Insight Pocket Guide India by Insight Guides

Author:Insight Guides
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, India
Publisher: Apa Publications
Published: 2017-06-23T04:00:00+00:00

Around Udaipur

Although Udaipur lies within a spur of the Aravalli Hills, the watershed of the range rises 80–100km (50–60 miles) further north. Crowning one of its most dramatic peaks, Kumbalgarh Fort, 84km (52 miles) north of the city, served as an important stronghold for the Ranas of Mewar, who would flee here in times of war. Encircled by a vast loop of crenellated ramparts, the 15th-century fort makes a perfect destination for a long daytrip or two-day excursion, not least because of the idyllic countryside you have to cross to reach it. At the citadel’s highest point sits the palace to which the young Rana Udai Singh, heir to the Mewar throne, was spirited away by his wet nurse to protect him from a murderous rival. The views from its arched windows across the plains of Rajasthan are extraordinary.

Down the mountain from Kumbalgarh, separated by a tract of dense forest where Bhil tribal people still hunt with bows and arrows, stands one of India’s largest complexes of Jain shrines. Built of creamy white marble, the temples of Ranakpur are as elaborately carved as those at Dilwara, in Mount Abu (for more information, click here), though they see barely a trickle of foreign visitors.

En route to Kumbalgarh and Ranakpur, it’s worth stopping at Eklingji, where the Rana of Mewar’s protective deity resides in a grand white-marble shrine 22km (14 miles) north of Udaipur, and at the popular Nathdwara Temple – one of the state’s principal Hindu pilgrimage sites. The latter, 48km (30 miles) north of Udaipur, was established during the 17th-century reign of Aurangzeb, when Krishna worship was punishable by summary execution. Priests from Mathura, the blue-skinned god’s birthplace, smuggled their beloved deity to this remote spot in the Aravallis to escape Mughal persecution. The site is nowadays a bustling religious enclave, famous for its distinctive pichwai paintings depicting scenes from the Krishna story.

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