Amer Fort Or Amber Fort - Jaipur

Hammam ( Royal Bath )

Bathrooms were known as ‘Hammam’ – (Turkish bath). Before entering the royal bath you can see ‘geyser’ without electricity. You can see a structure from outside where wood used to be burnt and inside there was a room where water used to be stored.  The water would get heated because the walls of the water tank were lined with copper and was plastered. There were two tanks, one where the water to be heated was kept and the other one was the normal water. When the water was heated, there were two holes from which hot and cold water used to run down through the channels down on the ground and fill the bathtub. The water was perfumed with Gulab (rose) petals or kewda perfumes. The roof of the bathroom is designed like a diamond. The plastering done on the walls of the bathroom is so fully polished that you can see your reflection and it was constructed around 300 to 400 years ago with limestone. There are different areas in the bathroom : like one for the massage, the other used as changing room. etc.

Ganesh Pol 

Ganesh gate is very beautiful to look at. It is covered with fine art of flowers and leaves. The paintings are called ‘Fresco painting’ which was done around 300 years ago. The colours of these paintings were processed from vegetables. When you enter through this gate, the borders of the roof are painted with various precious stones like emerald,  blue sapphire. etc. In the middle of the art if you happen to see yellow lines, they are nothing but gold. The door of Ganesh Pol is made of Rosewood and covered with brass, which is around 300 to 350 years old.

Standing on the 1st floor of ‘Ganesh Pol’
if you see the roof of ‘ Diwan-E-Khas / Sheesh Mahal’, the roof looks like the ‘Hindu Doli’. This architecture resembles Hindu style.
The roof structure of ‘Suhaag Mandir’ looks like ‘Muslim Doli’, Hence this is a fort where we can see both Hindu and Mughal style architecture at the same place.

Char Bagh, Janana Bagh or Mughal Garden

Sukh Niwas (Pleasure Palace)

Here the king and queen would take rest during summers. It was built in such a way that it would act as an air conditioner. In the hall, we can see a channel (Jhaliya in hindi) through which the water used to flow. There would be overhead water tanks in which they would add perfumes (attar). The perfumed water would flow in these channels. The breeze coming in contact with this water would become cool as well as it would carry perfume (fragrance). They used to put curtains made from ‘poppy grass’ which would hold the cool breeze as well as the perfume inside the hall. Below you can observe the water drain which is now covered with glass. But the design on the channel looks like the ‘lehariya saree’ worn by the Rajasthanis. On the roof you can see four rings which were used to hold the Jhoola (swing). While swinging they used to put their feet in this water channel and felt relaxed.

Sheesh Mahal or Diwan-E-Khas

Sheesh Mahal also called ‘Diwan-E-Khas’ or ‘Jai Mandir’ was constructed during Mirza Jaisingh’s rule (1621- 1667). The king held meetings only with important people like his Ministers, Chief Army Officer or an Ambassador from the other Kingdoms here. It is called ‘Sheesh Mahal’ because of the intricate art work done using glass and mirrors. These glass and mirrors were brought from Belgium. The art work was done by Dayaram and Mohan. Around the mirror work they have also use gold to highlight the art. There are two doors on both sides of Sheesh Mahal which leads to winter bedroom of the two queens of Mirza Jaisingh (his wives ‘Suraj Kuvar’ and ‘Chand Kuvar’). If you come during evening after sunset, you have to use the torch to see the beauty of the Sheesh Mahal. This is the most visited tourist attraction in the palace.

Suhag Mandir 

Suhag Mandir which is built over Ganesh Pol was a place where only ‘Suhagan’ (only married women) were given permission to go inside. Young girls or widows were not allowed inside this hall. There are small windows through which the Ranis and the Maharani would shower flowers over the king after he returned winning a battle. There are also intricately design windows through which the ladies could see what was happening outside without being noticed by the outsiders.

Mansingh Mahal 

Mansingh Mahal was the initial construction done at Amer fort, it was the ladies apartment. We can see 12 apartments of Raja Mansingh’s 12 wives. There are three apartments each on all 4 sides (3 in the north, 3 in the south, 3 in the east, and 3 in the west). The apartment of the main queen and those constructed on the North and South are big, while those in the East and West are smaller comparatively. There is no partition wall between 11th and 12th apartment as it became the common area for all. This shows that the 11th and 12th wife had least importance. In the apartment of the main queen you can see bathtub, so those who have to take bath had to go to the 1st queen and request. After bath if they had to do Pooja they had to go to the apartment of the South queen in which the tulsi plant was kept. The apartment was built in such a way that all the Queens lived in harmony. Raja had built 4 apartments for himself on the 1st floor in all 4 directions. There is a narrow passage where 2 people cannot walk together. There are steps given to each apartment separately, where one Queen would not know where the Raja was or with which queen the king was. There is a courtyard in the middle of the apartment where all the ranis could assemble but with the permission of the main queen (Patrani)