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Cities of Rajasthan

Some towns in Rajasthan have received nicknames inspired by the color of the walls of the houses. Thus, Jaipur is the pink city (because the walls of the houses were painted in pink as a sign of welcome for Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria), Jaisalmer is the city of gold because its walls are made of sand stone. yellow and Jodhpur received the nickname of blue city.

Jodhpur

The blue color of the houses protects against heat and mosquitoes, but the main reason for this color in Jodhpur is the indication of belonging to the Brahmin caste, a higher caste in Hinduism. The city of Jodhpur was founded in 1459 by King Rao Jodha who gave it its name. Rao Jodha also founded the Marvar Kingdom, which prospered through its trade relations with Delhi. The Marvar kingdom made an alliance with the Mughals who seized power in much of India and the royal family of Jodhpur provided several great warlords to the Mughal empire, including the great Maharajah Jaswant Singh.

The city aroused the envy of neighboring warlords, including the bellicose Aurangzeb who reigned in Agra. Aurangzeb was the son of Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal, but had not developed the acute artistic sense that characterized his father, witnessing the imitation of the Taj Mahal in Aurangabad, named Bibi ka Maqbara.

Fortunately for Jodhpur, Aurangzeb's victory was short-lived and the legitimate rulers quickly regained their rights over Jodhpur.

The decline of the city corresponds to that of the Mughal Empire at the beginning of the 18th century. An uncertain and troubled period of wars and successive treaties would begin and last for about fifty years until the arrival of the British Empire.

During the independence of India in 1949, the state of Jodhpur was attached to Rajasthan.

Mehrangarh Fort

Besides the typical blue houses of Jodhpur where monkey gangs have settled, Jodhpur has Mehrangarh Fort housing several richly decorated palaces. Located on a hill, the fort, intended to protect the city of Jodhpur from all attacks, is ideally located on a height from which one could see any troop movements in the valley. The construction of the fort lasted 10 years and mobilized thousands of workers and hundreds of elephants. The impressive fortifications, made of 4 rows of ramparts which can reach in some places a height of more than 35 meters and provided with many observation posts make this fortress a practically impregnable place.

the cenotaph of Jaswant Singh

One of the most important Maharajahs of Jodhpur was Jaswant Singh who ruled Jodhpur in the 17th century. It is in his honor that his son erected the impressive cenotaph Jaswant Thada. A cenotaph is a funeral monument that does not contain the body of the honored person, unlike a mausoleum.

 

about the place, Jodhpur:

Jodhpur is the second most important city in Rajasthan with its 1.5 million inhabitants. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Marwar. The city is full of temples, palaces and forts including Fort Mehrangarh and the very elegant Jaswant Thada Palace.

Spoken comments in the film: 

Jodhpur, the blue city. It is the second city of Rajasthan by the number of inhabitants and it has a very impressive fort as well as some richly decorated monuments, most of which are cenotaphs, funerary monuments not intended to receive the body of the person in honor. from which the monument was erected.