Remembering The Princely State: Rajputana - I

Rajasthan is today one of state know for its royalness although it is progressing quite fast with the pace of time but still we cannot ignore the royal past of  'Rajputana', as Rajasthan known as before 1949.

An 1876 engraving of Rajputs, from the Illustrated London News
Source: Wikipedia

This desert State of India, covers some 342,000 sq km in the north-western region of India and today is divided into 33 districts for administrative purposes but in older time it was mainly divided into 6 regions:
- Shekhawati
- Mewar
- Marwar
- Mewat
- Dhundhar
- Hadoti

Each of these region have its own historical importance and strong presence and majority of rulers over these regions were Rajputs, a clan known for its bravery and royalness.

Shekhawati:

It is located in northeast part of Rajasthan originated by name of Shekhawat Rajputs and famous for Haveli's of this region.

A general myth about this region as portrayed to most tourist is that its either some village or town but in actual its area is 13784 square kilometers and include multiple villages and towns. With this single region there used to be multiple small princely states ruled by Shekhawats and known as Thikans.

It was founded by Maharao Shekha Ji (Some time I feel going throgh historical facts is a kind of fantasy itself, believe me. More you explore it more you get into love with it :) I want to share here about interesting birth story of Maharao Sheka Ji also but let me save it for upcoming posts)

Shekhawati was formerly a wealthy but lawless land at some point of time on the trade route between the ports of the Arabian Sea and the fertile Ganges Valley. And today some of leading business house of country are from this region. In older time marwaris from this region settled in the new coastal cities, and they built havelis for their families back home which were symbols of their success and homes.

Map of Vedic India

Reference of this region is found in ancient history also, as said during the Mahabharata period it was known as Matsya Kingdom and extended to the Sarasvati River. This was because the first clan ruling this region, in the Mahabharata period, were descendants of fishermen. So the Vedas were supposed to be written and compiled on this land of brave Rajputs.

Few of must visit places in Shekhawati are butnot limited to Mandawa Fort, Dundlod Fort, Surajgarh Fort, Fatehpur, Nawalgarh.

I will be sharing more about other regions too in upcoming posts.

The Journey Resume...

It feels good to be back blog after such a long time. long time? Yeah its really a long time since my last post. In such a schedule of travel I am back with my words : ) Have many topic and experiences to share now and confused where to start from. Anyways I will be share some interesting articl very soon. Meanhwile here is one of awesome capture of 'Blue City' - Jodhpur.

Jodhpur - Blue City

The ubiquitous blueness of Jodhpur is an exuberant display of human resilience against the stark Thar desert which surrounds the town. Against the bleak backdrop of parched brown earth the blue city exerts itself magnificently.

Happy blogging !!

The Ship of Desert - Must Ride (Camel Fair)

Camels have always been a integral part of Rajasthan, even no travel to Rajasthan is complete with out a Camel Safari. Whether it has been old time centuries ago in era of different rulers of an era of progressing towards modernization, Camel have always been a main attraction in Rajasthan, even the first picture comes in mind when thinking about Rajasthan is of a Camel and Desert. Stories such as of Dhola and Maru makes it more fascinating.

Camel festival is spectacular opportunity to witness this fascinating ship of the Desert in its most lively form. the vibrant Event is organized at Bikaner every year in the month of January.

Camel Festival - Rajasthan

The Festival begins with a colorful procession of the bedecked camels against the red sandstone backdrop of the Junagarh fort. the festivity advances with the interesting competitions like camel fur cutting, camel milking and camel racing. The camels bejeweled with heavy ornaments and colorful accessories, display amazing footwork, dancing gracefully to the slightest direction of their trainers.

Hundreds of tourists and thousand o locals and dignitaries rejoice in the charm of the festival. Evenings bring a rendezvous with renowned artists of Rajasthan and local fold performers jubilant skirt-swirling dancers, fire dancers, and fireworks that bedazzle the desert city. So are you missing it? :)

Famous Art & Crafts of Rajasthan

So does colorful turbans comes in your mind when you ever think about Rajasthan? As i mentioned about different old school of painting in previous post, Rajasthan and its craft is also source of endless fascination.

Craft is a wide domain and surprisingly Rajasthan is specialized in most of forms of craft. In the field of textiles, waeving, tie-dyedworks known as 'Bandhani' and block painting are very famous.

Silver jewellery is extensively used, huge and chunky, worn around the ankles arms, waist and neck.. Meenakari the art of enamelling on the gold and silver, is an exquisite craft still practiced in the town of Nathdwara, near Udaipur and Jaipur. Kundan are enamel jewellery inlaid in precius stones are also available and used widely. Emerald, Garnet, amethyst, topaz are all found locally.

On more interesting thing to look for is 'Jutis', slippers made out of lanned and dyed leather, embroidered, gouged, studded.

The strength of Rajasthani crafts is that they have been always embedded deeply in everyday lives of the pepple and were not merely produced for the court or urban market. Truly a place to find an enormous variety of objects to select from as mementos.

If we go with city based specialty, most of places have their own specialization since centuries. In older time people of those specific region were well known for their art and timely encouragement and interest from ruler of those region helped in growth of local arts. Here is some of cities with their specialty in art and craft:

Rajasthan Paintings & Bani Thani

Thanks for your overwhelming response. Frankly I never expected such response over just 4 post. Your appreciation really encourage to write more.

