Rambha Palace restoration another feather in Odisha's heritage tourism cap

Time of India

26-04-2025

In European lore, fresco painters often went blind from lime dust and devotion. Guruvinayak Singh Budhwar had to skip the weddings of three cousins to finish a vibrant, 17 by 26 ft tribute to Odia history that has recently been unveiled at Rambha Palace, the newly-restored
heritage hotel
near
Chilika Lake
, Asia's largest brackish water lagoon in Odisha.
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'I worked 13 hours a day for one and a half years,' grins the 23-year-old self- taught artist from Chandigarh. Painted on seven Belgian linen panels using hand-
ground pigments, his fresco blends mythology with trigonometry and other mathematical impulses. 'This is my signature,' Budhwar says, pointing to a bright yellow disc with a likeness to his face at the centre of the painting, a cheeky wink at the Konark Sun Temple.
Created over hundreds of Zoom calls with an Odia historian in the US, the fresco was an epic (and exacting) undertaking for the young artist who formally trained as engineer. Himangini Singh, co-founder of Delhi-based investment fund Hunch Ventures and partner at Rambha Palace, watches with quiet pride as a history once scattered across dynasties and folklore is weaved together in one sweeping visual thread for guests to look up to.
Built in 1791–92 by British officer Thomas Snodgrass, the palace later became home to Maharaja Harihar Mardaraj of Khallikote, a key figure in the early 20th-century Odia unification movement. It has hosted some of the most significant political gatherings of the region — the Utkal Sammilani conferences, welcoming leaders like Madhusudan Das, Fakir Mohan Senapati, and later even Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
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The first meeting to form a separate Odisha province was also held in the palace some 123 years ago.
Rambha Palace recently unveiled a 20-ft artwork chronicling 5,000 years of Odisha's history as a fresco
Inaugurated as a boutique hotel last year on Utkal Divas (Odisha Foundation Day held on April 1) by former chief minister Naveen Patnaik, the palace's revival is symbolic as it played a significant role in shaping the Odia identity. The six-year restoration, punctuated by a pandemic, and led by Sri Lankan architect Channa Daswatte (a protégé of the tropical modernist Geoffrey Bawa) was as much an act of recovery as of imagination.
Throughout the restoration process, Singh asked herself a single question — if the Rani of Rambha were restoring her palace today, what choices would she make? That helped her stay true to the palace's 18th-century roots, with minimal structural changes, no modern paints and a material palette that allowed the building to breathe. 'The roof was the only thing we structurally altered. The original rooms had conical tops, we unified them for weather resistance,' she says.
The result is a five-acre boutique property with just 14 suites and a presidential villa, and a kitchen rooted in Odia flavours and slow food philosophy. Even the pink lime walls were chosen by Singh for their European warmth, 'like a
subtle Italian terracotta'.
On INTACH's suggestions, the project preserved the palace's structural soul while reintroducing lost layers of craft. Original woodwork was restored using salvaged timber, 200-year-old terrazzo flooring was preserved room by room, and materials were sourced with near-obsessive specificity.
For instance, lime plaster (or chuna) was one of the most demanding elements. Artisans were tracked down all the way to Chunakhali, a small village in the Sundarbans. Suspicious at first of the city crew, they eventually agreed to help but didn't give away their well-guarded trade secret. 'Even the architects weren't allowed to observe the recipe. We just know it involves spices like cinnamon and clove,'
said a project member during the walkthrough.
As for tourists, Chilika attracts a host of birdwatchers who come to see its winter flocks. The region is also home to fishing cats, blackbucks, otters and other wetland fauna. With the restoration, Singh hopes visitors can now walk the halls once traversed by princes and revolutionaries. She also envisions Rambha as a canvas for contemporary Indian artists to find visibility and support. 'This is not just about restoration — it's about cultural revival,' she says.
Rambha is the latest in a series of restorations in the state as royal families are rooting for palace tourism, turning their ancestral homes into boutique homestays and hotels after meticulous restoration. The Belgadia Palace in Mayurbhanj, an 18th-century Victorian-style palace, is now a heritage homestay managed by the Bhanj Deo royal family. Even the Dhenkanal palace has been tastefully restored, showcasing Odisha's rich art and craft traditions.
A wing of Kendrapara's riverside Aul Palace, dating back to 1590 AD, has been transformed into a heritage retreat as well. At a meeting held last September, members of erstwhile royal families in the state reportedly urged authorities to prioritise palace stays in tourism policy plans, noting that many such sites still await restoration.