Hills of drama. Mirror
lakes. Valleys. Water palaces of romance. Forts on hills
and lavish gardens. This is Mewar. Udaipur is its greatest
city. It was built by an embattled Maharana Udai Singh
on the banks of Lake Pichola on the advice of a sage and
for that reason perhaps it is a happiness giving city.
Udaipur has grown around lakes and the City Palace is
as splendid as the flower gardens with fountain. Sahelion
ki Bari or the Garden of Maids has finely carved kiosks
and marble elephants. Other attractions are Gulab Bagh,
Doodh Talai, Jag Mandir, Moti Magri, Bharatiya Lok Kala
Mandl, Ahad and the Sajjangarh Palace. Outside Udaipur
lie temples of great complexity and up north is Haldighati
where Maharana Pratap fought Emperor Akbar epicly in 1567
and became know to every schoolboy since.
Further northwest is the temple town of Nathdwara where
devotees of Krishna and Vishnu alike worship Shrinathji
whose portraits are stamped on beads, silver and meenakari
mementoes. On the east is Chittaurgarh fort where more
heroes were made and unmade that perhaps anywhere else
in Rajasthan. Here Rani Padmini committed jauhar than
submit to the advances of the Delhi Sultan Allauddin Khilji
whose battle took away 7000 lives. And, west of Chittaugharh
is the 12-square-kilometre Kumbhalgarh fort that fell
only once to Akbar's army that contaminated its water
supply and remains even now highly inaccessible and formidable.
Maharana Pratap was born here. |
