Tour De Royals : Jaipur and Ranthambore
All these years i have been watching Ranthambore on television only , i have seen valmik thapar and fatesingh share their experiences , i have seen machli hunting crocodile , sita and her cubs but never could visit the park my self until now and thanks to my sister who decided to marry in jaipur.
This was my second visit to the pink city , on my first visit i was carrying a 5 mp point and shoot digital camera , my first one , this time i was upgraded. This blog is about the city of royals and my experiences in jaipur and ranthambore national park.
Jaipur
Jaipur is probably the oldest planned city established by Maharaja Jai Singh and was painted pink ( not exactly pink but thats what dumb prince thought it is ) to welcome prince of wales. Jaipur since year 1050 till date has been ruled by more than 40 kings and the capital has been shifted from dosa to amer to jaipur.
The old city is well planned in those days with tall walls and 9 gates , city has expanded beyond these walls now so much so that amer which is about 10 kms is almost like Jaipurs suburb.
Tourist attractions of old city include Hawa Mahal , city palace , Jantar Manatar and Albert hall museum. All of them are well maintained and preserved.
Albert hall has old artifacts dating back from 1050 and some even before that and is must visit for art lovers where as hawa mahal is an architectural marvel and city palace museum is where you will explore jaipurs history. On a sunny day Jantar mantar is more likely to attract tech lovers and engineers , it was constructed by Swai Jaisingh to study astronomy.
Outskirts of the city has attractions which more suit my interest , the forts.
Amer /Amber fort
One of the most well preserved forts i have ever seen with ingenious water harvesting , pumping and air cooling system . The fort is constructed from lime stone and beautiful paintings are done by vegetable colors and gold . Most beautiful part of the fort however is the glass chamber. Amer was the caiptal of Raja Bharmal and Man singh after him. I was surprised how well the fort has held itself , I did ask our guide about the wars fought here and his reply was "Rajputs were so brave they were feared by mugals and all others , no one dare wage a war on them" and i couldnt resist thinking "If they were so brave why they were always fighting for someone else ? muguls first and then british ?".
The water harvesting is achieved by storing water in huge tanks , water is carried to these tanks by long canals from each part of the road . These canals are at places exposed to the flowing air creating a cooling effect . Places like kings and queens chamber , the gardens and diwan - e-khas has water tanks at their top , hidden well by the domes , water was carried to them manually . Water from these tanks would drip on the khas curtains during summer , flowing breeze would create a cooling effect.
Fort has three stage water pumping system , rather a water pulling system which pumps water from a reservoir at the base to the top most floor using pulleys and huge gears.
The fort has a secret tunnel which opens at nearby jaigarh fort. Our guide kept mentioning that this is a underground tunnel even though description at its opening said its underground only till it leaves the forts premises. One can take a walk to this tunnel to jaigarh fort even now but the tunnel closes at 4 PM. A battery operated vehicles do run from Jaigarh fort to Amber through this tunnel and costs about 400 rs per head.
Jaigarh Fort
Construction of jaigarh fort started in year 1050 but was eventually completed 700 years after. Fort was built as a defensive fortress and holds the huge wheeled cannon "Jai Van" , said to be largest wheeled cannon in the world. Its bore is 35 ft ( Barrel length 20ft) in length and cannon with its cart weighs over 50 tons. It was test fired only once , the cannon ball fell at 55km from the fort and a lake was formed , named golimar lake. It was never used or taken to any war after that.
Jaigarh also has rainwater harvesting mechanism , the rain water is collected into a huge tank and the length of collecting canals is more than 5kms. The huge tank was also a secret storage place for royal wealth. Raja Mansigh was the chief commander or akbar and fought under one condition , whatever territory he captures will be merged in mugal empire but the wealth captured will remain with the Rajputs. He must have stored lot of wealth in that water tank. It is said that during the emergency in 80s , Indira gandhi did order excavation of this tank and seized undisclosed quantity of gold , Jaipur - Delhi highway was blocked for 48 hrs and 27 army trucks left Jaigarh. No one knows how many of them carried gold.
