Palace on Wheels

The tour starts from Delhi and comes back to the city after going through, in order: Jaipur-Chittaurgarh-Udaipur­Ranthambhor -JaisaImer - Jodhpur­Bharatpur-Agra. Welcome aboard.

Day 1: Wednesday, the tour starts in the evening with a ceremonial welcome aboard the Palace on Wheels at Delhi Cantonment. Delhi too is an ancient capital, once the fabled city of the heroes of the Mahabharata, and ruled by the Rajputs before they were displaced by the Tughlaqs, the Khiljis, and the Mughals. . After a hectic day of sightseeing, the train will come as a respite. Feel free to explore your new home, and acquaint yourself with its various facilities. Relax with a drink at the bar. Dinner will be served on board the two restaurants. The train departs from Delhi at 2245 hrs.

Day 2: Thursday, arrive 0830 in Jaipur to be greeted by caparisoned elephants. Lunch will be served at Rambagh Palace, and dinner is a celebration under the canopy of the star-lit skies at Jai Mahal Palace. Your sightseeing during the day includes Amber Fort, Hawa Mahal, the Jantar Mantar observatory, and the City Palace complex. The train departs from the Pink City at 2200 hrs.

Jaipur became the capital of the Kachchwaha kings when they shifted here from their hilltop fort of Amber. It was built according to the principles laid down in the ancient architectural treatises, but with a!1 the opulence deserving of a royal city. At its centre rose the seven-tiered palace of the royal family, and around it came up gardens and temples, its astronomical observatory and the myriads of mans,ions and shops that went into the making of the new capital. Since Amber is only eleven kilometres from Jaipur, visitors can travel up to the great fort on elephant­back, to experience the pomp and grandeur of one of India's finest royal capitals.

Jaipur also offers a great shopping experience since the city is the country's capital as far as handicrafts go -and they include a very extensive range ­ as well as a major international centre for the cutting and polishing of gems and stones. It also has a large number of palace hotels, and both Rambagh and Jai Mahal, which are the venues for guests for their lunch and dinner, are intimately linked with the history of this former princely state. Rambagh, in fact, was the last palace in which the former maharaja and his glamorous maharani, and now Rajmata or Queen Mother of Jaipur, the popuIar  Gayatri Devi, resided. The palace not only has most of the original furnishings and artefacts, but its famous Polo Bar also has pictures of the last maharaja with English aristocracy and other important guests.

Day 3: Friday, Chittaurgarh and Udaipur, the capitals of the Sisodia Maharanas, enjoy pre-eminence among the Rajput clans of Rajasthan. Arrival at Chittaurgarh at 0730 hrs. Spend a half day each at both capitals, one ancient, the other picturesque and teeming with life. Lunch is at Lake Palace, the beautiful island palace built as a summer resort by the royal family, and now converted into one of the world's finest hotels. The train departs again at 2200 hrs, and dinner will be served on board. Chittaurgarh is India's most valorous fort, its history an unending saga of passion, chivalry and romance. Within its sprawling ramparts were beautiful palaces, but few of them remain, the fort having been sacked by invaders through acts of treachery. It was finally abandoned following the long Mughal siege and the battle of Haldighati. The Sisodias escaped to the hills and lived the life of nomads while they schemed to aven§e their honour. In time, they also laid the foundation for a new kingdom - Udaipur - situated by lake Pichola, where the impressive City Palace was lavished with aesthetic embellishments, and the art of miniature painting was encouraged in its ateliers. Subsequently, too, the princes built the island palaces, summer retreats that cover the masses of land so that the buildings look afloat in water.

Besides the Lake Palace, there are other such retreats that have been converted into hotels, one of them, Shiv Niwas, being run by the current head of the family. A graceful, valourous race, the Sisodias and their city bring alive the excitement of a medieval kingdom as it once was, and with a little imagination, can still almost be...

