RAJASTHAN & MOGHUL INDIA

21 February - 10 March 2009 with Richard Hunt

Please note that this tour can be combined with one to GUJERAT starting on 6 Feb 2009 *

A new tour to Rajasthan, starting in the picturesque city of Udaipur and ending with the Moghul wonders of Agra and Delhi, including visits to the Taj Mahal of course!  It is a varied and exciting journey through spectacular towns, villages and landscapes exploring the marvels of ancient and more modern religious, princely and Imperial art and architecture (of the Great Moghuls & the British!) - forts, palaces, temples, mosques & tombs. We will visit more modest houses and remote mansions of merchants and local rulers, staying as the guests of former rulers in some of the palaces and castles. To gain insights into the 'real India' of small towns and villages, we hope to arrange special visits to a school & tribal and mixed caste villages. We use our own coach and driver throughout, with time to stop and look at the sights & activities along our journey. Our hotels include a variety of forts and palaces, hunting lodges, & superb colonial splendour at the Imperial Hotel in Delhi.

OUR TOUR HAS SEVERAL BROAD AIMS:
We visit some of the great monuments to Indian history and culture, hoping to provide insights to art, architecture and the decorative arts of the splendid courts of the great Moghuls & Rajahs, the wonderful temples or mosques of the Hindu, Jain and Moslem religions, and to the crafts of village India.
It caters for those who wish to understand something of the 'REAL INDIA' - the India of people who live in towns and villages. We will look at their domestic lives, their work, religion & cultural traditions with the help of friends who work with voluntary agencies and by planning the tour with some time to stop and look!
This is a holiday! There is so much to see, but we cannot see everything! So we have planned an itinerary that is selective, yet offers variety and some time to explore alone or in small groups, go shopping or just relax beside a swimming pool. When we are not in transit you are perfectly free to include or omit any of the day’s activities. We do our utmost to plan carefully, but frustrations can occur with flights or hotels, which may involve changes in our programme. Indians are most hospitable, friendly and helpful and any difficulties can easily be overcome if we are tolerant and adaptable.
We hope to offer very good value for money: these are not the cheapest tours to India as we use the most convenient flights, good ground services, and welcoming, attractive hotels. The tours are rather longer, more varied and, dare we say, better planned than some that are a good deal more expensive.

RAJASTHAN is amongst the most interesting and colourful states of India. This area remained mainly under the rule of princes during the British Raj. The rulers built walled cities, palaces, temples or mosques, mausoleums Rich merchants & courtiers built beautiful town and country mansions (havelis), where the decoration of carved stone was practical as well as beautiful - deflecting the desert sands, channelling cooling breezes or providing subdued patterns of light & shade. Much of the building was in the Indo-Saracenic style - a fusion of Hindu and Muslim architecture. The large Jain community (an ancient off-shoot of Hinduism) also built a profusion of elaborately carved temples. Numerous tribal groups are to be found, each proudly maintaining their distinctive traditions in language, dance & folk culture, and especially their wonderful costumes, exhibiting the rich textiles - weaving, printing, embroidery for which the area is truly famous. The landscapes are varied and exciting – from the stark deserts to the beautiful Aravali Hills. In the villages much remains unchanged over centuries: methods of agriculture or irrigation; the buildings for people or animals; the widespread use of handicrafts. Pottery, exquisite textiles, carpets, carving, jewellery and leatherwork is found everywhere. WARNING: India is a great shopping temptation.

UDAIPUR:  Our tour starts with a flight from London to Delhi and a connecting flight to UDAIPUR.
21 Feb 2008 Depart London Heathrow 20.50 arrive Delhi 10.40. Depart Delhi 13.45 arrive Udaipur 14.55
The city of Udaipur was created by the Mewar clan in 1568 following their defeat by Akbar, the great Moghul emperor, at Chittorgarh. It is a city of palaces, pavilions, gardens and lakes surrounded by hills, and perhaps the most picturesque city in Rajasthan. It is also the home of our friend Ajay Paul (Travellers' Club guru, homoeopathic doctor and "village expert"), who we hope will help us to see some aspects of village India. We intend to spend about two half days discovering the city - its enormous and spectacular palace and museum, working temple, the beautiful garden of the 'maids of honour', the folk museum and open air museum of buildings and crafts. We also have time to explore alone or in small groups - wandering in the bazaars or among the lakeside pavilions, boating on the lake, dining at the Lake Palace, snoozing beside our hotel pool...
3 nights at the Fateh Prakash Palace. Former guest house of the Maharana of Udaipur. Located near the heart of the city, our rooms and the open air dining terrace overlook Lake Pichola & the famous Lake Palace.

