The Land of Ranas and Maharanas ( September 2023)

 The Chittaurgarh fort is a backdrop of many stories of valour and sacrifice. This includes the story about Meera who devoted her life in bhakti of Shri Krishna, Panna dhai who saved baby prince Udai Singh from the attack by his own uncle by sacrificing her own son, self immolation by Padmawati (Padmini), the beautiful queen of Ratan Singh to escape falling in the hands of Allauddin Khilji who was mesmerized by her beauty.

The fort was huge, longish ( half a kilometer by 4 km approximately), standing on the top of a mountain surrounded by valley on all the sides. Rana Pratap with whom Chittaur is associated actually lived there only in his teens. But he spent his life  unsuccessfully trying to win it back from Akbar to whom it was lost by his father Udai Singh II.

A few monuments in the fort are open to public, the erstwhile royal family still occupies most of the living quarters. There are many temples, moats, two towers all built in different periods of history. The most disturbing one was of-course the site of self-immolation of Padmavati. As told by our guide, it was supposedly a huge square fiery pit in which the queen and her entourage threw themselves. The pit is now filled up with sand and no building to commemorate the event has been allowed to come up on the site. The event however is unforgotten in the local art; pictures/prints commemorating it are ubiquitous.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fort was very green, thanks to the late rains in September of 23, and was full of Sitaphal ( Custard apple) trees. Apparently they even extract fibre from the tree to spin it in cloth. Sarees made from this fibre are sold at all curio shops. Another item omnipresent at all souvenir shops is a dohar which includes a sheet infused with herbs supposedly a panacea for all aches and pains. The dohar is prepared by the Bheel community which lives in the surrounding hills and is fiercely loyal to the Ranas of Mewar.

It was worth the half day it took to visit it and we were soon on our way to Udaipur, the beautiful city established by Udai Singh II circa 1560.

 The most imposing structure of this city is the City Palace, stand on the shores of lake Picchola. The lake also has many islands with smaller palaces or gardens on them, now converted into hotels. This region is very hilly with many lakes giving  the apt title "city of lakes" to Udaipur. Unlike the northern part of Rajasthan which is dry having desert climate, Udaipur is more like an oasis, or rather a hill station.

The above picture of the palace is from our hotel window. 

The palace is still belongs to the erstwhile Royal family and the management is in their control. The tour of the palace is quite engaging. The Rajputs believe that they are descendants of Lord Ram and this gives them the divine right to rule. 

Like almost all Rajput palaces it has a Janana (Ladies) section which is really screened off from everywhere and a Mardana (men) section with the durbar area. There were lots of steep steps to navigate the various floors in different sections. 

The fort was a maze of corridors, chowks, rooms, gardens all with frescos and inlaid Jharokas. Each chowk had many frescos and inlaid artifacts. The adjoining picture of the beautifully inlaid peacock is just one of the many examples. Furniture, kitchen utensils, armaments were on ample display, but the jewels were not. The luxurious ambience was palpable.

Recently the current erstwhile royal family had a wedding and the mandap prepared for the ceremony was preserved in situ. Very traditional decor but everything seemed to be made of silver.  There are a few exclusive palaces within the compound of the city palace. One of them is a luxury hotel, another is a convention center and yet another is current residence of the members of the family.

 

 

We also visited the Crystal Gallery which is in Fateh Prakash Palace next door to the city palace. We were the only visitors to this section, something to do with the high entrance fee, I suppose. The ground floor is a huge Durbar Hall with plush carpets and huge portraits of all the Ranas looking down upon us mortals. I guess the recent G20 meeting which took place in this hall must have made the attendees feel somewhat similar.

In the upper floor gallery, overlooking the durbar hall, is a quaint collection of crystal.  Apparently the whole collection was custom ordered by Rana Sajjan Singh and Rana Fateh Singh in 1880s from The F & C Osler in England. Only recently been put on display, the collection consists of lamps, whole beds, chawar ( old style fans) chandeliers, tables, hookahs, chairs, sofas, thrones, shrines ... all made of crystal. 

 The opulent lifestyle of the Maharajas of various princely states is evident from the fact that many of them (Udaipur, Gwalior, Patiala) bought a lot of crystal at a time when the governance of the country was rapidly being usurped by the British. Osler had an outlet in India before it had an outlet in London. Strangely the Ranas and Maharanas who were so opposed to the Mughal rulers did not see anything wrong in cozying up to the British. This was also evident in the history of Jagmandir Palace.

Jagmandir Palace is on a small island in the Pichhola lake. It is first mentioned in history as the lavish hiding place of Prince Khurram (Shah Jehan) who rebelled against his father the Mughal emperor Jehangir. Later during the first war of India's independence in 1857, the Maharaja gave asylum to the families of British officers and provided them this Palace to live in.

Today it has an uber-luxurious heritage restaurant  still run by the erstwhile royal family, hosting grand weddings of some of the most rich in the world. 

