Citadel of the Sun

Sunday 4th May

- the Mehrangarh Fort
- the Umaid Bhawan Palace
- the streets of Jodhpur

it seems that we have been trying to visit the Mehrangarh Fort that practically acts as our vaulted ceiling for days; perhaps its constant presence above had been nagging at us. an entire morning spent within its unbreachable walls proved that you can never see too many forts, not least when their exteriors are so dramatic and their interiors so beautiful.

another early breakfast revealed the increased numbers of guests now staying at Yogi's - it no longer felt like 'our' hotel! the previous evening, Raj had told us that they have a fairly constant number of guests all year round even in the height of summer and monsoon season, the majority on the basis of personal recommendation rather than from a guidebook, and we can believe him. a little slower in service as a result, we nevertheless had plenty of time to walk the surprisingly short but consequently rather steep path from close to Yogi's to the entrance of the Mehrangarh Fort, also known a little colourfully as the 'Citadel of the Sun.'

'right, lads, tomorrow we attack at dawn!'
'no thanks, sir, we'd rather not.'

we were the first non-group booking visitors in and picked up an audio guide tour headphone set after incessant recommendations from others we had met. you can understand why; the Fort is arranged for visitors in a very professional, international manner, the audio guide rich in detail and narrated in the mellifluous tones of a man with a voice somewhere between Omar Sharif and Brian Blessed. the current maharaja also makes the odd comment. although he and his family no longer live in the Fort, they are largely responsible for rescuing it from locked and abandoned ruin in the 1970s. so derelict was the Fort that the first money they made during restoration was the sale of cartloads of bat guano to farmers as fertiliser.

it is difficult to imagine such decay now. resplendent with carved palaces and strong fortifications, Mehrangarh is an amalgamation of many of the best aspects of royal Rajput residences we have seen so far. it has the numerous gates at right angles to each other to prevent the momentum of elephants in attempts to breach them - in fact, the Fort has never been taken by siege or attack.

but they did try - cannon ball marks on the outer gate walls, Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur

for the Rajputs, even the cannons had to be decorated

the gates themselves have large spikes at elephant head height to further deter such charges.

the Fort has the added advantage of being incredibly high up; the guide states that the top of the citadel's ramparts lie a dizzying 400 feet down the perpendicular cliff to the old city (and Yogi's!) below. the palace towers above still further, with balconies and oriel windows riddled with carvings, haveli style.






but the Fort has a darker side as well. the handprints on the wall inside the last gate belong to a former maharaja's widows, marking their penultimate act before their terrible (and already outlawed by that time) act of sati.

furthermore, the Fort's initial construction turfed out a holy hermit who lived up here; he cursed its building and the Gods were only appeased after one man volunteered to be walled up alive within the fortifications as a sacrifice.

the haveli style jali latticework carving is especially notable at Mehrangarh because there is so much of it. from the zenana women's quarters to the Jhanki Mahal or Queen's Palace, the needs of purdah coupled with a desire to impress has resulted in the majority of the outside of the palace buildings featuring the magnificent detailing we have come to love in Rajasthan.


the standards are maintained inside the Fort palaces' various but interconnected courtyards.

the Phool Mahal, or Flower Palace, is a pleasure hall for singing and dancing, hence the entirely practical and necessary gold filigree ceiling and stained glass windows.

the Takhat Vilas room is filled with glinting metal and glass adornments, as well as a ceiling festooned with giant Christmas tree baubles!

the Moti Mahal, or Pearl Palace, where crushed seashells were added to the plaster to give the walls a pearly sheen among the rich brocades and multi-coloured stained glass.

liveried staff wait besides opium tea instruments, Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur

halls now exhibiting solid silver howdahs (elephant seats) and guided palanquins mix with beautifully carved, water tempered steel swords and extravagantly fashioned weapons of war. these are always a key aspect of any Marwari state, such as Jodhpur, possibly because Marwar means, er, 'land of death'!

a six man palanquin - that's going to be especially heavy to carry on your shoulders!

palanquin detail, Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur

carved sword hilt, Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur

sword blade detail, Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur

decorated pistol in the shape of a god, Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur

engraved axe head, Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur

hall of jewelled, decorated cradles for successive maharajas as babes!

