When Twain walked Baroda's streets
This year is the 175th birth anniversary of Mark Twain, his death centenary year, and 125th year of the publishing of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain has an interesting Gujarat connection - 110 years ago he visited Baroda and wrote about his royal adventures in the Banyan city.
When Twain walked Baroda's streets - Ahmedabad - City - The Times of India
AHMEDABAD: Samuel Langhorne Clemens aka Mark Twain, often described as ‘The father of American literature’, visited Vadodara in 1900 to deliver a lecture in Darbar hall of Laxmivilas palace on an invitation from Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad, the then ruler of Baroda state.
Twain describes Gaekwad as being fluent in English and a fine and cultivated gentleman. Sayajirao was 32 years old then and Twain wrote in his travelogue, ‘Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World’: “The prince is an educated gentleman. His culture is European. He has been in Europe five times.”
Twain arrived in Baroda with his daughter Clera on January 31 and was received by the “prince’s carriage drawn by picture-book horses with glossy, arched necks” and staffed by three footmen.
Then the Twains were shown around the town, with its ancient houses, bazaars, lavish new palace, which Twain remarked as a “mix of modern American-European...wholly foreign to India”. The old palace (Laxmivilas), he said, was “oriental and charming, and in consonance with the country”. Twain spoke here before an audience of around 300 guests and found the hall “unsuitable for public speaking on account of echoes, but it is a good place to hold durbars and regulate the affairs of a kingdom, and that is what it is for. If I had it I would have a durbar every day, instead of twice a year”.
Delighted with the bazaars, he wrote: “The swarm of ragged and noisy humanity under the horses’ feet and everywhere, and the pervading reek and fume and smell! It was all wonderful and delightful.”
Twain also rode an elephant and had one important grievance about his royal host. “But we did not see the treasury of crown jewels, and that was a disappointment, for in mass and richness it ranks only second in India. We failed to see the jewels, but we saw the gold cannon and the silver one.”
This year is the 175th birth anniversary of Mark Twain, his death centenary year, and 125th year of the publishing of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain has an interesting Gujarat connection - 110 years ago he visited Baroda and wrote about his royal adventures in the Banyan city.
When Twain walked Baroda's streets - Ahmedabad - City - The Times of India
AHMEDABAD: Samuel Langhorne Clemens aka Mark Twain, often described as ‘The father of American literature’, visited Vadodara in 1900 to deliver a lecture in Darbar hall of Laxmivilas palace on an invitation from Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad, the then ruler of Baroda state.
Twain describes Gaekwad as being fluent in English and a fine and cultivated gentleman. Sayajirao was 32 years old then and Twain wrote in his travelogue, ‘Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World’: “The prince is an educated gentleman. His culture is European. He has been in Europe five times.”
Twain arrived in Baroda with his daughter Clera on January 31 and was received by the “prince’s carriage drawn by picture-book horses with glossy, arched necks” and staffed by three footmen.
Then the Twains were shown around the town, with its ancient houses, bazaars, lavish new palace, which Twain remarked as a “mix of modern American-European...wholly foreign to India”. The old palace (Laxmivilas), he said, was “oriental and charming, and in consonance with the country”. Twain spoke here before an audience of around 300 guests and found the hall “unsuitable for public speaking on account of echoes, but it is a good place to hold durbars and regulate the affairs of a kingdom, and that is what it is for. If I had it I would have a durbar every day, instead of twice a year”.
Delighted with the bazaars, he wrote: “The swarm of ragged and noisy humanity under the horses’ feet and everywhere, and the pervading reek and fume and smell! It was all wonderful and delightful.”
Twain also rode an elephant and had one important grievance about his royal host. “But we did not see the treasury of crown jewels, and that was a disappointment, for in mass and richness it ranks only second in India. We failed to see the jewels, but we saw the gold cannon and the silver one.”