September 21, 2017

   After a refreshing eight-hour sleep, we packed our luggage and had it in the hallway for 7:30 am, settled the bill at checkout and went for breakfast. The temperature was probably around 25C and today the sky was cloudy. We then gathered in the lobby for the 8:30 am departure for Jaipur, which is about 245 km away.

    Latitude of Jaipur is 26.56 North which is close to the latitude of Corpus Christi, Texas, 27.44 North & Tampa, Florida, latitude 27. 57 North

    Today is the first day of the Hindu Nine Night Festival. Raj had a sandalwood and saffron paste symbol painted on his forehead to show us what the young girls wear as part of the festivities.   

   En route to Jaipur, an hour from Agra, we visited Fatehpur Sikri, a 16^th century Mughal Dynasty walled complex of palaces, gardens, and squares.  Akbar started construction of his new capital in 1571 to celebrate the birth of his son, who later became Emperor Jahangir. Akbar was a cultured man and was though believed to be illiterate.  You can see the influence of art and architecture in the red sandstone structures. Due to issues with available water and invasion rumors, Fatehpur Sikri was abandoned in the mid 1580s.

   There was a guide for each bus to explain the history of Fatehpur Sikri as we toured the somewhat restored complex. As with most stops, there was a horde of vendors trying to get people to buy their products.  You just ignored them, said no and kept walking to the entrance. In the receiving room, where Akbar met with his nine ministers, there is a three meter column carved with symbols of about seven religions to show that Akbar was tolerant of different religions. There are gardens in the center and a large square, where there is a four-sided Parcheesi sandstone board incorporated into the design of the plaza.  In place of dice, numbered conch shells were used.   One of the rooms has a ceiling that his stars engraved into it as well as pentagons (5 sided), hexagons (6 sides) and octagons (8 sided).

   Akbar was Muslim reigning over a majority Hindu population and he wanted to have a kingdom where all religions were welcome.  He married princesses from different regions and had several principal wives who each had their own apartment in the palace. Most of the frescos painted on the walls have faded and are hardly visible.  The wives’ courtyard was surrounded by murals but none have survived as they were on the outside walls facing the outdoor courtyard.  The sandstone palace enclosed a large 6,000 square foot courtyard paved with sandstone where entertainment was performed, such as dancing and music.  The wives could watch from an upper balcony or could join the dancers. The Muslim wife’s sandstone apartment had a chapel for prayer, as did the Hindu wife, Buddhist wife and the Catholic wife who was from the Portuguese port city of Goa.  It is easy to tell which wife lived in what apartment from the remaining interior carving decorating the rooms. In the Catholic wife’s chamber there is an room where part of the stonework gives the idea of being in a church. In the palace, the north wing was the summer palace located on the cooler north side where the sun did not beat down on it while the south side was the winter palace where the warmth of the sun was appreciated in the winter months.  Steps 5073.

    After the visit was over we continued for about 90 minutes to the midway stop, where some people had a light lunch. We travelled through farmland. About 70% of India is agricultural.  There are some people who still have horse pulled flatbed carts, while others are pushed by people or pulled by bicycle or motor scooter.

 There was a gift shop to browse that had souvenirs, books about India and clothing for men, women and children.  At the side of the building was a woman making baked flatbread in centuries old way, crouching beside a small fire with a cast iron frypan. After 45 minutes, we were on our way to Jaipur which took about two hours. Raj explained the Indian caste system, which originally was the ancient Hindu social order fitting people into categories based on birth, profession and personality. At the top were the priests and spiritual scholars known as Brahmana, followed by three more levels - Kshatriya: members of public service covering law and military service (warriors), then Vaishya: the businessmen and finally Shudra:  semi-skilled and unskilled workers.  However, those workers doing the dirtiest, most polluting jobs or foreigners were seen as untouchable by the orthodox Hindus and shunned to the point that they had to live outside of settlements.  It is now unlawful to discriminate in India today. A Hindu person’s surname tells people to what caste their ancestors belonged. It was an interesting explanation.  With another 90 minutes to drive until Jaipur, this was a good opportunity to take out the laptop and compose the blog to that point. As the buses made the final approach into Jaipur, we entered the 2.5 kilometer long Ghat Ki Guni 

tunnel in the side of a rocky hill. We came out on the other side into the edge of Jaipur.

    The streets were busy and a Thursday farmers market was near the road.  There were carts of bananas, apples, pomegranates, limes and lots of vegetables such as tomatoes, squashes and cauliflower.  It is hard to miss all the garbage strewn everywhere, to the point that creeks no longer have water visible due to the debris in the channels. As we neared our hotel we saw saddled camels ready to give tonight’s Nine Nights Festival goers rides.

    The checking in at the Trident Jaipur hotel required the usual copying of passports as part of the process. The hotel is located across a highway from Man Sagar Lake and Jal Mahal, which are back dropped by the low Aravalli mountain range. These mountains are older than the Himalayan Mountains. Jal Mahal is a palace and was formerly a royal hunting lodge, now partly engulfed by water from the manmade Man Sagar Lake.  The hotel has complimentary Wi-Fi here too. The rooms are nice, with dark polished stone floors and a small balcony off the floor to ceiling French doors, called a 'jharokha' window.

   We quickly freshened up and then the two buses were ready to take the group for a gem stone cutting and polishing business in the Pink City area for a demonstration then browsing their store’s inventory. Some people in the group bought rings. But, not as many people made purchases as they did at the marble store yesterday.

    Jaipur is Rajasthan state’s largest city and capital which was founded in 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, who ruled Jaipur between the years 1699 and 1743. The capital was moved from Ambar due a scarcity of water.  Jaipur is one of the world’s most noted gem producers. Its population is over three million with a population density of 6,300 people per square kilometer.  Jaipur was a planned city after the state capital was moved from Amber, just 11 kilometers away due to water scarcity for a growing population. The architect was a Brahmin scholar, Vidyadhar Bhattacharya who studied science and mathematics. The streets scenes in the movie “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” were filmed in Jaipur, but the actual hotel is not in Jaipur.

    When we returned from the store, there was an annoyed thumping noise in the room, which turned out to be the deep base of the music being played on the street outside the hotel for the first night of the Nine Nights Festival. It continued until almost 10:30 and seemed to get louder every hour.  We had an Indian buffet dinner in the hotel restaurant which offered some different dishes than those in Agra.  We sat with Christian and Terry and Norman and Linda.

        Returning to the room, we met Elma and Vern, and helped Vern find the blog website.  Finding the noise disturbing, reception advised that it was music from Nine Nights Festival celebrants and would stop soon.  Steps today 10,827