Your quick guide to the Amber Palace at Jaipur

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.



 

Your quick guide to the Jaipur City Palace

The Jaipur City Palace can be essentially divided into the following main attractions:

1. The gigantic silver urns:
2. The 7 storey building:
3. The armory display:
4. The royal clothes display:
5. The 4-seasons doors:
6. The sabha hall:
7. The puppet show!
8. The pashmina shawl purchase!

A series of gates takes you to the interiors of the Jaipur "City Palace". Each gateway has intricate floral patterns painted on its facade. You jostle your way past these gates sharing space with fellow human beings, buffaloes, cows, pigeons and even the occasional donkey....and of course their respective droppings too! Cycles, auto-rickshaws, fat-fati (a bigger, noisier rickshaw), tourist buses, tempo-travelers, pedestrians....cover every inch of the landscape. This is not for the faint-hearted. If you can weather the storm, the experience at the palace compensates for all the hardship.

As you enter the palace, you can get a sneak peak to a puppet show. These are string puppets that Rajasthan is famous for. Traditional vocal music  accompanied by a 'dhol' (drum) form the background against which the puppet show comes alive. Anarkali...puppet in a rich blue, gyrates to the rhythm...followed by "Michael Jackson". At one point, Michael jackson even removes his head as he twists and turns. The final act is a tete-a-tete between a snake charmer and a king cobra. In 5 minutes, the pupper show comes to a close. You can buy your own puppet too.... nicely packaged and sold for 200 rupees!

As mentioned in the previous blog introducing the Jaipur kings, the "City Palace" was constructed about 200 years ago by Sawai Jaisingh (Raja Jaisingh II). Till then, all the kings of this dynasty occupied the Amber Palace (atop the hills in the distance). The city of Jaipur itself came into existence only at this time.

One of the first attractions at the "City Palace" are the two gigantic silver urns. King Sawai Madho Singh II traveled to Britain in 1902 for 6 months. A devout man, Sawai Madho Singh II only drank water from the River Ganga (just like Emperor Akbar!). He had these massive silver urns made at the karkhaanas (factories) in Jaipur, filled them with water from the Ganga and took them all the way to Britain!

The seven storeyed palace building...complete with the fluttering multi-colored flags of the Jaipur kings looms ahead. Presently, we enter the portals of the armory section. Photography is prohibited. All kinds of weapons are on display- knives, daggers, guns, rifles, swords, rifles which require mounting over a camel to fire, rifles which require three human beings to prop up and another one to fire, shields, armors...the list is endless. On display are swords gifted by Shah Jahan, the 5.5 kilogram sword which Raja Mansingh I wielded, two swords in one scabbard, a walking stick which doubles up as a knife and as a gun...the possibilities seem endless!

In the next section are the royal fashions on display. 200-300 year-old tunics, trousers, headgear, boots, sarees, lehengas...it's a riot of gold and embroidery. Sawai Madho Singh I was 7 feet tall and 4 feet wide at the chest. His kurta and trousers are enormous...with the possibility of several human beings finding space into those brobdingnagian outfits!

Not to be missed are the four doors leading to the open courtyard. Each door is exquisitely painted, one door for every season. The peacocks form the motif for the rainy-season door, the lotus for the summer door, the predominantly green door for spring and the uniform tones for winter door! Each door offers a unique photo opportunity.

The final stop inside the palace is the sabha-hall. The second largest chandelier in India (acquired from Czechoslovakia) occupies center-stage. The ceiling comes alive with floral designs painted by a German artist in the 1930s. Two impressive thrones and a huge carpet from Iran complete the picture. The hall has portraits of some of the prominent kings of Jaipur and makes interesting viewing.

With this, we've run out of steam. The guide winds up.... We make a brief stop at the shop with sells Pashmina  shawls. Pashmina is a type of goat found in the Himalayas. Hair on its throat is so fine...that the shawls made with this hair....have a completely different feel. Pashmina is expensive. There are imitations to Pashmina. How do you find out if it is Pashmina or not? The shop keeper mentions two tests.
He passes the pashmina shawl through a little ring...and it comes out clean. An imitation shawl gets stuck midway. The test is compelling all right. Another test is to take a strand from the Pashmina shawl and to set it on fire. It gives a characteristic odour which the duplicate does not.
We are convinced! We'll spend some more time at the shop... How about you!?







 

The kings of Jaipur - A quick overview!

When we talk about the kings of Jaipur, we are essentially talking about the "kachaawa" dynasty. The word kachaawa comes from "kushava" or "kusha". Lord Rama sons were Lava and Kusha. The Kings of Jaipur consider themselves to be descendents of "Kusha" and hence the name "kachaawa". Right from 966 AD, there were 40 kings... continuing to this day.

