Hawa Mahal – The Palace of Air

I have decided that I am going to continue writing on my visit to Jaipur as I visit each place. I want to compile my blogs and then keep it as my travel guide. Sometimes small experiences go a long way to make a big difference in life. Take for example now, we were just on a project and we sneaked time to visit Jaipur. Aint that wonderful? We saw the City Palace, Jaipur and then the next day we went to see the Hawa Mahal.

After the visit to Jaipur City Palace we were more than satisfied. But we had so many places to visit and so much to do. The next day we decided to go to see Hawa Mahal. Anna told me that it was a very famous monument and world over people come to see this monument. It was apparently built by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh. We could reach there by 8 in the morning and roam there till 7 in the evening when the palace closes for the public.

We thought we could finish Hawa Mahal and then settle down to watch the World Cup Finals. India was playing after such a long time in the finals. Who would want to miss that? My friend’s father was put up at the Sheraton and he had invited us over to spend the night watching the match from his room.

So we went to Hawa Mahal. We crossed the Badi Chaupad and went towards the south of Jaipur where the palace is located. We saw the palace from a distance but we had to take a side road to reach the palace. We had to take innumerable rights and lefts with the background of the palace looming over us and finally entered the palace.

It literally means the palace of the wind. On the way we saw tourists shopping for so many stuff in the streets of Jaipur. The entrance to this palace was grand and had magnificent architecture. We entered through an exquisitely decorated door. The palace in toto looked like a beehive as it had innumerable latticed windows. The red stones out of which the palace has been constructed made this palace look like a pink beehive. The Hawa Mahal had a large courtyard with one big room. In the courtyard there was a two storied structure. There were many fountains in the courtyard which made us feel we were in some angel’s garden.

“Wow! What a place.” Sohrab exclaimed. He didn’t realize that he said it so loudly that people around started looking back and wondering who spoke so loudly.

We hushed him and went into the museum. The building was at an elevation. The elevated structure had lot of decorations in it. The building was very thin and we went into the building and up a ramp which reached us on the upper floor. Here we found lot of antiques and the museum was a real storehouse of artifacts.

This palace was for the women. In India till the 1950’s and 1960’s the women weren’t allowed to go out without a veil. So this palace was built specially for them. The veil was an after effect of the Mughal rule obviously. So as we walked into the palace we saw many windows which had lot of designs on them. These windows had screens out of carved stones. This was so that the women didn’t have to put a veil while looking through these windows. There were 953 of them in all. These windows were called by the locals as “jharokas”.I read it in the pamphlet that was with me. They could see the outer world and what is happening on the outside.

I was struck by the magnificent piece of architecture that this place was. Sohrab and Anna were making best use of their cameras and went clicking away. Ramola and K.P were just walking around understanding every aspect of this place. The inner walls of the palace had beautiful carvings on them and Anna told me that these modellings were created by Lal Chand Utsa.

There were 5 storeys in the palace and the whole monument was pyramid shaped. In fact, I noticed that the palace was actually like a crown.  We walked past many galleries in the edge of the palace. The palace was built in such a way that the small window circulated cooler air during the months of summer season.  The palace was an extension of the City Palace and it was a real majestic experience to be here.

We went to the first floor of the palace. The construction was elegant and there was patio in front of the floors. The beehive suddenly became bigger and we saw the small windows with their grills at closer quarters. The outer front looked like a beehive with octagonal bays. The inner side of the palace had just simple rooms. There were different colors of marble flooring in the rooms. There were panels inside which formed layers.

Finally we reached the top of the palace. We got a full view of the whole city from the top. This panoramic view was wonderful and set our pulses racing. We could see beautiful mountains in the distance and the Amber Fort too. There was a dust rising in the distance and a person next to me said that was the dust arising from the Thar Desert.

“Look the City Palace, where we went yesterday,” cried out Ramola in excitement. Indeed we saw the lovely Jaipur City Palace and also saw the Jantar Mantar.

“Tomorrow we will go to Jantar Mantar,” I said looking at my calendar and said we have four days left. Decided wherever you have to go.

We got down from the top floor. Anna told me this palace was maintained by the Government of Rajasthan.

With lovely architecture to boast about and beautiful galleries to experience, this was a grand piece of excellent architecture from the past. I felt really nice coming here and immediately decided to write about it but actually could write much later.

Parting Say: If you want to live history, come here.