We start off early again, today only touring half day starting with the Jagdish Temple and impressive City Palace. To get to the temple, we first must walk through the City Palace which is accessed up a relatively steep cobblestone lane overlooking Lake Pichola. It’s a picturesque view across the lake from here alone – looking out over the Lake Palace, the old city and to the peninsula where our hotel is located. Arriving at the top of the lane, we are treated to a surprise sight: the Royal guards on horseback at the main gates (these are actually gates leading to a section of the palace that has been turned into a couple of heritage hotels – but it makes for great photos anyway!).
Walking through the inner courtyard, we get a good sense of the size and scope of the palace looming over us. It is made up entirely of granite and marble, and has been constructed and added onto by over 22 generations of rulers. A little cafe across from the the impressive entrance gates, catches my eye –not for a morning coffee, but for the poster advertising “24K gold Pizza.” Yeah, right – I figure it is just some reference to the palace, but no, they mean gold leaf on top of the pizza – all for a whopping $140 US. Outrageous! Oh, and if you wanted that coffee? You could have a gold plated coffee for a mere $28 US.We won’t be stopping here for lunch, that is a guarantee – I’d rather wear my gold than ingest it, thank you.
Carrying on, we leave the Palace grounds through the Tripolia Gate, you guessed it, a triple arched gateway built in the 1700s. Past here is a crowded lane filled with shops and stores selling trinkets and souvenirs that leads away from the palace and into the intersecting little lanes of the city of Udaipur. We traverse only a few hundred yards downhill to the Jagdish Temple, a multi-storey Hindu temple set atop a tall terrace. We ascend the temple on steep, narrow marble stairs listening to Bhanu through the whisperers announce there is a dog on the stairs, wonder what the dog is doing there, then admonishing us to “ignore the dog.” (This becomes my Bhanu mantra for the foreseeable future – whenever there is anything curious, I dive right into – “look there is an X. What is the X doing? Ignore the X.” What can I say?)
Once atop the terrace, we remove our shoes to enter the temple – which is an artistry in hand carved marble, 3 stories tall with an 80 foot tall steeple. The main attraction, though, is the Vishnu stature carved out of black stone. No photos are allowed inside, so we just soak up the atmosphere and try to imprint all the beautiful stone work, statues and artistry in our minds. Back outside, we can – and do – take photos of the carved Gods lining the outside walls of the different small shrines that surround the main temple.
After the visit, Bhanu gives us about 20 minutes to shop in the little market between the temple and the Palace. Most of us end up congregating at the top of the hill by the Tripolia gates, waiting for the shoppers of the group, then we troop off into the Palace through a brightly colored arch with Ganesh presiding over the entrance.
The Palace complex is actually made up of 11 separate Palaces, some of which (as I mentioned earlier) have been converted into hotels. Construction began in 1559 by the Maharana Udai Singh, and even though added on to by a series of rulers, maintains the same combination of Rajasthani and Mughal architecture throughout. We will be visiting a series of the palaces and rooms, winding our way through narrow little passageways, up and down stairs, in a generally disorienting fashion. I will not do this Palace justice in the explanations, because it started to become all too much to take in, but suffice it to say the grandeur and beauty of this (and everything we’ve seen) is mind blowing.
We begin in a museum type room that has a life size statue of the Maharaja Pratap’s favorite horse “Chetak.” There is some story that goes along with the horse, they disguised the horse with an elephant trunk so the elephant’s wouldn’t attack him, and the Maharaja rode Chetak into battle. Chetak was wounded, but managed to get the Maharaja to safety and died shortly there after. Whether the horse died near here and that is why they built the palace, or it is just a revered animal for saving the Maharaja, I’m not sure, but nonetheless, he is prominently displayed here in the palace and just about everywhere Maharaja Pratap is memorialized (there is even a statue of the 2 of them in Jodphur).
Following Bhanu and his whisperer (which only works so well when we are traipsing through these little granite hallways, causing us to hurry to follow him as his voice fades in and out depending on location), we visit the Manak Mahal (Ruby Palace) with its crystal figurines, the Moti Mahal (Pearl Palace where there is a throne like chair, rich red carpets and pillows strewn about, Sheeesh Mahal (Palace of mirrors) sparkling in the sunshine, then up onto a promenade overlooking the interior Peacock courtyard, then again through little passages and past opulently decorated rooms (one in green with mirrors and floral frescoes, another all white and oddly strewn with mirrors and elephant images. All throughout there are balconies and windows that provide beautiful vistas looking out over the lake on one side, the city on the other.
Finally, we arrive at the main interior courtyard with an excellent view of the 3 story Palace, our last stop before picking moving on to our last stop of the day, the Sahelion Ki Bari gardens.
No comments:
Post a Comment