We arrived in Jaipur, India, reaching our hotel, the Rambagh Palace, just as dusk was settling. The hotel portico was lit with torches. Exiting the shuttle, we were escorted by a troupe of Indian musicians, dancers and mimes in colorful dress swishing and swaying as they led us around the hotel to the registration entrance.
The Rambagh Palace is actually a former palace of the maharaja of Rajasthan. Built in 1835, it served as a royal guest house, hunting lodge and residence for Maharaja Sawai Mon Singh II and his queen. Elaborately decorated with carved marble latticework and sandstone balustrades, this masterfully restored heritage hotel would be our home away from home while in Jaipur.
Peacocks fearlessly paraded around the hotel, perching on railings, sipping water from fountains, cawing and making a ruckus at twilight. The national birds of India, peacocks have a religious significance as well. Representing beauty, luxury and masculinity (after all, only male birds feature bright colored plumage), peacocks are said to have come to India when Lord Krishna began playing his flute, dancing with joy and excitement to the sweet melody and pledging themselves to him. Walking to yoga class in the early morning, I frequently accompanied troupes of peacocks wandering around the palace grounds.
It was late by the time we settled in our room, so our first night in Jaipur we dined at the hotel restaurant, Survana Mahal. The elegantly appointed dining room with its crystal chandeliers and large gold framed mirrors was once the ballroom of the palace. Much to our delight, we ordered a sampler plate of north Indian cuisine which included dahl, chicken tikka masala, creamy curry and malai kofta accompanied by platters of freshly baked naan. Our food was served in shiny gold dishes and this accompanied by the attentive wait staff and the palatial room, made us feel like royalty.
The next morning, we braved 45 mins on the chaotic Indian roads, heading to Jaipur’s most iconic historical site, Amber Fort. Although referred to as a fort, Amber or actually Amer is a complex of palaces, temples and gardens featuring a fascinating blend of Hindu and Muslim architecture. One of the oldest forts in Rajisthan, the complex was built by ruler Raja Man Singh in 1592.
When I lasted visited Amber Fort, I arrived atop the hill on the back of an elephant, following the steep and winding road along the outer fort wall. I was looking forward to this, so was mildly disappointed when I discovered we would take a jeep up a bumpy back road to the fort. Supposedly, it was dangerous and inhumane to ride the elephants. Not sure if I believe the dangerous part, as we hunkered down on sideways facing benches in the back of a jeep, being bounced and tossed side to side as our driver raced up the twisting potholed road at breakneck speed.
Amber Fort is laid out on four different levels, each with its own courtyard. We entered the fort on the second level and looked over the lower courtyard, a former military parade ground. Once housing stables and soldier’s barracks, today this is the staging area for tourists unloading from elephants. Looking to the surrounding hills, we had a magnificent view and an appreciation of the defensive advantage of the fort’s location.
We wandered through the Sattais Kacheri, an open air structure with sandstone columns and beautiful scalloped arches. This was once an administrative center where citizens and tradespeople could conduct business.
We climbed a set of stairs to the next level which housed many of the most important royal buildings of the complex. Immediately before us was Ganesh Pol, an ornate tiled gateway leading to three inner palaces and an ornate garden. Named for the Hindu deity, Ganesh, passage through this pol or gate was for royal family members only. The upper level of the gate has tiny discrete windows behind screens of latticework; ladies of the royal family were not permitted to appear in public so these small windows allowed the women of the court to catch a glimpse of the activity in the courtyard. In fact, the binoculars used by the ladies are still on display. This would not be the first time we would see these women’s peep holes!
Despite our non royal status, we passed through the Ganesh Pol to the private courtyard of the former maharajas. A large well manicured garden with walking paths and fountain lay before us. To the right was another columned building, Diwan-e-Khas, or Hall of Private Audience where the raj gave audience to his subjects and met officials. Another building , Sukh Niwas, was the place where the king ‘relaxed’ with his ladies.
Diwan-e-Khas is often referred to the Hall of Mirrors as its walls are covered in intricate mirror work. The upper part of this hall has delicate floral designs encrusted with glass. The building shimmers and glitters as the light reflects from the mirrored surfaces, surely meant to strike awe in royal visitors.
From the top level of the fort, we looked down on Maota Lake, the main source of water for Amber Fort. In the center of the lake is an island, Kesar Kyaari Bagh, with a saffron garden whose plants were said to have been sown by the maharaja in the 16th century.
Rhesus monkeys are as ubiquitous in India as squirrels in suburban America. However, Amber Fort is home to a different species of monkey, the grey langur or sometimes called the Hanuman monkey. Grey in color with black face, ears, hands and feet, this breed of monkey is distinguished by a long tail that loops forward towards its face. We saw troops of langurs jumping, scaling and scrabbling across the walls of the fort, many mothers with babies tightly clutching their breasts.
The large trees around the periphery of the fort were popular habitats for monkeys. Taking a short break from our tour, we watched as dozens of monkeys rested, climbed and cavorted in the branches of a tree on the palace grounds.
After a hectic but amazing day of sightseeing, Rambagh Palace hosted a special late afternoon taste of India luncheon for us in the hotel garden. A white hatted chef tended the buffet of different foods from around the country. We watched local women kneading dough for the naan, the delicious fried Indian bread that is a staple at every meal.
