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History of Jaipur
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| Raja Sawai Jai Singh had his capital
in Amber, when he felt the need of shifting his
capital to another place for the safety of the ever-increasing
population and growing scarcity of water. In the
eighteenth century, he finally built Jaipur. It
was also the time when the glory of Mughal Empire
was on its decline. 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 treatise 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 dexterously in nine rectangular city sectors.
As a safety measure against any possible invasions,
the city was enveloped with the fortification walls
with seven gates. Tourists find it astonishing 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.
There are different versions to the reason why
the pink was chosen as the color for the city.
If we believe the local fables, some people say
that when the ambassadors of Prince of Wales visited
the city prior to his visit, some simpleton insultingly
called them the 'pink-faced monkey', as a result
of the contempt 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 reverence, as the 'monkey' was worshipped in
the region as 'Hanuman' and pink was the sacred
color of the region. To give conviction to their
seemingly improbable 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.
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