Colourful Doors, Arched Windows and Artistic Ceilings narrating stories of Mewar dynasty through different sections of City Palace in city of lakes Udaipur, Rajasthan

Recently we shared about out visit to City Palace in Udaipur of Rajasthan and this blogpost is also related. Udaipur City Palace is grand and different parts of the palace has very well preserved old architecture & style. Travellingcamera loved clicking beautiful doors, clourful & arched windows and the favourite ceilings in different designs, colours, material & shapes. Does that topic demand a separate blogpost? Is it your current thought? Give it a try and share back in comments if you felt it was worth or not.

As you enter into the City Palace compound in Udaipur, you see huge open space and the palace on the right. Above photograph shows main door of the palace which is not used now. The podium in front of this door is used by the current custodian for various ceremonies which take place at Udaipur City Palace. Holika dahan, Ashva poojan etc take place in this part of the City Palace and custodian Shri Arvind Singh Mewar sit on the podium in front of this door to take care of all rituals of the day. This door is almost at the middle of City Palace building in Udaipur. On special occasions Shri Arvind Singh Mewar or his family members enter into the City Palace through this door as celebrations take place in the central court of the City Palace which is inside. This is outer side of the City Palace. Seating arrangements for evening light & sound show are also done in front of this door in Udaipur City Palace.

Above photograph is clicked inside the section where old musical instruments are placed inside Udaipur City Palace. Art showing Saraswati mata painting is so apt for the place.

Above photograph shows a view of the Palace where Royal family lives and this window is also located in the section of museum where musical instruments are placed. Arvind Singh Mewar along with his family live in the palace you see above.

Above photograph shows a preserved door of Udaipur City Palace. Some of these art pieces are now put inside glass covers. Just look at the details of this colourful art on a palace door and try to imagine how the palace must have looked with these kinds of art-works all around.

Above photograph shows one of the windows of Udaipur City Palace which is offering great views of the city from top. There are so many details in all these windows & doors of Udaipur City Palace. Paint designs, architectural shapes, complimenting wooden work, layers in the space and so many other elements to reflect royalty.

This is part of the Udaipur City Palace where different celebrations used to happen. Above photograph shows windows through which guests used to look at the events happening in central area. There are also windows on other 2 sides for King & queen. This section is essentially divan-e-aam area, which is king’s administrative assembly place with his ministers to discuss the most important issues.

This was probably first time when Travellingcamera clicked more than 50 doors, windows & ceilings at one place. That also tells about the scale of Udaipur City Palace in Rajasthan. And more importantly all interesting elements in this beautiful heritage building of Mewar dynasty.

TravellingCamera loved clicking photographs of these beautiful windows of Udaipur City Palace. When you look at the City Palace from outside, you realise that the palace has lot of windows and every section has different kinds of art-work. Like in above photograph you see windows with colourful glasses in wooden frame with interesting design on the top. Don't miss those beautiful brass handles on these windows of Udaipur City Palace.

In Diwan-e-aam, the king sat in a decorated balcony on the first floor. The balcony extention can be seen in above photograph. This wall is one of the most beautiful walls in Udaipur City Palace. The ministers would sit across him. On the next floor are balconies which were used by the ladies of the royal family to witness the proceedings. This is also the part of Udaipur City palace, which has most intricate mirror works. You will see a beautiful peacock made of all small mirror pieces. Very first photograph of this blogpost is clicked against this wall which has King's balcony on first floor.

These colourful glasses in windows of Udaipur City Palace look amazing. Some of these glasses were imported from other parts of the world. Even today, when renovation takes place these finer details are taken care.

The City Palace of Udaipur is located in older part of the city and on the bank of Lake Pichola. The location of the city palace is so special that you not only explore City Palace but a lot from Udaipur - be it handicraft market, beautiful ghats around Lake Pichola, some of the most stunning hotels around Udaipur etc. To reach the entry gate of City Palace, you have walk through the hustle bustle of market and during tour of the City Palace, you see Lake Pichola on the other side and Taj Palace hotel in middle of lake is clearly visible from City Palace.

