Jaipur
capital of Rajasthan, India
Jaipur is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan in Northern India. The city, founded on 18 November 1727, is named after the Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber. The city today has a population of 3.1 million. Jaipur is known as the Pink City of India. The city is unusual among pre-modern Indian cities in the regularity of its streets, and the division of the city into six sectors by broad streets 34 m (111 ft) wide. The urban quarters are further divided by networks of gridded streets. Five quarters wrap around the east, south, and west sides of a central palace quarter, with a sixth quarter immediately to the east. The Palace quarter encloses the Hawa Mahal palace complex, formal gardens, and a small lake. Nahargarh Fort, which was the residence of the King Sawai Jai Singh II, crowns the hill in the northwest corner of the old city. The observatory, Jantar Mantar, is one of the World Heritage Sites Included on the Golden Triangle tourist circuit, along with Delhi and Agra, Jaipur is an extremely popular tourist destination in Rajasthan and India.
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- The name “Jaipur” literally means “City (Pur) of Victory (Jai)”. This is in relation to Jai Singh’s (1699-1744) victory over Aurangzeb’s planned attack against Vrindavana to destroy temples and deities. Jai Singh had heard of the planned attack and quickly went to Vrindavana to warn the people and save as many temples as possible. Many of the Vrindavana deities were brought to the area of Jaipur. When Aurangzeb arrived in Vrindavana, he found that numerous people had vacated the town and many temples were without deities. He was furious and tore down the upper storeys of the Govindaji temple until there was a loud and frightening noise that shook the ground and made Aurangzeb stop his attack and retreat. Meanwhile, Jai Singh had already taken the deities of Radha-Govindaji to Jaipur and was worshiping them in a place near Amber, called the “Palace of Clouds”. Later, as the threat of Mughal attacks decreased, Jai Singh brought the deities down into Jaipur. After this the city was further developed. Presently, Jaipur has 106 main temples and numerous other minor ones.
- Knapp Stephen, Spiritual India Handbook (2011)
- Resplendent in the hues of its noble and magnificent past, the historic city of Jaipur stands out as one of the most spectacular and culturally vibrant destinations in the world.
- Doused in an appeasing pink, Jaipur has, over the years, come to don the title of India’s “Pink City.” Rich in its historical heritage, every corner of Jaipur holds an interesting antidote and touch of old-world charm. The color of the city, too, has interesting stories & theories behind it.
- Kate Smith, in "India | Colorful Jaipur, Rajasthan The ‘Pink City' "
- Abu Turab, who had been sent to demolish the temples of Amber, returned to Court on Tuesday, the 10th August [1680]/24th Rajab, and reported that he had pulled down sixty-six temples.
- Aurangzeb. Maasir-i-alamgiri, translated into English by Sir Jadu-Nath Sarkar, Calcutta, 1947, pp. 107-120, also quoted in part in Shourie, Arun (2014). Eminent historians: Their technology, their line, their fraud. Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India : HarperCollins Publishers.
Jadunath Sarkar's A History of Jaipur: C. 1503-1938
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A History of Jaipur: C. 1503-1938
- The nucleus of Jaipur was the palace and garden of Jai Niwas, the foundations for which were laid in 1725. The building of the city and its surrounding walls and gates was started with due propitiatory rites (sankalpa) on 18 November 1727
- In p. 205
- The Chandra Mahal or principal palace is a massive building from which a magnificent view is obtained of the surrounding hills, fort and extensive gardens. The ground and other floors of the palace comprise apartments richly decorated with floral designs, embellished with quaint and beautiful buildings, adorned with mirrors, and sumptuously furnished and fitted in the most elegant style. P.210
- In "A History of Jaipur: C. 1503-1938", p. 205
- The view of Jaipur city from the hill behind it is ravishing...The city, while it is new, is assuredly the most beautiful among the ancient cities of India, because in the latter everything is old, the streets are unequal and narrow. Thus, on the contrary, has the splendor of the modern with equal wide and long streets. The principal road, which begins at the Sanganagar Gate, and goes on to the south gate, is so broad that six or seven carriages can drive abreast without difficulty and without having to touch each other or turn aside...There are many temples of idols in the city, of which one is dedicated to Na-Kalank or Vishnu, who took the form of a man without sin at the end of the world.
- Jose Tieffenthaler's description of Jaipur in 1729 in p. 207
- I am disposed to think that, in point of neatness and beauty, the Grand Chawk could scarcely be surpassed by more than half a dozen streets in England ...the most beautiful city in India
- Observation of a British officer in 1820 when the city was not well maintained, in p. 208
- The fortifications of the city ...are so like those of the Kremlin that I could almost have fancied myself at Moscow.
- Bishop Heber, in 1824 in p. 208
- The main streets are the principal bazars; on each side, under the arcades of the palaces, temples, and houses, are the shops of the artisans, who are seen working almost in the open air at their trades, the tailors, shoemakers, goldsmiths, armourers, pastry-cooks, confectioners, copper-smiths, etc. The grain merchants occupy very spacious huts of thatch, constructed in as sort of coarse lattice work…t in the midst of the main streets. The stalls are removed whenever, the Rajah issued from his palace. Delhi has only one similar road, namely the Chandni Chowk: but at Jaipur all the roads s resemble it and bear that name.
- Observations of a French Scholar, a guest of the Governor-General, made in 1832, p. 209
- The ordinary houses have been built with the stone of the hillocks around. The houses of a higher rank, built of the same materials, are plastered with a lime cement of brilliant whiteness. The cement is sometime polished like stucco…Most of the temples and palaces have facings of white marble. There is no hut, no ruined building, no rubbish heap. The city has the look of what it really is, n entirely new town, which has not been subjected to the horrors of the war. In general, the architecture of Jaipur is of a very elegant style.
- Observations of a French Scholar, a guest of the Governor-General, made in 1832, p. 209
- ...a vision of daring and dainty loveliness, of story of rosy masonry and delicate overhanging balconies and latticed windows, soaring with tier after tier of fanciful architecture in a pyramidal form, a very mountain of airy and audacious beauty, through the thousdnad pierced screens and gilded arches of which the Indian air blows cool over the flt roofs of the very highest house. Alladin’s magician could have called into existence no more marvelous abode.
- Sir Edwin Arnold describes the structure as of Sarcenic Order of architecture, in p. 210
- The most noticeable of the buildings here are the Diwan-i-Khas, Diwan-i-Aam, the Astronomical Observatory and the temples of Brajanandji and Anand Krishnaji.
- In p. 206
- Jaisingh collected and studied all the available astronomical works...Several European works were translated into Sanskrit under his orders, particularly Euclid’s elements, with a treatise on plane and spherical trigonometry; and on the construction and use of logarithms...and also a treatise on conical sections...maps and globes of the Ferenghis were obtained from Surat.
- G.R. Kaye, on the efforts made by Jai Singh to set up the Astronomical Observatory in Jaipur, in p. 213
- Jai Singh is claimed to have devised the Samrat Yantra, the Jaiprakash, and the Ram Yantra. These three instruments are indeed peculiar to his Observatorries, and must be to some extent attributed to his personal ingenuity.
- G.R. Kaye on the astronomical instruments which were established at the Jantar Mantar in Jaipur, in p. 214
- His royal highness, the Prince of Wales, laid the foundation stone of Albert Hall in Jaipur (6 February, 1876)… a modern palace was built outside the city, amidst extensive grounds and shady trees, and named Rambagh Palace, as an improved residence for Royalty.
- in p. 364. Rambagh Palace is now a heritage hotel
