After running away from Jaigarh due to Bhai's darr (refer previous post) we arrived at Nahargarh jiska naam bhoot ke darr se pada! It is believed that Nahar Singh Bhomia's spirit haunted the place and obstructed construction of the fort so to pacify him a temple was built in his memory and the fort was named "Nahargarh"!
The fort was built in 1734 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh, further extended in 1868 and the Madhavendra Bhavan was built by Sawai Madho Singh. But before we reached the main palace we were fooled like most other tourists into seeing the wax museum and fake Sheesh Mahal. The way it's advertised by salesmen there you feel like itne durr aye hai toh dekh hee lete hai aur pocket ka ched bada ho jata hai. The wax museum was a total bor (humare lonavala ka aake dekhiega) but the fake Sheesh Mahal though gaudy does look beautiful with the myriad colored mirrors, even a mirrored floor and ceiling. Par itna paisa deke photu bhi nahi kheechne dete, matlab social media pe dala nahi toh kya hee matlab uss kharche ka (not-so-subtle commentary on my obsession with posting)
We got a guide at the Madhavendra Bhavan who first laughed in our faces for falling in the trap of wax museum and Sheesh Mahal. Then he proceeded to test us on what we learnt at Amer and Jaigarh. Navra was more than happy to shining marofy and five mins later these two guys were bffs!
The palace had identical suites for the queens and a head suite for the king. There's an optical illusion in the architecture as well, one can see three suites each on the left and right and one at the front from the ground level but from one level above one can count not 7 but 9 identical suites as two are built hidden at the back. As per folklore, the guide said it was built for seven queens and two concubines but as per his knowledge it represents 9 grahas with the two harmful ones been hidden. Whatever the story the place was an architectural marvel! It's a mixture of Hindu, Mughal and European styles. There are some excellent frescoes here.
All the suites were linked by corridors and there was a dedicated corridor for the king to move such that no queen would know with whom he is spending the night. Each suite was huge with a room for maids, bedrooms, kitchen, storage areas, modern toilets, different sections for summers and winters and a terrace! There were even symmetrical talking and listening pillars where one can whisper into a pillar at one side and the other person can listen from the pillar at the other side. Goes without saying us kids spent quite some time doing this!
The view from the terrace were spectacular, one can see the whole city bathed in the golden light of dusk. After clicking a hundred pics here we remembered our friend Madhura had suggested to go to the Padao restaurant on the fort for viewing the sunset. Phir yahan se dekhe ya wahan se, jaate jaate doob gaya toh aisa faltu discussion was had and finally we ran (langdat) towards Padao and got a lovely table right near the wall of the fort! The view was fantabulous and we ordered chai, pakodas whilst clicking a hundred pics again. After the initial enthusiasm lowered I picked up the universally hated smell of a public toilet which was as we then learnt right below our lovely table 😬 matlab pata tha sab kuch itna acha woh bhi humare saath thodi na ho sakta hai!
As I was cribbing a little (a lot) about the smell saying probably we should have waited on the palace terrace Adi showed me the sunset scene from "Yeh Jawani hai Deewani" where Dipika's character tells Ranbir's character "kitna bhi try karlo Bunny life mein kuch na kuch toh chootegahi so jahan hai wahi ka mazza lete hai na" while they sit on a fort wall, overlooking the city, watching a sunset in Rajasthan! It was so perfect, the timing, the setting, the sentiment that I fell a little more in love with navra 🥰
Sunsets I still feel are best on the beach but this gave tough competition! There were about 5-6 colorful kites swaying in the clouds as if the kids there were putting up a special show for us. As it turned darker and lights were lit, another show was put up - stars twinkled above in the sky and below the city twinkled! A couple of beers were had, cool breeze was felt, re-falling in love was happening, as some fine urinary smell permeated the atmosphere 😬
For more pics - https://www.facebook.com/share/p/UkAZys7p7R1qnkjG/?mibextid=oFDknk
Wow what an experience
ReplyDelete9 queens, you say? Being a raja wasn't bad at all, eh?
ReplyDeleteHahaha I think whether having 9 wives is good or bad can be argued both ways 😅
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