Care for some age- old regality and splendour? Discover both in the Rajput palaces and forts of Jaipur
SANDIP HOR DISCOVERS AGE- OLD REGALITY I N THE RAJPUT PALACES AND FORTS OF JAIPUR
“Yeh hai Gulabi Nagar ( This is Pink City),” says Rawal, my expert guide- cumdriver as our car storms inside a walled arena through a colossal arched gate. Without warning, a generous splash of pink greets myeyes. Almost every building, old and new, I see on both sides of a busy thoroughfare, is of a pink shade. It’s enough to notify that I am in the fabled “Pink City”, formerly called Jaipur, the capital of India’s largest state ( by area), Rajasthan.
Rajasthan is the homeland of Rajputs, the famous warrior race, and aptly claims to be the epicentre of India’s most glamorous royal past. Its very name conjures images of magnificent forts and bejewelled palaces, pleasure gardens and water tanks, victory towers and mausoleums, turbaned soldiers and painted elephants, and maharajas and maharanis attired in colourful costumes attending glitzy royal courts.
Anyone seeking an immersion in royal effervescence thinks of Rajasthan; and Jaipur, the gateway to this princely state, bestows the first impression. Like London, royal aura oozes in every corner of this city. Locals jokingly claim Prince Charles came down to Jaipur in 1992 to personally verify this cliché and gave it a tick after joining fellow royals for a game of polo, a regal sport stilled played with style in Jaipur.
Rajput king Sawai Jai Singh II built this city in 1727 to move his capital from hilltop Amber to the plains, to accommodate growth in population. Designed by an eminent Bengali architect Vidyadhar Bhattacharya, its grid- patterned layout is said to have thoughts of ancient Greek scientists Ptolemy and Euclid induced into it. Surrounded by a series of crenelated walls and pierced by seven majestic gates, the urban tapestry of nine rectangular sectors, embroidered with wide and straight avenues, present some familiarity with European medieval settlements. The city adopted its pink