Trip To Rajasthan-Jaipur and Pushkar

Day 2-Jaipur

Kunal had booked a cab for me. The Driver Narendra was his office driver only.So he was the one who will take me to Jaipur,Pushkar and then Ranthambore.I took leave of the Rathores-Kunal ,Nishi and Shashank. From now on I would be travelling alone and I was thrilled and a little  scared too.From Jodhpur, Jaipur is some 5 hours journey.On the way Narendra was telling his story –how he became a driver from being a servant and now has his own cab.In between he also showed me the 2 of the vegetables that are used for making the sabzi that  I was talking about in my previous blog.it was growing in  the bushes on both sides along the roads.On the way I made a stop to  Pushkar  which is a town in the Ajmer district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. According to the Hindu scripture Padma Purana, Brahma saw the jhantu Vajranabha (Vajranash in another version) trying to kill his children and harassing people. He immediately slew the demon with his weapon, the lotus-flower. In this process, the lotus petals fell on the ground at three places, creating three lakes: the Pushkar Lake or Jyeshta Pushkar (greatest or first Pushkar), the Madya Pushkar (middle Pushkar) Lake, and Kanishta Pushkar (lowest or youngest Pushkar) lake. When Brahma came down to the earth, he named the place where the flower ("pushpa") fell from Brahma's hand ("kar") as "Pushkar".
Brahma then decided to perform a yajna (fire-sacrifice) at the main Pushkar Lake. To perform his yajna peacefully without being attacked by the demons, he created the hills around the Pushkar — Ratnagiri in the south, Nilgiri in the north, Sanchoora in the west and Suryagiri in the east — and positioned gods there to protect the yajna performance. However, while performing the yajna, his wife Savitri (or Sarasvati in some versions) could not be present at the designated time to perform the essential part of the yajna as she was waiting for her companion goddesses Lakshmi, Parvati and Indrani. So Brahma married Gurjar girl, Gayatri and completed the yajna with his new consort sitting beside him, holding the pot of amrita (elixir of life) on her head and giving ahuti (offering to the sacrificial fire).
When Savitri finally arrived at the venue she found Gayatri sitting next to Brahma which was her rightful place. Agitated, she cursed Brahma that he would be never worshipped, but then reduced the curse permitting his worship in Pushkar. Savitri also cursed Indra to be easily defeated in battles, Vishnu to suffer the separation from his wife as a human, the fire-god Agni who was offered the yajna to be all-devouring and the priests officiating the yajna to be poor. Endowed by the powers of yajna, Gayatri diluted Savitri's curse, blessing Pushkar to be the king of pilgrimages, Indra would always retain his heaven, Vishnu would be born as the human Rama and finally unite with his consort and the priests would become scholars and be venerated. Thus, the Pushkar temple is regarded the only temple dedicated to Brahma. Savitri, thereafter, moved into the Ratnagiri hill and became a part of it by emerging as a spring known as the Savitri Jharna (stream); a temple in her honour exists here.

There is very strict security in and around the temple. People visiting the temple cannot take take big purses and mobiles inside. They need to keep it in the locker facilty given to them Hence I was not able to take even one snap of the temple. So I prayed and came back. Actually the plan was also to see Ajmer, Durgah but time did not permit and I had to reach Jaipur too. So I  left for Jaipur. By now I was hungry and had the lunch which Nishi had packed for me. After chatting with Narendra for sometime I dozed off.So by 2: 45 pm I reached Jaipur,The Pink City. Kunal had booked Radoli house for me.Radoli is one of old haveli’s converted into a hotel. I told Narendra to have lunch as he still had not had lunch and told him to meet me at the hotel in half an hour. After freshening up I went off to see first City Palace ,Jaipur. The palace and Jantar Manter closes by 5 pm. So I had total 2 hours.One hour to see City Palace and the other hour to see Jantar Mantar. It was 3:30 pm when I reached City Palace. I made a tour in the Palace.City Palace, Jaipur, which includes the Chandra Mahal and Mubarak Mahal palaces which includes Diwan-I-Khas and Diwan-I-Aam and other buildings, is a palace complex in Jaipur, the capital of the Rajasthan state, India. It was the seat of the Maharaja of Jaipur, the head of the Kachwaha Rajput clan. The Chandra Mahal palace now houses a museum but the greatest part of it is still a royal residence. The palace complex, which is located northeast of the centre of the grid patterned Jaipur city, incorporates an impressive and vast array of courtyards, gardens and buildings. The palace was built between 1729 and 1732, initially by Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber. He planned and built the outer walls, and later additions were made by successive rulers right up to the 20th century. The credit for the urban layout of the city and its structures is attributed to two architects namely, Vidyadar Bhattacharya, the chief architect in the royal court and Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob, apart from the Sawai himself who was a keen architectural enthusiast. The architects achieved a fusion of the Shilpa Shastra of Indian architecture with Rajput, Mughal and European styles of architecture.

