Badal Mahal, Bundi

Badal Mahal, the Palace of Clouds, is part of Bundi's hillside palace complex below Taragarh Fort. Rao Ratan Singh commissioned it in the 17th century as a private retreat for the royal family rather than a hall of state, though state ceremonies were also held here. Its terrace looks over Taragarh and Nawal Sagar, and mist often hangs around it, which explains the name. The style blends Rajput and Mughal elements.

The interior, entered through a single porch in the south wall, is painted in five bands. The lowest has no figures; the next carries a full set of 36 Ragamala paintings in Bundi's own scheme. Above eye level, a 23-metre frieze shows Rao Ratan and his family at elephant fights, hunts, processions and polo, and one scene shows him receiving a miniature from a painter with a palace like this one behind him. The ceiling, with a central dome and cupolas, shows the ten avatars of Vishnu. These murals shaped Bundi painting and later the Kota school.