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Wednesday 21 October 2015

In Pink City, Jaipur

Pink City Jaipur was established by Maharaja Jai Singh II in 1727. Most of the construction of walled city is in pink or reddish sand stone & hence the name. Another anecdote about the city is that the city was painted pink all over during visit of Prince of Wales in 1878.

The city was designed by Vidyadhar Bhattacharya based on ancient Vastu Shastra. It has an fortified enclosure having seven large strong gates. It is spread over huge nine rectangular blocks two of which were retained for palace, gardens & administrative buildings and rest seven blocks were allocated to the general public.

In 1799 five story high Hawa Mahal was added to the Palace complex to enable royal ladies to watch processions & street scenes without being seen as they had to maintain purdah. The Palace & Hawa Mahal were meant for royals & the elite. All commoners now & no royals. Some photos of commoners in walled city:

View of Pink City from Hawa Mahal. In the year 1900 population was 1.6 lacs & now it is 66 lacs 
Royal couple in Royal City

Flower sellers of Pink city in the morning 

Open air saloon near Hawa Mahal- Rs. 20 for hair cut & Rs. 10 for shave 

Near Jantar Mantar the Observatory. In the end it is the birds who occupy palaces 

Near Hawa Mahal 

Waiting for the customers 

A group of foreign tourists enjoying rickshaw ride near City Palace



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