Jaipur: Pics from the Pink City

We arrived in Jaipur after a pair of short flights on Kingfisher Airlines, each of which afforded the opportunity to watch the first half of an entertaining Bollywood film whose title - and ending - we never managed to catch. About half of the passengers from the small plane disembarked with us, and together we were the only people in the terminal that evening.

During the taxi ride into the city center, we passed maybe a dozen brightly lit processions and outdoor banquet halls: wedding ceremonies held on Valentine's day, featuring turbaned grooms riding atop fantastically decorated white horses or elephants, preceeded by marching bands, attendants carrying giant lanterns, and guests in their finest clothes. Fireworks spotted the dark sky. It was an impressive introduction to a city that proved to be one of the most intense places - for better and for worse - we would visit in India.

Jaipur is one of the former princely states of Rajasthan, each of which was ruled by a Hindu maharaja in the days before Indian independence. Rajasthan's history is punctuated by stark and often militaristic forms of chivalry, tested by conflicts among the various states, but especially by the complex dance between the maharajas and the Mughal emperors, as the former variously fought to the death to maintain their states' independence, or sought to accomodate and adapt to Mughal power when necessary. Jaipur's founder, Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, built the city as a new capital after moving from nearby Amber fort (about which more later) in the early 18th century. Jai Singh, following family tradition, secured his kingdom's position through judicious diplomacy with the Mughal emporers - even serving as a top general to the notorious Emperor Aurangzeb, who rewarded him with the title "Sawai," meaning "one-and-a-quarter," indicating that the maharaja was distinctly greater than the average man.

A later maharaja had Jaipur's old city painted pink to welcome the Prince of Wales when he visited in 1853; the tradition has continued, and one of the most interesting aspects of visiting the city is walking around the old town, which hosts a series of bazaars with varying specialities depending on the street. It's an amazing experience, full of sensory overload brought on by the intense colors, smells, and sounds, the painted elephants and cart-pulling camels, the traffic and the touts, and the arched arcades tunneling chaotically through the dusty and glowing pink buildings all around.

The hassle in Jaipur - from vendors, rickshaw drivers, and random passers-by - gets exhausting after a while, and the city was also our first introduction to the cultural difference between northern and southern India, one aspect of which is that northerners are often noticeably unfriendly compared to their counterparts in Kerala. But as a place to experience, it's incredible.

The images from Jaipur are worth a few posts. Here are some pics from our day wandering around the pink city. All photos in this post, except for the pink shutters and the turban vendor, are by Rachel. More in later posts.