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Jaipur History - The history of the Pink City of Jaipur dates back to
the 18th century, during the reign of Maharaja Sawai
Jai Singh II. It was after it became difficult to accommodate
the increasing population at Amber (which is about 11
kilometers from Jaipur); Sawai Jai Singh was in search
of safe and secure place to build a new city. The paucity
of water at Amber further aggravated the problem of
increasing population.
Visiting Jaipur, It was in 1727 that Jaipur became the first planned
city of India, which was designed by a brilliant Bengali
architect who was well versed in his area of study and
was known as Vidyadhar Bhattacharya. The city was planned
on the edicts of the ancient Hindu exposition on Indian
architecture, Shilpa Shastra. The city was planned in
a grid system and boasts of wide and straight avenues
and roads that are arranged delicately in nine rectangular
city sectors. As a safety measure against any possible
incursions, the city was encased with the fortification
walls with seven gates. Tourists find it surprising
that the whole city was painted in autumn pink by the
then sovereign of the city to welcome his distinguished
guest, the Prince of Wales in 1876.
Travel to Jaipur - There are different versions to the reason why the pink
was chosen as the color for the city. To go by the local
fables, some people say that when the ambassadors of
Prince of Wales visited the city prior to his visit,
some simpleton contemptuously called them the 'pink-faced
monkey', as a result of the hatred for the British that
had India under their clutches. To make up for his rashness
and as a diplomatic tact, Raja and his ministers maintained
that the person had called them so in admiration, as
the 'monkey' was worshipped in the region as 'Hanuman'
and pink was the sacred color of the region. To give
assurance to their apparently unlikely reason they painted
the city pink on the Prince's arrival. Others maintain
that city was painted pink merely because the contractor
was unable to supply any other color in such huge quantities
that were needed to paint the whole city. Since then
the pink color has been associated with hospitality
in Jaipur and Rajput culture.
Touroftajmahal.com provides information on Jaipur History, Tourist Attractions in Jaipur and different ideas about tours to Jaipur and Travel to Jaipur.
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