A tour with a difference- Rajasthan
This was a tour of a different nature in the sense that we (my husband and I) were on a historical journey to the glorious Rajasthan . The splendour of the Rajput valour and art is still alive in Rajasthan through the palaces and monumenta and the way of life of the residents. The photos are uploaded in the photo section of my blog in sulekha and they can be seen by logging in www.sarojaramanujam.sulekha.com and in my orkut page nrsimhabhrthya for my friends in orkut .
We started from Chennai on
We started for our sight seeing at
Next we visited the City palace and museum right in front of Jantharmanthar..The architectural beauty of the palace displays both rajasthani and mogul styles. The most prominent feature of the palace is two giant jars of silver in which the water of
We went to the Nagargarh fort where the mansion built by Madhosingh stands. It was quite small but well planned with self contained apartments for the royal family each provided with a lobby, bath and kitchen. The architecture was a blend of Indian and European style. There are two canions at the entrance of the fort which alone are the witnesses of the past glory of the fort which has fallen into ruins.
Nearby is the Raigarh fort which sports the biggest cannon in
In the evening we went to the Amer palace which is a blend of Indian and mogul architecture and it is a beauty with carvings and inlaid works in marble.
We also enjoyed the exclusive features of Jaipur, such as camels and elephants being used as carriers like we use bullocks in the other parts of the country. Jaipur is picturesque and well developed compared with the other parts of the state not only because it is a capital but also because the kings of Jaipur like Jaisingh, were more interested in development of their state rather than opposing the foreign invaders. For that reason they were criticized as being lacking in Rajput spirit.
The old city of
We started in the morning at
There is also a typical South Indian Vaishnavite temple here known as Vaikuntaperumal kovil known to the locals as Ranganathji temple in which Tamil -speaking bhattacharyas are doing puja.
There is a temple for Hanuman here called Tulasi manasa mandir with the statue of Tulasidas inside and statues of other gods and goddesses as well. Whole Tulasiramayana is written on the walls, the scene of Bhagavatgeetha is depicted at the entrance, a very small but impressive temple.
17-9-2008
We started from Pushkar in the morning and reached Jodhpur in the afternoon. We were met in the evening by the brother of Sunitha, one of my contacts through orkut,who is in US now and well versed in Gita. He, Anand Arya, came with his wife Dimple Arya and took us to his house to meet his parents. We spent nice time with them and had a taste of real Rajasthani food.
18-9-2008
We went to Jasvanth thada which houses the tomb of jasvanth singh and others. The building is quite pretty made of marble. Then we went to Usmadbhavan palace which is partly converted into a heritage hotel while the rest is the museum. It is made of a special kind of sandstone called Chittar and the architecture is Indo-Saracen. It is a beautiful place with imposing halls and courtyards and there are numerous curios and a large collection of clocks from all parts of the world.
Our next destination was Mehrang garh fort which is a famous landmark of
Lastly we went to Mandoregardens, seeing which I thought that the name bandhar garden would have been more appropriate because it abounded in black faced monkeys! Besides the monkeys there are figures of all Hindu gods and goddesses sculpted on a single rock.
We started towards
In Kankroli and Nathdvara it was a different experience altogether from the sight seeing mood we were in so far. In Kankroli , though we had a good darsan, people were pushing us when we entered the sannidhi and I was afraid that it would be worse in Nathdvara which is even more famous than Kankroli, So when we traveled to Nathdvara from Kankroli I was praying to Lord Sreenathji to help us to have good darsan without any difficulty.
We reached
We first went to saheliyon ki bhari , a nice garden constructed for the sake of the royal ladies and then to the Prathap memorial. Though Udai singh constructed the palace and lived there
Next was the city palace museum. It also contains many paintings of Prathap and royal emblems etc. and the hall constructed by Udai singh to dispense justice.
Lastly we went to the museum of folk arts, Bharatheeya lok kala mandal. There were puppets and figures of all folk arts and tribal people and their gods etc and we had an opportunity to see a puppet show also and it was very nice and more refined than the usual ones you expect to see. We left
In the evening we went to see the sound and light show in Chithore fort and it was fabulous. By mere lighting through laser beams they brought the whole history of the place alive. We saw Padmini jumping into the fire, Meera singing to Giridhari, Uday sing being saved by Panna and her son being killed etc all by means of lighting effects.
We visited Chirthore fort in the morning and I bee-lined to Meera temple. It was nice to stand where Meera was standing and sang to her Giridhari. It was of additional joy to me that this was my birthday! We saw the chithore fort from outside only and the
After lunch we started for Kotah to catch the train back to Chennai. It was quite an experience to travel through the roads that were not! The roads were being laid and everywhere there was a diversion and we ended up at a crossroad and our driver took a wrong road which ended abruptly! Only way for him to get across is to climb down a steep incline and he did just that only to find that even it ended abruptly. Only alternative being to climb a steep incline to get into platform and then to the road across. We have given up all hopes but our driver must have driven across the desert or been an expert in stunt acts because he simply climbed up the steep incline and took us across! Finally we came to Kotah at
Thus our trip was different , full of excitement, curiosity, devotion and adventure!
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