Heritage- Jodhpur, the Capital of Kingdom Marwar

During my road-trip to Rajasthan, from Jaipur I made my way to Jodhpur which is popularly known as Blue City. Because, most of the houses are painted in blue. This second largest city in Rajasthan is also called Sun City because of the bright sunlight! Yes, quite bright to wear sunglasses! The main attraction in the city is the seven storied Mehrangarh Fort majestically standing on a hilltop.

Jaswant Thada

Rajasthan has many fancy cenotaphs, locally referred to as Chatri, and Jaswanth Thada is one such fancy cenotaphs in Jodhpur. It is a memorial built for Maharaja Jaswant Singh. Built of marble this large building has very intricately carved marble and also arches. Around it is a cremation ground for Jodhpur rulers. Just a night before I was there I saw someone from the family was cremated and the ashes were being collected, may be there was a new chatri around for him/her.

Mehrangarh Fort

Mehrangarh Fort is an imposing structure in the city and can be seen from anywhere in the city. Standing on a hill hilltop it is seven stories high and each floor has an ornate room with specific name like Moti (pearl) Mahal, Sheesh (glass) Mahal, Phool (flower) Mahal and so on. The museum has a huge collection of armory that belonged to the rulers. Also interesting to see was a collection of palanquins.

Ceiling of Phool Mahal

In the premises located is Mata Chamunda temple, who was favorite Goddess of the royal family. During Navaratri-Dussehrra festival worshippers visit this temple in huge numbers. In 2008, there was a stampede here and many lost their lives. Now, the crowd is controlled by guards.

Another palace in the city is Umed Palace, a residence of the royal descendants and a part is occupied and managed by the Taj Palace hotels. This modern age palace, displays pictures of some of the royal descendants. Also built on a hilltop the palace has a collection of vintage cars owned by then Raja. I would skip this palace and spend more time in Mehrangarh Fort itself or head out to the nearby villages to know their very interesting lifestyle. This is my opinion.

Without spending much time at Umed Palace I went to explore the market. Jodhpur is popular for the Rajasthani mawa kachori. Indeed they are very tasty if you have a sweet tooth! Rich and delicious :) With the taste of mawa kachori I left for Jaisalmer looking forward to experience the real Indian desert!

Canon Collection- Mehrangarh Fort

Next, I went on a day long excursion to nearby Bishnoi and Pali villages nestled in the desert. It was a wonderful experience to learn about the people and their beliefs. With an amazement in the heart I headed out to Jaisalmer looking forward to the sand dunes!

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Scrapbook- A Travel Blog by Kusum Sanu is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.