A royal Diwali lit by ten thousand oil lamps
- Client
- Royal household (under NDA)
- Location
- City Palace & Lake Pichola, Udaipur
- Year
- 2024
- Guests
- 900 guests
A Diwali celebration for 900 guests inside a working palace precinct, lit entirely by hand-turned brass lamps with no electrical fixture in the ceremonial courtyard, closing with a drone constellation over the lake.
- 10,000
- Hand-lit brass lamps
- 14 days
- Heritage-grade build
- 900
- Guests in the precinct
- 0
- Electrical fixtures in the courtyard
The brief
The household asked for a Diwali that honoured Vedic illumination principles — no electric light within the ceremonial precinct — inside a palace that is both a family home and a protected monument, for a guest list that would fill the courtyard.
What we did
Fourteen days of conservation-grade preparation and build, with every structure free-standing and reversible. Ten thousand brass diyas were hand-lit and replenished on a rolling ninety-minute rotation by a team of sixty, with fire marshals embedded in each zone. Floating pontoon pavilions carried dinner onto the lake, and a satellite-synchronised drone display traced the household crest as the finale.
What it delivered
The courtyard was returned without a scorch mark on the stone, the custodians approved the methods for future use, and the family hosted the largest Diwali gathering the precinct had held in a generation.
- Diwali gala
- Heritage venue
- Drone constellation
