Jaipur is the perfect complement to Amber. Instead of being an empty museum, it bustles with life. And yet it still satisfies the most romantic imagination. Its exotic palace is matched by equally exotic stories of past inhabitants while an exuberant and colourful street life surges around it. It was from the City Palace that loyal Madho Singh II left for Britain to attend the coronation of Edward VII in 1902, carrying huge silver water flasks to avoid drinking dangerous foreign water. Here, the birth in 1931 of Bhawani Singh provided the first male heir for two generations born to a ruling maharaja, Man Singh II. To celebrate, great marble elephants were carved for the palace entrance and so many champagne corks were popped that the baby prince's nanny nicknamed him Bubbles.
Independence may have come to India but today the ex-prince still lives in the palace, is still regarded as the paternal maharaja by his citizens and still dresses in finery to parade on an elephant at Hindu festivals, although visitors are more likely to glimpse him in informal clothes zipping through the palace courtyards in his Jeep.
When Jai Singh II (ruled 1699-1743) laid the foundation stone of his new city on 25 November 1727, the 38-year-old maharaja already had an enviable military and diplomatic career behind him in Mughal service. It had won him the hereditary title `Sawai maharaja' from the emperor, meaning one-and-a-quarter great king, thoroughly upstaging his fellow Rajput rulers who were regularly reminded of it with the extra quarter-flag flown above Jaipur palaces. Now, turning from war to peace and using the Jaigarh treasury, he established his new city as the capital of expanding Jaipur state. Measuring more than 50,000 square kilometers (19,305 square miles), it was one of the largest in India and rivalled the two other powerful Rajput states, Mewar (capital at Udaipur) and Marwar (capital at Jodhpur). To keep control and to ensure his safety, Jai Singh ran a sort of secret service, an extensive network of men who were his eyes and ears throughout the state and at the Mughal court, and who sent in detailed reports on everything from monsoons, crops and crime to misconduct of local officials, traders' disputes and current rumours. The historian James Tod gave him full Victorian praise, 'When we consider that Jey Sing carried on his favourite pursuits in the midst of perpetual wars and court intrigues, from whose debasing influence he escaped not untainted; when amidst revolution, the destruction of the empire, and the meteoric rise of the Mahrattas, he not only steered through the dangers, but elevated Amber above all the principalities around, we must admit that he was an extraordinary man: aware of the approaching downfall of the Mogul Empire, [he was] determined to aggrandize Amber from the wreck.' And he succeeded beyond his dreams.
The city reflects Jai Singh's two 'favourite pursuits': science and the arts. A young Bengali, Vidyadhar Bhattacharaya, was its chief architect. He was a key figure in the second part of Jai Singh's life. Descended from one of the Bengali priests brought back by Man Singh I to serve in Amber's temple, Vidyadhar left the priesthood to enter the royal accounts department and rose to be engineer, scholar and senior state official, attaining the post of Desh Diwan, roughly equivalent to prime minister. According to James Todd, he also aided his master 'in all his scientific pursuits, both astronomical and historical'.
As recorded by a contemporary historian in 1739: Jai Singh said to Vidyadhar that a city should be founded here ... There should be many crossroads with shops on them. The backyards of the houses should meet together'. Furthermore, he envisaged his city as the capital of a united Rajputana, a centre of government, trade and worship. Two hundred years later, his dream came true: as capital of Rajasthan, Jaipur is one of the few former princely states to enjoy increased, rather than decreased, status since Independence.
Vidyadhar devised a simple grid plan following the principles of the ancient Hindu architectural treatise, the Shilpa Shastra. Seven blocks of buildings are divided by wide, tree-lined avenues. The palace is on the north side, covering another two blocks, and the whole is surrounded by a high wall pierced by ten gates. Orientation is to the north-east, towards two hilltop temples. To this design Jai Singh added his humanist ideas of hygiene, beauty and commerce. The pink colour seems either to have been an attempt to emulate Mughal Fatehpur Sikri, or added later by Ram Singh II to welcome the Prince of Wales in 1876.
Unusually in India, his example of city maintenance was kept up. Today, every house-owner is obliged by law to maintain his facade, paying a high penalty charge for the city to do it for him if he fails.
Jaipur, which is the focal point of the Golden triangle holiday packages itinerary was the first sizable North Indian city—as opposed to collections of palace buildings such as at Fatehpur Sikri — to be built from scratch to a single plan of such order and detail and to be thriving almost unchanged today. Vidayadhar's was the controlling hand. Merchants were invited to come and build houses, but only to Vidyadhar's directions. All building materials were delivered to him and he personally oversaw all public and palace buildings.
Works moved fast. By 1729 many temples, markets, mansions and small houses had been built. By 1733, the main landmarks were completed, and on the Holi festival Jai Singh 'mounted on an elephant, and with Thakurs [landowning courtiers] too mounted on elephants, came via Chandni Chowk, playing Holi all the way ... then amidst revelries to Ramganj, then returned to the palace'. The following year, Jai Singh rewarded Vidyadhar for the speedy construction of his seven-storey palace and again in 1735 for completing the water canal from the Darbhawati River. Vidyadhar, one of the great architects of his time, became a living legend. One panegyric went: 'The wealth acquired by the possession of all lands, the province, the cities, and the forts and the whole population are on one side, and Vidyadhar like an ocean of all virtues is on the other'. To see a little of layout and drink in the lively Jaipur atmosphere before visiting the palace, start at Badi Chaupar crossroads.
This is the city centre. The road is a continuous confusion of honking cars, daring bicyclists, bouncy black tempos (motorbike taxis), scooters with sari-clad ladies sitting side-saddle on the back, tooting auto-rickshaws, bullocks pulling small carts and camels heaving large ones loaded with wood or stones. Jaipur's main artery stretches east and west, 36 metres wide (118 feet) and running some three kilometres (two miles) from Surajpol Gate to Chandpol Gate. When Father Jose Tieffenthaler came in 1739, he was mightily impressed by the 'wide and long streets' compared to the 'unequal and narrow streets' of other towns, and reckoned this especially fine one could take 'six or seven carriages driven abreast'.
To the south is busy Johari Bazar, the jewellery and cotton fabric centre; to the north is Hawa Mahal Bazar, where more camels plod in from Amber direction. Similar north—south arteries with market crossroads lie to the east (Ramganj Chaupar) and west (Chhoti Chaupar) of here, with smaller roads in between and beyond. The blocks they form were each designed for a particular trade or craft and planned with a precise number of shops and given a distinctive style. And many still retain their original function; today's craftsmen still live in courtyard houses with beautifully painted rooms, and practise skills passed down through the generations. They work happily side by side with the newer Jaipur industries of distilling, engineering, shoemaking, glass-making and sports equipment production, among others.
For more information on Delhi, Jaipur and Agra holiday packages contact Swan Tours, one of the leading travel agents in India based out of New Delhi.