Thursday, 1 February 2018

An Indulgence in India Sun 28th Jan

A day trip to Jodhpur. The main pull here is the mighty Mehrangarh. This muscular Fort towers over the blue city of Jodhpur. Called the Blue City because of the number of Brahmins who could paint their houses blue to denote their highest caste. The jumble of blue cubes lie within the 10kms of medieval city walls. The tangle of lanes loses you in a maze of markets.
Rudyard Kipling in one of his more perceptive moments described this building as "being built by angels and giants". I think that he was referring to the contrast between the delicately carved tracery and beautiful decoration, with the huge malevolent presence of the whole.
In 1459 the Rathore leader Rao Jodha chose this rocky ridge to build his fortress.
It was both bastion and quarry as it rose to staggering proportions. Jodhpur lay on the vital trade route between Delhi and Gujarat.The kingdom grew rich on the profits from sandalwood, opium, dates and copper.


The work of the angels also allows the women to see but not be seen.


Here you can see a part of the city's walls and the blue Brahmin houses, if you expand the picture.


This room shows something of the influence of the British Raj. It was in here that the Maharaja met with the representatives of the Empire.The coloured balls are Christmas decorations and you can see Christian iconography in the wall paintings.


Probably the most sumptuous room in the entire palace decorated with lashings of gold leaf and lit by brightly coloured stained glass.

If you know what this is, you shouldn't. It is the kit for using opium. Not the hookah that is for smoking scented tobacco, but the two horns are for filtering the opium in water.


This is an elephant howdah, that is a saddle for riding an elephant. This is no ordinary howdah, but the one presented by no less than the Mogul Emperor Akbar.


A distant view of the present Maharaja's Palace. It's a heady mix of Art Deco meets Rajasthani architecture. It is also 70% luxury hotel.


We also visited the Mandore Gardens which were a combination of monuments, mango trees and.............



monkeys.


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