Day 4: Saturday, steam into Sawai Madhopur to spend the day in the wilds of Ranthambhor where your hosts are, of course, royal. Ranthambhor National Park is home to the royal Bengal tiger, the stateliest of the big cats, and magnificent in its agility and grace. As it moves through the underbrush, its tawny gold hide striped with bands of black, the jungle stands to attention.

Ranthambhor is also very picturesque. A number of lakes form the shallow lands where tiger sightings are quite common, and where herds of deer can be seen foraging, while crocodiles bask in the sun. The hills ring the park, and in the distance the ramparts of Ranthambhor fort create a dramatic silhouette. Once, this was the scene for fierce battles, and for fiery jauhars, but all that is of the past now, though former hunting lodges such as Jogi Mahal, close to the lakes, is still in a great state of preservation.

Ranthambhor is particularly well known for its tiger sightings because the undisturbed environs and the spreading, shallow lakes provide them the surroundings best suited to their needs, and therefore sightings by day time are quite common. Various conservationists and wildlife photographers have worked at length here to document the life cycle of the tigresses of Ranthambhor, even giving them names, so that they are now a part of the regional lore.

Since the best time to visit the park is in the early morning, the train arrives at 0630 hrs, and leaves for its next destination at 1230 hrs. Lunch and dinner are served on board the train, since the journey is a long one. This afternoon, it's time for you to relax from your earlier hectic schedule, and spend it on reading, making friends, and watching the changing topography of this semi-arid desert as it changes from the lush forests of the Aravallis to the flat plains, and eventually barren, sandy desert.

Day 5: Sunday, arrive at 0900 hrs at Jaisalmer. Spend the day in this isolated, but architecturally one of the greatest royal bastions of the world. After a safari dinner served under the stars, at a camp site, come back to the train to resume your journey. Departure is at 2330 hrs.
Jaisalmer was the stronghold of the Bhatti Rajputs, and a hardier race never lived. Their early settlement was marked by brigandage, as they looted caravans at will, stealing horses, and inviting the wrath of the West Asian invaders. Over time they began to settle, and the 12th century fort with its ninety-nine bristling bastions was established on top of Trikuta hill, exactly as prophesied for these descendants of Krishna.

Isolated Jaisalmer may have been, a lost city in the sands of the Thar, more mythic than real for those of who heard of it, but the caravans that passed through its territories enriched the coffers of the treasury. It also kept Jaisalmer in touch with the world, for such caravans carried not merely goods but also artisans and master craftsmen. The Maharawals of Jaisalmer thought little of making use of their services to build the

magnificent sandstone architecture for which it has become known around the world. However, even more magnificent, along the cobbled stone pathways of the fort, arose the havelis, the mansions of the Jain merchants who were as powerful in the court of the time, as they were adept at business. Their homes are a poetry of sandstone, carved and pierced incredibly into different patterns, and though they are opulent and effusive, the result is in perfect harmony, and never offending to the eye.

Not only is Jaisalmer's architecture magnificent, its meandering lanes, the many homes within the ramparts and the resounding rhythms of the Langa and Manganiyar musicians have frozen this citadel into a medieval time-warp. Escape from here to the desert sands around the fort, and see them drift in the breeze, or take a camel ride, or simply enjoy the mesmeric dances of its folk performers. So must the kings have watched over their kingdom. However, you no longer need to travel to Jaisalmer in a caravan: your carriage is a luxurious train - fitting
in the royal context.

Day 6: Monday, time for you to visit yet another desert kingdom, Jodhpur, where you arrive at 0900 hrs. You can spend the morning at Mehrangarh Fort that towers over the city like an eagle's eyrie, and then come downhill to lunch at Umaid Bhawan Palace, the largest art-deco residence in the world, and now home to the head of the royal family, museum, and luxury hotel. Departure, after unwinding in the palace, is at 1545 hrs.

