Painted Palaces of Rajasthan - Jodhpur, Nagaur, Bikaner, the Shekhawati & Jaipur

Rajasthan has long been famous for the great forts and palaces built by the Rajputs. These Hindu maharajas initially resisted Muslim expansion in North India but then became co-architects of the Mughal empire. Their fine cities have been magnets for tourists and travellers since the days of Pierre Loti and Rudyard Kipling. Some have ancient origins, but in the more settled times of the heyday of the Mughals and of the period of British rule they built increasingly elaborate and delicately ornamented palace apartments within the embattled forts of their forebears.

The Rajput rulers represent the warrior class, the people who carved out kingdoms and asserted the right to rule by force of arms, but they could never work alone. They looked to other communities – to the priests and the merchant classes – to provide the administrative brains and business acumen that ensured their states were well governed and prosperous. The most successful merchants built exquisite painted mansions in some of the smaller towns of the region and developed their own styles of architectural opulence.

This unusual tour of Rajasthan presents both categories of patronage, and combines relatively short travel distances with maximum cultural impact. The three forts of Mehrangarh (in Jodhpur), Ahichhatragarh (in Nagaur) and Junagarh (in Bikaner) include some of the finest painted interiors in all of Rajasthan. The stylistic starting point is the composite culture that the Rajputs developed with the Mughals, but this was invigorated by elements drawn from Rajasthan’s distinctive folk culture. There are also exquisite gardens, especially the recently restored garden complex in Nagaur. And with the later palace buildings of Jodhpur, the Sufi shrine of Nagaur and the temples of Bikaner, these three cities have much else to offer besides.

The second part of the tour takes us through the best preserved towns in the area known as Shekhawati. Here especially, the merchant communities constructed elegant palatial homes or courtyard houses known as havelis. In the arid landscape these buildings appear like a colourful pageant celebrating the muralists’ art. Even the exterior walls are covered with lively scenes drawn from religion, folklore and everyday life. Ironically, some of the leading patrons never got to live in these homes. With the rise of British power in the 19th century, they migrated to Kolkata, where the greater business opportunities lay. They continued to remit funds in generous quantities to the towns of their origins, funding public welfare schemes as well as their own estates – all undertaken against the day of eventual return, which has still not come to pass.

The tour begins in Delhi, where the Mughal and British monuments place the various phases of our Rajasthani odyssey in the larger imperial context; and ends in Jaipur, the celebrated capital of Rajasthan, built according to the Vastu Shastra, the architectural treatise from the Vedic age which enjoyed a revival under the Hindu rulers of Rajputana.