RANAKPUR & KUMBULGARH.
Leaving Udaipur we Travel through the very beautiful Aravali mountains, with rugged rocks, tribal villages, small terraced fields irrigated by bullock-driven ‘Persian wheels’. In the afternoon we visit the famous RANAKPUR JAIN TEMPLE - a breathtaking 15th century white marble building with intricately carved pillars supporting numerous domes.
1 night at Fateh Bagh Hotel, a very comfortable small reconstructed palace, with wonderful views of the mountains. Swimming pool and all facilities.
Next morning we set off  for the city FORTRESS OF KUMBULGARH. We travel on through lovely scenery to the remote and huge 15th century, built by the Mewar rulers of Udaipur, to dominate the enemy kingdoms of Jodhpur and Gujarat. Inside the ramparts are palaces, temples, cenotaphs, wells, and all the requirements to withstand a siege (though it fell once to the Emperor Akbar!).  We plan an afternoon walk up to the fortress to see it at sunset.
1 night at the Aodhi Hotel. Near the fortress, in the hills, is our hotel in a dramatic setting. Still owned by the Maharana of Udaipur it offers comfortable rooms and swimming pool.

DEOGARH is a picturesque small town with a charming and beautiful palace hotel dominating it and the surrounding countryside. Here we can relax in the hotel and its surroundings, where the princely owners will invite us to explore villages and local crafts, go bird-watching or rest! An interesting local rural train ride can take us over the ‘ghat section’ [through cuttings, tunnels, over bridges] through some dramatic scenery.
2 nights at Deogarh Palace. Very comfortable and welcoming. Good food, swimming pool

SAMODE, JAIPUR, AMBER & SAMODE HAVELI:  We now make a long drive to Samode, a small village about 40 kms from Jaipur city. Here a small walled town is dominated by the very picturesque Samode Palace, home of the hereditary chief ministers of the Jaipur Maharajahs. Nearby is the delightful formal garden – the Samode Bagh, where the princely family would relax, and women from the harem, or zanana, could enjoy the gardens or bathing pool. Today this has been converted to a lovely rural hotel, where the ‘tents’ have marble floored bathrooms! From the Bagh we will explore the town and Palace, with dinner at the Palace one evening.
2 nights at Samode Bagh. ‘Tents’ in the garden, with meals around bonfires. Swimming pool, riding, tennis.

JAIPUR is the present day capital of the state of Rajasthan. It has grown beyond the walled "Pink City” built by Maharajah Jai Singh II in 1727, when he moved his capital from nearby AMBER. We first visit the ancient palaces at AMBER by elephant. It is a wonderful fusion of Hindu and Muslim architecture and decoration set dramatically in a pass controlling the plain. This huge complex includes the enormous Jaigur Fort high above the palaces. In the Pink City we explore the palace museum with its splendid collection of paintings, carpets, textiles; the fascinating Observatory built by Jai Singh, the Palace of the Winds (an elaborate screen from which ladies of the harem could watch public events) and the bustling bazaars with a bewildering variety of crafts including silver, jewellery and carpets. In the nearby small craft-based town of Sanganer we can see all the processes for the fine block-printed cotton: wood carvers producing the intricate blocks, the hand printers setting out the patterns. Hand made paper and Jaipur blue pottery are also made here.
2 nights at the Samode Haveli - the family town house of the Samode princely family. The Haveli is inside the walled Pink City of Jaipur - another delightful small palace with lovely swimming pool.