After viewing the Palace I entered Jantar Mantar which is next to the Palace. The Jantar Mantar is a collection of architectural astronomical instruments, built by Sawai Jai Singh who was a Rajput king. The title of (King) and Sawai was bestowed on him by Emperor Mohammad Shah. Jai Singh II of Amber built his new capital of Jaipur between 1727 and 1734. It is also located in Ujjain and Mathura.
It is modeled after the one that he had built at the Mughal capital of Delhi. He had constructed a total of five such facilities at different locations, including the ones at Delhi and Jaipur. The Jaipur observatory is the largest and best preserved of these. It has been inscribed on the World Heritage List as "an expression of the astronomical skills and cosmological concepts of the court of a scholarly prince at the end of the Mughal period.I wish I had taken the help of a local guide to explain me the instruments but I had little time and I had to go back to the hotel too. It was already 6 pm.I purchased a few souverniers and then proceeded back to the hotel .On the way I clichked some snaps of Hawa Mahal.I reached hotel by 6:30 pm and sent Narendra .But I told him to come early as I had to checkout the next day at 7:30 am.The plan was to checkout at 8 am am and on the way visit Amir Fort and Jal Mahal and then proceed towards Ranthambore.I had breakfast at the hotel before checking out and Narendra took me to Amir Fort.On the way we stopped at Hawa Mahal and I took some snaps of mine.We reached Amir Fort By 8:30-9 am.This time I arranged for a guide who could take me around.
Amer Palace is located in Amer, 11 kilometres from Jaipur, Rajasthan state, India. It is the principal tourist attractions in the Jaipur area, located high on a hill. Amer Palace (Hindi: आमेर क़िला, also spelled and pronounced as Amber) is located in Amer, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) from Jaipur, Rajasthan state, India. It is the principal tourist attractions in the Jaipur area, located high on a hill. Amer Fort was built by Raja Man Singh I. Amer Fort is known for its artistic style of Hindu elements. With its large ramparts, series of gates and cobbled paths, the fort overlooks the Maota Lake, at its forefront.
The aesthetic ambiance of the palace is seen within its walls on a four level layout plan (each with a courtyard) in a well turned out opulent palace complex built with red sandstone and marble consisting of the Diwan-e-Aam or the "Hall of Public Audience", the Diwan-e-Khas or the "Hall of Private Audience", the Sheesh Mahal (mirror palace) or Jai Mandir, and the Sukh Niwas where a cool climate is artificially created by winds that blow over the water cascade within the palace. Hence, the Amer Fort is also popularly known as the Amer Palace. The palace was lived in by the Rajput Maharajas and their families. At the entrance to the palace near the fort’s Ganesh Gate, there is also a temple dedicated to Sila Devi, a goddess of the Chaitanya cult which was given to Raja Man Singh when he had defeated the Raja of Jessore, Bengal in 1604. (Jessore is now in Bangladesh).I also visited Sila Devi Temple inside the Fort Premises. On the right side of the Jaleb Chowk there is a small but an elegant temple called the Sila Devi (an incarnation of Kali or Durga) temple. The entrance to the temple is through silver sheet covered double leaf gate with raised relief. The main deity inside the sanctum is flanked by two lions made in silver. The legend attributed to the installation of this deity is that Maharaja Man Singh sought blessings of Kali for victory in the battle against the Raja of Jessore in Bengal. The goddess instructed the Raja, in a dream, to retrieve her image from the sea bed and install and worship it. The Raja, after he won the battle of Bengal in 1604, retrieved the idol from the sea and installed it in the temple and called it as Sila Devi as it was carved out of one single piece of a stone slab. At the entrance to the temple, there is also a carving of Lord Ganesha, which is made out of a single piece of coral stone.
Another version of the Sila Devi installation is that Raja Man Singh, after defeating the Raja of Jessore, received a gift of a black stone slab which was credited with link to the Mahabharata epic story in which Kansa had killed older siblings of Lord Krishna on this stone. In exchange for this gift Man Singh returned the kingdom he had won to the Raja of Bengal. This stone was then used to carve the image of Durga Mahishasuramardini who had slain the demon king Mahishasura, and installed it in the fort temple as Sila Devi. The Sila Devi was worshiped from then onwards as the lineage deity of the Rajput family of Jaipur. However, their family deity continued to be Jamva Mata of Ramgarh.
Another practice that is associated with this temple is the religious rites of animal sacrifice during the festival days of Navrathri (Nine days festival celebrated twice in a year). The practice was to sacrifice a buffalo and also goats on the eighth day of the festival in front of the temple, which would be done in the presence of the royal family, watched by a large gathering of devotees. This practice was banned under law from 1975, where after the sacrifice is being held within the palace grounds in Jaipur, strictly as a private event with only the close kin of the royal family watching the event. However, the practice of animal sacrifice has been totally stopped at the temple premises and offerings made to the goddess are only of the vegetarian type. The guide told me that during Navratri two times Pooja is done one by the local Brahmins and the other one was by Bengali Brahmins and Prasad given is both veg and non veg .One jug has ganga jal offered and the other jug has wine given as Prasad. After  seeing the fort the guide took me to the Jaipur Handicrafts Emporium where they showed how colours are made from original gem stones and block printing done using the colours. It was already 11 pm. And time for me to bid farewell to Jaipur. On the way I stopped near Jal Mahal and took some snaps and proceeded toward Ranthambore.