Palanpur State had its own flag. Whenever the army went to war, or the king led a procession, the flag would fly at the front as a symbol of the state. The flag of Palanpur was light green, yellow and red, and unfurled into in a longish horizontal tricolour. This was the ‘State Flag of Palanpur’, and continued to be so, upto its merger with the Indian Union. When Emperors George V and George VI held their courts in Delhi, each state flag was unfurled behind the seat meant for the head of each state. The Palanpur flag was hoisted behind the seat of Palanpur Nawab on such occasions.

The Lohani Nawabs of Palanpur used the Crest of Palanpur state even when they ruled Jhalore. The crest was created by British company Murray and Wary, and has an Arabic inscription, which translates to: “With wisdom we took, with sword we protected”. The crest has a crown in the centre which is circled by lotuses. It is flanked on both sides by two deer, each standing on two feet, while supporting the shield with the other two. Above the deer, is the face of a soldier, dressed in armour, under a regal eagle. At the very bottom is a ribbon extending through the breadth of the shield. The crest was used on stamp papers, letterheads, and other official stationery used by the state. It was imprinted onto the shields of Palanpuri soldiers, and was also on the main gate of the palace.

Whenever the State sent out an official message, or conducted an act of charity, or signed an agreement, the royal seal would accompany the King’s authorized signature, otherwise the document would not be considered legal.

Utarved (or Utarewad, Utarad or Utrevad as it was also known) refers to the arrangement by which the store room, where different items required in the kitchen were stocked, was decorated.

It was an artistic arrangement of the different containers on a specially constructed platform which was 20” in depth covering the entire wall facing the door.

Most Utarveds had four big columns and three smaller columns in between for a total of seven columns. The ladies of the house would arrange this in a very creative manner.

Big black ceramic urns formed the bottom layer, with ceramic or brass / copper spherical containers called charudi coming next. After that there were a number of layers of similar containers in gradually decreasing sizes and finally the top was covered with a bowl (Vadki or loto) used for pouring ghee. Between these columns other containers like charu, goli, dabbar, vatloi, gagar and lota were arranged.

In general, the black ceramic urns were used to store wheat and rice; the ceramic spherical pots were used to store jaggery (gud) and salt, while grains, papad, sarevada etc were kept in the other containers.

The Utarved was always kept very neat. Items that were needed were taken out from time to time and then put back in their place so as not to disturb the entire arrangement. The containers were stacked carefully so as not to cause any dents. The Utarved was wiped daily, and once in a year it was thoroughly washed by the maids using ambli, kantol, gram flour and matti for cleaning. Nowadays pitambari is used instead.

During a period of mourning one was not allowed to clean the Utarved.