30th November 2013
It has been six months since we stopped by for tea at Kishengarh, Rajasthan, on our way to a school reunion at Ajmer.
The last time it was Dungarpur where we had a lovely weekend, and I even managed some birding. This time, the group had swelled and no royal palace was large enough for the reunion sadly, and we had to go off to one of those regular large places for the fellowship and fun.
But we could still stop for tea at Phool Mahal in the town of Kishengarh.
The paintwork was beautifully maintained, and I took my time admiring the colours and enjoyed the detailing.
I didn't know it then, but read later on about the Kishengarh school of miniature paintings, which this royal family patronised and developed. Story goes that in 1952, a Prof Eric Dickinson who was an English Prof at Mayo College, Lahore discovered a bundle of these exquisite minatures, on Radha and Krishna.
If only I had read this before my visit, I would have done a more detailed exploration of the walls, I thought!
An interesting side story is that crown prince Savant Singh, a Krishna bhakta, fell in love with the Queen Mother's "slave girl", a singer called Bani Thani, (who has since been immortalised on an India stamp).
So the prince got Nihal Chand, the main painter to do her portraits, which then began to represent Radha. He retreated more an more from affairs of the state, he wrote and sang as Nagaridas and Nihal Chand painted!
....And here was I on the verandah of the palace completely unaware of this beautiful, historical anecdote about Kishengarh, or the presence of poet Vrind in these courts, or that this was the place where Radha came into her own.
The day was ending, and there was a happy bunch of middle aged men, who wandered around, oblivious of the views, caught up in nostalgia and the process of re-connection.
We wives too were swept into this torrent of infectious cheer, discovering sides of our spouses we were unaware of, making new friends along the way.
The weekend had just begun!
It has been six months since we stopped by for tea at Kishengarh, Rajasthan, on our way to a school reunion at Ajmer.
The last time it was Dungarpur where we had a lovely weekend, and I even managed some birding. This time, the group had swelled and no royal palace was large enough for the reunion sadly, and we had to go off to one of those regular large places for the fellowship and fun.
But we could still stop for tea at Phool Mahal in the town of Kishengarh.
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| First views of Gundalao lake |
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| So much similarity between the palaces - a lake front, lovely archways and cupolas, and a temple in the middle of the lake. |
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| I took my cuppa, and sat here. The hubbub and frisson was on the verandah, and I was in a sudden oasis of calm, imagining the days gone by. |
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The paintwork was beautifully maintained, and I took my time admiring the colours and enjoyed the detailing.I didn't know it then, but read later on about the Kishengarh school of miniature paintings, which this royal family patronised and developed. Story goes that in 1952, a Prof Eric Dickinson who was an English Prof at Mayo College, Lahore discovered a bundle of these exquisite minatures, on Radha and Krishna.
If only I had read this before my visit, I would have done a more detailed exploration of the walls, I thought!
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| Bani Thani: (Wikipedia) |
An interesting side story is that crown prince Savant Singh, a Krishna bhakta, fell in love with the Queen Mother's "slave girl", a singer called Bani Thani, (who has since been immortalised on an India stamp).
So the prince got Nihal Chand, the main painter to do her portraits, which then began to represent Radha. He retreated more an more from affairs of the state, he wrote and sang as Nagaridas and Nihal Chand painted!
....And here was I on the verandah of the palace completely unaware of this beautiful, historical anecdote about Kishengarh, or the presence of poet Vrind in these courts, or that this was the place where Radha came into her own.
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| A portrait of one of the kings (I've forgotten which one", with the symbolic halo. In the main hall of the palace |
The day was ending, and there was a happy bunch of middle aged men, who wandered around, oblivious of the views, caught up in nostalgia and the process of re-connection.
We wives too were swept into this torrent of infectious cheer, discovering sides of our spouses we were unaware of, making new friends along the way.
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