The five-hundred-year-old history of Jodhpur, the bastion of the valiant Rathore Rajputs, bristles with conflicts and seiges, with battles and savage skirmishes, so it is difficult to believe thet they found the time to not only build the impossobly invincible-looking Mehrangarh Fort, but also its lavish, and delicately embellished palaces. Within the fort, reached by a steep path with huge gates guarding it at turns, and placed at angles, to prevent elephants from stroming them, are a large number of apartments where the maharaja's retainers now serve as guides. Within, the apartments are painted and gilded, and have windows and balconies to allow them an uninterrupted view of the desert around it, now peopled with homes. The accoutrements of the royal past are well presented - swords and daggers and spears and matchlock guns; a bC!ttle tent seized from Emperor Jehangir; howdahs and chariots and carriages; cribs and beds; the royal, octagonal throne; musical instruments, large drums, even a collection of turbans.

From the ramparts of the fort, where the cannons are still mounted, the sweeping view also takes in a huge palace located on top of another, though lower, hill. This is Umaid Bhawan, the palace the maharajas set out to build as a famine relief project, but also ambitiously as the world's largest private residence. It was intended to, and did, rival the presidential palace coming up then at Delhi. Built by a British architect, while the planning has incorporated the elements of the Rajput lifestyle (large courtyards, for example, or a zenana wing), there is a formal, western sense of symmetry and restrained sense of ornamentation. Only. in the royal suites does exuberance take over, since a Polish artist, then travelling in India, was given the permission to create huge paintings to suit the art-deco theme of the architecture and furniture in the palace. A museum here, unlike that of the fort, has memorabilia that consists of clocks and silver and tableware, a nostalgic look at a more recent past.

The grounds of the palace are huge, .and towards the back, there is a bougainvillea garden, perhaps the only one of its kind in the world, and at the end, a baradari, a pillared pavilion where the maharajas held mehfils, entertainment courts. Within the palace, the court tooms are more formal, while the ballrooms resounded, till recently, with the sounds of revelry, now captured in the whispered conversations of tourists.

Day 7: If it's Tuesday, it must be Bharatpur. Arrive at 0715 hrs at a royal kingdom where the Jats, rather than the Rajputs, ruled. Bharatpur's Jat history is not too old, with. Suraj Mal establishing a firm stronghold in a region contested by both the Rajputs and the Mughals. Suraj Mal's exploits are legendary, and the fort, Lohagarh, or iron fort, has a history that recounts it with pride. The only fort in the state to have bastions of mud, these proved meritorious because they simply swallowed up the cannon shells, not allowing them to impact.

However, it is not for its fort, or palace, or even the close"by fortified resort of Deeg that passengers of' the Palace on Wheels are here: their attention is drawn to the bird sanctuary, one of the finest in the world. The Keoladeo Ghana National Park was developed by a royal edict when dykes were created so that water could be channelised for the hunting preserve the maharaja of Bharatpur wished to create. In the early decade of this century, Bharatpur became famous among visiting British royalty and aristocracy for the amount of game the visitors bagged. Th.ese days, thankfully, only shooting by cameras is permitted in this sanctuary with over three hundred species of birds, many of them migrant species that come from parts as distant as Siberia and China.

After visiting the sanctuary in the morning, visitors travel by coach to Fatehpur Sikri, the red sandstone city built by Emperor Akbar on a lavish scale, but which he had to abandon soon after becaUse of a shortage of water. From here to Agra, first for lunch at Welcomgroup Mughal Sheraton, and then for a visit to the world's most well-known monument, and well worth its fame: the Taj Mahal. Built in the memory of h.is beloved empress by Emperor Shah Jahan, this marble mausoleum is the greatest gesture of love known to mankind, and is breathtakingly, bewitchingly beautiful.

Land for the building of the Taj Mahal in Agra came from the maharaja of Jaipur, and the marble used in its construction was from the mines of Makrana, also in Rajasthan. The precious stones used in its inlay, and the craftsmen employed for the twenty-two years its construction took, came not only from India, but from all over the world.

The Taj Mahal is the perfect finale to your royal sojourn.

Day 8: Wednesday, and you're back in Delhi as early as 0730 hrs where, after breakfast on board the train, you descend to the humdrum existence of modern life, with only royal memories to retain for the rest of your lifetime.

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