The V&A’s autumn exhibition Maharaja: The Splendour of India’s Royal Courts is the first to comprehensively explore the world of the maharajas. Some of the objects left India for the first time, after 18 months patient negotiation. Among the finest exhibits are those from Udaipur in Rajastan. Readers familiar with The Jewel in the Crown will have seen both the City and Lake Palace (now a hotel) used in the filming. The city served as home of the Mewars, the longest unbroken line of princes, probably in the world. The present Maharaja is the 76th, tracing hishouse back to 734 AD. Visitors to India are often overwhelmed by the sensuous colour and the sumptuous jewellery in the culture. Even poor working women in Rajastan glow with brilliant material and rows of bangles on wrists and ankles. On my first visit, in 1973, a time when I did not wear jewellery, I was obviously regarded as rather sad.

At the V&A, you can see the Patiala Necklace, part of the largest single commission that Cartier executed. This ceremonial jewellery contained 2,930 diamonds and weighed almost a thousand carats. Because the diamonds are so large and the amount of jewellery worn by the Maharajas on ceremonial occasions so great, the effect is glamorous almost to the point of bling.

This exhibition reveals the importance of the objects that are symbols of power, or Rajdharma, so it is best to see these items in that context. It opens with a procession, where jewels are not only for men and women but for elephants too. A life-size model of this symbol of prosperity stands, in all its finery, at the heart of the first gallery. The British understood the importance of processions of power and the gallery devoted to The Raj leaves one in no doubt that those lessons were learned to perfection, and paraded in the grand imperial durbars. These are displayed, in rare archive film footage, and in a large-scale painting by Valentine Prinsep, loaned by the Queen, of the imperial assembly to declare Victoria, Empress of India.

This exhibition passes a searchlight over the history of India from the death of Aurangzeb, in 1707, until 1948. In the negotiations for independence the princes preserved their privileges until Indira Gandhi finally removed them, in the 1970s.

We see how the princes adapted to change. There are photographs of the last great palace, the Umaid Bhawan, at Jodhpur, built in the Art Deco style, in 1945. Now it is a splendid hotel, so if you wish to pay the price, you can stay there and experience the splendour of the royal courts yourself. We also see how, as the Mughal power went into decline, the Marathas and the Sikh kingdoms rose.

It is easy to see how ‘perfidious Albion’ squeezed in. When Rajastan was worried about its neighbours, it invited the British to guard its borders and we agreed, so long as they paid tribute.

The exhibition does not stereotype the maharajas. The individuality of their attitudes and policies, as well as their strengths and weaknesses are revealed. Some remarkable stories are told and none more so than that of Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi. When her husband died, in 1853, she wrote to the governor general, Lord Dalhousie, asking him to recognise her adopted son. That recently discovered and spirited letter is on display. She was not only rebuffed but Dalhousie set about annexing the state. So Laxshmibai joined the rebels in what the Indians call the ‘First War of Independence’, and the British call ‘The Indian Mutiny’. Her struggle became the stuff of legend as she died on the ramparts of the fort in Gwalior.

On a lighter note, I particularly enjoyed two paintings Maharaja Swarup Singh of Mewar at Holi. Hindu festivals are a riot of colour and fun and at Holi, you should not venture out in your best clothes, because you are pelted with coloured powder. It seems even maharajas are not exempt. The Procession of Raja Ram Singh ll of Kota (c.1850) was surely unique? He is seated on his gilded howdah but in front of him, balanced on a platform, supported by his elephant’s tusks, is a dancing girl.

It is dangerous to say ‘unique’ when it comes to India. The country is so rich with surprises. It is the birthplace of four great religions, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. There is one object which pre-dates the Mughal empire, coming from an earlier Hindu civilisation, a bronze from Eastern Ganga (1238-64). In it, the ruler sits at the feet of his priestly guru. With Akbar, India absorbed the Islam of the Mughals, as it did the arrival of Christianity in the south. Today it celebrates the festivals of all six religions!

The show goes on until January 17. The V&A is undergoing massive alterations. The £30m Medieval and Renaissance galleries will open in December. If you visit after that, you will have an extra treat in store.