I was at Jaigarh fort when i saw for first time two flags hoisting on the fort , though both were same but the size were different. I was bit curious about this and i asked my driver about this, he was also bit confused.
I had never seen this thing in my life before. I knew this thing that every royal family of every state has his own flags which are still hoisted on their private properties but two flags just differing in sizes was quite unique.
Quite perplexed i moved forward , my next stop was city palace , Jaipur.
There also i saw same one and a quarter flag above the Chandra Mahal. Now it was getting more and more interesting , though i was guessing some but was not getting any near to conclusion.
We met one official guard there who was sitting very next to “Gangajalis” . I asked him why there are two flags being hoisted above the Palace and same i saw on Jaigarh fort.
It took him somewhere around 15min to tell us the whole story , but i think those 15 min were the most worthy of time spent.
As he said ” These two flags symbolises the presence of King in Jaipur city , the quarter flag is of the king and the bigger one is of the queen. Whenever King used to go out of the city one single flag was hoisted on the palace and when he used to come back a smaller one was added to it which automatically sends the message that king has arrived ” thats why it is called One and a Quarter Flag.
That guard went more further and told us an anecdote about the ‘one and quarter flag’, which is the insignia flag of the Maharajas of Jaipur.
He told when Emperor Aurangzeb came to attend the wedding of Jai Singh, shook hands with the young groom and wished him well on his marriage. On this occasion, Jai Singh made an irreverent remark to the Emperor stating that the way he had shaken hands with him made it incumbent on the Emperor to protect him (Jai Singh) and his kingdom. Aurangzeb, instead of responding in indignation at the quip, felt pleased and conferred on the young Jai Singh the title of ‘Sawai’, which means “one and a quarter”.
Since then the Maharajas have pre-fixed their names with this title. During residence there, they also fly a one and a quarter size flag atop their buildings and palaces.
The time when we visited Jaipur ,Kumar Padmanabh Singh present king of Jaipur and who is studying in Mayo college, Ajmer had came to jaipur and the reason being One and a Quarter Flag was being hoisted.
For me that One and a Quarter Flag mystery solved , thanks to the guard of city Palace.
My trip was turning very interesting and what was expected this time was going much deeper into the history of the royal family of Jaipur.