However, it would be inappropriate to call these 40 kings as "kings of Jaipur" because Jaipur itself came much later (only about 200 years ago). Till then, there was no Jaipur city. These kings ruled from the Amber Palace area (which is situated atop a hill and overlooks today's Jaipur City).

Though this dynasty has 40 kings, only the following kings are prominent when it comes to understanding the history behind Jaipur and the Amber Palace.

The data has been picked up from the multiple guides who accompanied us on our tours. No attempt has been made to verify these details from any other source!

The accomplishments of the main kings can be summarized as follows:

• Raja Mansingh I: 
• Unlike the other kings of this dynasty who fought against the mughals, Raja Mansingh I befriended the mughals. He was Emperor Akbar's commander-in-chief. As per one version, Jodhabai was his sister. Akbar married Jodhabai and Salim (emperor Jahangir) was their son. During his reign, many parts of the Amber fort were added.
Raja Mansingh I wielded a 5.5 kg sword! The sword is on display in the armory section of the Jaipur City Palace and is a center of attraction. It is left to us to imagine how someone could hold a sword as heavy as this and wield it effectively! He must have been one powerful man!

• Mirza Raja Jaisingh:
• (aka Raja Jaisingh I): He was a contemporary of Emperor Aurangzeb. He helped Shivaji to fight against Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb considered this an act of treason and promptly had Raja Jaisingh I put to death by poisoning him. He was also instrumental in further additions to the Amber Palace.


• Sawai Raja Jaisingh: 
• (aka Raja Jaisingh II): He ascended the throne at the tender age of 14. Aurangzeb accosted the boy in a bid to hussle him. With both his arms, Aurangzeb held the boy by the shoulders roughly. The boy wasn't intimidated. He said that when someone held another by the shoulder, it was considered an act of an enduring relationship lasting 7 lives as per the Rajput tradition! And now that Aurangzeb had held him by both arms, it was as if, they were bound to each other forever! Aurangzeb was so pleased with the boy's presence of mind that he conferred upon him the title of "sawai" (meaning "one and a quarter"). It meant that if everyone was given a grade of "one" for their intelligence quotient, the boy was head and shoulders above the rest and hence would earn a grade of "one and a quarter". The title stuck. The boy was known there after as "sawai Raja Jaisingh". In fact, all the kings in the dynasty took the sobriquet of "sawai" from this point onwards.

           Sawai Raja Jaisingh II has several accomplishments:

• He built the city of Jaipur and moved from the Amber Palace to the "City Palace" in Jaipur. In a way, he can be considered as the father of Jaipur. The city gets its name from him. 
• He mastered 17 languages and had a great interest in astronomy.
• The Jantar Mantar at Jaipur was his creation. 
• He set up 36 factories (kaarkhaanas) in Jaipur and encouraged local craftsmanship in a big way. Some of these factories continue to this day. 
• He learnt the secret of building a cannon from the mughals and built the biggest cannon. As per one story, the mughals kept the construction of the cannon as a top secret. Right from the time of Babur, the cannon was their stregth. Rana Sangha and all the Rajput kings with him suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Babur. When Babur's cannons fired, the elephants on the side of the Rajputs went berserk and trampled their own army. The cannon was an unknown commodity. It was Sawai Raja Jaisingh who learnt the science by pretending to be a commoner under the mughal army and set the equation right.
 

Sawai Madho Singh I:

He was over 7 feet tall and had a chest span of 4 feet! His clothes are on display at the City Palace. A few normal human beings can fit into that tunic and the cummerbund on display! They are so oversized that it boggles the imagination to construct Sawai Madho Singh's frame! The "Sawai Madhopur" township (which falls on the Mumbai-Delhi railway line) is in memory of this king.

Sawai Partap Singh: 

He built the "Jal Mahal" and the "Hawa Mahal". Both are stunning monuments and often the face of Jaipur City today.

Sawai Ram Singh II: 

When Prince Albert visited Jaipur in 1863, Sawai Ram Singh II had all the walls of the city and the major monuments painted in a shade of pink. Pink was a sign of welcome as per Rajput tradition. From this point onwards, Jaipur was known as the "Pink City". When we view the monuments today, they don't exactly look pink in color. It is a shade of "vermilion red, a little burnt sienna and white" mized together to give a pink like hue.

 

Sawai Madho Singh II: 

In 1902, Sawai Madho Singh II set sail for Britain. He stayed there for 6 months. A deeply religious man, Madho Singh II used only Ganga water. He had two gigantic jugs made of silver, filled them with water from the Ganga and took them with him! These are the biggest silver jugs ever made and find a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records! Presently, both these jugs are on display at the Jaipur "City Palace" and make interesting viewing.

Sawai Mansingh II: 

He was a handsome man and a great polo player. He won the polo championship in France in 1957. He was married to Gayatri Devi who was one of the most beauitiful women of her time. He died while playing polo. His trophies are on display at the Jaipur "City Palace".