ErlindaLamson9: Started First Biography W/ Refs

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Started First Biography W/ Refs

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{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Short description|Czech-born Indian queen consort (1911–1946)}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name = Maharani Tara Devi
| title = Queen consort of Kapurthala
| image = Eugenie Grosup.jpg
| birth_name = Eugenie Grosup
| birth_date = {{birth date|1911|01|22|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Vienna]], Austria
| death_date = {{death date and age|1946|12|08|1911|01|22|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Qutb Minar]],{{efn|name=deathplace}} Delhi, India
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Jagatjit Singh]]|1942|1945|end=sep}}
| spouse-type = Husband
| burial_place = New Delhi, India
| consort = yes
}}

'''Tara Devi''' (22 January 1911 – 8 December 1946), born '''Eugenie Grosup''', was a Czech actress and dancer who became the sixth wife of Maharajah [[Jagatjit Singh]] of [[Kapurthala State|Kapurthala]], India, in 1942. They had met several years earlier in [[Vienna]], where she played Anitra in [[Henrik Ibsen]]'s drama ''[[Peer Gynt]]'' at the [[Burgtheater]].

In India, the Grosups resided in the women's quarters at the [[Sainik School, Kapurthala|palace in Kapurthala]]. The maharajah's grandson [[Sukhjit Singh (soldier)|Brigadier Sukkhjit Singh]] notes in his biography of his grandfather, that he asked Grosup to marry him after she received a deportation notice to leave India and return to Nazi-occupied Europe. Her mother persuaded her to agree to the marriage, though Tara was far from being in favour with the [[British Raj|British in India]] or with the maharajah's household. Both her grandmother and mother died suddenly during a trip to Mussoorie in 1945. There, Devi became convinced that they were poisoned and she suffered a [[nervous breakdown]]. She had already been experiencing recurrent bouts of depression.

The couple separated in 1945, and subsequent plans to allow her passage to the United States were unsuccessful. On 8 December 1946, she fell to her death from the [[Qutb Minar]],{{efn|name=deathplace}} [[Delhi]].

==Early life==
Tara Devi, also known as Nina, was born Eugenie Grosup to actress Maria Eleanora Grosup (1889–1945) in Munzwardeingasse, [[Vienna]].<ref name=ViennaReg>Vienna, Austria, Catholic Church Registers, 1600–1960. Baptism records for 1918. Eugenie Grosup, p. 109.</ref><ref name=Sambuy2023>{{cite book |last1=Sambuy |first1=Livia Manera |title=In Search of Amrit Kaur: An Indian Princess in Wartime Paris |date=2023 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4735-4629-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ca5gEAAAQBAJ |chapter=A most Parisian Maharajah|language=en}}</ref>{{Efn|Most sources refer to Tara Devi as nicknamed Nina.<ref name=Sambuy2023/><ref name=MZV2022/> Diwan Jarmani Dass, a former Kapurthala minister during Jagatjit's reign, dedicated one chapter to Devi in his book ''Maharani''. In it, he refers to the mother as Nina and grandmother as Pura.<ref name=Dass2020/>}} The Viennese Catholic Church registry baptism records of 1918 document her date of birth as 22 January 1911 and describe her as an illegitimate female.<ref name=ViennaReg/> The [[National Archives of India]] hold a registration document with her name misspelled as 'Engenie' and records her year of birth as 1914.<ref name=Gaur2021>{{cite book |last1=Gaur |first1=Abhilash |title=Nina Grosup-Karatsonyi a.k.a. Rani Tara Devi of Kapurthala |date=2 December 2021 |url=https://archive.org/details/tara-devi-pdf/mode/2up}}</ref> The Embassy of the Czech Republic in New Delhi names her father as the Hungarian Count Karátsonyi.<ref name=MZV2022>{{cite web |title=75 let od úmrtí české manželky indického mahárádži Eugenie Grosupové |url=https://www.mzv.cz/newdelhi/cz/udalosti/maharani.html |website=www.mzv.cz |publisher=[[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Czech Republic)|Ministry of Foreign Affairs]]|access-date=14 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014061605/https://www.mzv.cz/newdelhi/cz/udalosti/maharani.html|archive-date=14 October 2023 |language=cs |date=9 January 2022}}</ref> Her guardian was Leon Pistol.<ref name=C&MG13Dec1946>{{cite news |title=Foul play suspected by former guardian: letters tell of constant fear |work=Civil & Military Gazette |date=13 December 1946 |page=10}}</ref>

In 1935, she was selected to play Anitra in Henrik Ibsen's drama ''Peer Gynt'' at the Burgtheater in Vienna.<ref name=MZV2022/> According to Pistol, it was at one of her performances that Maharaja Jagatjit Singh first saw her.<ref name=MZV2022/><ref name=Gaur2021/>

