HAWA MAHAL
City Palace, Jaipur

The Hawa Mahal or, Palace of the Winds, was built in 1799 so that the women of the Palace could view the outside world without breaking Purdah.In her book "A Princess Remembers: The Memoirs of the Maharini of Jaipur, Gayatri Devi describes her first visit to the Hawa Mahal-circa 1940.

"…the zenana ladies were led by the palace eunuchs through a labyrinth of dark tunnels and passages and up and down ramps to a gallery that overlooked the main street…Through the lacy, carved marble screen of our own pavilion, perched like this on the top of the palace wall, we could get a clear view beneath us of…the procession through the streets of the town."

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Learn more about the Hawa Mahal in Jaipur