Received few message asking about other style and schools, basically the most important four major schools of paintings were Mewar (Udaipur), Marwar (Jodhpur - Bikaner), Dhundhar (Jaipur) and Hada (Bundi, Kota) and yes the one I shared earlier Kishangarh.

Bundi school had illustrations of religious and classical poetry along with court culture and depiction of feminine.

Jaipur school is influenced by Mughal style.

Maharaja playing polo with his favorite lady companions

Mewar school is celebrated for its lifestyle portraits developed for the various Maharanas of Mewar and Jodhpur school show whiskered men in high turbans, full of verve and passion, accompanied by dainty maidens. Paintings of the legendary Dhola Maru on camel back dominate the paintings of this region.

In continuation to previous post would love to share more about 'Bani Thani', the finest painting of the period from the brush of master artist Nihal Chand who transfigured his patron Sawant Singh (who later became a hermit) as lord Krishna and his beautiful lady mistress 'Bani Thani' as Radha. Sawant Singh fell in love with a singer in the employ of his stepmother called Bani Thani.

Bani Thani’s eyes were what drew Sawant Singh to her, and so did her singing. Seeing Bani Thani singing in his court each day helped the king’s heart grow fonder. Now Sawant Singh wrote poetry under the name of Nagari Das, and since Bani Thani was a poet in her own right too.

As an other side of coin, it somewhere shows the Sawant Singh as a poet, ruler in romance and following the 'religion of love'.

 So do you too follow the same? :)

Kishangarh Paintings - Art Inspired by Religion of Love

Rajasthan is famous for its cultural heritage, past and many more things, one among same is Art of Rajasthan. It is known for various forms of arts and when one is discussing about Arts of Rajasthan its never complete without mention of Kishangarh painting, 18th-century school of the Rājasthanī style of Indian painting that arose in the princely state of Kishangarh.

Kishangarh, today known as Marble city was once famous as birth place of Kishangarh style of paintings. On of most famous and well known painting of this school of art is 'Bani Thani' (I surely wish to dedicate a complete post for Bani Thani as there is countless words to praise it :) ).

This style of painting emerged as a unique style in 18th century when Nihal Chand, an artist of Maharaja Sawant Singh's court presented some good work for him. This form of art can be easily distinguished among other due to the sensitive, refined features of the men and women, drawn with pointed noses and chins, deeply curved eyes, and serpentine locks of hair. Their action is frequently shown to occur in large panoramic landscapes. Due to its style and focus over certain specific areas it is also know as Art Inspired by Religion of Love. The beauty of this is also  inspired by the love of Radha, Krishna, depictions of the Radha Krishna Raas Lila theme and the mythical human lover between them transcend itself to become divine love.

Rare Pictures of Jaipur

Here are few rare images of Jaipur - Pinkcity which I thought to share while mentioning about architecture of Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. (Bookmark this for more pics and videos in upcoming posts or join me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/royalregistan)

Architectural structure of Jaipur is really one of its kind. Its world wide famous because of its technical details and beauty Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II - the founder of Jaipur was a great architect and astronomer. He also had a good knowledge of Indian Vastu. This is the reason that the architecture of Jaipur is a wonderful case study for the modern architects across the world.

The construction of the city started in 1727. It took around 4 years to complete the major palaces, roads and square.  In 1853, Prince of Wales visited Jaipur; the whole city was painted pink to welcome him. Today, avenues remain painted in pink; provide a distinctive appearance to the city.

Hawa Mahal (Jaipur - 1905) 

Jaipur architecture includes all the Vastu principles and astronomical principles precisely so that Jaipur could be a prosperous and peaceful city.

The Jaipur city was divided into nine blocks, of which two consist the state buildings and palaces, with the remaining seven allotted to the public. Huge fortification walls were made along with seven strong gates (will surely write more about these in upcoming posts :) ) for the purpose of security of the city. Jaipur city is remarkable among pre-modern Indian cities for the width and regularity of its streets which are laid out into six sectors separated by broad streets of 111 ft. 111 is a holy number in Hinduism and hence considered lucky also. The commercial shops were designed in Jaipur in the multiples of nine (27), having one cross street for a planet. "Nine" signifies the nine planets of the ancient astrological zodiac, and twenty-seven signifies the 27 nakshatras. This architectural planning of Jaipur is on the basis of Indian Vastu and astronomy, and is the uniqueness of the architecture of Jaipur.

Enterance of Palace - circa 1926

In Jaipur architecture, the urban quarters were further divided by networks of girded streets. Every street is connected to main road. Because of this sort of architecture of Jaipur, nobody can wander in the streets of Jaipur whether he is familiar with the paths or not.

Today Jaipur is clearly divided in two parts, an old "Four Wall City" and a new city; having 5 stars hotels, air port, railway junction, MNCs, internationally recognized colleges, shopping malls, hospitals etc. Architecture of new city is not as per Indian Vastu and astronomy, but the architecture of new Jaipur is based on modern architectural concepts. Its really amazing to have a walk in early morning in old city when traffic is not much and the old architecture of Jaipur can be seen and enjoy easily.