The Palace of the Winds, a Walk through Jaipur's Pink City

Look up at the east facade of Hawa Mahal, the Palace of the Winds. Five storeys of red sandstone rise in a curve of jharokhas, the screened windows that give the building its name. Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh had it built in 1799. The official state account names Lal Chand Usta as the architect. From these windows, women of the court could watch the street and the festival processions of Teej and Gangaur without being seen. A passage once linked this palace to the City Palace, which we will reach later. The facade faces east, so morning light is kind to it. You can photograph this street front at any time, without a ticket. The interior usually opens around 9 in the morning. Listed closing times vary from late afternoon to early evening, so check the ticket window if you want to go in. The palace is closed on Dhulandi, the second day of Holi. When you are ready, walk west toward Jantar Mantar, the stone observatory a few hundred metres from here. You can go inside Hawa Mahal first if it is open, then continue.

The masonry instruments behind the wall belong to Jantar Mantar, the observatory of Sawai Jai Singh II. UNESCO inscribed this site in 2010 and calls it the most significant, most comprehensive and best preserved of India's historic observatories. It holds some twenty main fixed instruments, built for observation with the naked eye. The largest sundial here is the Brihat Samrat Yantra. Work on the observatory was completed in the mid-1730s; some older notices give the year as 1728. Jai Singh, who also founded this city, gathered astronomers at his court at the end of the Mughal period. UNESCO describes the place as a meeting point for different scientific cultures, and as a way for a ruler to fix time and the calendar in his new capital. The site is ticketed. Hours are generally from the morning into the late afternoon; confirm at the gate. When you are ready, walk a short way north to Gate 1 of the City Palace, beside the observatory ticket counter.

You are at the public approach to the City Palace, by Gate 1. Sawai Jai Singh II began this complex when he moved his capital from Amber down onto the plain in 1727. Buildings were added into the twentieth century. On a museum ticket you can walk the public courtyards and galleries, including Mubarak Mahal, the reception palace. Chandra Mahal, the seven-storey palace, rises at the heart of the complex. Some of its rooms can be seen only on a separate guided visit. Other parts of the palace remain private and are not on the ordinary ticket. The City Palace Museum was established in 1959 and holds collections gathered by the Kachhwaha rulers of Amber and Jaipur. The museum is generally open from half past 9 in the morning to half past 6 in the evening, with last tickets an hour before closing, and is closed on Dhulandi. Photography rules differ from courtyard to gallery; follow the signs. When you are ready, walk north around the palace, following signs for Govind Dev Ji or Jai Niwas Garden, about four to five hundred metres. You do not need a museum ticket for the temple.

The building in this garden is the temple of Govind Dev Ji, an image of Krishna. Sawai Jai Singh II established the shrine here in 1735, in Jai Niwas Garden, and the image was brought from Vrindavan. It stands on an axis with Chandra Mahal, so that the palace could have a view of the shrine. Many people in Jaipur still come here first in the morning, and newly married couples often pay their first visit for a blessing. This is an active Hindu temple, not a museum. Dress modestly, covering shoulders and knees. Take your shoes off at the designated place before you enter. Photography is generally not allowed in the inner sanctum or during aarti, the prayer service; follow the posted signs, and do not photograph worshippers without their agreement. The temple usually opens early, closes for a time in the afternoon, and opens again in the evening. Hours can change on festival days, so read the board at the gate. When you are ready, walk back south toward Tripolia Bazaar and Tripolia Gate, a little over half a kilometre.

The triple gateway on the north side of this bazaar is Tripolia Gate, the ceremonial threshold of the City Palace on the east-west street. It was built in the eighteenth century, in the time of Sawai Jai Singh II. A government heritage record describes it as one of the grandest gates of the city, two storeys high, with a pointed arch and a chhatri on top. The street takes its name from the gate. Historically, this opening was reserved for ceremonial processions from the palace, and it is not a general public way through into the courtyards. You are looking at it from the bazaar, which is the right place to stand. Tripolia Bazaar still keeps a good deal of its original upper facades, more so than some other streets in the walled city. It runs from Badi Chaupar, to the east, to Chhoti Chaupar in the west. The next stop is a short walk west, to the tall octagonal tower called Isarlat, which marks the skyline of this street.

