Amer Fort

AMER FORT – A GOLDEN STREAK AMIDST THE PINK CITY

The Amber Palace is a great piece of Hindu architecture with sprinkles from the islamic invaders. It stands on Aravalli hills with the Maota lake in front of it. Its just a few minutes ride from City Palace or the Palace of winds a.k.a Hawa Mahal. The front view of the Amer Palace is mesmerises the onlookers with great golden infrastructure and the lace in its vicinity added by the small foot hills, gardens and the view of Jaigarh Fort (where its said to be the largest cannon in the world).

Its a Half a km walk from the base to reach the Palace Gate once inside there is a big open courtyard with some trees planted in between as a boon in the hot summer days in the deserted state.

From here a few more stairs and we reach to the Diwan-e-Aam that translates to the hall of the commons where once the people of the state visited at the time of the kings. Its a great stone carved structure made of red sandstone.

On the right is the main enterence of the palace the Ganesh Pol named after Lord Ganesh the son of SHIVA and the god of prosperity and wealth. The gate with beautiful paintings and carved windows on top through which the royal ladies used to watch the processions as they were not allowed to come out bare faced in front of the public.

Inside is a great garden with fountain in the middle to the left the path leads to the Diwan-e-khas or the hall of the royals.

Enveloped among marbles and great interiors made out of pieces of mirrors in the Seesh Mahal, these small mirror pieces are used to create images of flower pots, stars and other abstract designs. When at night a candle is placed in the hall it gets reflected from the mirrors and appears as stars among the sky.

As we take a stair to the next floor which has a series of rooms and galleries surrounding the Diwan-e-Aam. Some windows are made on this floor with see through capability by carving small holes in stones, the carvings are creative and make great geometrical patterns. The rooms are well decorated with paintings and carvings on the walls and the roofs but only a few of these art works are left for us today.

Some windows are made on this floor with see through capability by carving small holes in stones, the carvings are creative and make great geometrical patterns. The rooms are well decorated with paintings and carvings on the walls and the roofs but only a few of these art works are left for us today.

As after the formation of Independent India they were painted white so as to make them look new, rather then preserving the heritage the government made a failed attempt to destroy there elegance there creativity. Only a few places in the Palace where the old remains are intact painted and carved beautifully.

The next compartment is the Zenana or the place for the womens of the Palace with a small hall in middle of the courtyard and surrounded by Personel rooms for the queens. I wonder why this compartment was the largest as per the size and heres the reason why ?

In one end of the Zenana is the Kings Palace which once used to be the most special place of the Palace decorated with his riches but now all that remains is a painting of Lord Krishna and Radha on the pillar in the centre of the room, rest all paintings of wall are white washed sadly.

Sukh Niwas or the place of pleasure is a climate controlled space with water chanells running through the place to keep it cool during the hot Indian summers. It has an old ivory and sandal wood gate on display but in not so good condition the wood just parted of with time and a chariot. The walls are carved in shapes of flower vases and filled in different colors appearing islamic in nature but add a charisma to the cool ambience. This is the place where most of the time of the royal family was spent in the hot season.

Then on the way out are some old trunks and vessels too large to feed the people living in the palace which seems around thousand as the size of the vessels depict.