Maharaja Madness

The brocade brigade takes Manhattan

They journeyed from the fabled kingdoms—an illustrious caste of characters, members of the erstwhile royal families of India. Even their titles were sequined and radiant: Rajmata Gayatri Devi of Jaipur; the Maharaja of Jaipur; Prince Martand Singh of Kapurthala; Princess Mehtab Saman Ali Khan of Rampur; Princess Ezra Jah of Hyderabad; and the Maharaja Gaj Singh of Jodhpur. They came west for an exhausting week of parties and preparations, stepping out with the Park Avenue set, in anticipation of Mrs. Vreeland's latest Met extravaganza— "Costumes of Royal India"—a show plucked from their own closets.

The festivities started off with a bangle on Tuesday—drinks with Jackie O at the Metropolitan Club. Mrs. Onassis, smart and sassy in red Carolina Herrera, joined Doubleday chairman John Sargent in honoring the Rajmata of Jaipur, whose memoirs, A Princess Remembers, they had just republished. Nan Kempner, Consuelo Crespi, Jerry Zipkin, and C. Z. Guest paid homage to the goddess who'd done time in jail, the jet-set daughter of the glamorous Maharani of Cooch Behar, famous for her sumptuous jewels. On this trip, the rajmata traveled light: sixteen saris and two strands of pearls.

After the Doubleday do, the gang traipsed over to decorator George Clarkson's Indian-dress dinner dance at the reconditioned El Morocco. More mirage than raj in Ottoman turban and silk pajamas, Clarkson curried favor with that section of New York's rich-raff who'd forgotten their geography lessons and came dressed as Turks. Outside, Daisy the elephant entertained the chauffeurs. Inside, four black musclemen posed as Nubian Mussulmen. Strings of plastic pearls were thrown around one's neck upon entering. The rajmata was astonished to see one American woman stuffing strand after strand of the fiveand-dime pearls into her handbag.

Wednesday night, the regal horde hit Princess Yasmin Aga Khan's benefit to fight Alzheimer's disease, and a dinner given by Natarajan Krishnan, the Indian ambassador to the U.N., and his wife. Friday evening, Lee Thaw went Peruvian with a dinner in honor of Javier P6rez de Cuellar. But, like Queen Victoria (who, according to D.V., "was simply mad about her maharajas''), Lee Thaw had plenty of royal Indians too.

On Saturday, there was a dinner at the New York Yacht Club given by Dr. and Mrs. S. Dillon Ripley, Mrs. Ernest DuPont, and Mrs. John Roosevelt, followed by dancing at the Palladium. Upstairs in the Mike Todd Room, the Maharaja of Jodhpur was dazzling in a stainless-steel-blue Nehru. Sunday, Pallavi Shah of Air India gave a cocktail party at the National Arts Club, and that evening Sao Schlumberger took over Mortimer's to honor Naveen Patnaik, author of A Second Paradise (another Jackie O tome). Naveen, the Darjeeling of the Indiaphiles, chatted with Fran Lebowitz, Ann Getty, Mary McFadden, and Steve Rubell. Prince Mubarak al Sabah of Kuwait breezed in, sporting a wild-sable hat and matching floor-length coat. Afterward, Princess Yasho Bhansali of Gwalior, the maharani from New Orleans, danced until six A.M. at Club A.

While their cohorts were off painting the town Jaipur pink, Prince Martand Singh ("Mapu''), visiting curator of the Costume Institute, and his assistant Princess Saman rushed to ready the show. Saman, whose gold wedding dress is a highlight of the exhibition, even sacrificed her daily Muslim prayers.

The climax, of course, was the Met opening on Monday. Occidental stars like Raquel, Cher, and Est6e—not to mention Henry Kissinger and Donald Trump—mingled with their Oriental peers. Mrs. Pupul Jayakar, Indira Gandhi's b.f. and chairman of the Festival of India Committee, was attended by a harem of Indian beauties and businesswomen. Although some whispered that the dinner d6cor was more Hawaiian than Mughal, no one could deny that the Indians' drop-dead saris, the Princess Ezra's bombshell jewels, the Maharaja of Jaipur's maroon velvet Nehru jacket, and Princess Yasho's sparkling diamond nose stud were the real thing.

Brooks Peters

On this trip, the rajmata traveled light: sixteen saris and two strands of pearls.

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