Construction on India’s magnificent Amber Fort began in 1592 by Maharaja Man Singh, a commander in the army of the Mughal emperor Akbar. It was built so the Mughal ruler could spread his power to cover the kingdoms of Udaipur and Jodhpur. So when Maharaja Bishan Singh (1672-99) later took the throne, he was the first ruler of Amer to take over without any status in the Mughal nobility. Bishan didn’t care since his lineage was traced back to the Rajput clan who came to power in the C12th. In any case, the Jaipur kings had always preferred diplomacy over arms in dealing with the Mughals, since their kingdom was located too close to the Mughal power centres of Delhi and Agra.
Furthermore Bishan knew that his son Jai Singh would reach greatness if the lad was well educated, trained by the best Indian scholars in art, science, philosophy and military affairs. Note that Maharaja Jai Singh II (1688-1744) was a young lad when he came to power, after his very young father Bishan died in 1699.
Jaigarh Fort
In time Jai Singh became a great leader and Jaipur city got its name from the new Maharaja. When Jai Singh was 15, Jaipur City started to acquire architectural wonders. Jaigarh Fort was designed and perfectly created in 1726, its huge structure being a true reflection of a glorious royal era. Naturally the fort was adorned in royal beauty, adding to the city’s rich culture. The red sandstone was already starting to be a predominant material used in Rajput and Mughal forts.
The might of the Mughal Empire was then at its peak. So Jai Singh II formed a tough front against the Mughals by aligning with other Rajput states. Peace reigned, the kingdom prospered and its borders expanded. It housed some of the country's most ornate royal palaces, structures designed in early C18th that still impress today.
However city expansion tested the limited water sources, and credit for Jaipur’s growth success went to the chief architect from Bengal. With Jai Singh’s approval, they grew the city on strong scientific principles, laid out according to the Shastra-ancient architectural manual. Conceived as a commercial centre of Rajasthan State, it was ground-breaking due its careful city planning.
After Jai Singh’s death in 1744, his sons struggled for power. Without a monarch, the kingdom was open to invasion; neighbouring Rajput states and the Marathas tried to grab large areas of the kingdom. So Jaipur remained surrounded by a city wall and defensive forts. The city's influential sites continued in a Rajasthani architectural style, combining the complex construction of Hindu Rajput building techniques with the visible symmetry of Mughal design.
However city expansion tested the limited water sources, and credit for Jaipur’s growth success went to the chief architect from Bengal. With Jai Singh’s approval, they grew the city on strong scientific principles, laid out according to the Shastra-ancient architectural manual. Conceived as a commercial centre of Rajasthan State, it was ground-breaking due its careful city planning.
After Jai Singh’s death in 1744, his sons struggled for power. Without a monarch, the kingdom was open to invasion; neighbouring Rajput states and the Marathas tried to grab large areas of the kingdom. So Jaipur remained surrounded by a city wall and defensive forts. The city's influential sites continued in a Rajasthani architectural style, combining the complex construction of Hindu Rajput building techniques with the visible symmetry of Mughal design.
Later one red sandstone palace became very popular: historic Hawa Mahal in 1799 as an extension of City Palace by the then King of Jaipur, Maharaja Sawai Singh; see the building’s straight facade and hundreds of windows.
City Palace
Like the Mughals, Jaipur maintained good relations with the British and in the 1857 War of Independence, remained loyal to the Raj. Yet the British gradually undermined the independence of the state and exercised greater control over its administration. So when Prince Albert was soon to make his first visit to India in 1875, the Maharaja thought it was a great opportunity to decorate Jaipur as a welcoming gesture to impress Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert in India. The maharaja really wanted the Prince to visit Jaipur, to build strong relations with the U.K. The Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II’s favourite wife loved the old pink colour scheme and convinced her husband to pass a law making it illegal for buildings to be painted any other colour than Jaipur Pink. This 1877 law helped transform the dirty city into a totally lovely city. And still so remains today.
