Rajasthan - Delhi - Agra : An Indo-Muslim Lifestyle

Contents: Extracts from the authors\' travel diaries. "The Largest Private Palace in the World". Introduction. I. History: 1. The first inhabitants. 2. The ones called Aryans. 3. Islam and architecture. 4. The Moghul emperors and the Persian influence. 5. Akbar, the "Great Moghul" (1556-1605). 6. Akbar and unity. 7. Akbar, the tolerant. 8. Akbar\'s successors. 9. The Moghul influence on the Rajputs. 10. Assessment of the colonial period. 11. Toward independence. II. Delhi: 1. New Delhi. 2. The city of seven cities. 3. Old Delhi. 4. The Red Fort. 5. The Qutab Minar. 6. The Old Fort, Purana Qila. 7. The Mausoleum of Humayun. 8. Following the "Lodi Road". III. Agra: 1. The Mausoleum of the Itimad ud-Daula. 2. The Mausoleum of Akbar at Sikandra. 3. The Taj Mahal. 4. A sublime Mausoleum. 5. The Fort of Agra. 6. Life in Akbar\'s time. IV. Fatehpur Sikri: 1. A Moghul Ghost Town. 2. Akbar\'s ideal city. V. Rajasthan: 1. Land of contrasts. 2. Cities encroached upon by the desert. 3. Nature presently preserved. 4. The Indian countryside. 5. Traditional arts in Rajasthan. 6. The States of Rajputana. 7. British promises. 8. Independence. 9. The maharajah\'s automobiles. 10. More about the Maharajahs! 11. The palace - hotels of the Maharajahs. VI. The Kingdoms of Alwar, Deeg and Tonk. VII. The Fortress-Hotels of Neemrana, Karni Fort, Devi Garh and Samode. VIII. Jaipur: 1. Mysterious women of the Zenana. 2. The survivors. 3. The Chandra Mahal. 4. Alliance with the Moghuls. 5. The city of Jai. 6. A glamorous history. 7. The city palace. 8. The Bazaars of Jaipur. IX. The Fortresses of Amber, Jaigarh and Nahargarh. X. Bikaner: 1. The Haveli of Bhanwar Niwas. 2. The Fort of Junagarh. 3. The Lalgarh palace history. XI. Jodhpur: 1. History. 2. The fortress of Mehrangarh. 3. Guided tour of the largest private palace in the world. XII. Ranakpur: 1. Beautiful and mysterious Jain temples of Ranakpur. XIII. Shekhawati: 1. The rich merchants. 2. Discovering the Haveli. XIV. Hindu Pushkar. XV. Muslim Ajmer. XVI. Jaisalmer, the Honey-Coloured Citadel: 1. History. 2. The citadel. 3. The Haveli in the lower town. XVII. Udaipur, "The city of Dawn": 1. "His Highness" is up in the Air! 2. History. 3. The Royal Palace. 4. The magic of Lake Pichola. 5. The most beautiful palace-hotel in the world.

"The Maharajah of Jodhpur, Gaj Singh II, is expecting us. His palace (One of his palaces), the \'Umaid Bhawan\', which we fly over late in the evening, is an extravagant festival of stone domes, towers and columns, lit by the setting sun. Surrounded by 250 servants, the Maharajah, his wife the Maharani Hemlata Rajya, their two children and a great - aunt who speaks fluent French live very comfortably in this elegant ensemble raved about by those who look back with nostalgia to the Roaring Twenties. And it is supposedly the biggest private palace in the world: 394 rooms each as vast as an apartment, lobbies as tall as cathedrals, halls as long as New Delhi, avenues. Leaving the Thar Desert and flying over the city of Jodhpur, the second in Rajasthan, is sheer magic. The bluish houses of the lower town, caressed by a friendly sun, look like such a restful oasis!

Perched on a rock looming over the city, the fort of Mehrangarh, that Rudyard Kipling Called a \'Construction of Giants\'; stands aloft against the sky like an imaginary citadel. Room the top of tits 120 meters-high walls, for years the Maharajahs\'; ancestors resisted the Moghul invaders before becoming their allies. Built in the middle of the fifteenth century, chronicles of the time report it took 500 elephants and 10000 slaves to erect the fortress that survived the onslaught of time."