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The Hindu
5 days ago
- The Hindu
Experience life by Odisha's Chilika Lake at the Rambha Palace, a boutique hotel with European aesthetics
A forgotten palace, with peeling walls and cobwebbed ceilings, once stood at the far end of a quaint village in Odisha. Locals called it Rani Palace. Today, it stands with its original sheen intact, as a boutique hotel, by the Chilika Lake in Rambha, a town in Ganjam district. Rambha's streets come alive in the evenings with shops selling fresh catch off the Chilika. It is home to several families who depend on the river for a living. Rambha Palace, a walkable distance from the lake, lets one experience life by a lagoon in a setup fit for the kings. We arrive at its gates on a humid afternoon from Bhubaneshwar, that is around 120 kilometres away. The palace was restored over a period of six years by Chana Daswatte, a protégé of the popular Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa. Walking past the foyer, the walls of which have photos of the palace from its previous life, we instantly feel the antiquity of the building. Everything, right from the billiards table, crystal chandeliers, terrazzo tiles, lime plaster walls, sabai grass carpets, and ikkat-inspired interiors, feels right out of a museum display, yet, retains a certain newness. This is the result of the restoration team's guiding principle — to retain the soul of the original 18th Century structure. Himangini Singh, co-founder, Hunch Ventures and partner, Rambha Palace, who has taken the property on lease from the royal family, says that the village and the palace always take her back to her childhood when she would visit the Chilika with her parents. When she first saw it in its decayed state, she says, 'It felt like it was quietly asking for a second chance.' They set out to restore it using materials and techniques that were used in the original architecture. Himangini, who played an important role in its restoration, adds, 'Throughout the journey, we often asked ourselves: If Rambha's Rani were restoring this palace today, what choices would she make? How would she have lived? What aesthetics would she have embraced? This imagined narrative became our compass. We drew inspiration from her envisioned values, her love for her people, her affinity for local talent, her refined yet grounded sensibility.' European roots After a late afternoon lunch of a typical Odia thali — their in-house restaurant serves local as well as Continental and Chinese food — head chef Gaurav Juyal walks us through the sprawling lawns with ornate fountain centrepieces. The palace, he explains, was built by Thomas Snodgrass, who was the Collector of Ganjam from 1791-92. 'It was built by European architects and engineers,' he explains, adding that it was eventually bought by king Rama Krushna Mardaraj of Khallikote and later, by king Harihar Mardaraj, who played a crucial role in the Odia Movement until his death in 1909. An important monument in the history of Ganjam, it was here, explains Gaurav, that the foundation stone of the Utkal Union Conference (UUC) was laid. The palace played host to thousands of delegates from the various Odia Speaking Tracts, and the UUC eventually lead to the unification of Odisha. The main structure is flanked by a printing room and ice mill room on one side, both of which have also been renovated. Himangini says that the only modification they did was for the roof. 'Originally divided into six smaller sections, it has now been unified into a single, stronger roof,' she says, adding that the revival was a 'careful, deliberate process.' The property, spread across six acres, has 15 rooms for guests. It was opened to the public on April 1, 2024. While the queen was not able to witness the palace after its restoration, Himangini says her family visited it, walking through the halls and lawns. 'It was an emotional moment,' she says, adding that their response was 'one of the most meaningful validations of everything we had hoped to achieve.' Markets and rain hats An important part of the itinerary for guests at the palace, is a visit to the village. Rambha is home to several artisanal fishermen. On the highway by the village, is an ancient dry-fish market that is run entirely by women. Prawns are a mainstay at most of the shops here. At Renuka Bahera's stall for instance, there are over five dried prawn varieties, that she sells for ₹200 to ₹400 a kilogram, depending on the size. How can we not visit their fish markets? Here, one can see gigantic, freshly caught prawns that are still alive and wriggling — a rare sight, as any regular at seafood markets would agree. Ragunath Behera, a middleman between fishermen and sellers, explains that most of what is caught at Chilika is taken to a fish depot at nearby Balugaun town, the largest in the region. 'This is then purchased by sellers who have shops at the markets here,' he explains. Rambha is also home to bamboo artisans from whom one can buy baskets and the exquisite talari, hats worn by workers in the fields. These hats, used for protection against the sun and rain, are huge — so huge that they do not fit into even the largest suitcase. We buy one nevertheless and lug it around the airport on our journey back, drawing curious glances. But there can be no better souvenir from Odisha. Room tariffs start from ₹30,000. There are special fares for summer and monsoon months ranging from ₹19,000 onwards. Rambha can be reached by road or train from Bhubaneshwar. The writer was at Odisha on invitation from Rambha Palace
Time of India
26-04-2025
- Time of India
Rambha Palace restoration another feather in Odisha's heritage tourism cap
In European lore, fresco painters often went blind from lime dust and devotion. Guruvinayak Singh Budhwar had to skip the weddings of three cousins to finish a vibrant, 17 by 26 ft tribute to Odia history that has recently been unveiled at Rambha Palace, the newly-restored heritage hotel near Chilika Lake , Asia's largest brackish water lagoon in Odisha. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now 'I worked 13 hours a day for one and a half years,' grins the 23-year-old self- taught artist from Chandigarh. Painted on seven Belgian linen panels using hand- ground pigments, his fresco blends mythology with trigonometry and other mathematical impulses. 'This is my signature,' Budhwar says, pointing to a bright yellow disc with a likeness to his face at the centre of the painting, a cheeky wink at the Konark Sun Temple. Created over hundreds of Zoom calls with an Odia historian in the US, the fresco was an epic (and exacting) undertaking for the young artist who formally trained as engineer. Himangini Singh, co-founder of Delhi-based investment fund Hunch Ventures and partner at Rambha Palace, watches with quiet pride as a history once scattered across dynasties and folklore is weaved together in one sweeping visual thread for guests to look up to. Built in 1791–92 by British officer Thomas Snodgrass, the palace later became home to Maharaja Harihar Mardaraj of Khallikote, a key figure in the early 20th-century Odia unification movement. It has hosted some of the most significant political gatherings of the region — the Utkal Sammilani conferences, welcoming leaders like Madhusudan Das, Fakir Mohan Senapati, and later even Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The first meeting to form a separate Odisha province was also held in the palace some 123 years ago. Rambha Palace recently unveiled a 20-ft artwork chronicling 5,000 years of Odisha's history as a fresco Inaugurated as a boutique hotel last year on Utkal Divas (Odisha Foundation Day held on April 1) by former chief minister Naveen Patnaik, the palace's revival is symbolic as it played a significant role in shaping the Odia identity. The six-year restoration, punctuated by a pandemic, and led by Sri Lankan architect Channa Daswatte (a protégé of the tropical modernist Geoffrey Bawa) was as much an act of recovery as of imagination. Throughout the restoration process, Singh asked herself a single question — if the Rani of Rambha were restoring her palace today, what choices would she make? That helped her stay true to the palace's 18th-century roots, with minimal structural changes, no modern paints and a material palette that allowed the building to breathe. 'The roof was the only thing we structurally altered. The original rooms had conical tops, we unified them for weather resistance,' she says. The result is a five-acre boutique property with just 14 suites and a presidential villa, and a kitchen rooted in Odia flavours and slow food philosophy. Even the pink lime walls were chosen by Singh for their European warmth, 'like a subtle Italian terracotta'. On INTACH's suggestions, the project preserved the palace's structural soul while reintroducing lost layers of craft. Original woodwork was restored using salvaged timber, 200-year-old terrazzo flooring was preserved room by room, and materials were sourced with near-obsessive specificity. For instance, lime plaster (or chuna) was one of the most demanding elements. Artisans were tracked down all the way to Chunakhali, a small village in the Sundarbans. Suspicious at first of the city crew, they eventually agreed to help but didn't give away their well-guarded trade secret. 'Even the architects weren't allowed to observe the recipe. We just know it involves spices like cinnamon and clove,' said a project member during the walkthrough. As for tourists, Chilika attracts a host of birdwatchers who come to see its winter flocks. The region is also home to fishing cats, blackbucks, otters and other wetland fauna. With the restoration, Singh hopes visitors can now walk the halls once traversed by princes and revolutionaries. She also envisions Rambha as a canvas for contemporary Indian artists to find visibility and support. 'This is not just about restoration — it's about cultural revival,' she says. Rambha is the latest in a series of restorations in the state as royal families are rooting for palace tourism, turning their ancestral homes into boutique homestays and hotels after meticulous restoration. The Belgadia Palace in Mayurbhanj, an 18th-century Victorian-style palace, is now a heritage homestay managed by the Bhanj Deo royal family. Even the Dhenkanal palace has been tastefully restored, showcasing Odisha's rich art and craft traditions. A wing of Kendrapara's riverside Aul Palace, dating back to 1590 AD, has been transformed into a heritage retreat as well. At a meeting held last September, members of erstwhile royal families in the state reportedly urged authorities to prioritise palace stays in tourism policy plans, noting that many such sites still await restoration.