Forming the dough into discs, then arranging them on trays, the women handed them off to the cook to bake in a hot cylindrical oven. Using long metal skewers, the cook carefully rolls the fried dough off the side of the oven, carefully balancing it on the skewers to cool before sliding it on to my plate. There is nothing like fresh baked naan.
A musical duet entertained us with classical Hindustani music as we feasted. One man plucked the strings of a sitar, a guitar like instrument, as the other beat a rythm with the palms and fingers of his hand on tablas, a pair of wooden drums with goatskin heads. After lunch, we strolled the palace property enjoying the flowers, fountains, peacocks and gardens.
The next morning, under overcast skies and soft drizzle, we visited another iconic Jaipur landmark, Jantar Mantar, the astronomical observatory of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II. Jai Singh, who became monarch of Amber at the tender age of 11 in 1700 was a devoted student of astronomy and built a state of the art observatory in Jaipur to pursue his passion. The observatory, Jantar Mantar, translated as ‘instrument for calculation’ was built in 1716 and contains fifteen astronomical complexes that give precise measurements of time, angle of the sun, location of constellations and other astronomical phenomena.
India claims the discovery of the science of astronomy and its scion, astrology. In Jai Singh’s time, the prevailing theory of the solar system was that Earth was fixed in the center of the universe, an enormous hollow sphere, around which seven celestial bodies, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Sun and Moon, orbited. An eighth orbit contained the stars and a ninth the rest of the universe, also rotating around a fixed Earth. True to its name, the instruments built in Jantar Mantar were the most precise tools of their time for measuring and calculating the location of the sun, moon and planets relative to the earth’s position.
Walking through the sandstone walls into the heart of the open air observatory, felt as if one were entering a playground. Two large concave basins etched with markings, several sets of steep stairs (minus the slides), round discs with steps and strange triangular structures all tempted us to climb and touch. Others must have experienced this urge as well given the fenced off areas and multiple signs admonishing no climbing!
We approached a large red tilted disc, an equatorial sundial, called the Narivalaya Yantra that was used to measure the local solar time from Jaipur’s latitude. Another dial was on the back – this was the only paired instrument in the complex, one side used when the sun was in the southern hemisphere, the other when it was in the northern.
The largest equatorial sundial on the complex, the Great Samrat Yantra is not dial shaped at all. Rather it is a 75 ft high sandstone triangle flanked by two giant quadrants with graduated markings in hours, minutes and seconds upon which the shadow of the gnomon (projecting piece of the sundial) at the top is cast. This sundial measures time with an accuracy of 2 seconds, a credit to the precise scientific and architectural design and construction that Jai Singh employed.
Multiple triangular sundials of different sizes were located around the complex each with different purposes such as measuring latitudes and longitudes, azimuths and meridians. To the back of the complex were a set of twelve instruments known as the Rashi Yantras representing the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Resembling mini versions of the Great Samrat Yantra, these instruments were precisely positioned according to where the Zodiac constellations appear relative to the sun and were used to measure longitude and latitude of the sun and planets.
Jantar Mantar was renovated in the early 1900s and has been managed by Rajasthan’s Department of Archeology and Museums as a prized national treasure. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010 and today is one of the most visited sites in Jaipur.
It was unfortunate that we were visiting an observatory with so many different sundials on a day with overcast skies and no sun. As we were leaving the complex, for a brief moment the clouds shifted, and a few weak rays of sun broke through the overcast, letting us actually observe a shadow. But all too quickly, the sun faded, the wind intensified and as raindrops began to splatter, we dashed for cover across the street towards the palace with the pigeon infested tower. Sheltering from the torrential downpour in the Royal Museum, we browsed the displays of gowns, jewels, art and artifacts of the various Mughal royals that ruled Jaipur over the centuries. The Mughals were Islamic leaders from Arabia who ruled much of India from the early 16th to mid 18th centuries, responsible for some on the most spectacular monuments, palaces, observatories and art in the country.
Fortunately, the clouds drained and we headed outside to the courtyard of the City Palace, the residence of today’s Rajput royal family. Although India is a democratic republic today, like the British who taught them well, they still respect and confer status on their royal families.
While in the courtyard, we watched as two guards moved a red cushioned chair with a beautiful mahogany carved base across the square. Our guide excitedly told us that it was likely a member of the royal family was on the move. Sure enough a few minutes later a golf cart zipped past, driven by an ordinary looking young man in jeans, striped polo, baseball cap and single gold earring. We watched him pass without realizing that he was a royal!
Enroute back to the hotel, we stopped for a photo shot of another of Jaipur’s iconic attractions – the Hawa Mahal or Palace of the Winds. This beautiful red sandstone ‘palace’ is not really a palace at all but a beautifully designed facade with stalls behind each window so the ladies of the court could observe events on the streets below without being seen. Not unlike the Ganesh Pol in Amber Fort, Hawa Mahal was built given the strict protocols of what was considered acceptable female behavior.
India is renowened for its fine jewelry craftsmanship so I was eager to do some shopping. We stopped at a shop to watch a man sitting cross legged on the floor shaping and polishing a small diamond. With a new balance on my credit card, I left the shop wearing a silver latticed pendant set with several topaz stones, a beautiful souvenir of my time in India!
