History

Social Life & Festivals

The City Palace represents the performance of the royal rituals that are the living traditions since the 16th century.

The City Palace needs to be visualised as a representation of the socio-cultural energy that has prevailed over time and still remains an integral part of the environment inside and around it.

Mewar culture flourished under the rule of the Sisodia Rajputs in Udaipur and several of the earlier Mewar traditions, annual festivals, rituals and customs have evolved, integrated and transformed in the City Palace since the sixteenth century.

A comprehensive description of the Mewari festivals and their celebrations is presented in the court text of Vir Vinod (Shyamaldas, 1886). Since the eighteenth century, the court artists have depicted Udaipur in large-scale paintings that portray the celebrations and social life of the royals.

The festivals were often redefined on the whims and fancies of the Maharanas and show interesting cultural integrations with Mughal and British customs as a result of the interaction in later periods.

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