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Ramesh Menon in Gwalior
Gwalior bade a final farewell to their illustrious son Madhavrao Scindia with a heavy heart.
Thousands of mourners, many with barely concealed disbelief, watched with wet eyes their Maharaja being cremated.
The crowd at the royal crematorium went almost hysteric shouting Madhavrao Scindia Amar Rahe as Scindia's son Jyotiraditya lit the pyre shortly after 2pm.
A glorious era of the Scindias had come to an end.
From the early hours of the morning, Gwalior was seeing a flood of people streaming in from far and wide to attend the funeral.
Many of them were from Guna, Shivpuri, Morena, Bhind and other areas of the state.
Thousands of mourners lined the roads right from the Jai Vilas Palace in Gwalior to the royal crematorium, called the Chattri, to pay their last respects to the Maharaja they loved and respected.
To many, Gwalior would never be the same again.
The body of Madhavrao, who met a tragic end in a plane crash on Sunday, was to be placed in a gun carriage of the Indian army and taken in a procession.
But family members willed that soldiers on foot carry it.
An army band led the procession followed by soldiers from different units of the Indian army.
The body was placed in a traditional palanquin, which has been used for funerals for the last four generations.
There was a 21-gun salute. Army jawans carried the body through the entire route, and courtiers following the palanquin periodically threw silver coins on the body during the procession.
As the procession wended its way through its last journey, there were many wet eyes beyond the barricades. Some women wept as the funeral passed by.
At the royal crematorium, the palanquin was placed on a raised platform.
Army officers removed the tricolour and neatly folded it before they marched away for the ceremony to begin.
Hindu priests started chanting shlokas from the Bhagvad Gita. The royal family's Raj Purohit (royal priest) followed the Maharashtrian tradition.
The weather had been inclement in Gwalior for the past few days.
Though it was cloudy, the authorities overseeing the funeral arrangement s had decided not to take risks and had built a canopy over the cremation platform.
But, when Jyotiraditya lit the pyre, the sun shone brightly. As flames picked up, he stood alone in a corner of the platform with tearful eyes, his palms closed in prayer.
At the age of 31, he did not expect that he would have to bid farewell to his father.
The platform was just 100 feet away from where Madhavrao had lit the pyre of his mother, Vijayaraje Scindia, nine months ago.
That spot has now been turned into a memorial. The platform was littered with rose petals and marigold flowers.
Madhavrao had charisma. He had an appeal among the people not only in Gwalior, but also all over India.
He was seen as a forward-looking leader with a vision.
Today, his funeral saw barricades between different political parties break, as politicians from every party were there to pay their last respects.
The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and all others stood up as a mark of respect when the pyre was being lit.
With him were numerous leaders all sharing the same sentiment of the nation's parliament having lost an able leader.
Also present at the funeral were Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, Minister of State for Railways Digvijay Singh, Law Minister Arun Jaitley, former prime minister Chandrasekhar and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah.
There were numerous Congress leaders -- Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Ajit Jogi, Ashok Gehlot, S M Krishna, Sheila Dixit, Motilal Vora, Jaipal Reddy and Kamal Nath.
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