I WAS born in Udaipur in Rajasthan in 1944, three years before India achieved independence. Udaipur was founded in 1559 by my forefather Udai Singh.

The new Indian democracy meant that families and clans like ours, princely states headed by maharanas, maharajas and nizams, were stripped of their property and governing rights. In 1971, the government took away our privileges, including financial stipends.

My father, Bhagwat Singh Mewar, was the 75th in an unbroken chain of maharanas dating back to 734 A.D. who served as custodians of our region. In our tradition, we hold our possessions and authority in trust, passing them from generation to generation. We still uphold these traditions as a moral — not constitutional — responsibility.

Dad inherited a lot of financial pressures. He set up commercial companies, legal trusts and charitable organizations to sustain our legacy. In 1961, he converted our 17th-century marble summer home in the middle of Lake Pichola into the Lake Palace Hotel. It was controversial at the time; people thought that we’d sold out. But the move anticipated the current palace-to-hotel boom. And he was the first raj to bring in the Taj Hotels as managing partner of any palace hotel.

I was never the hard-core academic type. By my teens, I’d surrendered to the game of cricket. Eventually, I captained teams at university levels and played for the national championship for Rajasthan. These days I’m only a spectator. But my son Lakshyaraj still plays; he is also on the Rajasthan Cricket Association board and is president of the Udaipur Cricket Association.

After I earned my B.A. from Rajasthan University, my dad recognized I needed a global perspective, so he sent me to England to study. I took some correspondence courses in hotel management at Metropolitan College in St. Albans. But mostly I played cricket in Lancashire and Cheshire. I sustained myself without financial support from home by working for a clothing manufacturer.

In 1969, I moved to Chicago to work for a small hotel group, ending up in sales. In America, I learned the value of systemization; Americans do more faster. They also judge and promote based on merit. In India, too many people expect things because of who they are or know. No one knew my background. I was promoted through hard work alone.

After I came back to Udaipur, Dad made me executive director working with Taj Hotels. I encouraged Taj to raise room tariffs, thereby building our company’s revenue and winning Dad’s respect as an entrepreneur. In 1986, I established the HRH Group of Hotels, former family palaces and hunting lodges in Rajasthan.

My father’s other legacy is the Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation. We support everything from local poverty relief to women’s issues and health programs to regional arts preservation.

When the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern and the Indian School of Business analyzed how we endured as the reigning family in this region for 1,200 years, it surprised me that in all these centuries no one had laid down a system preparing us for leadership, a sort of maharana’s management manual. So I have taken it upon myself to put one together for any family business that wants to last as long as ours.

On Monday nights when I’m in Udaipur, I travel 12 miles to Eklingji Temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. It was built in the eighth century by the founding father of our lineage. I’ve come here since I was a kid with my father. I go into deep silent meditation, and I ask for nothing except the wisdom to take the right path.

As told to Perry Garfinkel.

A version of this article appeared in print on October 17, 2010, on page
Bu9 of the New York edition.

WEB LINK : nytimes.com

Link: eternalmewar.in