City Palace Jaipur

Built between 1729 and 1732 by Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amer who went on to found Jaipur itself, the City Palace anchors the northeastern corner of the city's distinctive grid-patterned layout. Successive rulers expanded on Jai Singh's original outer wall over the following centuries, while the palace's urban design is credited to chief court architect Vidyadhar Bhattacharya and British architect Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob, with Jai Singh himself shaping much of it according to the principles of Vastu Shastra. The result is a rare architectural blend of Rajasthani, Mughal and European styles across a vast complex of courtyards, gardens and palace buildings.

Visitors enter through one of three grand gates — Tripolia Gate, Virendra Pol or Udai Pol — into a complex anchored by two central palaces, Chandra Mahal and Mubarak Mahal, alongside Pritam Nivas Chowk, the Diwan-e-Aam and Diwan-e-Khas halls, Bhaggi Khana, Maharani Palace and the 18th-century Govind Dev Ji temple. Mubarak Mahal itself, entered through Virendra Pol, was built in the late 19th century as a reception hall for Maharaja Madho Singh II to host visiting foreign dignitaries, and was later converted by Sawai Man Singh II into a museum of royal textiles — its collection today includes garments once worn by the royal family and fine Kashmiri Pashmina shawls.

Within the palace grounds, the Govind Dev Ji temple holds an idol with a lineage tradition traces back to Krishna's own great-grandson Bajranabh, who is said to have sculpted three images of the deity, each judged by his grandmother against a different feature — feet, chest and finally face — until the third, said to be a true likeness, was installed at Vrindavan and rediscovered there centuries later. To shield it from destruction during Aurangzeb's reign, the idol was quietly moved to Amer, and it was Jai Singh II who eventually brought it to Jaipur and built its current shrine within Jai Niwas Garden after Aurangzeb's death, making it, in effect, the deity the entire Kachhwaha dynasty had carried with them across three different capitals. The seven-storey Chandra Mahal at the complex's heart carries a distinct name for each floor — among them Sukh Niwas, Rang Mandir and the mirror-lined Chhavi Niwas, once used for monsoon-season festivities — with the topmost floor still offering an open view across Jaipur's grid-planned old city.

A Museum That Keeps Growing

The Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum Trust, which manages the public sections of City Palace today, has continued to expand and reorganise the palace's exhibits over the decades, adding new galleries and periodically rotating displays of textiles, weapons and manuscripts drawn from the royal collection. That ongoing curatorial work means the palace functions less like a static historical site and more like a living museum, with special exhibitions occasionally supplementing the permanent Mubarak Mahal and Diwan-e-Khas displays that most visitors come specifically to see.