all of this opulence can be overwhelming. however, there is an architectural coda that is worth mentioning; the over-extenuated arches that hang over the balcony windows are meant to represent thatched roofs, harking back to a tougher world that the maharajas would rarely have seen, even if it was the one occupied by almost all of their subjects.

the last of the maharajas?

we spent almost four hours inside the citadel, which gives you a good idea as to the quality of its interior and the sheer size of the place.






the views it affords over the city on all directions are spectacular, especially the area North of the Fort, which is filled with a greater number of blue buildings than we had seen elsewhere and which the audio guide describes as one of the city's oldest parts.

view East over the royal crematorium buildings and outer fortifications

looking North, over the ramparts and old blue city

looking South over Jodhpur from the ramparts of the Mehrangarh Fort

even though we had spent much of the day out of the sun's direct rays and the Fort understandably receives a near constant breeze due to its height, the day was noticeably hot. since we don't tend to notice the heat in the same way as when we arrived, we took this as a sign to take cover for a while.

first we visited the museum's Western-standard shop. then retracing our steps - carefully - down the stone-flagged path to Yogi's, followed by a few hours' rest and journal writing. on the way in, Bunty said that everything was still on for tomorrow's film set session.

in the late afternoon we thought we'd grab a rickshaw to the Umaid Bhawan Palace, the building that is most dominant on the skyline South of the Fort. it's where the maharaja now actually lives, although half of the building is now a guests-only entry five star premium hotel. we walked down to the clock tower square and noticed how littered the roads were and how smoggy the air seemed to be. as a Sunday, there were a great deal of people about and Philippa eventually bought some bangles from the women clustered around the base of the clock tower.

en masse and from a distance the bangles were a sea of twinkling colours, but up close many of them were rather tacky. we finally left the square and yet more bothersome, aggressive beggar children and hopped on the Wold's Slowest Rickshaw to the Palace.

from the ramparts of the Fort, Umaid Bhawan seems an almost Taj Mahal-like structure through the haze, but up close it feels much more like a government building or some arm of the UN.

we tried to walk the gardens but did little more than tour the driveway, an unusual number of security men making sure that we didn't disturb the very high price paying guests. the whole atmosphere was isolationist and rather sterile; we hoped that the interiors were good enough to offset that for the guests!

defeated, we walked back down the best tarmac road in Rajasthan from the Palace, the city of Jodhpur smothered in an unpleasant smoggy pall, the Fort almost invisible. the road back ran past lines of antique and reproduction furniture shops full of both real and copied relics from the state's rich heritage. we rummaged around Paradise Obscure Arts for a while, full of junk and bits of old things, unearthing some nice bells and brass ornaments. Edd got rather excited by an elephant bell (like a cow bell, only appropriately bigger and more extravagant, with a marvellous rich tone), but its starting price was high and it weighed an absolute ton - we couldn't imagine sending it through the post!

before we caught a rickshaw back to the clock tower, we went around a department store - a rarity in the India that we had seen - that we had noticed on the way. it was rather like a huge Poundstretcher, selling garish tat to a clientele of middle class Indians. we couldn't think why a noticeable police presence was needed outside somewhere selling nasty belts, 70s pimp shirts and poor quality saris at not at all cheap prices. there was a huge section that should have been marked Where Shoes Go To Die, while the 'XL' shirts would not have got even half of the way around Edd's neck. it was a hilarious, kitsch experience.

walking from the clock tower to Yogi's, we really noticed the pollution; Philippa thought Jodhpur the dirtiest place we'd been. its narrow winding streets certainly amplify any problems, but there was no denying that today appeared to be quite bad. by the time that we were back at Yogi's we both badly needed another shower, which we delayed only enough to do a little blogging and emailing. dinner was again taken upstairs, with many new guests now in evidence. we crashed to bed with the evening barely begun but feeling quite tired, also knowing that we'd have to get up at 5:30am tomorrow for this film thing. we'd left tomorrow - our last full day in Jodhpur - open as a flexible day, so why not be an extra in an Indian film?

hope this finds all readers happy and healthy

edd & phillipa