The museum on Jaigarh fort holds many weapons and old photographs , old cannons mention the war they were used in. Few of them mention that Jaipur kings fought bravely against Maratha invasion and they even managed to defeat the great maratha commander Bajirao Peshwa. It was mentioned on a info board that "Peshwa was aksed to flee" , that did hurt my Maratha honor . To the best of my knowledge , Bajirao peshwa never lost a war , no wonder he was considered the greatest commanders of all times even ahead of Napoleon.
We went back to the hotel and tried to check the reference ..did not find any reference where it mentioned that Rajput's defeted Maratha's . A book by famous historian Jadunath Sarkar does mentions battles of Laslot , Tung and Patan , between Jaipur and One of the Maratha Army chiefs Mahadji Scindia , Maratha army did had momentary set back but always managed to emerge victorious in the end.
If there are any historians reading this ,either correct me or correct the museums.
Nahargarh Fort
3 storied Nahargarh was Queens rest house , for 9 of them. Has beautiful paintings and 9 apartments which are exact replica of each other. From Nahargarh one can have breathtaking view of Jaipur city .
Gaitor ki Chatriya
Since morning we had been asking our taxi driver all kinds of questions , "What is there at Moti Dongri ? , Where we can get good Kulfi in Jaipur ? " and his answer to all of them was "There is nothing there or I am not sure " , at the end of day after we took more time at the museums than other usual travelers , our driver finally decided to change his defined route and change his 8 hours a day schedule by a few minutes and take us to a place where he said we would like.
He did take us to a handloom shop first though to settle the commission and then took us to Gaitor Ki Chatriya ..the royal crematorium. whenever a king or a member of his immediate family ( Except Queen/ Queens) passes away , their final rites are done here and a tomb is build in their memory. Queens however final rites are done outside jaipur , not sure about the reason , their number could be one.
We paid the nominal entry fee of 10 rs at the entrance , and the collector asked if we would like to have a guide for 50rs only , we more than happy to have one . He signaled a man who was sitting quietly in the corner reading newspaper by now.
The man was not more than the navigator he would take us to the tomb " This belongs to Madho Singh , he was huge , used to have 5 ltrs of milk every day" , thats it nothing more. He finished the tour withing 15 minutes and left us with ample time to photograph , took his fees and left swiftly , i accidentally had a look at his shoes they were similar to the one used by police , then i had a good look at his trousers as well , police trousers , the shirt however was hidden behind the civilian looking jacket.
Anyways we didnt expect full history in 50rs and he did return good enough value so we didnt complain.
The tombs are artistically build and the carvings on the marbel are exquisite. And as not many tourists visit this place , it is peaceful and no facebook photographer disturbed my frame.
Ranthambore
Ranthambore from jaipur is just 2 hrs journey by train , nearest train station is Sawai Madhopur. Ranthambore was the hunting ground of the brave Maharajas before the vision of Fatesingh turned it into a forest and then to a tiger reserve. The sanctuary spans across 14000 sq kms and is said to house 45 tigers. Fortunately though only 20% of it is allowed for the tourists to visit. Zone 2 and 3 of the forest cover a lake and the famous ranthambore fort and the lake where most of the documentaries and advertisements for ranthambore are shot. But you will have to be extremely luck or well connected to visit these zones. Bookings are done first and zones to visit are decided randomly or by lottery system. Later on in discussion with the resort owner i found out that no one is lucky enough to get zone 2 and 3 , you will have to be well connected or pay a little extra.
But atleast on paper you can visit zones 1 to 10 by Gypsey or Canter.
