Posted on: 14 May 2011

Main Street, Jeypore - 1905

Photograph of the main street at Jaipur in Rajasthan, taken by Gobindram & Oodeyram in the 1900s. The photograph is part of an album containing views of various locations in India, formerly in the collection of Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum and Broome, (1850-1916), who was Commander in Chief of India between 1902 and 1909.

Jaipur was founded in 1727 as an entirely new and prestigious state capital by Maharaja Jai Singh II (ruled 1699-1743) of the Kachwaha Rajputs. It was built on the site of a royal hunting lodge on a plain ringed by hills five miles south of Amber, the previous state capital. Jaipur is today known as the ‘Pink City’ for the pink wash on the buildings in the old walled quarter of the city. It is unusual among Rajput cities as its wide streets are laid out on a regular grid plan based around nine squares. However it retains the traditional arrangement of the major route being the main bazaar, the Sireh Deori, which leads from the western gate of the city walls past the city palace to the eastern city gate. This is a view looking down the length of the Sireh Deori, facing a continuous arcade of shops. Towards the end is the Ishwar Lath (1749), a tower of victory in the form of a minaret.

Source : British Library


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Well for once the narration is in-correct. This view is of the Tripoliya Bazar with the Ishwar Laat (the Hindu Minaret) in the back-ground and not Sireh Deorhi Bazar.This is the longest stretch of an absolutely straight street in Jaipur with three main intersections called 'chaupars' that extends from the Suraj Pol (Sun Gateway) in due east, to Chand Pol (Moon Gateway) in due west. It is a marvel of medieval engineering and looks much more beautiful ,now that it is a boulevard with huge Aso Palav trees on either side and not as barren as it does in this picture. Besides the entire street has deep verandahs in front of the shops on either side so the denizens could shop rain or shine which had been illigally occupied (as in this picture also) but now stand vacated with a high court injunction.The small gateway with round arches that you see used to lead into 'Aatish' or the royal stables. With the passage of time and the merger of Jaipur into the Union of the Indian republic this Aatish stands converted into a huge hardware market known as the Maharani Gayatri Devi market. It has a central baradari (open pavilion with twelve arched gateways) exquisitely carved in marble.Jaipur alongwith all Rajasthani kingdoms has been a secular state and a model of Hindu-Muslim unity.On Ashura or the tenth of Moharram a taziya (replica of the tomb of Imam Hussain in Kerbala) made of real gold and silver designed like a chariot appears from this arched gate from inside the City Palace or the Chandra Mahal and leads the taziya procession.It however is not buried but returns back to the palace every year.Muharram of Jaipur is renowned througout India and it is said that it is second only to Lucknow in its observance.And certainly Jaipur has a unique distinction as it is the solitary Hindu Kingdom where a taaziya rolls out of a Maharaja's palace every year to this day ! Among Hindus there is a saying "जितने बेटे उतने ही श्राद्ध ! " There is a saying among Muslims of Jaipur too "जितने मोहल्ले उतने ही ताजिये !" Once when Maharaja Ram Singh (1835-1880) was unwell he was advised to wear a 'taziyon ki dori' by his Muslim music teacher Ustad Rajab Ali Khan.He adopted that piece of advise and hey presto the ailment vanished.From then the Maharaja comissioned a pure gold and silver taziya rath (chariot) during the tenure of his prime minister Nawab Faiyyaz Ali Khan whose palatial haveli called 'nawab sahib ki haveli' is also a star tourist attraction today for the panoramic view that it affords from its terrace of this open air museum that I am fortunate to call my home-town.

After the demise of the most illustrious Maharaja of the Kachhawa clan (that ruled Jaipur for 1000 years till 1949) Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh (in 1743) who had founded Jaipur in 1727 on the basis of the Hindu Shastra paramparas on a grid pattern with his ‘Chandra Mahal’ in the nagar kote (centre) in the midst of a majestic garden (Jai Niwas Udyaan) that ends in an artificial lake called Taalkatora (lake shaped like a bowl), his elder son Sawai Ishwari Singh came to the throne but it was not his destiny to have a peaceful reign. His step brother Madho Singh I ,whose mother was a princess of Udaipur, on the behest of his maternal uncle the Maharana of Udaipur was plotting to overthrow him. He took help of his maternal uncle of Udaipur, the Maharao Durjan Saal of Kota and Maharawal Ummed Singh of Boondi and attacked Jaipur. Maharaja Ishwari Singh dispatched an army led by the Rao of Dhula (premier nobility of Jaipur) along with Rajamal Khatri and they fought valiantly and chased the combined forces away. But Madho Singh again attacked Jaipur in 1744 alongwith the combined forces of Malhar Rao Holkar of Indore, Rathores of Jodhpur , the Hadas of Kota and Boondi and Shahpura . Twenty miles from Jaipur in Bagru the forces of Jaipur and all these combined kingdoms met and the commander in chief of the Jaipur forces Hargovind Natani. It was a crushing and humiliating defeat of five combined forces by those of Jaipur and an occasion to rejoice. To commemorate this victory Sawai Ishwari Singh commissioned this seven storey octagonal victory tower with outer hanging balconies in red sandstone after every two storeys that you see in this picture: Ishwar Laat in 1749 which is named after him. It was our city’s skyline for 250 years and looks majestic when it is illuminated and flood lit on the occasion of Diwali every year.