So we've been travelling around more of Rajasthan over the last few days. We hit up Jodhpur, Ajmer and are now in Jaipur. Its been a good few days with a lot of train riding thrown in.
Jodhpur was a whirlwind of Rajput architechture resplendant forts, and impeccable service. We arrived around midnight to the Taj Vivanta hotel, and spent a wonderfully comfortable night in the embrace of it's 5 star hospitality. This particular hotel, was by far the most positive experince we've had since we arrived in Rajasthan, with excellent service, and delicious food (Baked YOGURT!!!). We then spent the next few days checking out the sites in Jodhpur itself.
Our first stop was the Umaid Bhavan Palace, built by Maharaja Umaid Singh, to provide work for his starving subjects during a period of severe drout in the 1920s. The Palace boasts over 360 individual rooms and is constructed almost entirely out of yellow and red sandstone. The palace was admittedly quite a sight, but to be honest, me and pops were so enthralled by the selection of classic Cadillacs, Rolls Royce (Phantom) and a few Mercedes and Buicks (Roadmaster) that we wern't really paying it much attention. From what i recall, the Top Gear presenters were given free reign to fawn over and drive these phenomenal cars when they visited India last year too, but we had to content ourselves with drooling from outside the building instead. Umaid Singh was aparently a huge car fan, and owned over 30 luxury vehicles.
Next, we hit up the Mehengarh Fort, formarlly the home of Maharaja Mann Singh. Mehengarg fort boasts all the pomp and circumstance of a Renaissance era Mogul with a military history remnant of past mughal dynasties. The Fort iself is often used as a movie set as well, due to its exotic and forboding presence (In the Dark Knight Rises, the fort was used as a backdrop to the pit in which when Bruce Wayne is imprisoned by Bane and the child of Raz-al-goul; In Hum Saath Saath Hai, the palace was featured in the song Mere Hiwada Mein Nache Mor). The fortress itself looms as an impregnable citadel over the city of Jodhpur, due to its placement upon a 120m precipice of volcanic material, part of the Malani Igneous Suite. This particular suite marks the last phase of Precambrian-age igneous activity within the Indian Subcontinent, and consists of a thick layer of Proterozoic sedimentary sequences (sandstone, limestone and shale) unconformably overlying granite and rhyolite (approx 600Ma in age). The fort at Jodhpur, while impressive in and of itself, pales in comparison to the Geologic significance of the region, with its near perfectly exposed outcrops and readily visible unconformity. Infact, it was recently declared a National Geological Monument, by the Geological Survey of India. As we drove up the hill towards the fort gates, i couldn't help pointing out the changes in lithology that i was seeing. In fact, my dad eventually had to explain to our guide that i was a geologist, and therefore had a tendancy to get little over excited when i saw rocks.
When you enter the fort itself, you walk up this loooooooon inclined ramp towards the gate. The surrounding wall is scarred with canonball impact sites, giving voice to the military and invasionary history of the region itself, and the passageway has a tendancy to narrow and curve, so as to confound potential invading armies. As you walk through the palace itself, you also see a variety of canons and pipe-like holes where the maharaja would pour boiling oil and water onto any unwanted invaders that managed to breach the outskirts of the fort. It was quite interesting to see how many tricks and foils were built into the complex itself, so as to provide defence to the inhabitants. Once you pass through the outer barricades and walls however, you enter into a world of extreme beauty and luxury, with intricately carved and engraved passageways, and astoundingly ornate living areas, halls and thrown rooms. The glasswork and stone work truly is breathtaking, and you can't help but marvel at the lifestyles that these individuals must have had. Today, the majority of the palace has been converted into a museum, with beautiful gold palanquins, hand woven tapestries and weapons on display for any and all to see. Despite the blistering heat, and abundance of annoying traders , the Mehangarh fort really was quite a site to see.
After checking out the local sites, me and the fam bummed around the city for a day, just to see if we could find some pretty artwork and trinkets to take home with us. But there wasn't much that was really appealing to us, so i imagine that the majority of our shopping will be done in Jaipur, as that is supposed to be the art mecca of Rajasthan.
Whoo...this got really long...ill continue this on the next post, so that the photos done get too jumbled...
Stay Tuned!
- kirti
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