On our first safari we were accompanied by 3 noisy delhities , who i thought had landed to ranthambore from a late night party , they were noisy , wearing bright colored clothes and were scary enough to scare away any wild animals and even birds. My brother had to ask them to shut up finally.
but i guess the animals are used to seeing such samples . We heard the news of tiger sighting in first 5 minutes of the safari itself. Our driver accelerated the gypsey but to my disappointment there were already 10 cars who had the same news. And for the next 1 hour we just waited for our turn and prayed that tiger stays there. Guards were yelling and each other , drivers shouting racing their and cars engine and here came the forest official ... "To one side everybody , I am the one with authority here" he seem to say and did mange to tuck in his car at a vantage location and his guest came out with a point and shoot camera , sat back relaxed and i think finally managed to spot the tiger. I felt pity for the tiger. Finally after much hassle we did get to see tiger ... the T-24 , biggest male in Ranthambore , he was huge more than 12 ft in length and weighted more than 300 kg for sure but he was not willing to show us his face.
Our guard was very happy as if he has seen the tiger for the first time , so as our driver. The joy was not of seeing tiger , happy tourists meant more reward. Once tiger exhibition was over our guard and driver were in great hurry to finish up the safari and get the reward , we had to remind them that we dont mind watching other animals and enjoying jungle as well.
The moment i waited for so many years turned out to be disappointment ... I felt angry and the insult of the beast and the jungle. I guess rain gods shared my disappointment as they rained all the next day and washed out rest of the safaris or should i say jungle picnics.
Later my resort manager told me that most of the guards are employed by the big resorts and are not really aware of the jungle and are not well informed ..it was true , our guard the other day was able to name only one bird ..the very common kingfisher.
I am now looking forward to tadoba really..
This was my second visit to the pink city , on my first visit i was carrying a 5 mp point and shoot digital camera , my first one , this time i was upgraded. This blog is about the city of royals and my experiences in jaipur and ranthambore national park.
Jaipur
Jaipur is probably the oldest planned city established by Maharaja Jai Singh and was painted pink ( not exactly pink but thats what dumb prince thought it is ) to welcome prince of wales. Jaipur since year 1050 till date has been ruled by more than 40 kings and the capital has been shifted from dosa to amer to jaipur.
The old city is well planned in those days with tall walls and 9 gates , city has expanded beyond these walls now so much so that amer which is about 10 kms is almost like Jaipurs suburb.
Tourist attractions of old city include Hawa Mahal , city palace , Jantar Manatar and Albert hall museum. All of them are well maintained and preserved.
Albert hall has old artifacts dating back from 1050 and some even before that and is must visit for art lovers where as hawa mahal is an architectural marvel and city palace museum is where you will explore jaipurs history. On a sunny day Jantar mantar is more likely to attract tech lovers and engineers , it was constructed by Swai Jaisingh to study astronomy.
Outskirts of the city has attractions which more suit my interest , the forts.
 |
| Albert Hall Museum |
 |
| Albert Hall Museum |
 |
| Hawa Mahal |
 |
| City Palace Entrance |
Amer /Amber fort
One of the most well preserved forts i have ever seen with ingenious water harvesting , pumping and air cooling system . The fort is constructed from lime stone and beautiful paintings are done by vegetable colors and gold . Most beautiful part of the fort however is the glass chamber. Amer was the caiptal of Raja Bharmal and Man singh after him. I was surprised how well the fort has held itself , I did ask our guide about the wars fought here and his reply was "Rajputs were so brave they were feared by mugals and all others , no one dare wage a war on them" and i couldnt resist thinking "If they were so brave why they were always fighting for someone else ? muguls first and then british ?".
The water harvesting is achieved by storing water in huge tanks , water is carried to these tanks by long canals from each part of the road . These canals are at places exposed to the flowing air creating a cooling effect . Places like kings and queens chamber , the gardens and diwan - e-khas has water tanks at their top , hidden well by the domes , water was carried to them manually . Water from these tanks would drip on the khas curtains during summer , flowing breeze would create a cooling effect.
Fort has three stage water pumping system , rather a water pulling system which pumps water from a reservoir at the base to the top most floor using pulleys and huge gears.
