Where the Maharanas live - the City Palace of Udaipur

Elephant mural and two cool dudes inside the Udaipur City Palace

Sunday,  March  04                                                                                  Udaipur

After lunch this afternoon  we boarded our buses and took our last tour – of the City Palace of the Maharanas of Udaipur.  The Mewar dynasty, established in the 1500s are the only ones called Maharana, and NOT Maharajah.  According to our guide, this is because they never submitted to the Mogul rule and remained independent.  The current king lives in the palace and has a positive and favorable reputation across the community.  The palace is now divided into living quarters for the royal family, a museum, which we  toured, and administrative offices for the district.  The king also has an extensive antique car collection. We only had about 45 minutes to tour, so we saw the most beautiful (according to our guide) and central part of the palace museum – the Peacock Court, which is where the Maharana received supplicants and royal guests. This really is only a small part of the beauty that is part of the palace complex.  

Royal residence - the City Palace of Udaipur

Families touring the public section of the palace

Open balconies in the men's residence, closed and pierced marble for the women's areas

The entrance to the section of the palace that serves as the royal family apartments

The peacock courtyard - for audiences with the king - with exquisite glass peacock mosaics

The Mor Chowk, or peacock courtyard, is the area we toured, a part of the inner courts of the palace.  It contains three most beautiful peacocks (for the summer, winter and monsoon seasons) made of 5000 pieces of glass mosaic.  This area was created 200 years after the palace was first established.  At the upper level, the projecting balcony was used by the King to provide audiences, with private chambers behind.  To access this area, we walked through the corridors of the women's quarters - much of it carefully hidden from external eyes.

The balcony location for the Maharana to meet with the public petitioners

The Mewar family dynasty is associated with this sun face emblem

Our guide explaining the genealogy of the Mewar dynasty

The Suryavanshi - Sun God Emblem of the Mewar Dynasty - over one of the Pols (gates) to the palace

A group of women at the palace

A local guide, waiting for clients

Last vista of Lake Pichola as we return to our buses and off to the airport