DAY 18, APRIL 8, JAIPUR

JANTAR MANTAR

It's really quite a story
How the Maharajah in his glory
Not only built a palace and a town
With wide streets for driving round,
But designed and built an observatory.


PALACE MUSEUM

The inlaid mirror hall,
The royal audience hall.
Clothes the royals wore,
Weapons used in war.
Art works on the walls.


No morning exercise today. Last night was too short.

Helen has recovered from her diarrhea.

We set out at 8:00 AM to have another look in the old town of Jaipur, where we passed but didn't stop at the dairy market. This has nothing to do with the pasteurized milk we drink here. This is fresh (unpasteurized) milk sold directly from farmers to customers. Indians are in the habit of boiling there milk and, being in the habit, they do it even with pasteurized milk. The milk produced here is from water buffaloes because Indian cows, whose milk is more nutritious, have a low yield. Also, the beef we eat here is from water buffaloes. The “sacred cows” on the streets have owners. They're smart enough to find their way home at night. People feed them so they (the people) will have good karma. You can buy alfalfa to feed them. Buffalo are too stupid to find their way home. So they don't wander the streets.

We stopped and photographed the most famous monument of Jaipur, the Palace of the Wind. built circa 1797. It isn't a palace at all but a five-story facade (looking like a palace) with 942 screened windows through which the ladies of the Maharajah's household could look out onto the street without being seen.

Then we toured the remarkable observatory built in 1728 by Maharajah Sawai Jai Singh II and repaired in 1901. It has 16 approximately house-size “instruments” for closely monitoring the heavens. Some amount to enormous, highly accurate sun dials, which measure the local time (when the sun is shining). Some I still don't understand so well. Astrology was and is very important in people's lives. So it was important to precisely know the timing of certain astronomic events such as eclipses. The maharajah, with the “instruments” he designed, was an expert in such measurements.

This maharajah came into power at age 12. He had an audience with the Mughal emperor at age 13. The emperor was very impressed with him, said he was the equivalent of 1-1/4 of any other maharajah and gave him the title “Sawai” meaning 1-1/4, and it has been used in the names of all his successors.

Next we toured the City Palace Museum of Jaipur, built in 1727 by the same Maharajah Sawai Jai Singh II as was his home when he founded the city of Jaipur (when he moved from the Amber Fort Palace).

We ended our morning tour with a visit to the Carpet and Textile Mahal Hand Block Factory. We were shown how designs are added to long sheets of cloth by the hand block technique. And we saw weavers at work. Then we were given snacks and a sales pitch for carpets and had the opportunity to purchase carpets and/or select and purchase long sheets of decorated cloth to be made the same day into women's garments and delivered to the hotel in the evening.

On our way back to the hotel we passed a religious procession and stopped to photograph it. There was a lead “float” pulled by a tractor, followed by a long string of people, mostly women. walking. They are doing a two-day walk totaling 32 kilometers to a temple. They receive food and overnight lodging from villagers along their route.

In the early evening, out front of the hotel, we had a very short elephant ride.

We had our usual happy hour just before dinner. Som gave a long report of his five-day arranged marriage wedding. He really got wound up. Although Som is generally fairly easy to understand, I unfortunately had a lot of trouble on this “lecture” and failed to understand most of it. I really like Som. He's a great guy. You can't help but like him. Dorji in Bhutan was also very likable.

Bernie :-)