New York, July 31 - Gayatri Devi, the former maharani of Jaipur who died Wednesday, was 'one of the last remaining symbols of India's feudal past' and led 'a life of novelistic dimensions, part E.M. Forster, part Jackie Collins', says the New York Times.

And 'yet the maharani was idolised by the lower-caste Indians who elected her to parliament by an overwhelming margin, and she was a special inspiration to Indian women of all castes', the Times wrote in an obituary published Friday.

Gayatri Devi, it noted, 'was born into fairy-tale wealth as an Indian princess and... became known internationally for her beauty and known in India for her opposition to the Congress Party of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi'.

'One of the last remaining symbols of India's feudal past, Ms. Devi and her husband, the Maharajah of Jaipur, ruled over a fief of some two million peasants' before independence.

'But she also participated in her country's burgeoning democracy, being elected to parliament three times and serving from 1962 until 1975.'

The Times recalled that in 1975, after then prime minister Gandhi declared a state of emergency, Gayatri Devi was among the many political opponents of the Congress who were arrested and jailed.