GOLDEN AGE

Excerpts from ‘The House of Marwar’ by Kanwar Dhananajaya Singh, Roli Books, 1994.

Miniature paintings in the Mehrangarh Museum reveal that the Rathores first played polo with the Mughals but it did not become a passion with them till much later, in the Nineteenth Century. It was in 1889, to be precise, that Sir Pratap( Thakur Prithi Singh Bera ‘s maternal grandfather) , younger brother of the Maharaja and Prime Minister of Jodhpur State, invited Col. Stuart Beatson of the Bengal Lancers to help him raise the Jodhpur Lancers. And it was with the Englishman that polo came to Jodhpur in its modern form. The Rathores took to it like fish to water; here was a splendid substitute for war. The blood-rushing charges, the all-or-nothing riding-off, the frantic change of horses… it was all there and only four years later the Jodhpur Team brought home its first trophy,

The Rajputana Challenge Cup of 1893. That team, captained naturally by Sir Pratap himself, included Beatson, Harji (Thakur Hari Singh, the great horseman), and Thakur Dhonkal Singh, the last rated by many as one of the finest exponents of the sport ever.

In 1897, when Sir Pratap travelled to London for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, he took his polo team along, amongst the very first Indian teams to travel abroad, and, for that matter, foreign teams to invade England. They won many matches there, at Hurlingham and Ranelagh, and returned with their reputation enhanced; the finest Indian team during those years.

By the turn of the century Jodhpur had become an important polo center, and it would remain so till 1949; when the city boasted no less than six polo grounds; rivalling Calcutta, the oldest polo club in the world, by the sheer number of players. It was not surprising then that the 4th Hussars’ Regimental Team, determined to win the prestigious Inter-Regimental Cup of 1899, decided to spend a few days training in Jodhpur with Sir Pratap before the tournament. Playing at the No.1 position for the 4th Hussars was Lieut. Winston S. Churchill who wrote excitedly to his mother on 11th January, 1899 from his regimental headquarters in Bangalore, “… I am going next week to Madras to play polo… the week after that Jodhpore where we all stay practicing for the Tournament with Sir Pertab Singh…”

But misfortune struck in Jodhpur. On the 9th of February Churchill wrote to his brother Jack (John Strange) from the Rose-Red House, nearly in tears, “I am staying with Sir Pertab Singh. All the rest of our team are here and everything smiled till last night; when I fell downstairs and sprained both my ankles and dislocated my right shoulder…” Such was Sir Pratap’s and Dhonkal’s instruction, however, that the 4th Hussars did in fact go on to win the tournament, the injured young Winston scoring three goals of four.

Though Maharaja Sardar Singh (1895-1911) was himself a keen player, the sport in Jodhpur did suffer in the next two decades, what with Sir Pratap and the Lancers away for so many years.

On 1st December, 1921, however, when young Lord Mountbatten galloped on to the Chammi Ground for his first game he was amazed at the standard of play. A member of the Prince of Wales’ Staff he wrote in his diary, “Jodhpore, Thursday 1st Dec… This day is a red letter one for me, as besides getting my first pig, I played in my first game of polo. In the last chukker, to my own intense surprise, I actually hit the ball three or four times! Anyway I loved it…” He went on to record, “The average handicap of the other players must have worked out at something over 5 and there was certainly some of the best polo in India being played here this afternoon.”

He was quite right, for only two months later, in February, 1922, Jodhpur beat Patiala in Delhi to become champions of all India. It was a match often described as the finest ever. A crowd of over a hundred and fifty thousand people, which included the future King-Emperor, the Viceroy, Sir Pratap himself, and fifty Maharajas… watched spellbound as the Jodhpur Team; Thakur Prithi Singh of Bera (Sir Pratap’s daughter’s son), Thakur Dalpat Singh of Rohet, Ram Singh and Rao Raja Hanut Singh (Sir Pratap’s third son); scored in the last minute of the last chukker to win. Jodhpur thus avenged in style their defeat years earlier at the hands of Patiala. The magnificent Bhupinder Singh, Maharaja of Patiala, let his horses loose in the crowded by-lanes of the capital and ordered his team to burn their sticks. They never entered the field again…

That victory was only the beginning…“Indian Prince With Four Wives And Seventy Ponies Storms London” screamed English headlines as Maharaja Umaid Singh (1918-1947) arrived in England early in the summer of 1925. The first claim was incorrect (the Maharaja was the first Marwar ruler to marry only once), but the ponies were certainly there; and mounted by an extremely talented quartet that included Rao Raja Hanut Singh, playing at a handicap of 9 and already rated as one of the finest in the game, Thakur Prithi Singh, Thakur Dalpat Singh, Ram Singh and an Englishman, Capt. A. H (Bill) Williams. Described in the Tatler as “Hot as Mustard”, the Jodhpur Team had a most wonderful season, beating every team there was to beat, including the U.S. Army; and winning the Hurlingham Champion Polo Cup and the Roehampton Open Polo Cup among many other lesser trophies…