Unforgettable Rajasthan Sojourn - II

Day 2:
Our destination for today is Udaipur. It has got multiple names such as ‘City of Romance’, ‘Venice of East’ and of course ‘City of Lakes’.

Inching closer to 'City of Lakes'

I have learnt a lot of history also as part of this trip.

Chittaurgarh, the original capital of Mewar was subjected to multiple Mughal invasions. After the third major siege, Udai Singh left the Chittaurgarh palace and finally found the place near a lake.  The climate was cooler, fertile land and abundant water supply. All the conditions were suitable for setting up the new capital of Mewar. The capital was named Udaipur and the lake was none other than the Lake Pichola.

The king got his palace built on the lake side in 16th century. Current palace complex has structures subsequently added by 22 successive Maharanas.

One of the most brave and well known Rajput rulers, Maharana Pratap succeeded Udai Singh. The battle of Haldighati against the Mughal army is still remembered for the valour of Maharana Pratap and his horse Chetak.

After a good sleep and a heavy breakfast we started off to Udaipur at around 9:30 a.m.

My seat in the car is not that of driver in this lap of our journey. Wifey is on the driver seat and I am happily stretching my legs sitting in the passenger seat. J

There is no doubt that the condition of roads is very good in Rajasthan. There are several toll booths, but it doesn’t pinches, when after paying tolls one gets really good roads to drive on.

We reached our hotel in Udaipur at 11:30 a.m. and after a brief stop, started off for local sightseeing.

After crossing the narrow bylanes of Udaipur city, we reached Jagdish temple. After a bit of struggle finally found the parking. Just outside the parking there was a board for some art classes.

There are a lot of classes being offered to cater to the tourists. These classes are for subjects ranging from cooking to drawing and other art forms. I am in no way associated to Mr Kailash here; a standard disclaimer :)

The temple has some fine work done on the white marble. The carvings are detailed and beautiful.

He has got some company...

...and he is enjoying it thoroughly

After performing prayers at the temple we went for a guided tour of City Palace. The entire palace is not open for everyone, only a part is open for general public.

The kings had pigeon service to convey any important message back to the palace. The pigeons used to fly back with the message tied on to their legs. This was more of a one way communication like the free incoming calls of the modern era mobile phones.

Erstwhile Department of Postal Services

The palace houses several belongings of Maharana Pratap like the armor, sword, shield and spear used by him in multiple battles. The armor itself weighed over 25-30 kgs.

Armor of Maharana Pratap

Elephants were part of the Mughal army against which the battle of Haldighati was fought. Maharana Pratap had an artifiicial trunk resembling an elephant's trunk worn by his loyal horse Chetak. It was used to disguise the horse as an elephant. Legend is that, the horse had placed his front legs on the trunk of Man Singh's elephant while Pratap attacked on him. Man Singh managed to duck the blow, however Chetak got injured from the sword tied to mughal elephants trunk. Maharana Pratap escaped the battle field, as the injured Chetak took his master more than 2 miles away from the battle field. Unfortunately Chetak succumbed to the injuries and died but after bringing his master to safety.

Artificial trunk on horse

There was separate area for women in the palace called Zanana Mahal. It had provision of activities that the ladies could engage in for time pass and enjoyment - swings, board games and obviously make up :).

Way to the Ladies Palace

Swing for queen

Board Games

Queen used to meet her guests here

King's dining spot

The Maharaja of Udaipur has also put on display the great silver artifact collection that the royal family owns. The collection has things ranging from horse and buggy to a small toothpick.

Front view of the horse and buggy

Exquisite silver work done in Buggy

Royal weddings take place in the palace. However, this mandap is only for the marriage of the members of royal family and is not available to public.

The silver mandap

A royal wedding was supposed to take place in palace and preparations for the same were on full swing.

We were told that the budget for Royal wedding starts approximately at 30 lakhs for 12 hours.

View from the top

Preparations in full swing

The views from the palace are simply breathtaking.

After the city palace we went for the boat ride of the Lake Pichola.

Almost all the houses in the city (at least those in vicinity of City Palace) have beautiful paintings on their walls. There are a lot many drawings of Maharana Pratap which is obvious.

We went for a cultural show in the evening called Dharohar. This is organised in the Bagore ki Haveli. The show comprises of performances by authentic folk artists from various parts of Rajasthan.

Puppet man weaving the magic without hiding the tricks of trade

Beautiful performance by graceful lady

Amazing!!! She easily managed 6 more towards the end of performance

We had our day with dinner at Natraj restaurant. The restaurant offers Rajasthani and Gujarati thali and is highly recommended. Couldn't take any photographs as I was busy in eating. :)

This brought to an end our Day 2 of the Rajasthan Sojourn.