Govindji

I took a walk in the old city with Nelson yesterday. I had purchased a copy of the excellent "Six Walks to Discover Jaipur" which the JVF puts out; Nelson and I decided to take a walk to see the "Historical Monuments" of the old city, since we suspected that most shops and museums would be closed for Republic Day (this turned out not to be the case).

We started at Tripolia gate. Since it was closed, we had to walk around in order to regain our set course. We found a stairway leading up to the city walls, a detritus-filled walkway with parapets and playing children:



Rejoining the road, we found ourselves next to the City Palace and the Observatory:



Further on was the Sireh Deori Bazaar:








Then Nelson and I went into the Jaleb Chowk, a funny little square with a temple in the middle. Statues of important family heads faced the temple, in a nod to Mesopotamian ideas of piety–that an avatar can pray in place of yourself. (I can see how comparative studies and the search for a unifying thread in Eastern and Western cultures began here). I wish I'd taken some better pictures:

We turned around, deciding instead to head up to the Govind Devji, one of the largest Hindu Temples in Jaipur for evening prayers to Krishna. Govindji is extraordinary, and exactly the kind of thing I came to India to see:

We retraced our steps, taking in the tumult of the Indian city. Apropos of our outsiders view and the inherently voyeuristic nature of our visit, we finished off the walk in front of the Hawa Mahal, probably the most famous landmark in Jaipur. The Maharajah's wives would stand in the myriad windows of the Mahal and look at processions and parades below. This was its entire purpose, so I hear: