Royal insight: 89 volumes of handwritten diaries

jaipur — A Thakur of an estate and a member of erstwhile Rajput nobility wrote religiously and chronicled the life and times of the royal age. Sounds unbelievable, but it’s true.

Amar Singh, Thakur of Kanota and Commander of the erstwhile Jaipur State Force, wrote diaries for 44 years — between 1898 and 1942 — without fail, except for one day when he had fallen from a horse and was unwell.

His passion for writing diaries has eventually gone on to become a world record as the longest diaries ever written. Those diaries can still be found preserved at Kanota Museum, located some 15km east of Jaipur, on the Agra Highway.

Generally, the museums of erstwhile royals showcase a rich collection of arms and ammunition, hunting records of royal clans and the lavish decors which once might have decorated the big plush palaces. However, this museum is quite different. It looks like a temple of knowledge housing a vast collection of books which date back to the 19th century.

This museum houses a library which initially started as a study room and then later grew into a personal library when the collection of books started expanding, courtesy the reading habit of Amar Singh.

He was the grandson of the founder of Kanota Thikana, Zorawar Singh, and a protege of Idar’s Maharaja Pratap Singh. Perhaps he is the only member of the Rajput clan who maintained a huge set of diaries which offer a fascinating glimpse into magnanimous royal courts, captivating colonial encounters and mesmerising and enthralling tales of Rajasthan.

By all accounts, he was a remarkable man. His military career witnessed the British Raj as well as free India and took him to different service locations in China, France and Afghanistan, among others. Travelling across distant locations, he developed a deep love for reading and writing. He started writing these diaries in his Meerut College exercise books. The fact that surprises all is that he did not miss an entry for a single day except for that one occasion when he was unconscious after falling from a horse. —