Samode Palace

This guide to Samode Palace near Jaipur opens in 1818, the year Rawal Berisal signed the treaty ending Rajputana sovereignty to the British, then returned to his own family estate in the hills to begin transforming an inherited sixteenth-century fort into a palace. It follows the Rajputana style he built in, blending Mughal and Rajput aesthetics, and lingers in the Sheesh Mahal, the mirrored hall where an invitation to tea meant you had finally impressed the family. A later descendant, Rawal Sheo Singh, added the ceremonial Durbar Hall as Jaipur's prime minister.