==Later life==
Grosup and her family, including her grandmother, left [[Prague]] in 1937.<ref name=Sambuy2023/> In May 1939, the 28-year-old Eugenie Grosup, her mother Maria Grosup, and the 66-year-old Maharajah are named in the passenger list of the ''[[Tatsuta Maru]]'' going from [[Yokohama]], Japan, to [[San Francisco]], US.<ref name="Cal1939">
*{{cite book |url=https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/1387360:7949?tid=&pid=&queryId=92acc557-8f6d-4b9c-8c8c-e3c839d768af&_phsrc=GVv1&_phstart=successSource |title=California, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1882-1959: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at San Francisco, California |date=11 May 1939 |publisher=National Archives |location=Washington, D.C. |via=ancestry.co.uk}} SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED
*https://catalog.archives.gov/id/4482913
</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=December 2023}}

In India, the Grosups resided in the women's quarters at the [[Sainik School, Kapurthala|palace in Kapurthala]].<ref name=Singh1995>{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=Surender |title=Princely Life in Indian English Writings |date=1995 |publisher=Reliance Publishing House |isbn=978-81-85972-77-0 |pages=130–131 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HLFlAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA130 |language=en}}</ref> The maharajah's grandson [[Sukhjit Singh (soldier)|Brigadier Sukkhjit Singh]] notes in his biography of his grandfather, ''[[Prince, Patron and Patriarch]]'' (2019), that he asked Grosup to marry him after she received a deportation notice to leave India and return to Nazi-occupied Europe.<ref name=Singh2019>{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=H. H. Sukhjit |last2=Frederick |first2=Cynthia Meera |title=Prince, Patron and Patriarch; Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala |date=2019 |publisher=Roli Books |location=New Delhi |isbn=978-81-938608-5-4|chapter=The Elysee Palace: consorts from different lands|pages=174–177}}</ref> Her mother persuaded her to agree to the marriage and in 1942, Eugenie Grosup married the maharajah at [[Mussoorie]].<ref name=Singh2019/> She was subsequently known as Tara Devi of Kapurthala.<ref name=C&MG17Dec1946>{{cite news |title="Not due to foul play". Death of Kapurthala Ruler's Wife |work=Civil & Military Gazette |date=17 December 1946 |page=8}}</ref><ref name=Dass2020>{{Cite book |last=Dass |first=Diwan Jarmani |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZiT5DwAAQBAJ |title=Maharani |date=2020 |publisher=Penguin Random House India Private Limited |isbn=978-93-5349-784-2 |pages=33–35 |language=en |chapter=7. Maharani Țara Devi's tragic romance}}</ref> According to Sambuy, she was far from being in favour with the [[British Raj|British in India]] or with the maharajah's household; they saw her as a commoner.<ref name=Sambuy2023/> Both her grandmother and mother died suddenly during a trip to Mussoorie in 1945.<ref name=Sambuy2023/><ref name=MZV2022/> There, Devi became convinced that they were poisoned and she suffered a [[nervous breakdown]].<ref name=C&MG17Dec1946/> According to Sukkhjit Singh, she had already been experiencing recurrent bouts of depression, made worse by news from Europe of family and friends in [[Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany|concentration camps]].<ref name=Singh2019/> Subsequently, the couple separated and she moved into a hotel in Delhi.<ref name=Sambuy2023/> Plans to allow her passage to her Austrian friends in the United States failed as British authorities denied her a passport.<ref name=Sambuy2023/><ref name=C&MG17Dec1946/>

==Death==
[[File:Hrob Eugenie Grosup.jpg|thumb|Grave at the Nicholson Cemetery, New Delhi]]

On 8 December 1946, she left the [[Maidens Hotel, Delhi|Maidens Hotel]], where she was residing, and was driven to the [[Qutb Minar]], from which she fell to her death with her two [[Pomeranian dog]]s.<ref name=Sambuy2023/><ref name=MZV2022/>{{efn|name=deathplace|Many sources mention that she fell from [[Qutb Minar]].<ref name=Sambuy2023/><ref name=MZV2022/> Another version is given by scholar John Butler; he says she fell from a bridge.<ref name=Butler2017>{{cite book |last1=Butler |first1=John Anthony |title=Essays on Unfamiliar Travel-Writing: Off the Beaten Track |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |location=Newcastle-upon-Tyne |isbn=978-1-4438-6088-8 |page=200 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9jDZDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA200 |language=en |chapter=7. His Highness goes shopping: Jagatjit in Asia}}</ref>}} Newspapers of the time reported her death as occurring on 9 December, that state schools, colleges and offices in Kapurthala closed as a mark of respect to her memory, and that an inquest into her death was to take place.<ref name=C&MG17Dec1946/><ref name=C&MG11Dec1946>{{cite news |title=Maharani Tara Devi dead: Fall from Qutb Minor in Delhi |work=Civil & Military Gazette |date=11 December 1946 |page=8}}</ref> Pistol, then living in New York, had suspected "foul play" and told the press that Devi's letters to him "told of a constant fear of death, and that she planned to come to the United States".<ref name=C&MG13Dec1946/> She is buried at the [[Nicholson Cemetery, New Delhi|Nicholson Cemetery]], [[New Delhi]].<ref name=MZV2022/>

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:1911 births]]
[[Category:1946 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Kapurthala]]
[[Category:Czechoslovak actresses]]
[[Category:Czech emigrants]]
[[Category:Deaths from falls]]
[[Category:Entertainers from Vienna]]
[[Category:Indian queens consort]]

Tara Devi of Kapurthala - Revision history

ErlindaLamson9: Started First Biography W/ Refs