Colonial rule helped this Maharaja of Jaipur (reigned 1835-80) who was one of the richest and most powerful men in India, an Indian man who impressed the British court like no other. This Maharaja had the whole city painted pink terracotta, the colour of hospitality. And he also had the lavish Albert Concert Hall built in 1876, designed by Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob after London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and named in Prince Albert’s honour. It stood in the lovely Ram Niwas Public gardens. During Prince Albert’s long 17 weeks visit in 1876, they conducted royal duties across the Indian sub-continent, plenty of Indian rulers gave Albert expensive gifts to show their hospitality. Only when Albert visited Jaipur and saw its gorgeous pink sites, he called it Pink City and the nickname remained.
Albert Hall
Jaipur City grew rapidly! Maharaja Ram Singh (ruled 1835-1880) built Ramgarh lake to further supply water to the big city, when the city’s population was spreading beyond its walls. In 1922 Jaipur’s Maharaja Man Singh II (reigned 1922-47) ascended the throne and built civic buildings like schools, secretariat, hospitals etc. After independence, Jaipur merged with the states of Jodhpur and Jaisalmer to become the greater Rajasthan union. Man Singh II was given charge of the new province but in 1956, Jaipur became the capital of the state of Rajasthan.
Jaipur became a World Heritage site when UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay, in Albert Hall Jaipur in 2020, presented the documentation to Minister of Urban Development. From forts to palaces, streets to festivals, Jaipur’s charm in all its shades of pink still provide mesmerising heritage and architecture. Its population is now over 3 million people.
Mahal Water Palace
Map of Jaipur in India
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32 comments:
Being a tourist in Jaipur was exciting, but it was hot enough during the November-March part of the year. 35c or more in summer is intolerable.
What beautiful buildings and their colours Hels.
Prince Albert did stay a long time.
Thanks for sharing and I often think it must take some researching to type the facts and so on to share with us. You do a wonderful job on that and I personally enjoy reading and learning.
Thank you.
Every time I read your post I get more and more excited! What a beautiful city, but also your information and writing style is very interesting. The history of our city shows that behind a powerful man is a powerful woman (Sawai Ram Singh II loved the old color pink and persuaded her husband to pass a law banning the painting of buildings in any color other than Jaipur Pink ). It looks like an amazing city and it's nice that it's a World Heritage Site. Thank you so much Hels it's like giving us a gift with every post you make (I can only imagine how much work goes into this).
Thank you to un[travel] for Jaipur – Off the beaten trail in The ‘Pink’ City.
6 hours away from New Delhi, grand palaces and haveli is surrounded by mighty fortresses make Jaipur a welcome respite from high-rise malls and urban living. Take time off to watch a potter at work. Look out for the odd camel strolling through Jaipur’s busy streets making your way past hawkers and cycle rickshaws against a backdrop of vibrant terracotta edifices. Stopover for the cultural show at Chowki Dhani before heading to the world’s largest sundial at Jantar Mantar, Amer Fort, and the Palace of Winds, Hawa Mahal, overlooking Johari Bazaar. If you’re lucky enough to be untravelling Jaipur during Holi in March, watch spectacularly bedecked elephants in action at elephant-polo.
Hi Hels - I've missed out on India ... but the Pink City is amazing isn't it. Cheers Hilary
Sandstone is a very soft rock, isn't it? I'm surprised these buildings are still standing.
Wow these pictures are stunning, never heard of Jaipur City till now, so I thank you for telling us about it, the nickname Pink City sounds likes it fits the place
It looks beautiful and I should think a place not to miss when visiting India.
Hello Hels, Jaipur seems exotic, but for the time being Shaker Heights, Ohio will have to do. To change the subject, a while ago you wrote about artists showing women doing domestic work. Too bad you missed the recent exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art: Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism. Apparently there was more behind these "domestic" pictures than meets the eye, and they had their own symbolism going on.
https://www.clevelandart.org/exhibitions/degas-and-laundress-women-work-and-impressionism
This article gives more details and explanations:
https://www.clevelandart.org/articles/labor-parisian-laundresses
--Jim
Beautiful buildings.
Agreed Joe.
After the terrible haj experience, tourists to Jaipur should be very careful to wear a good hat and to carry plenty of cold water
Margaret
Prince Albert had a wonderful trip across India where the Indian authorities treated him like top royalty... And rebuilt buildings in his honour.
Perhaps he wanted to be named the next Emperor.
