Page 384 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - India

382  WESTERN INDIA

e Bikaner
Bikaner district. 361 km (224 miles)
NW of Jaipur. * 529,000. £ @
n Dhola Maru Hotel, Pooran Singh
Circle, (0151) 252 9621. _ Camel
Festival (Jan), Jambeshwar Festival
(Feb/Mar), Kolayat Fair (Nov).
Along with Jodhpur and
Jaisalmer, Bikaner was one
of the three great Desert
Kingdoms of Rajasthan and,
like them, prospered because
of its strategic location on the
overland caravan trade route The imposing ramparts of the 16th-century Junagarh Fort
to Central Asia and China. It
was founded in 1486 by Rao successive rulers over the 1631 and 1669) is the Hall
Bika, the disgruntled younger centuries, though in a harmonious of Public Audience and is
son of Rao Jodha, the ruler continuity of style. The most ornamented in a similar, if
of Jodhpur (see pp384–9), outstanding is the Anup Mahal, somewhat less lavish, style.
who left home in search of built by Maharaja Anup Singh Two other gorgeous, heavily
new territory to conquer. in 1690 as his Hall of Private decorated palaces are the
Somewhat over- Audience. It was 17th-century Chandra Mahal
shadowed by the then sumptuously (“Moon Palace”) and Phool
splendours of decorated between Mahal (“Flower Palace”). The latter
Jodhpur and 1787 and 1800 by contains Rao Bika’s small, low bed
Jaisalmer, Bikaner Maharaja Surat Singh. with curved silver legs, on which
nevertheless has a In an ingenious he slept with his feet touching
great deal to offer imitation of Mughal the ground. The bed was so
visitors, with its old pietra dura work at a designed to enable Rao Bika to
walled town, where fraction of the cost, jump quickly to his feet and fight
camels saunter past the lime-plaster walls off murderous intruders. The
colourful stalls, its of the Anup Mahal Chandra Mahal, which was
many temples Maharaja’s swing at have been polished the queens’ palace, has carved
and palaces, and Junagarh Fort to a high lustre. marble panels depicting the
the magnificent They are covered Radha-Krishna legend, and
Junagarh Fort, perhaps the with red-and-gold lacquer both palaces have superb stone
best preserved and most patterns, further embellished carving and jalis. The blue-and-
ornately decorated of all with mirrors and gold leaf. The gold Badal Mahal (“Cloud
the forts in Rajasthan. Karan Mahal (built between Palace”) is covered with paintings
of clouds, yellow streaks of
P Junagarh Fort lightning and rain showers –
Open Sat–Thu. & 8 Extra a favourite fantasy in this
charges for photography. arid land. The Hawa Mahal
Museum: Open daily. & (“Palace of Winds”) has a
Constructed between 1587 huge mirror positioned over
and 1593 by the third ruler the maharaja’s bed, which
of Bikaner, Rai Singh, apparently enabled him to
Junagarh Fort is protected view the courtyard below,
by a 986-m (3,235-ft) long thus alerting him to
sandstone wall with 37 approaching danger. The
bastions, a moat and, oldest palace in the fort is Lal
most effectively of all, by Niwas, dating to 1595, and
the forbidding expanse decorated with floral motifs
of the Thar Desert. Not in red and gold. The newest
surprisingly, the fort has palace is the huge Durbar
never been conquered, Niwas (“Coronation Palace”),
a fact that explains its built in the early 20th
excellent state of preservation. century by Bikaner’s most
Within the fort’s austere progressive ruler Sir Ganga
stone walls are no fewer Singh (r.1887–1943), who
than 37 profusely decorated gave Bikaner its railway link
palaces, temples and and built the Ganga Canal,
pavilions, built by its Interior with ornamental lacquer work, Anup Mahal which brought precious
For hotels and restaurants in this region see p699 and pp712–13

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