Elsewhere the later official builders of the British Raj rejected the effulgent fantasy of their predecessors in favour of a simpler Classicism. However, just as the Viceroys' residence in Calcutta had set a standard to be emulated by the 'Model Princes' of the 19th century the challenge of Lutyens' great work was taken up in the 1920s and 1930s by the most ambitious of their heirs.

There were occasional excursions into the style of the moment, like Lakhdiraj of Morvi's Art Deco work of 1931, but quite outstanding is the new palace of Maharaja Umaid Singh at Jodhpur. The architects of the Umaid Bhavan were H.V. Lanchester and T.A. Lodge, whose municipal achievements in Britain's richest cities had originally recommended their practice for the great Delhi commission itself.

Centered on a vast circular hall like the Viceroy's house, Jodhpur's principal audience and reception suites are entered from the east - in accordance with tradition. Courts for the staff and the rawala are disposed to the north and south respectively, the latter addressing an enclosed garden and the expansive view.

Whereas Lutyens drew formal authority somewhat incongruously - if persuasively - from Sanchi, Lanchester's great dome, with its unusually vigorous projections and recessions,is generically appropriate in reflecting our earliest image of the palace of the Gods.

With its roots in the ancient indigenous palace tradition and accommodating Art Deco private apartments within a resounding Edwardian baroque pile whose almost entirely tabulated ordinance manages to recall something of the early Pratiharas, despite rather Islamic bnses-soleil, this building could hardly provide a more fitting conclusion to a survey of Indian architecture and it was completed in 1947, just as it attained redundancy with the emergence of the new India.