The Maharaja’s initial infatuation with the Princess did not impede his future friendship with the Plesses and, unlike his wife, he came and stayed with them in Silesia on a couple of occasions.

Image published in:

Date: [1902].

Image published in Daisy of Pless: The Happy Years

Occasion: The Coronation of King Edward VII, 9 August 1902.

Location: The Lafayette Studio, 179, New Bond Street, London, W.

Descr: TQL seated.

Costume: Gown of white satin with 'Empire' wreath design embroidered in gold - worn at the Coronation ceremony.

Costume Supplier: Made by 'a French milliner'.

Orders, Decorations & Medals: Badge of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India, [C.I. cr. 18 March 1887]; Queen Victoria Jubilee Medal 1887, with 1897 bar.

Jewellery: -

Furniture & Props: Painted backdrop.

Photographer: Lafayette Ltd., 179 New Bond Street, London, W. Photographer: Lafayette Ltd., 179 New Bond Street, London, W.

Evidence of photographer at work: -

All images of sitter:

Copyright: V&A

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Provenance: Pinewood Studios; acquired 1989.

References: References:

Biog: Who's Who in India, Lucknow, 1911, Part VIII, p 3; Sunity Devee, Maharani of Cooch Behar, The Autobiography of an Indian Princess, London, 1921; Gayatri Devi and Santha Rama Rau, A Princess Remembers: The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur, London, 1984, p 40; Maharajah of Baroda, The Palaces of India, London, 1980.

Occasion: Sunity Devee, op cit, pp 169-174.

Costume: The Times, 11 August 1902, p 15d; The Gentlewoman, 16 August 1902, p 208a; Sunity Devee, op cit, p 173.

Costume Supplier: Sunity Devee, op cit, p 173.

Orders, Decorations & Medals: (Badge of the Crown of India), Burke's Peerage; Sunity Devee, op cit, p. 119-120. (Jubilee Medal) Howard N. Cole, Coronation and Royal Commemorative Medals 1887-1977, London, 1977, p 146; A.R. Litherland & B.T. Simpkin, Spinks Standard Catalogue of British and Associated Orders, Decorations & Medals, London, 1990.

Jewellery: For tiara worn as necklace, see Gayatri Devi, op cit, photo. p 35.

Reproduced: -

Acknowledgements: - Acknowledgements: -

1. NB Pauline Rohatgi, Portraits in the India Office Library and Records, London, 1983, p 277, refers to Sunita Devi.