THE MARBLE DAMS OF RAJPUTANA 



473 



THE MARBEE ROOF LATTICE ON THE WIND PALACE OVERLOOKING JAI SAMAND 



Here the ladies of the zenana (seraglio) could "eat the air" without their veils, and 

 here Jai Singh used to sit and study the constellations. He built the "Pink City" of Jaipur, 

 which also has a wind palace and a strange old astronomical observatory. 



Each year His Highness makes a trip 

 into the Aravallis to worship at the shrine 

 of his ancestors, at Eklingi, and for the 

 shikar, or shooting, accompanied by an 

 entourage including bullock-carts and 

 camels carrying tents and provisions, a 

 small army of servants, and courtiers 

 riding elephants, and the celebrated Ara- 

 bian horses of Kathiawar, "with mouths 

 that can drink out of a teacup." 



A VISIT TO THE "SEA OE VICTORY" 



When my husband and I were state 

 guests at Udaipur recently, we accom- 

 panied His Highness on such an expedi- 

 tion. We went first to Jai Samand (the 

 Sea of Victory), or Dhebar Lake, an 

 artificial body of water ninety miles in 

 circumference, with innumerable lagoons 

 winding among low-lying mountains. 



This lake has been slowly filling and 

 extending for two and a half centuries, 

 ever since Jai Singh, the Rajput king 

 who built the "Pink City" of Jaipur, 

 imprisoned a mountain stream behind a 

 colossal dam over 1,000 feet long, with 

 flights of white marble steps extending 



the entire length to the water's edge. 

 Along the top are fairy-like pavilions, 

 with a temple and summer-house at each 

 end. On jutting buttresses six half-sized 

 marble elephants, with ceremonial trap- 

 pings, stand with raised trunks, as if 

 trumpeting to the rising sun (see p. 472). 

 On a height of 700 feet overlooking 

 the lake, Jai Singh set up a three-storied 

 marble palace surmounted by open- 

 arched pavilions. On the face of the 

 three stories are exquisitely carved over- 

 hanging balconies, set so close that their 

 projecting roof-slabs touch (see p. 474). 



THE WIND PALACE, A PEACE OP SONG AND 

 SCIENCE 



On the crest of another mountain, situ- 

 ated where it cannot be photographed 

 and accessible only on an elephant or on 

 horseback, by a winding corkscrew road, 

 is another three-storied white marble 

 structure, that at once suggests what it 

 is — a splendid royal zenana (seraglio). 

 with an expanse of glistening walls set 

 with small pierced marble grilles. 



This is the "Wind Palace," which Tai 



