Narain Niwas was built in the 1928 by General Amar Singh, Thakur of Kanota, Commander of the Jaipur State Forces and confident of the then Maharaja, Sawai Man Singh. General Amar Singh was the grandson of Thakur Zorawar Singh, founder of the Kanota family. Thakur Shivnath Singh, (General Amar Singhji’s brother) supervised the actual construction. The new mansion was named after their father, Thakur Narain Singh, who had been Chief of police in Jaipur State as well as a minister at the neighbouring princely state of Alwar.
Narain Niwas was a country residence to which Amar Singh could withdraw when he wanted a change from his busy administrative and court life, and from the cares of ‘the Kanota family’s Haveli (
the Narain Niwas) within the walled city. Like other noblemen of old Jaipur State, he built his "garden house" in the vicinity of Rambagh, the pleasure garden and palace whose construction was begun in the 19th century by Maharaja Ram Singh (1835- J880). Until World War II,
Narain Niwas surrounded by jungle where Amar Singh could go for pig sticking (hunting wild boar), to shoot game birds, and to hunt black buck and the occasional panther.
Amar Singh ’s reputation as a soldier, administrator and a sports man is exceeded by his reputation as a diarist. His diary, kept in English for 44 years, from 2898 to 1942, in 89 folio volumes, 800 pages per volume, provides and unparalleled ethnographic account of Rajput life in princely India in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras.
Visitors can now enjoy traditional Rajput hospitality at
Narain Niwas Palace Hotel Jaipur. This property is being run as a Heritage Hotel by the Kanota Family.
