We arose early this morning to drive 11 km north to see the Amber Palace, which is an unsurpassed Rajput edifice of the Medieval period. Man Sing I was the first King of Jaipur and built it for economic and political reasons. He took 12 wives in order to secure peace in the region between local Islamic and Hindu factions, Sing being Hindu but much of India having been conquered by Islamic forces earlier.
We rode painted elephants up to the Amber Palace and it was quite an adventure. After starting our day with breakfast and birthday cake (the hotel erroneously transcribed Rhonda's birthday as July 9) that was a hard act to beat, but beat it we did. As we were riding atop the elephants, touts (hawkers/sellers) harassed us the moment we got out of the van, then again whilst riding to the palace, and yet again by a third group once we entered the main gates of the palace (actually it happened again leaving the palace and walking down to the parking lot to depart the mountaintop palace.)
Amber Fort
They plopped hats on your head, shoved lucky elephant (the God of Luck = Ganesh) necklaces, garlands of marigolds in your hands, and had the elephant "drivers" or mahoots put sandalwood carvings up on our perches, all the time demanding outrageous prices. They'd quote sums in US dollars, not Rupees (1000 Rupees = 20 dollars CDN) so, of course, tourists were unwilling. Then the prices came down as the touts wanted to make a sale. Once over the shock of it all, it became quite an entertaining game. At one point a tout said to Shauna, "You are killing me without a knife!" Leanne was able to say “no thank you” 68 times in a 10 minute time span. We gave them AAA+++ for perseverance ;)
After the Amber Palace, we had a drive-by of the Water Palace built by a different King Singh of Jaipur, a very interesting tour of the Observatory (yup, a different King of Jaipur, but this one was Moslem, not Hindu) where there were all many different sun dials of different shapes and sizes and accuracies also dating from the medieval period. We were really impressed at how time measurement was achieved and at the perfect accuracy of the structures and devices. They really do know exactly when the monsoon rains will come and how much rain or how strong the season will be. It was all quite amazing.
The life of a King was nothing in comparison to that of his wives, consorts or concubines. Magic spells, poison and treachery were common place - a Shakespeare novel in real time. Each wife trying to outdo each other. If a wife got pregnant she was then untouched for 2 - 1/2 years giving her time to recuperate and raise her baby.
At the age of 6, the sons would be taken away and boarded at school to learn the arts, politics, music, etc. The wives spent up to 6 hours a day preening each part of their body to make them more appealing to the King. Their clothes and jewelry and bangles were so heavy they would be hoisted by rope from one level of the palace to the other.
If a King died, the wives would either commit suicide or throw themselves upon a fire to die. One King who died in war had over 40,000 women kill themselves by making an extraordinarily large fire, and all day and night the women threw themselves in. The empower had tried to reach the palace prior to this to stop it but did not make it in time. This still happens in parts of India amongst some tribes.
From there we went to the King's Palace in the centre of Jaipur. This particular King was a mathematician and designed the first planned city in Asia. Everything was based on multiples of 9 as there were 8 planets which were controlled by just 1 sun. The King controlled his people just as the sun did, so the number 9 was considered auspicious: 9 gates, the width of roads were 9, 18, 27, etc. with the largest being 108 ft. wide.
We were so hot and thirsty we stopped at a tea and spice shop, had a rejuvenating cup of kava (saffron, cinnamon & cardamom ?) and learned about the healing qualities of tea and spices.
We also made pit stops at block printing textile and gem cutting & polishing shops, which were quite interesting as well.
King’s Palace
Block Printing
Snake Charmer
Finally we had a nice light lunch (as the heat & humidity sap your energy AND your appetite) and commenced our 5.5 hour drive to Agra where we will see the Taj Mahal tomorrow morning at sunrise.
We realize our time is coming to a close here in India. It would be a difficult place to live as life is so very hard for so many people.
Namaste.
..the hotties from India, not that kind of "hot"!!!