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The walls are adorned with mirrors,
etchings, and frescoes in typically Rajasthani style. The
first residents, long since dead, peer down from the walls,
immortalized in large portraits. The Samode houses a hotel,
and is quite a hit with visitors to the region.
Mandawa Haveli is one of the “newer” havelis in Rajasthan,
having been built only in the 1890s. No wonder its
architecture shows traces of British influence. Like many
other old residences in the region, Mandawa Haveli too has
been converted into a hotel. Let not the typical bustle of a
hotel distract you from quietly contemplating the mystique of
the past here. To help you do this better, there is a museum
that displays clothing and artifacts from that period.
Salim Singh ki Haveli draws visitors not only because of its
beauty, but also its dark past. The haveli, built by the
flamboyant Salim Singh, a man who avenged the murder of his
courtier father by killing most of the courtiers of the
Jaisalmer court, has seen intrigue, assassination plots, and
debauchery. The dancing girls no longer frequent the large,
lavish hall, but that lingering feeling – part frightening,
part tragic, part heroic – is hard to shake off here.
The Alsisar is another haveli-hotel in Rajasthan. The main
attraction here is the large hall, now a dining room that has
real gold fillings in the frescoes.
The Shekhawati region has some of the finest havelis in
Rajasthan. Located not too far from Jaipur, it is here that you
will find a variety of havelis, big and small, humble and
ornate, purely Rajasthani or part Mughal and European in
style. The frescoes and paintings here are worth a look, for
each haveli was decorated around a different theme. Deities,
animals, folktales, Rajput kings, characters from mythology,
even foreign monarchs come alive on the pillars, walls,
balconies, ceilings, and arches of the havelis through
miniature paintings, carvings, and frescoes.
Visiting the larger heritage mansions in Rajasthan is like
stepping back into the past – full of romance, intrigue,
mystery, and tragedy.
The smaller mansions also allow visitors to
peek into the life of the common people in those days, people
who did not live in palaces and forts, who were not carried to
palaces on elephants, who traded and sold goods for a living,
and went about life oblivious of what it was to live in gilded
palaces. |
