Showing posts with label Jaipur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jaipur. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Jaipur, India, January 24, 2023

I must have needed a break because I didn’t get going until noon and I was back at the hotel/dump by 4 PM.

My first visit was at the Jantar Mantar which is a park with 19 astronomical instruments completed in 1734. The instruments allow the observation of astronomical positions with the naked eye.  It was interesting but I would like to see how it works.  Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II founded Jaipur but he was also a scholar in physics, mathematics and astronomy.  This is thanks to his ingenious.

The site isn’t that big-

The Unnatamsa measures the altitude of an object in the sky-

The Dakshinodak measures the altitude of the sun as well as the declination (the angular distance of a point north or south of the celestial equator) and length of the day-

The Samrat Yantra finds the time and the hour angle of the stars.  It’s a sextant which is an instrument used to determine the angle between the horizon and the sun, moon or a star to determine latitude and longitude-



Rasivalayah measures the latitude and longitude of zodiac constellations.  Here’s Sagittarius-



The Rama Yantra measures the altitude and azimuth ( the compass direction from which the light is coming) of the sun and stars-



I watched a short documentary about the place and then thought about how I take all of this for granted. Today, these are just known facts but back in the 1700s what a mystery and what geniuses first of all to be interested but also to be able to figure all of this out. Our year is 365 days and the seasons fall when they are supposed to.  Imagine if our calendar year was off and we lost a couple of days of let’s say summer every year. Over time, summer would be fall and fall would be winter etc.  Thank goodness for the scientists who did this work to understand the rotation of the Earth to allow us to live the way we do today.

They have the largest sundial in the world measuring 27 meters-


Other devices-











This one has two marble hemispherical bowls that are sundials. The inverted image of the sky falls on the slabs and the movement of the inverted shadows helps to detect the elevation, azimuth, hour angles and the exact position of stars –


They had a very good marionette show on but I only saw the last 30 seconds-


After, I went to the City Palace but did not go in as I’m a little palaced out-

I started walking home, past the Hawa Mahal street view-


Trying to take a short cut - impossible in India, I ended up in the textile market-


Details for weddings-

The traffic was nuts-


A bathroom sign-


Eventually I made it home and spent time on the rooftop but it was windy and chilly.  I walked down the street looking for supper and ended up with two slices of bread mixed up with fried egg. It was all right.

I have to leave the hostel around 5 am to catch a 6 am train to Jodhpur.  Moving on!  




Sunday, January 22, 2023

Agra to Jaipur, India, January 22, 2023

I went to Agra Fort this morning.  It’s enormous, covering 94 acres but unfortunately only about 30% can be visited-


The first entrance-

The moats-


The second entrance-

The third entrance-






Walking up the hill past the outer walls-



The Jahangiri Mahal was where the wives and concubines lived-

The carvings in the red sandstone are exquisite-






The view from where if you look really close and use your imagination, Taj Mahal is in the distance.  Keep burning India!


Muthamman Burj is an octagonal tower close to the Shah Jahan’s private hall Diwan-e-Khas, the third building.  It was built for his beloved Mumtaz Mahal between 1631-40.  It’s made of delicate marble lattices with ornamental niches so the ladies of the court could gaze out unseen. The decoration of the walls is pietra dura which is the inlay technique of using cut, fitted and highly polished stones to create images.  The chamber has a marble dome on top and is surrounded by a verandah with a beautiful carved fountain in the center.

The tower looks out over the Yamuna and has one of the best views of the Taj.  Shah Jahan and his favorite (all these favourites) daughter spent the last few years of his life, imprisoned by probably not his favourite son, Aurangzeb.  He lay on his death bed staring at Taj Mahal-



The gardens-




The side view-


Pietra dura-


Inside where the fountain is in the centre-



The last place is the Diwan -I-Am which is the hall of public audience built between 1628-1635.  It’s made of red sandstone but covered in plaster to make it look like marble.  It measures 206 x 70 feet with nine arches on the front-


and three on the side-


Inside are 40 pillars making 27 huge bays-


and a throne made of marble where the king sat-


It was also built by the Mughal Shah Jahan in typical Indian/Mughal style with arcaded dalans.  That means the room has one open side overlooking a courtyard-


From 1803-1857 the British East India Company converted it to an arsenal - just imagine! and later it was restored. 

On my way out-


I was disappointed because it was so beautiful and there were only three places to see.  Today, the military occupies over 70% of the site.  

I walked to the train station about a kilometre away, past a slum-



and arrived plenty early. Eventually I found my car-


and got settled.  I had a CC ticket which means chair car with three and two seats per row.  It’s also air conditioned.  Too bad they couldn’t do something about the bathrooms or I could do something about my bladder-


There is food available and lots of masala chai.  It’s my favourite-


The countryside is field after field-








I had planned to walk to the Backpackers Villa but decided, for next to nothing, I’d take a tuktuk.  I was very glad I did because the traffic was nuts and it appeared like I’d have had to walk along a major highway for awhile.

My hostel seems nice.  There’s a rooftop “bar” where they serve chai and have a fire every night-


I was directed to a hotel down the street for something to eat. Inside it was an old but not rubby colonial hotel (from the British era) and I remember a movie shot in South Africa that had these kind of hotels and all the ex-pats congregated there in seclusion from the chaos outside. Another woman was sitting by herself so I asked her to join me. She is from the Byron Bay area in Australia and works with textiles.  This is about her 10th time coming to India and she finds locals who do embroidery work and then imports their fabrics. She was staying at the hotel.  I looked it up and could have stayed there too for double of what I am paying but where I am is just fine because I am with the locals and I like that better than being surrounded by white people when I’m not travelling in a white country.

I’m looking forward to seeing Jaipur in the daylight!


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