It’s not hard to see why Jaipur is one of the most-visited cities in India . Just a few hours by train from Delhi, Rajasthan’s capital is visually stunning, conjuring up technicolour images of Hawa Mahal , historical hill forts, breathtaking Mughal-Rajput architecture and opulent palace hotels. Mention India’s first planned city and Chandigarh—Jawaharlal Nehru’s dream city in post-independence India—comes to mind.
Yet not many people know that Jaipur is considered India’s first planned city, founded more than 200 years before Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh in 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II when his capital, Amer, faced water shortage. I too wanted to see it for myself, wilfully making a detour when I should have been travelling north from Delhi. While I didn’t have time to see more of Rajasthan, it seems apt to head to Jaipur when visiting northern India for the first time for a glimpse of Mughal and Rajput history.
It’s everything that a tourist curious about India can dream of. While tourists head to Agra for that one very recognisable marble mausoleum, Jaipur has enough key attractions to justify a multi-day itinerary. I’ve deliberately not researched too much, just quickly to know that I should not miss Charles Correa’s Jawahar Kala Kendra.
More than the usual attractions, I wanted to see how Jaipur through the lens of a local. Here, some recommendations to uncover a different side of Jaipur, easy to incorporate even for the tourist with a packed schedule on the Golden Triangle circuit..
