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 Hawa
Mahal Jaipur
is a fascinating city but to make the city fascinating,
it has great palaces and other structures that
are architectural wonders. Look you may from
whichever way - houses, shops and havelis -
they are all pink. The long crenellated walls
protecting the city and the huge gateways guarding
the entrance to the city are all in pink. Even
the women who come to the city market from their
neighboring villages are dressed in pink, gorgeous
yellow, red and blue. Men dressed in white dhoti
and shirts carry huge magnificent turbans -
mostly pink, red and yellow. Jaipur, like the
entire Rajasthan, loves color and pink more
often than not. Amidst this riot of colors,
the City Palace of Jaipur stands at the center.This
royal residence is the tallest structure in
the whole complex and received additions from
various maharajas till all further additions
were ruled out. But even before this, within
sixty years of its construction, the City Palace
had to accommodate a new extension of the zenana
quarters. This was the Hawa Mahal. To the north
of the city's main road intersection, the Badi
Chaupad, stands Hawa Mahal - the world famous
landmark of Jaipur, the best known specimen
of fanciful architecture. Built in 1799 by Sawai
Pratap Singh, the aesthete among maharajas,
it is an integral part of the City Palace though
standing away from the main complex. At first
glance it looks rather whimsical in design.
From the roadside, where most visitors view
Hawa Mahal for the first time, it looks a mere
facade. But there is much more than meets the
eye.
Views
from Hawa Mahal
The upper floors are reached through a ramp rather
than the regular stairs, a device to facilitate
movement of palanquins carried by servants. This
is a less tiresome way as the ramp ascends lazily
to the top of the freestanding square tower. Imagine
queens and princesses loaded with the heaviest
jewelry and covered with the endless yardage of
Clothes - skirts and sarees, climbing to the uppermost
pavilion heaving and painting for respite from
the sweltering summer heat. Here even the May-June
winds feel so mild and cool. Jaipur itself appears
in all its grandeur, with straight, wide roads,
intersections and teeming crowds in the market.
Jantar Mantar looks a collection of mystifying
masonry instruments. The City Palace stands apart,
surrounded by a maze of courtyards. The Nahargarh
fort, perched upon the hill, which slopes down
sharply towards the palace, keeps its vigil over
the city looks spectacular, a truly fairy-late
setting
Hawa Mahal - Architecture
 The
facade of the Hawa Mahal has sometimes aroused
unfair judgments as 'a baroque folly' and a 'bizarre
piece of architecture'. The five storeyed facade
encrusted with elegant trellis work on windows
and small balconies have 953 niches. Lal Chand
Usta who designed the Hawa Mahal had dedicated
it to Lord Krishna and Radha but its fanciful
structure appealed to the Maharaja who found it
ideal for the seraglio. The pyramidal outline
of the structure has one characteristic feature
of architecture - symmetry, and, as in Jain temples,
uses repetition of motifs to great enhancement
of beauty and looks: "The forms employed
are familiar enough, but the bays are crammed
together, piled and multiplied so that they combine
to form a larger version of themselves, in a manner
strikingly reminiscent of a temple shikhara".
It has been remarked that the Hawa Mahal marks
a certain decline in the architectural standards
of Jaipur. This may have been the result of the
increasing influence of Mughal architecture. Hawa
Mahal shows a noticeable similarity with the Panch
Mahal - the palace of winds at Fatehpur Sikri.
The beauty of the Hawa Mahal lies in its fragile
appearance, which, like a vision, threatens of
vanish into thin air. It is, of all buildings
in Jaipur, the most romantic and delicate - which
cannot be said of some better-known examples of
solid architecture.
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