Albert Hall Museum Jaipur

Quote of the Post: "Albert Hall Museum is one of the finest and oldest museum of Rajasthan, located in Jaipur City." - Quote about Albert Hall Museum in Jaipur by Sachin Kumar Gupta

After visiting City Palace and Jantar Mantar, we reached Albert Hall Museum during our visit to Pink City. It was named after King Adward VII (Albert Edward) and foundation was laid by Prince of Wales. It is said that this old and famous museum was modeled on the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Its collection includes portraits of local kings, costumes, woodcarvings, paintings, and arts & crafts. It is also called the Government Central Museum, which is the home for the art of Jaipur.

Location: Ram Niwas Bagh, south of the Old City, Jaipur. The building is situated in Ram Niwas Garden outside the city wall opposite New gate. Being in the center of the city, one can reach the Albert Hall Museum from all directions easily. 

Entry Fee: INR 20 and additional INR 50 ($1) for a camera. This is also part of Composite Entry Ticket. At some places photography isn't allowed. 

Albert Hall Museum Timings: 9:00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. daily. One can also take a virtual tour of the museum. The Virtual Tour takes you through the museum giving you a glimpse of the courtyards and different galleries with a commentary about its display, collections and history.

The best time of the day to visit the hall is during evening, where you can enjoy the architectural beauty with sunset; or a horse ride if you wish to. Albert Hall Museum also provides shelter to a large number of pigeons. Pigeons can be seen on terrace of the hall all round the year. People also feed pigeons at the nearby roads. 

This unique museum is very well maintained, and is divided into lower and upper part. The museum has a rich collection of artifacts like paintings, carpets, ivory work, stone, armory, metal sculptures, colorful crystal works etc. Within the museum, we also visited 'Dolls Museum', Egyptian Mummy, Egypt collection, arms and armors. The mummy is the most popular of all the items displayed in the museum. It fascinated all my family members and for me, it was a recall of my visit to Egypt. Dolls museum contains a large number of lovely dolls and toys which has been collected from various countries representing different cultures across the world. The Dolls Museum in Jaipur attracts the tourists from various countries by its striking beauty of the collection of dolls from the traditions of several countries.

We took many snaps inside the museum, and some outside the museum. This place also houses a wonderful restaurant where we had our evening snacks. After that we enjoyed shopping at Nehru Bazaar and Bapu Bazaar, and further visited Govind Devji Temple and Hawa Mahal near City Palace.

If you want to timely visit Jaipur in a day or two days, click here.

Other attractions in Jaipur: 

• City Palace and Govind Devji Temple 
• Jantar Mantar 
• Hawa Mahal 
• Amer, Jaigarh and Nagargarh Fort 

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Jantar Mantar Jaipur

Quote of the Post: "This is the place to come, if you are looking for unique architectural astronomical instruments." - Quote about Jantar Mantar in Jaipur by Sachin Kumar Gupta

Welcome to the world of solid geometry in Rajasthan which is the biggest stone observatory in the world. After City Palace we were ready to visit Jantar Mantar where we purchased composite ticket (valid for 2 days and 70 INR per person to visit 5 places in Jaipur - Jantar Mantar, Albert Hall Museum, Hawa Mahal, Amer Fort, Nahargarh Fort). 

Jantar Mantar was built by King Jai Singh II between 1727 and 1734. Its literally meaning "formula or calculation instrument" where we found many instruments for measurements. It is modeled after the one that had built at Delhi. There are a total of five such structures built by Jai Singh at different locations, including the ones at Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain, Mathura, and Varanasi. It is said that The Jaipur observatory is the largest and best preserved of these and has been inscribed on the World Heritage List. 

More than just a curious collection of sculptures, each structure at the intriguing Jantar Mantar observatory has a specialized astronomical function. This observatory has religious significance, since ancient Indian astronomers were also Jyotisa masters. Built from local stone and marble, each instrument carries an astronomical scale, generally marked on the marble inner lining. Thoroughly restored in 1901, the Jantar Mantar was declared a national monument in 1948.

Location: Next to the City Palace, Tripolia Bazar, Jaipur.

Entry Fee: INR 10 and additional INR 50 ($1) for a camera.

Jantar Mantar Timings: 9 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. daily.

Inside Jantar Mantar there are 14 major geometric devices in total, which measure time, predict eclipses, and track stars' location as the earth orbits around the sun, ascertaining the declination of planets, and determining the celestial altitudes and related Ephemerides. Each is a fixed and 'focused' tool. Many of the smaller instruments display remarkable innovation in architectural design and its relation to function. Some of them are:

Vrihat Samrat Yantra at Jantar Mantar

*Vrihat Samrat Yantra: The most impressive one is 90 feet huge Samrat Yantra sundial (the world's largest sundial) to notify 'accurate time of day'. It is nice to experiene visibly that shadow moves roughly the width of a person's hand every minute. It's a profound display of how quickly time does move. This instrument is the trademark of Jantar Mantar in Jaipur, which can be seen from far far away. The chhatri (small cupola) on top is used as a platform for announcing eclipses and the arrival of monsoons. 

