Mayo College sits in a leafy campus on Ajmer’s outskirts, full of colonial-era buildings, playing fields and tree-lined avenues. The main building, with its white domes, towers and arcades, looks like a cross between a Rajasthani palace and a Victorian public school. Though it is a functioning residential school (so access is limited), visitors sometimes view the architecture from outside or by prior permission, and the campus houses a school museum said to have one of the best collections of taxidermy, arms and artefacts assembled by students over decades. The institution is often described as the “Eton of the East,” adding an educational-cum-colonial layer to Ajmer’s heritage mix.
About this place
History & highlights
Mayo College was founded in 1875 by the British as a chiefs’ college to educate the sons of Rajput and other princely rulers under the supervision of the colonial government. Named after Lord Mayo, then Viceroy of India, it was designed to train future princes in Western-style administration while keeping them loyal to the Raj. The campus plan and Indo-Saracenic architecture reflected this hybrid mission—combining Indian motifs with British public-school ideals of sports, discipline and boarding life. After independence, Mayo transitioned into an elite public school open to a wider social group, though it still retains ties to many former royal families. Its museum and archives preserve a record of princely schooling, making the college an important chapter in Ajmer’s colonial and educational history.
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