En route to our accommodation, while looking around Jaipur city, I felt a serious dissonance between the imagined and actual reality of the place. Grandeur, splendour, royalty and architectural wisdom though evident from the landmarks of the city, were submerged into modernism. Billboards of modern, global brands looked like scars on the ancient face of Raj Royalty.

After arriving in this city of vibrant colours, our reception at the hotel was more like a registration at a police station. Pictures of all members of the group were taken via webcam and documents were scrutinised; being from an ‘enemy’ country it was understandable, but not providing the password for Wi-Fi during the entire stay was not indeed. Anyway, I was very tired and hungry so couldn’t dare to start exploring the capital of Rajasthan state late at night.

While going to my room on the first floor, after dinner in hotel lobby, the utter silence in the balcony and the gleaming lights of the metropolis halted me for a while. I stood there and felt a strange stench of history and royalty in the walls of well-preserved Haveli-cum-hotel. I had to get up early so after a while I abandoned the corridor and went to my room. Closing the eyes took me back to the glory days of Jaipur; it was as if I was witnessing a documentary on Rajasthan.

Located in the semi-desert region of Rajasthan, Jaipur is one of those few cities that were established on the Hindu architectural principals of Vastu Shastra (an ancient science of architecture and construction) and Shilpa Shastra (science of arts and crafts such as forming statues, painting, carpentry, pottery, etc). The city is divided, grid-like, into nine blocks and fortified by high walls around it. The legend behind Jaipur being famous as the Pink City is that when the Prince of Wales (Edward VII) visited Jaipur (in 1876), to show his hospitality Raja Sawai Ram Singh ordered to paint the entire city in pink which is the symbol of cordial reception in traditional culture. But a close and thorough observance reveals that it’s not pink anymore but instead terracotta. Most of the buildings in the city have taken the colour of sand stone or a bit reddish hue of brown, so collectively most of the city looks like the blend of red and brown with a tinge of orange at some places.

The long staircase of Amer Palace

CNN’s list of world’s most expensive hotel suites can be used as a yardstick to measure the popularity of Jaipur as a popular tourist destination. According to that list, in 2012 Jaipur’s Raj Palace Hotel stood at second place because a night there costs a whopping $45,000. When we asked our guide about the reason, he revealed that the tourism industry has become so enticing that even the Rajputs are fetching their share from this evolving and thriving industry.

Despite suspicious hotel staff and money-grubbing policemen, a Pakistani visiting Jaipur finds that it lives up to the hype

Some of the old palaces have been converted into hotels where food is served in silver or gold crockery depending on the amount you pay for accommodation. The royal family also comes to honour the guests (or at least their chequebooks) and have a photo session with them for a brief period.

The next morning, our first destination was the Police Station! Not that we had committed any crime but simply for being a citizen of Pakistan. Police reporting was a must for every city I visited, but unlike Amritsar where police personnel were very cooperative and friendly here — wanting to get their palms greased — they kept us waiting till lunch. Somehow the tour operator managed to get things done without any king’s ransom and we rushed to our formal first destination — Hawa Mahal, famously known as the Palace of Winds.

Hawa Mahal

Jaipur boasts of numerous architectural feats that are worth a visit but this particular emblematic marvel of Eastern architecture is iconic. With the purpose of keeping the building cool in sultry summers and providing utmost privacy to the women of the erstwhile royal family while watching the city festivals from the windows, Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh built it in 1799. There are 953 small windows called Jharokas in the front façade of the building. They look like a beehive due to their intricate carving and lattice work. A complex geometrical pattern of architectural components and a blend of Mughal and Rajput architectural style make this building mesmerising for the onlookers.

Elephant ride in Amer Palace

Amer Palace

Our next destination was the Amer Palace, also pronounced as Amber Palace. From the etymological perspective, Amer was derived from the Hindu deity or mother goddess Amba; in Hinduism it is believed that Amba was the protector of the world. Located on a hill top which used to be called Cheel Ka Teela (Hill of Eagles), the place was built in 1592 by Raja Maan Singh. Red sandstone and marble are the primary components of this monument of Rajput architecture. Including Amer Palace, there are six forts alone in the state of Rajasthan that are on the Unesco’s list of world heritage sites.

