THE GOODS THIS MONTH'S WHO, WHAT, AND WEAR Consider the domed and turreted palaces that took 22 generations to complete, their walls inlaid with rubies, jade, jasper, onyx, and cornelian. Or the thrones hewn from single blocks of serpentine, the porcelain tiles studded with diamonds, and the lifesize white-marble elephants standing sentry in jasmine-scented gardens. Few monarchies have ever matched the opulence of Rajasthan's royal courts at their peak.
For more than a millennium, these unimaginable riches drew marauders from all corners—Arabs, Seljuks, Chalukyas, Mamluks, Mughals, and eventually, the Brits. Finally, in the early 1970s, an independent India stripped the royal dynasties of the last of their titles and much of their wealth. To endure, a few former maharajahs took the hotelier route: Jaipur's Rambagh Palace went on to host…