Journeys
Udaipur, the city of lakes and palaces
Udaipur was built by a royal family that refused to submit to the Mughals and moved its capital into the hills to keep fighting. They made it a city of lakes, palaces and gardens, and it is often called the most romantic city in India.
By Walter Pellow2 November 20264 min read
Udaipur lies in the south of Rajasthan, in a valley among the green Aravalli hills, around a chain of lakes. It was founded in 1559 by Maharana Udai Singh II of Mewar, and became the family's capital after the Mughal emperor Akbar besieged and captured Chittorgarh, their old capital and stronghold, in 1568. The rulers of Mewar were famous for refusing to accept Mughal rule when most other Rajput princes made their peace with it, and they regarded the move to the hills as a way of continuing the fight.
They are still there. The family of the maharanas of Mewar is said to be one of the oldest ruling dynasties in the world, and the present head of the family still lives in part of the City Palace.
The City Palace and the lake
The City Palace is the largest palace complex in Rajasthan, a vast cream-coloured pile of courtyards, towers, balconies and cupolas built up over several centuries on a ridge above the eastern shore of Lake Pichola. Much of it is now a museum, with mirrored and painted rooms, peacock mosaics in coloured glass, and fine views across the lake from its terraces.
Lake Pichola itself is the city's heart. It is an artificial lake, created in the fourteenth century and enlarged by the maharanas, and it has two island palaces. The Jag Niwas, built in the eighteenth century as a royal summer palace, seems to float on the water, its white marble walls covering almost the whole of its island. It is now the Lake Palace hotel, and it became famous around the world after appearing in the James Bond film Octopussy in 1983. The other, Jag Mandir, is said to have sheltered the young prince who would become the emperor Shah Jahan, when he rebelled against his father.
They made it a city of lakes, palaces and gardens.
The old city
The old city climbs the hills behind the palace in a maze of lanes, with whitewashed houses, small temples, shops of miniature paintings, puppets and textiles, and rooftop restaurants looking over the lake. The Jagdish Temple, a large Hindu temple from the seventeenth century, is the biggest in the old city. Along the shore are bathing ghats where women wash clothes in the lake, and the Bagore ki Haveli, an old mansion where performances of Rajasthani dance and puppetry are held in the evenings.
A boat trip on the lake at sunset, with the palace turning gold and pink behind you, is the classic Udaipur experience.
Udaipur was also a centre of the Mewar school of miniature painting, and its workshops still produce detailed paintings of court life, hunts and legends. On a hilltop above the city stands the Sajjangarh, or Monsoon Palace, built in the nineteenth century so the maharanas could watch the monsoon clouds roll in, and in the northern part of the city the Saheliyon ki Bari, the garden of the maidens, is a shady eighteenth-century garden of fountains, lotus pools and marble pavilions.
Around Udaipur
The countryside around holds two remarkable sights. Ranakpur, in a wooded valley a few hours north-west, has one of the great Jain temples of India, built in the fifteenth century of white marble, with over a thousand carved pillars, no two of them said to be alike. And Chittorgarh, the old Mewar capital to the east, is one of the largest forts in India, a long plateau ringed by walls, with palaces, towers and temples, and the famous Tower of Victory.
The tours
G Adventures' Rajasthan Adventure, fourteen nights, travels from Delhi through Mandawa and Jodhpur to Ranthambore National Park and Udaipur, then on to Jaipur and Agra. It runs from October to December.
G Adventures' Rajasthan: Laneways & Local Villages, fourteen nights, visits Mandawa, Jodhpur, Ranakpur, Udaipur, Pushkar, Tordi Garh and Jaipur. Explore Worldwide's Upgraded: India, Forts + Palaces of Rajasthan, thirteen nights, travels from New Delhi through Ajmer, Bijay Nagar and Chittorgarh to Udaipur, then Ranakpur, Jojawar, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Kolayat and Fatehpur to Jaipur, from October to March.
Udaipur is at its best from October to March, when the weather is warm and dry and the lakes are full after the monsoon. In a dry year, the lakes can shrink, so the season just after the rains is often the loveliest.
By Walter Pellow, the name Atlas & Passage’s editorial team writes under. Prices and dates in the trips below come from the operators and can change.
