Jodhpur

Posted in: India | By: Aaron | December 4, 2013

Jodhpur (the “Blue City”) was the last of our cities in Rajasthan. Like its nickname suggests, its houses are painted a wide variety of blues, from pastel to vibrant.

Jodhpur

Like the other popular tourist cities in Rajasthan it is based around a large imposing castle that for years had housed the ruling Maharaja of the area. Jodapur’s castle was, however, the most impressive in Rajasthan. Huge and built high up on a natural plateau, it was obvious why the castle had never fallen.

Jodhpur’s castle, the Mehrangarh Fort

Beautiful stonework on the castle

While the kings were removed of all official powers during unification of India and legislation in the following years, the former royals are still quite wealthy and influential, and even own the actual castles in the centers of the town, including the museums the tourists all flock to. It made the audio guide tours very interesting, as they were very generous and complementary of the royal family whose descendant owned the land on which the museum was placed – quite noticeably different from more independent museums where historical events are discussed evenly.

The castle had impressive views onto the blue houses of Jodapur.

Looking out over Jodhpur

The castle also gave the best description of Jauhar, a code of honor followed by the Rajputs that reminded me of the no-surrender honor of the samarais. the Rajputs could never accept defeat, and if a battle was going to be lost the wives (always plural in Rajasthan) of the royals would burn themselves and then the royals would march out to certain death in the final battle.

Handprints of wives about to commit suicide

The gates of the castle had handprints left by wives about to commit suicide

But while the castle was impressive, we found the city less so. Long streets of shops, and a small square with a clock tower, but nothing that approached the atmosphere of Udaipur or Jaislmer.

Square and clock tower

Women walking down the streets

Local kids who wanted their picture taken

Like many Indian cities, so much commerce and activity takes place outdoors in Jodhpur. The streets were always busy.

The small guesthouse we stayed in did not have much going for it, but its claim to fame was that Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody had stayed there while filming a movie in India. It was hard to believe that those Hollywood actors had slept in such shabby conditions, but there were pictures to prove it. Maybe background research?

Adrien Brody

The same view as we saw it…