The maharaja or nawab has long dominated the tales of princely India, while the lives of female royals have remained largely unexplored. The only windows to the andarmahal (inner chambers of the palace) have been a handful of biographies, novels and period films. Maharanis: Women of Royal India is a photographic exploration of the shifting landscape of gender politics and monarchy from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. The 148 photos have been obtained from the archives of ‘royal’ photographers and families — from Travancore to Jammu & Kashmir; from Tripura to Rajasthan.

Apart from portraits of some of the most celebrated royal names in India’s modern history — Gayatri Devi, Maharani of Jaipur; Sita Devi, Rani of Kapurthala; and Vijaya Raje Scindia, Rajmata of Gwalior — lesser-known women, from places like Dhrol and Katesar, also feature in the book.

Formal portraits show them in ways they wished to be seen, but there are candid ones too — snatched from holidays and sidelines of public functions. The book has many women, featured in Vogue’s lists of style icons, in their chiffon saris and exquisite jewellery. It also shows some of them engaged in ‘manly sports’ such as hunting. Interestingly, some portraits have been taken from behind screens, without the photographer actually seeing the subjects.

( All images from Maharanis: Women of Royal India, ed. by Abhishek Poddar and Nathaniel Gaskell, and published by Mapin Publishing, in association with Tasveer, and The Museum of Art and Photography, Bangalore)