A long stairway leads to the entrance of the Amer Palace; a pit stop is a must to catch one’s breath while climbing the stairs to the entrance. Rides on decorated elephants are the most fascinating part of visiting this place but that requires early morning booking. These rides are also being criticised by NGOs and Zoo authorities for abusing elephants in different ways; there are allegations that elephants are forced to work with painful spikes and chains, and they also suffer injuries and mutilations from their captors — every pretty picture has a dark side too!

Looking outside from the balcony of the first courtyard of the palace, you see how strategically this fortification was designed and established. Amer palace was built, for the defence of royal family in war times, on the promontory of a forested hill that juts into Maota Lake; from the higher view point one can overlook Maota Lake and saffron gardens as well.

Having Sheesh Mahal, the third courtyard of the fort is famous for its magical illusions. Intricate placement of convex mirror mosaics on the walls and the ceiling creates the enigma of illuminating the entire room with just one candle.

The process of block printing

Souvenirs / handicrafts / industries of Jaipur

Being single was lucky for me, otherwise Jaipur is a no go area for married men. For ethnic Indian shopping, it’s a heaven for shopaholic females and the city’s famous industries are textile and jewellery, so rest of the story is obvious. I witnessed the entire process of block printing which is usually termed as ‘Poetic Expressions on the Fabric’, in a state-run store. Textiles and kundan jewellery items are priceless souvenirs that one can take to relive the memories.  

In textiles, sarees are not alone; 100 gram quilt of Jaipur is famous for consuming lesser space but giving the same warmth as a 500 gram quilt; some say that it can even fit into in a pocket. Pashmina shawl is also a strong contestant in this arena. To entice us, and to prove Pashmina shawl’s purity and high quality, it was passed through the finger ring before us in the store.

A local woman in traditional Rajasthani outfit and jewellery

City Palace

Our next stop was the City Palace Complex which includes Chandra Mahal and Mubarak Mahal. Only the ground floor of Chandra Mahal is open for visitors, the rest of the seven storied building is still a royal residence. Our guide told us a very interesting fact about the flags of Chandra Mahal: to mark the presence of Maharaja in the palace, apart from the royal flag, an additional flag of one and quarter size is unfurled on the roof. That additional flag is called Sawai (means one and quarter) and it’s the insignia flag of the Maharaja of Jaipur; the title of Sawai was given to Raja Maan Singh by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, and since then the Maharajas of Jaipur use the prefix of Sawai before their names. In the absence of the Maharaja, queen’s flag is hoisted atop Chandra Mahal.  

Mubarak Mahal is a museum and repository of royal costumes, the building is an amalgamation of Islamic, Rajput and European styles of architecture. Just like Lahore’s Royal Fort, the City Palace too has Diwan-i-Khas and Diwan-i-Aam. The most trumpeted attraction of Diwan-i-Khas is a pair of silver urns. Maharaja Sawai Madho Singh II used these urns to transport the water of the Ganges for drinking during his voyage to England to attend the coronation ceremony of King Edward VII. Possessing radical religious thoughts, he believed that consumption of English water would be equal to committing a sin. To avoid committing this sin, 14,000 silver coins were melted to make the two urns, which were used as vessels for the transportations of water; each vessel weighs 340 kg and has the capacity of 4,000 litres. Both vessels hold a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest sterling silver vessels. 

Then we went to Diwan-i-Aam and to Bhaggi Khana (Chamber of old carriages) which was the last place on our list to see inside the City Palace. But the list of places to visit in Jaipur didn’t end; we were time bound so couldn’t see rest of the wonders of the city like Jantar Mantar, Jal Mahal and Albert Hall Museum. Not a day or two, at least a week is required to explore the entire city and grasp the grandness of the architectural and cultural marvels of the city.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, May 3rd, 2015

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