The Maharajah of Jodhpur's Home Movies — extracts

c1947

The BFI National Archive looks after the astonishing home movie collection of Maharajah Ummed Singh, ruler of the Indian princely state of Jodhpur between 1918 and 1947, and his illustrious family. While much work remains to be done on researching the people and places they depict, these films represent an invaluable record of princely power in the days of the Raj.

These extracts feature a vast procession to Jodhpur which is likely to be the funeral of Maharajah Ummed Singh, who died on 9 June 1947. The corpse is burned and offerings are thrown onto the funeral pyre. Note the men's turbans: white is the colour of mourning in India.