The fort has a secret tunnel which opens at nearby jaigarh fort. Our guide kept mentioning that this is a underground tunnel even though description at its opening said its underground only till it leaves the forts premises. One can take a walk to this tunnel to jaigarh fort even now but the tunnel closes at 4 PM. A battery operated vehicles do run from Jaigarh fort to Amber through this tunnel and costs about 400 rs per head.
_m.jpg) |
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| Diwan - E - Khas |
 |
| Glass Chamber |
Jaigarh Fort
Construction of jaigarh fort started in year 1050 but was eventually completed 700 years after. Fort was built as a defensive fortress and holds the huge wheeled cannon "Jai Van" , said to be largest wheeled cannon in the world. Its bore is 35 ft ( Barrel length 20ft) in length and cannon with its cart weighs over 50 tons. It was test fired only once , the cannon ball fell at 55km from the fort and a lake was formed , named golimar lake. It was never used or taken to any war after that.
Jaigarh also has rainwater harvesting mechanism , the rain water is collected into a huge tank and the length of collecting canals is more than 5kms. The huge tank was also a secret storage place for royal wealth. Raja Mansigh was the chief commander or akbar and fought under one condition , whatever territory he captures will be merged in mugal empire but the wealth captured will remain with the Rajputs. He must have stored lot of wealth in that water tank. It is said that during the emergency in 80s , Indira gandhi did order excavation of this tank and seized undisclosed quantity of gold , Jaipur - Delhi highway was blocked for 48 hrs and 27 army trucks left Jaigarh. No one knows how many of them carried gold.
The museum on Jaigarh fort holds many weapons and old photographs , old cannons mention the war they were used in. Few of them mention that Jaipur kings fought bravely against Maratha invasion and they even managed to defeat the great maratha commander Bajirao Peshwa. It was mentioned on a info board that "Peshwa was aksed to flee" , that did hurt my Maratha honor . To the best of my knowledge , Bajirao peshwa never lost a war , no wonder he was considered the greatest commanders of all times even ahead of Napoleon.
We went back to the hotel and tried to check the reference ..did not find any reference where it mentioned that Rajput's defeted Maratha's . A book by famous historian Jadunath Sarkar does mentions battles of Laslot , Tung and Patan , between Jaipur and One of the Maratha Army chiefs Mahadji Scindia , Maratha army did had momentary set back but always managed to emerge victorious in the end.
If there are any historians reading this ,either correct me or correct the museums.
 |
| Jai Van |
 |
| Water Collecting Canal |
 |
| Valves for water routing |
Nahargarh Fort
3 storied Nahargarh was Queens rest house , for 9 of them. Has beautiful paintings and 9 apartments which are exact replica of each other. From Nahargarh one can have breathtaking view of Jaipur city .
Gaitor ki Chatriya
Since morning we had been asking our taxi driver all kinds of questions , "What is there at Moti Dongri ? , Where we can get good Kulfi in Jaipur ? " and his answer to all of them was "There is nothing there or I am not sure " , at the end of day after we took more time at the museums than other usual travelers , our driver finally decided to change his defined route and change his 8 hours a day schedule by a few minutes and take us to a place where he said we would like.
He did take us to a handloom shop first though to settle the commission and then took us to Gaitor Ki Chatriya ..the royal crematorium. whenever a king or a member of his immediate family ( Except Queen/ Queens) passes away , their final rites are done here and a tomb is build in their memory. Queens however final rites are done outside jaipur , not sure about the reason , their number could be one.
We paid the nominal entry fee of 10 rs at the entrance , and the collector asked if we would like to have a guide for 50rs only , we more than happy to have one . He signaled a man who was sitting quietly in the corner reading newspaper by now.