The seven-storey octagonal tower above the bazaar is Isarlat, also called Sargasuli. Sawai Ishwari Singh, a son of Jai Singh II, built it in 1749. The official state description, and a government heritage record, treat it as a victory tower from a struggle over the Jaipur throne. The name Sargasuli is often explained as a passage to heaven. The tower stands about 140 feet high, with a cupola at the top, and it sits on this street between Tripolia Gate and Chhoti Chaupar. You can climb it on a separate ticket when the stair is open, usually from about 9 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon. The view from the street is free. Chhoti Chaupar, the smaller of the two main squares on this axis, lies a short way further west. When you are ready, turn back east along Tripolia Bazaar, past Tripolia Gate, and continue to Badi Chaupar, the great square, about 600 metres.

You are in Badi Chaupar, the large public square at the crossing of the city's main bazaars. Sawai Jai Singh II founded Jaipur on this plain in 1727. The foundation rites were held on 18 November that year. His architect-planner was Vidyadhar Bhattacharya, and most of the walls, streets and public squares were laid out between 1727 and 1731. The plan follows a grid, read through Vastu Shastra, with nine sectors, or chowkris, and three great chaupars on the east-west road. UNESCO inscribed the walled city in 2019 and describes the plan as an interchange of ideas from Hindu, Mughal and Western traditions. Under the paving here there were once large reservoirs, fed from the hills, which were closed when piped water arrived in the nineteenth century. The popular story says the city was painted pink in 1876 for a visit by the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, later King Edward VII. The terracotta colour is older than that. Eighteenth-century paintings already show pink on palace walls, and a lime wash in a similar shade had been used in the city long before the prince arrived. What happened in 1876 was closer to a thorough refresh, and a rule the next year helped keep the bazaar fronts a uniform terracotta pink. When you are ready, walk south into Johari Bazaar, the jewellers' street, and stop about halfway down, a little over 400 metres.

Johari Bazaar is one of the original planned market streets, running south from Badi Chaupar toward Sanganeri Gate. Goldsmiths, enamel workers and sellers of precious stones have worked this street since the city invited merchants here in the early 1730s. The facades were built to a common line, with shops below and havelis and temples above, so the street still reads as one composition, even where later verandahs and signs have been added. The walled city was laid out as a trading capital. UNESCO notes that Jaipur was said to have housed thirty-six karkhanas, or workshops, and that gemstones, lac jewellery and stone carving were among the crafts given their own streets. Some of those trades are still practised in these shops. Take your time, keep to the sidewalk, and watch for traffic. The road is narrow and busy. When you are ready, continue south, then turn west into Bapu Bazaar, about 500 metres.

Bapu Bazaar is a later market street, running west toward New Gate, with stalls of cloth, mojari shoes and household goods under the same pink frontage. It sits between the older jewellery bazaar you have just left and Chaura Rasta, the later north-south street that was cut through toward the south wall. The contrast is useful: Johari Bazaar belongs to the original plan; this street shows how the walled city kept adding markets as it grew. It is also a good place to see how the quarter still works as a bazaar, not only as a set of monuments. Look at the shop signs and the pink plaster, still held to a common line. The street can be crowded, and the sun is hard here at midday. Keep a hand on your bag, drink some water, and stay on the shaded side if you can. New Gate, the end of this walk, is about 200 metres further west.

The gateway in the south wall is New Gate, also marked on some maps as Man Gate, at the foot of Chaura Rasta. Unlike Ajmeri Gate or Sanganeri Gate, which belong to the original circuit of the walls, this opening was added later, when a new north-south street was cut from the palace toward what is now M.I. Road. The name is a clue: Naya Pol, the new gate. A government heritage record describes a three-arched gateway with floral work in the spandrels, still one of the ways in and out of the walled city. You have walked from Hawa Mahal, through the palace quarter and the bazaars, to this gap in the south wall. UNESCO inscribed the walled city in 2019. Autos and buses run along M.I. Road just outside. If you have the energy, Ajmeri Gate lies a short walk west, and Sanganeri Gate a short walk east, along the same wall.