Hello, dear Helen! This is a a very beautiful city! It's great you tell about it in your post.
It would be nice to go sightseeing in Jaipur.
Katerina
Maharajah Ram Singh II wanted to impress his British contemporaries so he remade Jaipur as a progressive city. The city buildings had already been painted in blush and rose in the C19th to welcome Prince Albert in 1875. And the wide, laid out avenues were also painted in pink.
Later a law was passed by the Maharajah to maintain the pink colour for all _new_ buildings. I hope it was the Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II’s wife who convinced her husband :)
un[travel]
many thanks. Hopefully my readers will find your post very seductive. I tended to concentrate on the city's architecture, but I was excited to read about foods and festivals in Jaipur.
Hilary
now that Covid restrictions are largely ended, and before we get too old to travel around unfamiliar countries for the first time, you must plan to visit Jaipur. If you have time, energy and money, also visit the whole state of Rajasthan in northern India.
jabblog
sandstone is a material that is both readily available in Rajasthan and is durable for use of building walls. It has good natural thermal properties, which means it helps in keeping buildings' interiors cool during hot summers and warm during cold winters for longer than other building materials. And sandstone can be profitably sealed, if the building needs it.
Jo-Anne
The biggest cities in India are Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, so I suspect that most foreign tourists would be attracted away from Jaipur. But that would be a shame if you travelled from Australia and didn't see Jaipur's charms.
Andrew
the mosques, temples, forts, war memorials, British Raj treasures, beaches, palaces, hill stations, pilgrimage sites etc are super to visit, affordable and tourists are made very welcome. I would go back in a heartbeat but this time I would plan the tour much better, before leaving Melbourne.
But be careful about 3 issues: high humidity, lunatic drivers and diarrhoea from cooked foods.
Parnassus
I missed the exhibition but the catalogue, "Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work and Impressionism" by Britany Salsbury looks like a brilliant PhD thesis. I thank you warmly.
River
I thought I would get sick of the pink everywhere in Jaipur, but it was actually very soothing and welcoming.
Irina
Good to see you! Every city in most countries has its own beauty (and its own awful bits) but Jaipur seems to have more beauty than other Indian cities. Note that it is not a tiny city.. it has well over 3 million people.
A great post. I learnt a lot of history here. The buildings and architecture are amazing. They are so detailed and complex to have been built so long ago.
diane
You are correct about the architectural details we can see outside the buildings. But we know that sandstone is also a wonderful material for human statues, Buddhas, elephants, fish, birds, murals, entrance gates and temples. You have to get up close to see those amazing decorative elements.
India's a favorite of mine due to its various products and alternative practices (ayurveda) that I like.
Now, after reading your post, I've added Jaipur Pink city to the list. Such superb buildings!!
DUTA
Everyone has a favourite spot in their memories, even if they haven't actually been visited. Mine e London, Tel Aviv, Paris, Vienna and Prague where I have been many times, so decided the world is too big and diverse to limit myself to Europe. The husband now loves Japan and I love India.
How beautiful. I remember a blogger I knew used to return often to Jaipur and post beautiful photos. Sadly she deleted her blogs. I'm getting to a stage in life now where I need to carefully curate my bucket list or I'll never achieve all my travel dreams. Sadly, India isn't on the list but Sri Lanka is
Mandy
before I write a blog post of my own, I always look to see if any other blogger has written helpfully on my topic. I didn't find much on Jaipur, but I would have wept had I seen that someone's beautiful photos had once been published and were now deleted.
I had to vigorously reduce my travel bucket list after 3.5 years of Covid and another year of relative poverty :(
Irina
I hope you do get there. The most pleasant time to visit Jaipur is November to March when the temperature is pleasant and the humidity is ok-ish.
Do as much reading as you can, before leaving home, to use your time in Rajasthan profitably.
Beautiful ! Thanks to an Indian workmate and his French wife I learned a lot about India and also their cultures ! I have never been in this corner of the world, although I have traveled quite a lot !
Gattina
that is true for so many people! We read or hear detailed information about places we have never been to, and become very interested in visiting. But our old age, retirement, ill health, overseas wars or family responsibilities make it difficult to travel widely. Thank your Indian workmate on my behalf :)
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