Madhav Vilas Palace

About Madhav Vilas Palace

Madhav Vilas is the kind of building a ruling house put up to make its standing visible: large, carefully composed, and built for comfort in the hot months rather than for defence. It served the Scindias of Gwalior as their summer palace at Shivpuri, and its distinguishing feature is the soft rose pink wash across the exterior, which gives the mass of the building a lightness it would not otherwise have.

The palace is still in use, but not as a heritage site. It now houses a training centre of the Intelligence Bureau of the Government of India. That has kept the fabric maintained and the grounds in order, and it also means the interiors are closed to visitors. What is left for the traveller is the exterior and the setting, which is worth a short stop while moving between Shivpuri town and Madhav National Park.

What you can see

The rose pink facade

The pink wash over the long exterior elevation is the single thing people remember about the building, and it reads very differently in morning light and in late afternoon. This is the view from outside the compound.

The scale and composition

Even from a distance the palace shows what it was built for: wide frontage, deep verandas and large openings designed to move air through the building in the summer heat.

The setting

The palace sits in maintained grounds on the Shivpuri side, and the approach gives a sense of how the Scindias arranged their hot-weather retreat away from Gwalior.

Planning your visit

This is an exterior stop. Because the building is an active government training establishment, there is no public entry and no guided tour inside.

• Do not plan on going in. Interiors are closed as the palace is a working IB training centre.
• Keep photography to the exterior from public ground and respect any restrictions at the gate.
• Allow twenty to thirty minutes, and combine it with George Castle or Sakhya Sagar.
• Morning or late afternoon light does the pink facade more justice than the middle of the day.

Best time to visit

October to March is the comfortable season in Shivpuri and the right time for anything done on foot or from outside a building. Within the day, early morning and the hour before sunset give the warmest light on the pink exterior. April to June is hot, and the monsoon leaves the grounds green but the light flat.