BHARATPUR.  From Jaipur we drive to Bharatpur  to visit the BHARATPUR bird sanctuary, former duck-shoot of the Maharajas of Bharatpur and now one of the major bird sanctuaries of India. Our visit, accompanied by a naturalist, may be by punts (if the monsoons have replenished the lakes) or on foot and cycle rickshaw (equally rewarding). On previous visits we have seen a wide variety of deer, turtles, monitors, as well as migratory and native birds.
FATEHPUR SIKRI & AGRA.  After a lunch-time visit to the bird sanctuary we drive the short distance to Fatehpur Sikri, a magnificent red sandstone complex, built by the Moghul Emperor Akbar just 37 kms from his capital at Agra. The site was chosen to honour a Muslim saint who predicted the birth of Akbar's son (the saint's tomb is in the mosque courtyard) and the large complex of buildings - palaces, pavilions, stables - was probably a place of ceremony and ritual rather than a capital city. We reach Agra by sunset and, if time permits, view the Taj Mahal from the gardens across the Yamuna river. We visit the city and the Taj Mahal complex next day. Agra was capital to the Moghul emperors in the 16th and 17th centuries. The seat of government was Akbar's magnificent red fort. This was elaborated by his son Jehangir, and his grandson, Shah Jehan, who built the marble palaces looking across the River Jumna to the Taj Mahal - tomb of his beloved wife.  As well as the Taj Mahal (always more wonderful than you can imagine) there is the exquisite small tomb of Itmud-ud-Dullah, built by Nur Jehan, wife of the emperor Jehangir, in honour of her Persian father.
2 nights at The Trident Hotel. A modern luxury hotel, with garden and swimming pool.

DELHI.  We leave Agra for Delhi, stopping at Sikandra to visit the tomb of Emperor Akbar. DELHI was not always the capital, but has played a vital role in Indian history over the past 5000 years. Successive waves of invaders have conquered and rebuilt the city; others just pillaged!  There are the remains of seven cities in the environs: they were built by Hindu rulers; successive Muslim conquerors who swept in from Turkey, Persia and Afghanistan; and the British, who, having ruled from Calcutta, declared Delhi capital once more in 1911 and soon began the building of New Delhi. The result is an enormous variety of monuments: the Q'Tub Minar complex (Tower of victory 1193) celebrated an Afghan invasion, but used much older Hindu temple stone; the Moghul masterpieces include the tomb of emperor Humayun, Shah Jehan's Red Fort and marble palaces and his huge mosque, the Jama Masjid. The British built the modern Imperial city of Sir Edwin Lutyens. There is much else to see: a superb crafts museum and village where crafts from India are practised; narrow streets and bazaars of the old city; the National Museum; the shops!!! It may well be that several members of the group have visited Delhi before! We must pick our itinerary with care!

3 nights at the Imperial Hotel. Very well located in the centre of New Delhi, it was built in the ‘30s & has been recently beautifully renovated. There is a wonderful collection of mainly 19th prints and drawings in all the public rooms as well as the bedrooms of the hotel, a charming garden (where breakfast, lunches and tea are served on the terrace) & large swimming pool. An excellent place to end our tour!

*PLEASE NOTE THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO COMBINE THIS TOUR WITH A JOURNEY THROUGH GUJERAT   (WESTERN INDIA)  STARTING ON  6 FEBRUARY 2009
The earlier part of the tour visits some very picturesque and interesting parts of this relatively little visited Western State staying at a variety of hotels, comfortable tented camps with en-suite facilities (at a beach and a wild-life reserve) and palace hotels.
THE TOUR VISITS the region of KUTCH, famous for its tribal groups, craft (textile and other) villages, wild life; former princely states; the Gir Forest (last home of the Asiatic lion); Ahmedabad, with its famous ‘Calico’ [textile] Museum, mosques, step-wells & havelis; the Sun Temple of Modhera; step-well & weavers of Patan; Jain temples and hill station of Mt Abu before arriving in Udaipur on 22 February.
The combined cost of the tour from 6 February to 10 March is £3985. Please ask for details.