The Blue city! - Rao Jodha's paradise

Having left Jaisalmer on the holy day of Holi, we were a little concerned if we would be stopped by some naughty drunken miscreant who would demand money for not coloring your face! Wow! That was a pretty long statement and the fear remained for the whole of 4 hours of our drive down to Jodhpur. We were indeed fortunate enough coz we realized that was it was the gruntled driver’s trick to hold us back in Jaisalmer till he played Holi with this family!

Fortunately for us, the musicians here, turned out to be far better than the ones in Jaisalmer. I had a chance to listen to Kamas and Pantuvarali ragas (my fav) in the traditional form. I am yet to figure the difference between Rajasthani folk and Hindustani classical. The rendering was amazing and I felt transported back in time nearly 500 years back when these songs were actually sung in front of the king in a durbar. Wish I had recorded the songs!

After a light dinner and a deep sleep, we were ready to explore the blue city! Yes the buildings of the brahmins were originally painted in blue to demarcate their homes. Over time, however most people started painting their homes blue to escape the blaze of the burning sun! And that’s why the name!

There seem to have been many fights among the various cities of the Rajputana itself while the Mughals seemed to make the situation worse. This forced the Rajputs to side with the British. This is evident from the construction of the Umaid Bhavan palace. It is a combination of both eastern and western architectural style. It was infact designed by Edwardian architect Henry Vaughan Lanchester. A part of this hotel has been leased to the Taj group. And we were shown the ensuite room which costs 4 lacs per night! What a royal night it would be!

Interestingly the father of the current king Gajendra Singh was involved with a woman who is said to have seduced him and finally brought about his death. And that is one reason why there is no reference to her or his father in the entire palace. One is reminded of the film 'Zubeidaa' where the king of “Fatehpur” played by Manoj Bajpai, gets killed in a plane crash thanks to his wife ‘Zubeidaa’ played by Karishma Kapoor. One is often left intrigued by these relationships and the effect it could have on the families of those concerned. I really wonder if Zubeidaa (or whatever was the lady’s name) had any control over the affairs of things to the extent portrayed.

Oh of course how could I forget the royal cremation ground with an attached bath. This left me wondering was not death common to all mortals, something that equals all mortals at some point. Isn’t it the for the same reason, the moment the person is death the body is placed on the ground to denote the ashes would go back to the ashes indeed. Not that it was unique to Jodhpur, but securing a place in the local church by the Western kings to bury their dead seems to reinforce the fact that death does not achieve its purpose atleast with those living.

The Mehrangarh (derived from Mihir- descendants of the sun deity) fort by Rao Jodha is an impressive of architecture atop of a hill(nearly 400 ft above the city..wow!) . What was most impressive about the fort was the way holes were carved in the 4-5 foot wall. These holes allowed hot oil to be poured over the invading enemies. The beauty of these holes enabled the gunmen to aim both horizontally and diagonally while not exposing themselves. Of all the treasures in this fort( you would find most of them on Wikipedia) the one that attracted my attention the most was the opium filter!

Opium it seems was or rather is still is a way of welcoming guests. So a host was required to invite his / her guest by feeding them with three drops of opium with their right palm. This greeting was exchanged by the guest to the host. So when I asked the importance of opium as a welcome “dose”, the guide said that it was reserved for festivities and the opium improved the rigor of the guests to carry them through the fesitvities! What intrigued me the most was the idol of Siva linga at the top of the filter! Well God was excited himself with the drug I don’t we as humans could abstain from such temptations!! Lol! Oh btw opium is still sold legally in some places in Rajasthan and illegally imported from Madhya Pradesh! Now that’s definitely interesting!

The fort does have an interesting collection of palanquins (note not dholis! …the distinction is based where the handles are fixed to the main body! ) . It is believed that the former queen of Jodhpur did not wish to be seen in public while visiting London. So a modern palanquin was made specially for her visit and she landed straight into the veiled palanquin and taken around! I would have definitely cloister phobic in that one. I wonder if that was a muse that Her Highness must have used to avert the trip to a foreign land! Looks like luck did not favor her and she got herself caught in a tight compartment !

While leaving the fort through the Fattehpol gate we noticed the handprints belonging to the wives of the queens who committed Sati over their husbands funeral pyre. These imprints are indeed touching as they remind you of people who were ready to burn themselves for a cause which could be either protecting themselves from the enemies (when the fort was in captivity) or to join their loved ones in death. Well one wonders if some of these were forced incidents, the guide reassured that the choice always rested with the wives. I was ready to believe that as the number of imprints was far less than the number of wives that a king usually maintained (sometimes 15 at a time!). The Sati practice that most women were forced into during the later years was not part of tradition, rather a result of the fear or insecurity that was carried forward through the years!

And thus ended our trip to Rajasthan and we took a flight back to Delhi! (flights are pretty cheap from Delhi ..could be as low as Rs. 3,000 if booked early)