A quick tour through the Amber Palace covers the following:
1. Jaleb Chowk
2. Sheesh Mahal
3. Sukh Mahal
4. Baaraa dari
Read on!
It's called the "Amber Palace". Locals call it "Aamer Palace". "Amber" comes from Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva has many names- amongst which "ambishkar maharaj" is one. Amber gets its name from "ambishkar" or "ambikeshwara" since the Jaipur kings were devotees of Lord Shiva. As Parvati's (amba) consort, Shiva becomes "ambikeshwara". Apparently, there is an Amba temple close to the Amber Palace too.
Jaipur city is not particularly impressive at first glance. Like any other Indian city, the roads are narrow, the traffic is unruly and cleanliness is not its strong point at all. But once you leave these behind and the Amber Fort and Palace comes to full view, you are in for a visual treat! Nestled atop the Aravalli Hills, it steals your breath away by the sheer scale and proportion. The fort walls snake through the rugged mountainscape for 18 kilometers.
The sky is a deep blue, the fort walls and palace in a shade of yellow and sparse vegetation in green. The colors reflect in the limpid waters of the lake and make it a surreal experience.
As your eyes focus on the palace, you see several elephants carrying the early morning tourists up a steep slope to the palace. For the less adventurous, a jeep winds around the hill and drops you at the palace. On the way, you pass by the Jagat Shiromani Temple. Mirabai, the legendary devotee of Lord Krishna worshipped an idol which finds a place in this temple.
We enter the palace through the "surya pol". "Pol" means entrance says the guide. For the next hour, he weaves a story of his own and keeps us interested. "Surya" means the sun. "Chandra" means moon...he explains. Presently, we are at the "Jaleb Chowk". It's an open quadrangle. The elephants enter through the oppposite gate (Chandra pol) and drop the tourists. Even the row of elephants seem dwarfed by the sheer expanse of the square and the huge palace walls.
The palace was built by the kings of Jaipur (please refer to the previous blogs) over generations. Prominent amongst them were three kings: Raja Mansingh I (Emperor Akbar's contemporary), Mirza Raja Jaisingh (Emperor Aurangzeb's contemporary) and Sawai Jaisingh (founder of Jaipur city).
The "sheesh mahal" is not to be missed. It is studded entirely with tiny mirrors from Belgium..all in floral patterns. The guide points a pencil of light from the cell phone at the ceiling. It gets reflected in mirrors all over... "Imagine if it were completely dark and lamps was arranged this way," the guide continues, "it would be like sitting under a moon-lit sky. That's how the kings enjoyed in those days!" For us, it is a quick photo opportunity.
The "sukh mahal" is the apartment of pleasure. The garden is laid out in mughal style, in geometric patterns, with a star at the center. It is a replica of the "Garden of Eden" or the "heavenly gardens". All around the garden, pictures of bottles in various shapes cover the walls. It is left to our imagination to connect the dots- between pleasure as experienced in heaven with this human representation. There are ivory studded doors which mirror the design of the garden's geometric patterns, there are "palkis" because the queen cannot walk with so much of jewellery on her person and has to be bodily lifted and provision for running, scented water to keep the marble floor cool....sukh mahal...evidently, takes pleasure to a different level altogether!
"Baaraa dari" is our next stop. It is an open courtyard in the zenana (womens' section). "Any male found here, his head cut, no questions asked!" the guide says in all seriousness. There are 12 (baara) apartments, one for each queen. "Each queen gets 4 rooms- 2 on the top floor, 2 on the bottom floor. The head-queen can bathe in this open tank which has its own geyser. See this! The English did not know anything about a geyser, we had it even then! This is the proof!" the guide trails away.
1. Jaleb Chowk
2. Sheesh Mahal
3. Sukh Mahal
4. Baaraa dari
Read on!
It's called the "Amber Palace". Locals call it "Aamer Palace". "Amber" comes from Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva has many names- amongst which "ambishkar maharaj" is one. Amber gets its name from "ambishkar" or "ambikeshwara" since the Jaipur kings were devotees of Lord Shiva. As Parvati's (amba) consort, Shiva becomes "ambikeshwara". Apparently, there is an Amba temple close to the Amber Palace too.
Jaipur city is not particularly impressive at first glance. Like any other Indian city, the roads are narrow, the traffic is unruly and cleanliness is not its strong point at all. But once you leave these behind and the Amber Fort and Palace comes to full view, you are in for a visual treat! Nestled atop the Aravalli Hills, it steals your breath away by the sheer scale and proportion. The fort walls snake through the rugged mountainscape for 18 kilometers.
The sky is a deep blue, the fort walls and palace in a shade of yellow and sparse vegetation in green. The colors reflect in the limpid waters of the lake and make it a surreal experience.
As your eyes focus on the palace, you see several elephants carrying the early morning tourists up a steep slope to the palace. For the less adventurous, a jeep winds around the hill and drops you at the palace. On the way, you pass by the Jagat Shiromani Temple. Mirabai, the legendary devotee of Lord Krishna worshipped an idol which finds a place in this temple.
We enter the palace through the "surya pol". "Pol" means entrance says the guide. For the next hour, he weaves a story of his own and keeps us interested. "Surya" means the sun. "Chandra" means moon...he explains. Presently, we are at the "Jaleb Chowk". It's an open quadrangle. The elephants enter through the oppposite gate (Chandra pol) and drop the tourists. Even the row of elephants seem dwarfed by the sheer expanse of the square and the huge palace walls.
The palace was built by the kings of Jaipur (please refer to the previous blogs) over generations. Prominent amongst them were three kings: Raja Mansingh I (Emperor Akbar's contemporary), Mirza Raja Jaisingh (Emperor Aurangzeb's contemporary) and Sawai Jaisingh (founder of Jaipur city).
The "sheesh mahal" is not to be missed. It is studded entirely with tiny mirrors from Belgium..all in floral patterns. The guide points a pencil of light from the cell phone at the ceiling. It gets reflected in mirrors all over... "Imagine if it were completely dark and lamps was arranged this way," the guide continues, "it would be like sitting under a moon-lit sky. That's how the kings enjoyed in those days!" For us, it is a quick photo opportunity.
The "sukh mahal" is the apartment of pleasure. The garden is laid out in mughal style, in geometric patterns, with a star at the center. It is a replica of the "Garden of Eden" or the "heavenly gardens". All around the garden, pictures of bottles in various shapes cover the walls. It is left to our imagination to connect the dots- between pleasure as experienced in heaven with this human representation. There are ivory studded doors which mirror the design of the garden's geometric patterns, there are "palkis" because the queen cannot walk with so much of jewellery on her person and has to be bodily lifted and provision for running, scented water to keep the marble floor cool....sukh mahal...evidently, takes pleasure to a different level altogether!
"Baaraa dari" is our next stop. It is an open courtyard in the zenana (womens' section). "Any male found here, his head cut, no questions asked!" the guide says in all seriousness. There are 12 (baara) apartments, one for each queen. "Each queen gets 4 rooms- 2 on the top floor, 2 on the bottom floor. The head-queen can bathe in this open tank which has its own geyser. See this! The English did not know anything about a geyser, we had it even then! This is the proof!" the guide trails away.
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