 It was the famous Kachchwaha Rajput king Maharaja Jai Singh II who laid the foundation of the pink cityJaipur-the first plannned city of India in 1727. The new city was born when the king thought of shifting his former capital Amber which is about 11kms from the capital to accommodate the growing population and tackle the problem of scarcity of water. Thus the pink city was born and the king took lot of measures in designing the lay out of this city. A Bramin scholar from Bengal named Vidhyadhar Bhattacharya was consulted by the king who gave his valuable inputs for the designing the architecture of the city.
The architecture of Jaipur is based on the principles of Shilpa Shastra and it took four years to complete the construction of the city. The splendid architecture of the city was much ahead of its time and considered as the best in the subcontinent.
The most colourful part of the history of Jaipur is the fact that during the visit of Prince of Wales in 1853, the entire city was decked up in pink colour to exude a magical charm while welcoming the Prince.Even today there are numerous avenues still painted in pink bear testimony to its colourful past. |