A picture of lit up Jagmandir Palace from a boat when we were going for a dinner at the Restaurant inside. The marble elephants overlooking the lake were very beautiful and have found mention in history as a signature of the beauty of Jagmandir Palace. 

Details of a corner of the frescos on the roof of the dinning hall at Jagmandir Palace. 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Men trying to confine/control/subjugate women is an integral part of our culture evidence of that was aplently evident in Udaipur. Saheliyon ki Bari is a beautiful garden palace with a number of fountains and small pools all constructed for the women of the royal family. Women were not allowed to experience even rain outside. This  enclosed area was created so that the womenfolk of the royal family can experience nature away from the prying of eyes. Of who? Other Rajputs? Non royal folk?

The sculptures were very beautiful, the swans were almost life like. Most of the fountains still work making the Bari a very cool place. It also has multiple ponds, one of them is full of lotus plants. Yet others were used for playing with coloured water on Holi. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A hidden gem of Udaipur, which we loved, was the trek up the Badi lake. This is a sliver of a valley in the north of the city which is still not developed fully for tourism. It has a short trek up the hill which offers stunning views of the lake and the surrounding mountains in their verdant resplendence. It  is not  without danger since their are no steps, no barricades as yet, only a dirt track for the trekkers. It seemed to be a favorite of couples for shooting their pre-wedding videos.

Jains and Jain Temples Of Mewar

In my youth I was apathetic to the concept of religion and abhorrent to rituals ( was brought up in an Arya Samaj-Vaishnav family). As one grows up one becomes more tolerant and realize that world is not binary. Religion is not just the guiding light for morality and studies have shown that religion / faith boosts mental health.  At least I find it so.  I sometimes regret not bringing up my children "with faith", wondering if that would have equipped them better to deal with stress of life.  Married into a Jain family I find Jainism is probably closer to a scientific bent of mind than any other, the little that I may know about other religions.

In ancient India, Jainism was a marked contrast to the Brahminical views of Hinduism, specially creationism, it probably grew as a reaction to it. It does not try to answer the questions of the birth of the Universe nor who created it. It serves more to be the beacon for the correct path to follow in the present life with Ahimsa ( non- Violence), Kshama (forgiveness), Samyak Jeevan ( moderate life) as the basic tenets.  Live the present life correctly without worrying about where one came from and where would one go after death. There is no data for life before and after death and drawing any conclusions like creationism, concept of heaven and hell, rebirth is pointless. 

Jains revere cleanliness to the point of obsession. Jain temples are primarily made of marble available aplenty in this region of Rajasthan. A cool, clean floor is so welcoming in the heat of Rajasthan. Except for a few days of the year,  Jains worship not as a community but individually. They worship not God directly but through the Tirthankars who showed the path to God. The chief offerings are uncooked rice, coconut kernel pieces, cloves, and uncooked lotus seeds... none of which creates any mess. Besides these they offer a lamp/deepak with ghee as fuel that only adds to the peaceful atmosphere of the mandir. 

With non-violence imbued in their basic nature,  the Jain were never rulers but were more likely to be in occupations related to finance, business or finance ministers of various rulers. Most of the historical Jain religious centers are in the eastern part of India but over time they migrated all over India probably for  patronage of the ruling class and business opportunities. For last few hundred years they have been concentrated in the west part of India where they played influential role in the governance and business.  Mewar region of Rajasthan and Gujarat has seen strong influence of Jains. Consequently a number of Jain temples, built in the last 10 centuries, dot this region. So a trip to Mewar was definitely going to include some of them. Mewar boasts of two of the most beautiful ancient temples of Jains, Dilwara temple complex and Ranakpur temple complex, both were constructed by Shvetamber Jains, under the patronage of Rajput rulers, the Ranas of Mewar.

Dilwara Temple complex: This complex is situated on one of the highest mountains of Mount Abu. The beauty of the place can not be described. It can only be admired. The intricate carvings in the roof of the cloisters can be seen even from the ground.  Photography inside the temple complex is not allowed so this is a representative picture from the wiki. 

Ranakpur Temple Complex: Ranakpur lies in the middle of the Arawali mountains... not easy to get there. While the quality of marble, I am told, is not as good as that in Dilwara, the carving is as intricate. There is a vast complex of religious buildings and living quarters for the saints around the main temple. Once again the beauty of the place can only be admired. We were allowed to take pictures except that of the Tirthankars. A few pictures from visit to the temple complex during our trip are included here.

This collage  shows some of the carved roof of the innumerable cloister surrounding the main deity. Even though they are at such a height, no effort has been spared in the elaborate carvings and no two are identical.

Here is another collage showing the minutely carved pillars of the main hall and the cloisters. See how clean, light and airy the whole temple is... practically invites you to sit down to relax and maybe meditate.

The whole structure looks imposing from outside. The picture below actually shows only one side of it. The temple itself has a huge underground with the purpose of safe keeping all the statues in the event of an attack. Contingencies :). 

 A short detour on the way to Kumbhalgarh it was certainly worth it.