Above photograph shows one of the jharokhas with small space to take out your neck and look outside. Rest of the window is filled with colourful glassed and a frame of cement. While I was in this part of Udaipur City Palace, I was wondering when these blue tiles were added to the palace. They can certainly be old because this kind of work for kitchenware was available, but I forgot to confirm with our guide.

Above photograph shows one of the ceilings inside royal chambers of Udaipur City Palace. These are pretty old arts which are preserved inside the City Palace. Some of the colours fade early so you see some patches and I guess impacted areas are also those which have very fine designs.

Some of the most beautiful sections of the Udaipur City Palace are not accessible to the public. Above photograph shows a small door which is for a very well decorated room. So many of the opportunities were missed because of that. Having said that, it's a good strategy to not open every space and especially the ones which need more maintenance.

While walking around, we also noticed some beautiful windows which are ignored from maintenance standpoint. Not sure if that's deliberate but some of the corners looked like they are asking for whitewash. Keeping that aside, these parts of the Palace get different shades of light throughout the day as sun revolves.

When you moving between different parts of Udaipur City Palace, you have to go through narrow pathways and all of them have different kinds of jalidaar windows for ventilation. Above photograph shows one of such netted windows. One needs to be careful while walking through these as your head can hit the top, especially when there are steps. So mind your head and you need to be extra careful if your height is more than 5 feet 5 inches.

Related Blogpost - A-mazed by Kumbha Palace surrounded by World's second largest wall - A beautiful example of Rajput Architecture inside Kumbalgarh Fort of Royal Rajasthan

Not everything is open in the City Palace of Udaipur and that would be impossible to explore if everything is open. Above photograph shows a door with lock on it and it was clear that huge part of Udaipur City Palace was closed through this beautiful door. More than the wooden door, I liked architecture around it and the extended section indicating that there is a door ahead.

Related Blogpost - The Grand Kumbhalgarh Fort in Rajasthan - A great place to spend 2-3 days walking, hiking & exploring some of the 360 temples enclosed by the second longest wall of the World

Some of these windows are renovated and hence designs have also changed a bit. But still the renovation work is very much aligned with how old City Palace looked like. Udaipur City Palace is certainly maintained pretty well and even enhanced with every passing year with new additions to the museums inside.

Look at above photograph carefully and notice bird cages hanging there. These cages were for pigeons of different regions and when king wanted to send a message to a particular region, pigeon from that cage is taken out and that pigeon will take message. I am sure this whole system of sending messages with pigeons must be pretty elaborate and there must be some system to train these pigeons. Wondering how would they ensure that message is reached for sure.

At a quick glance these netted windows may not look very exciting, but let me invite you to imagine how these are created. These windows are typically carved out of a huge piece of marble and that's probably one of the most difficult art-forms to create something like this. Creating art with colours, or pieces of designer part-pieces is much easier job but not trying to undervalue the art aspect of that. Udaipur City Palace has many of such marble windows and they are great for cross ventilation.

Most of the windows with netted art-work on marble have different designs and I was wondering what could be the reason. It's not even like designs differed across sections of the Udaipur City Palace. I am sure there must be some thinking behind that our guide certainly didn't know about it.

This photograph shows beautiful ceiling with colourful painted designs. There were many such beautiful ceilings which I couldn't click because everyone had to follow a particular route to explore the palace and some of the spaces were restricted. Which made it hard to click them well. I clicked photographs but didn't come well, so not sharing in this blogpost.

If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -

1. Manage your waste well and don’t litter. Use dustbins.

2. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.

3. Avoid water bottles in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem. In plains, refill your bottles with RO at hotel.

4. Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.

5. Don't play loud blaring music in forests or jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite.

Travellingcamera

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