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Naaaa Maaaaaaaa Steeeee!
Yes, I am tired, but it's nothing that a delicious omlette wouldn't cure. LOL.
After breakfast, we loaded up the bus and headed out to Jantar Mantar.
The Jantar Mantar is an equinoctial sundial, consisting a gigantic triangular gnomon with the hypotenuse parallel to the Earth's axis. On either side of the gnomon is a quadrant of a circle, parallel to the plane of the equator. The instrument is intended to measure the time of day, correct to half a second and declination of the Sun and the other heavenly bodies.
In the early 18th century, Maharaja Jai Singh II of Jaipur constructed five Jantar Mantars in total, in Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Mathura and Varanasi; they were completed between 1724 and 1735.
The jantars have evocative names like, Samrat Yantra, Jai Prakash, Ram Yantra and Niyati Chakra; each of which are used to for various astronomical calculations. The primary purpose of the observatory was to compile astronomical tables, and to predict the times and movements of the sun, moon and planets.
Davinda showed us how a few of them actually work and how easy they are to use. He gave us a bit of time to ourselves to walk around. Everyone headed to their astrological sign for photo shots.
Hope and I then stopped in a small shoppe there on the grounds. They had the nicest stationary prodcuts. All made in India.
After a bathroom and soda break, we all headed back to the bus and on to the City Palace.
City Palace, Udaipur, is a palace complex in Udaipur, in the Indian state Rajasthan. It was built over a period of nearly 400 years being contributed by several kings of the dynasty, starting by the Maharana Udai Singh as the capital of the Sisodia Rajput clan in 1559, after he moved from Chittor. It is located on the east bank of the Lake Pichola and has several palaces built within its complex. Udaipur was the historic capital of the former kingdom of Mewar in the Rajputana Agency and its last capital.
The City Palace in Udaipur was built in a flamboyant style and is considered the largest of its type in Rajasthan, a fusion of the Rajasthani and Mughal architectural styles, and was built on a hill top that gives a panoramic view of the city and its surrounding, including several historic monuments such as the Lake Palace in Lake Pichola, the Jag Mandir on another island in the lake, the Jagdish Temple close to the palace, the Monsoon Palace on top of an overlooking hillock nearby and the Neemach Mata temple. These structures are linked to the filming of the James Bond movie Venice of the East".
The city Palace was built concurrently with establishment of the Udaipur city by Maharana Udai Singh II, in 1559 and his successor Maharanas over a period of the next 300 years. It is considered the largest royal complex in Rajasthan and is replete with history. Founding of the city and building of the palace complex can not be looked in isolation as the Maharanas lived and administered their kingdom from this palace.
Prior to moving their capital from Chittor to Udaipur, the Mewar kingdom had flourished initially in Nagda (30 kilometres (19 mi) to the north of Udaipur), established in 568 AD by Guhil, the first Mewar Maharana. In the 8th century, the capital was moved to Chittor, a hill top fort from where the Sisodias ruled for 80 years. Maharana Udai Singh II inherited the Mewar kingdom at Chittor in 1537 but by that time there were signs of losing control of the fort in wars with the Mughals. Udai Singh II, therefore, chose the site near Lake Pichola for his new kingdom because the location was well protected on all sides by forests, lakes and the Aravalli hills. He had chosen this site for his new capital, much before the sacking of Chittor by Emperor Akbar, on the advice of a hermit he had met during one of his hunting expeditions.
At his capital Chittor, Maharana Udai Singh soon faced defeat at the hands of Mughal Emperor Akbar. He soon moved to Udaipur to the chosen location to establish his new capital. The earliest royal structure he built here was the Royal courtyard or 'Rai Angan', which was the beginning of the building of the City Palace complex, at the place where the hermit had advised Maharana to build his Capital.
After Udai Singh's death in 1572, his son Maharana Pratap took the reins of power at Udaipur. He was successful in defeating Akbar at the battle of Haldighati in 1576 and thereafter Udaipur was peaceful for quite some years. With this, prosperity of Udaipur ensued, palaces were built on the shore and in the midst of the Pichola lake. Concurrently art, particularly miniature painting, also flourished.
But in 1736, the marauding Marathas attacked Udaipur and by the end of the century the Mewar state was in dire straits and in ruins. However, the British came to Mewar's rescue in the 19th century and soon the State of Mewar got re-established and prospered under British protection, under a treaty signed with the British. However, the British were not allowed to replace them. Once India got independence in 1947, the Mewar Kingdom, along with other princely states of Rajasthan, merged with the Democratic India, in 1949. The Mewar Kings subsequently also lost their special royal privileges and titles. However, the successor Maharanas have enjoyed the trust of their people and also retained their ownership of the palaces in Udaipur. They are now running the palaces by creating a trust, called the Mewar Trust, with the income generated from tourism and the heritage hotels that they have established in some of their palaces. With the fund so generated they are running charitable hospitals, educational institutions and promoting the cause of environmental preservation.
After this we headed on to a jeweler, after a brief photo stop of the Palace of Winds.
I can't remember the name of it, but I couldn't wheel and deal here, but it was quite funny that my salesman came to sit across from me. I glanced at him a couple of times and caught his glance, but he never gave in, so I didn't get the beautiful necklace that caught my eye.
B.K. our tour operator offered to stop by a pharmacy for those of us who needed meds.
The pharmacy was a carved out hole in a building. It was about 3' x 5'. There were hundreds of boxes of stuff. We told the salesman we needed cold medicine. He pulled out a couple different boxes, took a pair of scissors and began to cut off, I assume the regular dosage. Three antibiotic pills that he said take twice a day (but he gave us 3 each), 6 "Cozy-Plus"of what I thought to be a decongestant and Hope and I both asked for aspirin, of which he dispensed 6. None of the items have written instructions on the foil sealed packages, so we assumed the remedy would be kind of hit or miss. The decongestant worked great at night, for my coughing.
We headed on back to the hotel after an extensive day of touring and trekking over 6,099 steps. Before dinner, Hope and I heade back downstairs to take our last shots of the hotel.
Goodnight All!
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