Let’s start today from Narayan Singh Circle, one of the most famous places in Jaipur, ( there is also a road named “Thakur Narayan Singh ” which is located in Raja Park). So why was this name given to this place ?
Narayan Niwas Hotel is on Narayan Singh circle which used to be Narayan Niwas Haveli earlier. This circle became famous by the name of Narayan Niwas and this Narayan Niwas used to be the residence in the princely state Jaipur of the Thakurs of Kanota. It’s worth mentioning that almost all the princely states have residences in the national capital Delhi like Rajasthan House (GOR), Hyderabad House (GOI), Kota House, Bikaner House (RTDC), Dholpur House (UPSC).
All these houses were built by the kings of those states and when they used to come to the British Parliament for some work or they came to Delhi for any work, they used to stay in these houses. After independence, the kings voluntarily gave all these houses to the state and central government to operate and today governments are using them as their offices and rest houses for VIPs.
Similarly, there used to be a residence of the Jagirdars of Jagir that came under their ownership. Like this, Jaipur, which used to be a very important state, has 18 Jagir houses, some of the famous residences are Sikar Haveli (Sikar House), Chomu Haveli (Chomu House), Alsisar Haveli, Mandawa, Samode Haveli, Uniara Haveli, Naila Haveli (Naila House) and Narayan Niwas Haveli etc.
Have you noticed that all the Havelis are named after their places or estates but this Narayan Niwas is named after a person Thakur Narayan Singh Kanota. There must be some reason that a haveli is named after a person, in oral history the name of a dynasty or place is named after a person only when that person`s life has been illustrious.
There are hundreds of examples of this in front of us, so it would not be right to mention all of them.
Thakur Narayan Singh ji was born in Kanota estate in January 1851 and he was the Thakur of Kanota estate and chief of police of Jaipur state from 1908 to 1924. Jaipur has seen two kings when Thakur Narayan was the chief; those were Mirza Raja Sawai Madho Singh 2nd and Mirza Raja Sawai Man Singh.
He had a very close friendship with Raja Madho Singh ji and both of them managed the administration of the state very well.
Security of Jaipur was a very important task and Narayan Singh was a very efficient guard. His fear was so much that dacoits and thieves did not even come close to the capital. He was aware of every nook and cranny of the city and also used to go with Khawas Ji to help him in collecting revenue many times.
Archive 1: 17 September 1914; it is said that once Narayan Singh ji went to Amer to observe the guards on his tower and from there he saw someone coming out after taking bath in Shivkunda pool. He got suspicious that who is this person that is coming out from there at such a late hour and he also has a horse. Since dacoits did not wander around the state, he had a strategic advantage and directly caught hold of that person’s neck and asked who are you?
That person was also very tall and bored like him but he directly surrendered and said, Annadaata, let me go, I know who you are, who else can grab my neck except you.
Archive 2: On 22nd December 1914, Narayan Singh and madho singh went out to hunt in Aaudi after dinner. They got very late while returning from there and were looted by dacoits on the way. When they returned to the palace, the Maharaja said, “You screwed Narayan Singh today, how do you do your work? If I became a victim of robbery in my own state then what will happen to our people?
Then Narayan Singh said to Maharaj, your life was more important at that time, you should take rest, I’ll come in the morning.
In the morning, he was in Sarvatobhadra with the looted goods and some other things. The Maharaja asked, “What is this Narayan?” He said who can go to your empire by ducking me? I completely solved that problem once and for all.
When the British police were searching for Chandrashekhar Azad, he was hiding in Jaipur for some time, and during that time he used to visit Narayan Singh`s mansion quite frequently from June 1928 to July 1929 but by that time Narayan Singh had died in 1924.
At present, many such written incidents, descriptions of his daily routine and appointments are there in Rajpatra Narayan Niwas library and Kanota Thikana Library. Today the garden left by him at that time where the RBI office is located is now called Kanota Bagh.
Today this Narayan Niwas and castle Kanota are being managed by the Kanota Hotel Group and belong to his family. Maan Singh Kanota, who will become the Thakur (formally), he is also emerging as a good polo player (+2 handicap).
