India Guide
Rajasthan
City Palace
Address: Pink City
Price: Rs180, video Rs200; ticket also covers Jaigarh Fort at Amber, if used within 24hr. Tours Rs150 for up to four people
Opening time: Daily 9.30am–5pm
Jaipur's magnificent City Palace, open to the public as the Sawai Man Singh Museum, stands enclosed by a high wall in the centre of the city. Built by Jai Singh in the 1720s, it has lost none of its original pomp and splendour. Each door and gateway is heavily decorated, each chandelier intact and each hall guarded by turbaned retainers decked out in full royal livery.
The royal family still occupies part of the palace, advancing in procession on formal occasions through the grand Tripolia Gate in the centre of the southern wall. Less exalted visitors enter through the UdaipoleGate on the northwest side of the complex. Official guides wait outside the ticket booth offering one-hour tours.
Beyond another courtyard and gate from the Udaipole Gate, the first of the two main courtyards, painted a deep salmon pink, centres on the raised Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audience). Open-sided, with its roof raised on marble pillars, this was where all important decisions of state were taken by the maharaja and his advisors. The hall contains two silver urns, or gangajalis, listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest crafted silver objects in the world, each more than 1.5m high with a capacity of 8182 litres. On the far (west) side of the Diwan-i-Khas courtyard, a small corridor leads to the Pritam Niwas Chowk, known as the "Peacock Courtyard", which gives the best view of the soaring yellow Chandra Mahal, the residence of the royal family (closed to the public). On the opposite (east) side of the Diwan-i-Khas courtyard, beneath the large clocktower, another door takes you into the ornate Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience).
An ornate gateway, its southern side guarded by a pair of fine stone elephants, leads from the Diwan-i-Khas courtyard into the second main courtyard, the Sarvatabhadra, painted a rich red with yellow trimmings. At its centre, the elegant Mubarak Mahal, with finely carved stone arches and a veranda encircling the whole of the upper storey, now holds the museum's textilecollection.