What To See And Do

The infrastructure of Jhalawar District hasn't yet kept pace with the richness of its offerings. The town is small enough to hardly take up a day of your time. Jhalar­patan can keep you occupied for a day, but to merely 'see the sights', half a day is sufficient as well. For every other visit described in the Arounds section, keep a day each.
 

  Garh Palace

The best treasures Jhalawar Town has to offer are locked up and accessible only to the persistent. The original residence of the royal family, the Garh Palace is, as its name suggests, a grandeur-defining cita­del-palace. Built by Maharaj Madan Singh during 1840-1845, it was later handed over to the government to house collec-torate offices. You can walk through and see the Sheesh Mahal rooms partitioned into cubicles, splendid frescoes with elec­tric fittings, and the inlay work on walls and ceilings covered by dust.

A few lock­ed rooms are repositories of every variety of artistic expression, from pietra dura to miniature styles to religious portrayal to portrait painting to English landscapes and floral studies to some rare glasswork.
Within the Garh Palace enclosure stands the very interesting Bhawanl Nat-ya Shala, an opera-house-style theatre made   by   Bhawani   Singh,   the   king responsible for the creation of modern Jhalawar. Again, this is a faded and un-cared-for structure, locked and forgotten except in tourist brochures. But this was once a vibrant centre for staging the works of Kalidas and Shakespeare; the proscenium is built with an underground extension, such that horses and chariots could appear on stage! At the Govern­ment Museum, just outside the Garh Palace, you can see abundant treasures  of ancient Indian art, many dating back a millennium if not more, some of them rescued from the jungles of Kakuni. It houses  lovely sacred  sculptures,  rare manuscripts, paintings, coins and inter-esting 5th and 7th century inscriptions.
Location Garh Palace, at the heart of Jhalawar, is its biggest and easiest to find landmark.

 Rain Basera

  Another of the royal family's former resi­dences, the Rain Basera makes for a lovely short foray from Jhalawar, made all the more lovely for its association with a king who would not rule. Maharaja Rajendra Singh had a dream of abdicating the king­dom for his son and'retiring to write poet­ry. He saw this timber house in an exhi­bition in Lucknow in 1936 and had the whole edifice transported and installed at the vast Krishna Sagar Talab here. But — it does break your heart to think of it—he died soon after. It is today managed by the Irrigation Department.
Location On Kota Road, about 8 km from Garh Palace.

 Jhalarpatan

  Zalim Singh, the founder of the Jhalawar kingdom, used to camp at Jhalawar but the place he lovingly nurtured from 1796 was Jhalarpatan, translated as 'the City of Temple Bells', locally called Patan. The riverside township overlaps the city of Chandravati, said to have been founded by Parmar Chandra Sen, Vikramaditya's grandson. Rajasthan's chronicler James Tod counted 108 temples here. Today, innocent of Coke or Pepsi, chowmein or burgers, Maruti or any other brand of car, I'atan is a walled settlement you enter through a formal doorway and are imme­diately gifted with the combined stillness of three banyan trees, a huge pond and quaint chhatris under which villagers rest in the afternoon.

On the day of the local haat, nomadic men and women, iron-smiths by trade, bounce their red ghagras, silver jewellery and black moustaches off the bright yellow mounds of poha.

For some uncluttered moments you can always stroll or drive down to the site of the Chandramouli Mahadev Temple, cared for by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), in beautifully maintained grounds next to the Chandrabhaga River. This complex holds the remains of many 7th-14th century shrines. In early morn­ings or at dusk, the quiet river, the shrines and temples, the richly carved pillars, and the profusion of heart-stopping art bathe themselves in a golden glow and match the serenity that can be found, in the best traditions of classical Indian art, on the faces of the icons. While Jhalarpatan is dotted with old Jain and Hindu temples, the 11th-century Sun Temple is the pride of the town. Strictly speaking, it's a tem­ple of Padmanath, whose image was enshrined here in the 19th century. With its lofty 97-foot high shikhar a.nd its association with the sun, the Jhalajpatan residents call it the 'Konark of Rajasthan'. The shikhar is indeed impressive, teem­ing with small images of gods, godldesses, ganikas, apsaras, animals, and, inevitably, some erotica.

♦Location In the old quarter about 5 km south of Jhalawar, along NH12 Timings 6 am-9 pm

 Shopping

You would not go to Jhalawar for shop­ping. But the artisans in Jhalarpatan may part with their stone and marble images in the tradition of the carvings of the Sun Temple or the Chandravati temples. The rates are negotiable.