The superb Ganesh Pol in Amber Fort is covered with frescos and mosaics.

Jaipur
The Pink City

After independence, Jaipur (known as the Pink City) became the capital of Rajasthan. It is a busy city where camels, auto-rickshaws, buses, and cars share the road ways. Pedestrians and shoppers jam the bazaars of the old city which are packed with shops selling textiles, puppets, jewelry, trinkets, camel skin shoes (mojiris), blue pottery and more. During the wedding season, an occasional wedding procession with grooms on white horses followed by a throng of well wishers and musicians, winds its way through the traffic.
Jaipur is named after its founder, Maharaja Jai Singh II who lived from 1693 to 1743. Jai Singh traced his lineage to the Rajput clan of Kachhwahas who ruled from Amber Fort. As the wealth of the kingdom expanded, the meager water supply and lack of space to accommodate an expanding population at Amber prompted Jai Singh to establish a new city which he named after himself.
Work began on the new city in 1727. It was laid out according to principals of town planning in an ancient Hindu treatise on architecture, the Shilpa Shastra. Built on a grid system consisting of nine rectangles or sectors, the main streets were intersected at right angles by secondary streets, which were further criss-crossed by lanes and byways. Different sectors were allotted for different professions. The most central sector contains the city palace, the administrative quarter, the Jantar Mantar and the women's palaces.
Following a tradition dating from a visit by the Prince of Wales in 1876 when the city was painted pink in his honor, the old city must (by law) be painted a deep pink color. However, I have read one account that stated the city was painted pink long before the Prince of Wales' visit. Nonetheless, it is a story which continues to circulate and is accepted as being correct.

To view photographs of our visits to Jaipur's historical sites,
click on each link below.

Related Web Sites

• Vinayj's Jaipur Page The city, statistics, the people, fairs & festivals, tourist destinations
• India Tourist Office web site Jaipur
• Jaipur Search Tourism section has lots of information on Jaipur.
• India Profile article "The Hawa Mahal-A Fanciful Facade"
• India Profile article "Jaipur, Tradition and Splendor"
• The Odyessy Andrew Dispatch--"Hot Time In The Old City" personal account of visit to Jaipur
• Cal Tech Photographs of Jaipur