NEW DELHI, Aug 6: It has all the elements of a Hindi film romance. The Princess falls in love with a commoner. Her family is vehemently opposed to the marriage. The persistent Princess elopes with the love of her life. Finally, the King gives in. And like all fairy tales, the Princess' love story has a happy ending.Diya Singh, the 25-year-old daughter of Maharaja Bhawani Singh of Jaipur, married Narendra Singh, a family retainer at the palace, who once worked as her chauffeur, at a small but traditional ceremony at the Taj Palace hotel today. It was a quiet affair, putting an end to a prolonged royal controversy.The celebrations at the palatial home of the Maharaja at Maharani Bagh were rather subdued with none of the grandeur expected of a royal marriage.The strings of roses, marigolds and traditional banana leaves at the gate were the only indication of the wedding.There were no lavish decorations. There were few merry-making relatives. Only a dozen women, dressed in bright Rajasthani colours, sitting in the drawing room.Diya's mother, Maharani Padmini Devi, bustled around handling the last minute arrangements.The Maharaja did not want to meet journalists.His secretary Narayan Singh said the wedding was a private matter and the family had decided not to speak to anybody in view of the controversy. In fact, the venue of the wedding had to be shifted from Jaipur to Delhi at the last minute because of stiff opposition from the Rajput community.A section of the Rajput community is up in arms because Diya, the only child and heiress to the Maharaja, has not only dared to fall in love with a commoner, but has in the process also defied an age-old rigid caste system of the Rajputs.The Princess' love Narendra hails from the the same village as the Maharaja, Kotda, and also belongs to the same Kachchwaha gotra.``This is absolutely unheard of in the Rajput community. They follow the gotra system very rigidly and a man and woman of the same gotra are considered almost like brother and sister,'' explained a Rajput nobleman.But Diya stood her ground despite opposition on all fronts, insisting that her groom would be Narendra and no one else.Diya, perhaps drew strength from the fact that she is not the only Rajasthani Princess to defy tradition. The once shy and orthodox Princesses of Rajasthan have demonstrated that they too believe in womens' liberation and selecting partners of their own choice.The daughter of Arvind Singh, Maharaja of Udaipur, had last year married Lokendra Singh, a Polo player patronised by the royal family. She too had met stiff resistance from her family but went ahead and married the man she loved.Equally romantic was the wedding of the Bikaner Princess, daughter of Maharaja Narendra Singh. She broke off her engagement to the scion of an Uttar Pradesh royal family and married a Brahmin boy about four months ago.Her father apparently did not attend the wedding but she is believed to have obtained the blessings of her mother. For love, after all conquers all.
