Jaipur is the only city to have been planned on a grid layout and is famous for the buildings along the main road leading to the palace being pink. Legend has it that the Maharaja Ram Singh painted the entire city pink in readiness for the visit of Prince Albert in 1876
Jaipur city traces it’s history back to 1727 when it was established by Jai Singh II the Raj of Amber. He moved his capital from Amber to this new city to avoid water shortages and because the population was growing very quickly.
As you drive through the city you can see the mountain range behind topped with the Nahargash and Jaigarh Forts and the Garh Ganesh Temple (wish I’d take some photos 🙄) 11km out of the city is the famous Amber Palace (pronounced Amer) which was the original capital started in 1592 by Raja Jai Singh I. It’s made entirely of red sandstone and inside is all white marble and stucco. It overlooks Maota Lake.
You enter via the Chand Pol gate into the army courtyard, here is where the army would gather would display their captured treasure to the people after a battle (before it was locked away in the Treasury)!
Enter the main palace up a flight of steps via Suraj Pol (Sun Gate) which leads into a large courtyard Jaleb Chowk and dominated by the Diwan-i-Aam (the Hall of Public Audience) where the king gave audiences and heard grievances from his people.
From this area you can look down over the lake and see what was the saffron garden
Through another gate and you’re in the private area where the king and his queens had their personal apartments.
Here the Queens apartment is quite spectacular, covered in tiny mirrors which, it’s said, if one candle is placed in a specific place, would light up the whole apartment.
Outside the Queens apartments is a large area where entertainment would take place, the Queen and king would sit near the water feature in the garden.
That was the tour so we made out way out, via the shops of course!!
On our way to and from places we kept on driving past the Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds) which was erected in 1799 so that the ladies of the harem could see out but not be seen. The 5 storey high structure is only one room deep with walls not more than 20cms (8 inches). It was designed to be seen from a distance to look like a crown.
The next place we went to was the Albert Hall Museum, named after Prince Albert who came here to do the official opening. It displays piece of pottery, jewellery, garments, weapons, armour, sculptures and lots of odds and sods (sorry, items of interest) which have been gathered from all over India. It’s not that big and it’s laid out a bit randomly but it was interesting.
There were just too many things to take photos of!!
That evening we went out for a meal to a restaurant that had an old Austin 7 outside.
They also had musicians and dancers.
And very good food.
Next day we visited the Observatory and the Palace, which is still lived in today by the Royal family.
All the instruments here are aimed at being precise at measuring where the stars align and where the holy bodies are in the galaxy as well as predicting eclipses. Not forgetting telling the time and aligning the signs if the zodiac,
The Palace is only across the road, so we waded through all the guys trying to sell us tat and headed to the ticket office. We all hoped the palace would be worth the £10 entry fee!!! (That is very expensive by Indian standards, it was £9 to get into the Taj Mahal) However, if you wanted to do a guided tour to include some parts of where the family live, it was £50. Isn’t that more expensive than to get into Buckingham Palace?!???
The first building we went to housed a collection of garments, swords, china and pictures which had been owned by the Royal family.
It seems the Maharaja was so taken with the British game of billiards he even had special outfits made for when he played it!
He liked playing polo so much he didn’t want to stop just because it went dark, so he commissioned this night polo ball holder.
We went through a gate and found another courtyard
Then visited an Art Gallery which housed paintings and photos collected over the years by the Royal family.
Another gate there was a hall which contained some silver objects.
These silver Gangajali (which are both at least 5ft tall and equally as wide) were made to bring holy water from the Ganges to the coronation of Edward VII
Another gateway led to another courtyard which contained the Durbar Hall.
Next to the Durbar Hall was a small museum of transport.
So that was our non stop tour of Jaipur. Quite exhausting. We have a couple of less busy days now making our way to Bikaner.