The man was not more than the navigator he would take us to the tomb " This belongs to Madho Singh , he was huge , used to have 5 ltrs of milk every day" , thats it nothing more. He finished the tour withing 15 minutes and left us with ample time to photograph , took his fees and left swiftly , i accidentally had a look at his shoes they were similar to the one used by police , then i had a good look at his trousers as well , police trousers , the shirt however was hidden behind the civilian looking jacket.
Anyways we didnt expect full history in 50rs and he did return good enough value so we didnt complain.
The tombs are artistically build and the carvings on the marbel are exquisite. And as not many tourists visit this place , it is peaceful and no facebook photographer disturbed my frame.
Ranthambore
Ranthambore from jaipur is just 2 hrs journey by train , nearest train station is Sawai Madhopur. Ranthambore was the hunting ground of the brave Maharajas before the vision of Fatesingh turned it into a forest and then to a tiger reserve. The sanctuary spans across 14000 sq kms and is said to house 45 tigers. Fortunately though only 20% of it is allowed for the tourists to visit. Zone 2 and 3 of the forest cover a lake and the famous ranthambore fort and the lake where most of the documentaries and advertisements for ranthambore are shot. But you will have to be extremely luck or well connected to visit these zones. Bookings are done first and zones to visit are decided randomly or by lottery system. Later on in discussion with the resort owner i found out that no one is lucky enough to get zone 2 and 3 , you will have to be well connected or pay a little extra.
But atleast on paper you can visit zones 1 to 10 by Gypsey or Canter.
On our first safari we were accompanied by 3 noisy delhities , who i thought had landed to ranthambore from a late night party , they were noisy , wearing bright colored clothes and were scary enough to scare away any wild animals and even birds. My brother had to ask them to shut up finally.
but i guess the animals are used to seeing such samples . We heard the news of tiger sighting in first 5 minutes of the safari itself. Our driver accelerated the gypsey but to my disappointment there were already 10 cars who had the same news. And for the next 1 hour we just waited for our turn and prayed that tiger stays there. Guards were yelling and each other , drivers shouting racing their and cars engine and here came the forest official ... "To one side everybody , I am the one with authority here" he seem to say and did mange to tuck in his car at a vantage location and his guest came out with a point and shoot camera , sat back relaxed and i think finally managed to spot the tiger. I felt pity for the tiger. Finally after much hassle we did get to see tiger ... the T-24 , biggest male in Ranthambore , he was huge more than 12 ft in length and weighted more than 300 kg for sure but he was not willing to show us his face.
Our guard was very happy as if he has seen the tiger for the first time , so as our driver. The joy was not of seeing tiger , happy tourists meant more reward. Once tiger exhibition was over our guard and driver were in great hurry to finish up the safari and get the reward , we had to remind them that we dont mind watching other animals and enjoying jungle as well.
The moment i waited for so many years turned out to be disappointment ... I felt angry and the insult of the beast and the jungle. I guess rain gods shared my disappointment as they rained all the next day and washed out rest of the safaris or should i say jungle picnics.
Later my resort manager told me that most of the guards are employed by the big resorts and are not really aware of the jungle and are not well informed ..it was true , our guard the other day was able to name only one bird ..the very common kingfisher.
I am now looking forward to tadoba really..
Awesome Write and beautiful Photos....
ReplyDelete@Kedar, thanks for sharing this impeccable piece on Jaipur. The pink city is surely a city of great historical significance. I love the architecture in Jaipur. I am also a great fan of the Jaipuri handicrafts. Hope I get to visit Jaipur soon.
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ReplyDeleteVery informational blog post. When it comes to Jaipur, the pink city has so much to offer in terms of colorful tourist attractions, delicious food and luxurious accommodation. However, there are plenty of hotels in Jaipur suiting every kind of budget.
ReplyDeleteThe post is very nice and helpful. Thanks for sharing the post . Ranthambor is just 160 kms away from jaipur and an amazig place to visit. plan holiday and enjoy your vacation in nature's lap. TO have a wonderful stay, Read my new post Best Resorts to Stay in Ranthambore
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