Just in Jaipur

The calm and serenity of rural Rajasthan are worlds away from the teeming agitation of Jaipur, the state capital. From cloth merchants to the countless trades of the streets, the city hums with endless activity. Its streets are always teeming with life, which thrives inside and around a horde of historical edifices, providing an illusion of fantasy from days gone by.

Known as the Pink City, Jaipur was built by the great eighteenth-century maharaja, warrior and astronomer, Jai Singh II, who followed an ancient Hindu architectural plan. This city is remarkable for the regularity of its wide, pink-fronted avenues and for the extraordinary invention of the Palace of Winds

The city palace complex houses a graceful group of palaces and flower gardens, and its museum has a superb collection of paintings, sculptures, carpets and ancient weapons. A textile section contains opulent costumes of former Maharajas and maharanis of Jaipur.

All visitors are duly impressed by the surreal Jai Mandir observatory (or Jantar-Mantar) near the gates of the royal palace, which enigmatically presents its instruments in the form of stucco-covered masonry. To layman this appears to be a vast exhibition of modern sculpture, but to the scientist it is a group of intricate astronomical instruments – accurate even by today’s standards. Built in 1728 by Jai Singh, this masterpiece of functional geometry enabled the monarch to calculate the position of the heavenly bodies.

But the real piece de resistance of this charming city is the Hawa Mahal or Palace of the Wind, looming above the activity of the old city centre. This fantastic five story building is actually only one room thick and is a façade built on one side of the City Palace. It was completed in 1799 so that royal ladies in Purdah could watch festivals and processions out of public view. Like a theatrical set, this hive-shaped building with its thousand openings is no more than an empty shell. Seated behind it, ladies of the court were able to watch public events without being seen.

Eleven Km from Jaipur is the former capital of the state of Jaipur, the Amber Palace. A walk and climb en route took us to Tiger Fort and its nearby sister, Jaigarh, from whose ramparts one can see a number of watchtowers on surrounding hilltops, all guarding the valley pass which leads through to Delhi. A part of Jaigarh is nearly 1,000 years old and was so important in the defense of the route to the capital that a major foundry was established here. What is reputed to be the world’s largest wheeled cannon was made here and is still on display. The tank here was supposed to contain treasures but perhaps the real treasure is the beauty of the fort and the antiquity of the Kaal Bhairav temple, which dates back to the eleventh century AD.

Even from a distance, the immensity of Amber is overwhelming. The crenellated walls twist and writhe up and around the hills for miles. The citadel itself rises sheer, vast and dominating. Only someone of extraordinary vision – and untold wealth – could have conceived such splendor. And what Jai Singh I started, Jai Singh II finished. The oldest section is 400 years old but the main part was completed from the mod-16^th to the mid-17^th centuries, the result of constant labour by thousand of artisans, craftsmen and painters. The austere ramparts give no clue of the glittering refinement that lies within. Rooms are lined with gold, silver, ivory, glass and stained glass and elaborate murals. And, if this was not enough, marble, eggshells and even pearls were added to the last coat of paint to give the walls a glorious shine.

One of the most magnificent of the building is the Shish Mahal or the Mirror Palace, built between 1625 -50 by Jai Singh I. It is a soaring monument to Mughal architecture and artistic influence and contemporaneous to the Taj Mahal. Small and slightly curbed pieces of mirrored glass are fitted into lead surrounds, in a technique similar to that used in the medieval stained glass windows. Rooms shimmer with multiple, fractured reflections, while other chambers and hall ways glow with floral and geometrical wall designs. Elsewhere, domes, turrets, parapets, intricate carved marble plaques, miniature ripping waterways and marble lattice work of the women’s viewing galleries (Jharoka) all combine into an architectural extravaganza. Amongst it all, a host of cheeky monkeys made death defying leaps over walls and embrasures, stealing food or floral leis from unwary passersby.

It is perhaps at Jaipur and Amber that the splendours of the Rajasthani past can be best recaptured. Continuing restorations have resurrected some of the luster and sense of opulence which surrounded court life. One example of these massive riches is found in the courtyard pavilion of the Jaipur City Palace Museum. A pair of enormous urns here are the largest single pieces of silver in the world. They were made in Jaipur in 1896 for Maharaja Swai Madho Singh II, who filled them with the holy water from the Ganges and took them with him on a visit to England. Each weighs 345 kilograms and holds 9,000 litres.

Prosperous business community also ensured that city is provided with good place to eat and being entertained. Even decades back some of its cinema halls were most luxurious and provided with latest amenities for a high class experiences. It also offers a wonderful shopping experience with its famous carpets, tie and dye sarees and scarves, Jaipur print furnishing and bed linens, and other handloom and handicraft items. You can spend hours in the labyrinth of its bazaars which itself is an experience.