The Chittaurgarh fort is a backdrop of many stories of valour and sacrifice. This includes the story about Meera who devoted her life in bhakti of Shri Krishna, Panna dhai who saved baby prince Udai Singh from the attack by his own uncle by sacrificing her own son, self immolation by Padmawati (Padmini), the beautiful queen of Ratan Singh to escape falling in the hands of Allauddin Khilji who was mesmerized by her beauty.
The fort was huge, longish ( half a kilometer by 4 km approximately), standing on the top of a mountain surrounded by valley on all the sides. Rana Pratap with whom Chittaur is associated actually lived there only in his teens. But he spent his life unsuccessfully trying to win it back from Akbar to whom it was lost by his father Udai Singh II.
A few monuments in the fort are open to public, the erstwhile royal family still occupies most of the living quarters. There are many temples, moats, two towers all built in different periods of history. The most disturbing one was of-course the site of self-immolation of Padmavati. As told by our guide, it was supposedly a huge square fiery pit in which the queen and her entourage threw themselves. The pit is now filled up with sand and no building to commemorate the event has been allowed to come up on the site. The event however is unforgotten in the local art; pictures/prints commemorating it are ubiquitous.
It was worth the half day it took to visit it and we were soon on our
way to Udaipur, the beautiful city established by Udai Singh II circa
1560.
The most imposing structure of this city is the City Palace, stand on the shores of lake Picchola. The lake also has many islands with smaller palaces or gardens on them, now converted into hotels. This region is very hilly with many lakes giving the apt title "city of lakes" to Udaipur. Unlike the northern part of Rajasthan which is dry having desert climate, Udaipur is more like an oasis, or rather a hill station.
The above picture of the palace is from our hotel window.
The palace is still belongs to the erstwhile Royal family and the management is in their control. The tour of the palace is quite engaging. The Rajputs believe that they are descendants of Lord Ram and this gives them the divine right to rule.
Like almost all Rajput palaces it has a Janana (Ladies) section which is really screened off from everywhere and a Mardana (men) section with the durbar area. There were lots of steep steps to navigate the various floors in different sections.
The fort was a maze of corridors, chowks, rooms, gardens all with frescos and inlaid Jharokas. Each chowk had many frescos and inlaid artifacts. The adjoining picture of the beautifully inlaid peacock is just one of the many examples. Furniture, kitchen utensils, armaments were on ample display, but the jewels were not. The luxurious ambience was palpable.
Recently the current erstwhile royal family had a wedding and the mandap prepared for the ceremony was preserved in situ. Very traditional decor but everything seemed to be made of silver. There are a few exclusive palaces within the compound of the city palace. One of them is a luxury hotel, another is a convention center and yet another is current residence of the members of the family.
We also visited the Crystal Gallery which is in Fateh Prakash Palace next door to the city palace. We were the only visitors to this section, something to do with the high entrance fee, I suppose. The ground floor is a huge Durbar Hall with plush carpets and huge portraits of all the Ranas looking down upon us mortals. I guess the recent G20 meeting which took place in this hall must have made the attendees feel somewhat similar.The opulent lifestyle of the Maharajas of various princely states is evident from the fact that many of them (Udaipur, Gwalior, Patiala) bought a lot of crystal at a time when the governance of the country was rapidly being usurped by the British. Osler had an outlet in India before it had an outlet in London. Strangely the Ranas and Maharanas who were so opposed to the Mughal rulers did not see anything wrong in cozying up to the British. This was also evident in the history of Jagmandir Palace.
Jagmandir Palace is on a small island in the Pichhola lake. It is first
mentioned in history as the lavish hiding place of Prince
Khurram (Shah Jehan) who rebelled against his father the Mughal emperor
Jehangir. Later during the first war of India's independence in 1857, the
Maharaja gave asylum to the families of British officers and provided
them this Palace to live in. 
Today it has an uber-luxurious heritage restaurant still run by the erstwhile royal family, hosting grand weddings of some of the most rich in the world.
A picture of lit up Jagmandir Palace from a boat when we
were going for a dinner at the Restaurant inside. The marble elephants
overlooking the lake were very beautiful and have found mention in
history as a signature of the beauty of Jagmandir Palace.
Details of a corner of the frescos on the roof of the dinning hall at Jagmandir Palace.
Men trying to confine/control/subjugate women is an integral part of our culture evidence of that was aplently evident in Udaipur. Saheliyon ki Bari is a beautiful garden palace with a number of fountains and small pools all constructed for the women of the royal family. Women were not allowed to experience even rain outside. This enclosed area was created so that the womenfolk of the royal family can experience nature away from the prying of eyes. Of who? Other Rajputs? Non royal folk?
The sculptures were very beautiful, the swans were almost life like. Most of the fountains still work making the Bari a very cool place. It also has multiple ponds, one of them is full of lotus plants. Yet others were used for playing with coloured water on Holi.
A hidden gem of Udaipur, which we loved, was the trek up the Badi lake. This is a sliver of a valley in the north of the city which is still not developed fully for tourism. It has a short trek up the hill which offers stunning views of the lake and the surrounding mountains in their verdant resplendence. It is not without danger since their are no steps, no barricades as yet, only a dirt track for the trekkers. It seemed to be a favorite of couples for shooting their pre-wedding videos.
