The Manik Bagh Palace
PRINCE Yeswant Rao of Indore, got constructed in 1930 a modern marvel of architecture, the "Manik Bagh Palace - Jewel Gardens". Darkly tinted and clear window panes in metal frames for regulating the light of day, the first air conditioning system in India, unusually simple furniture of wood and metal, pictorial carpets, lighting fixtures as light sculptures, walls treated in alternating colours, Para vents as cubist paintings in space - highlighted the palace. Art for living made a fairy tale palace of modernism in India come true. Technical equipment, installation parts, water faucets for the bathrooms, even the marble flooring, banisters for staircases, furniture and lamps were made according to the architect's designs and instructions in Germany.
Manik Bagh Palace aroused in the early thirties much interest. Photographs of the residence, its architect and also inhabitants, the young maharaja family, were published in the international press.
As the glamour of princes and privy purses dwindled, the Royal family had to give up Manik Bagh Palace and sell the residence, which finally landed up in the lap of a Government office.
Today, the palace houses the Office of the Commissioner, Customs & Central Excise, Indore.