Jai Prakash Yantra at Jantar Mantar

*Jai Prakash Yantra: It is a two hemispherical bowl structure which is used to find out the positions of the celestial bodies during days and nights. 

*Nadivalya Yantra: It is a distinctive sundial with two dials.

*Kranti Yantra: It is used for direct measurement of the longitude and latitude of the extraterrestrial bodies.

*Dhakshinotak Bhitti Yantra: To find out of the altitude of the sun.

*Raj Yantra: Two large metal astrolabes suspended on iron rings are used for measuring ascendant altitude, time, position of the sun and that some other celestial objects. 

*Chakra Yantra: It gives the angle of an object from the equator.

*Unnatamsa Yantra: An instrument for measuring altitude or angular height of a celestial object.

Rashivalaya Yantra at Left

*Rashivalaya Yantra: It has 12 sundials for the signs of the zodiac.

*Laghu (Small) Samrat Yantra: measures time.

*Great Ram Yantra: This measures the local co-ordinates of altitude and azimuth of celestial objects.

*Dhruva Yantra: It is used to locate the position of 12 Zodiac signs and also the Pole Star at night.

*Disha Yantra: Indicates direction.

Nadivalya Yantra at Jantar Mantar

Wet view of Jantar Mantar Jaipur

Today the observatory is a popular tourist attraction. We also saw, many students of Astronomy and Vedic astrology visiting and taking some of their lessons at this excursion. It is right by said that the observatory is the single most representative work of Vedic thought that still survives, apart from the texts. 

City Palace, Nahargarh Fort, Hawamahal can be seen from this place from different points. As soon as we were about to exit showers welcomed everyone and make the environment pleasant. After that we moved to visit Albert Hall Museum.

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City Palace and Govind Devji Temple, Jaipur

Quote of the Post: "The beautifully built City Palace, is still a treat to the eyes, a landmark and a tourist hotstop in Jaipur". - Quote about 'City Palace Jaipur' by Sachin Kumar Gupta

It was a very pleasant morning with clouded sky, when we were all set for exploring the city. We decided to take local public transport as against a full day cab/taxi. This eventually, turned out to be a good deal as the places we visited, were very much at walk-able distance from each other.    

CHANDRA MAHAL - CITY PALACE VIEW FROM THE LENSES

The first place in our checklist was the most famous and time consuming vast place to visit - City Palace. City Palace, located at the heart of the Pink City, is the first and foremost place to be visited. It has many designed rooms, distinctively colored in red & pink and the beautiful Royal Palace. The palace is surrounded by a boundary which has finely en-carved art. There are four entrances to the Palace with richly decorated gates  - 'Udai Pol', 'Jaleb Chowk', 'Tripolia Gate' and 'Virendra Pol'.

City Palace Timing: 9:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.

Entry Fees: INR 75 per person for Indians, They also charge INR 75 extra for camera just for outside photography. INR 300 for foreigners including camera charges. There are audio guide service INR 80 each in different languages.

City Palace of Jaipur was built by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh between 1729 to 1732. The City Palace includes Chandra Mahal, Mubarak Mahal and other buildings. City Palace complex covers a huge area, which is divided into a series of gardens, courtyards and buildings. 

*Today, the 'Chandra Mahal' has been converted into a museum which is home to unique handcrafted products, various kings clothes and Jaipuri Maharani clothes and many more things pertaining to the royal heritage of the City Palace.

*Inside Sabha Niwas there is an amazing royal seating of the king. There are many other idols and painting of many kings who ruled here. You could see many cannons (Top) at the entrance of the palaces which may amuse you. 

*There is a BaggiKhana where you can enjoy the Baggis which were being used by kings during their travel or hunting. Bhaggi Khana is a museum in the palace complex, where a collection of old carriages, palanquins and European cabs adopted as are on display here. The baggi which attracts the main attention is the one gifted by Prince of Wales to the Maharaja in 1876, called the Victoria Baggi. There are some outlets where one can do shopping. 

SABHA NIWAS ENTRANCE CITY PALACE JAIPUR

FAMILY INSIDE CITY PALACE

INSIDE DIWAN-I-KHAAS

*There is a restaurant inside which is quite costly. 

*Meenal took a pause at Diwan-i-khaas and asked for Mehendi at her hand. There are two silver jugs which have been penned in Guinness book of records as the world's largest sterling silver vessel.

*Pitam Niwas Chowk: The Peacock Gate is exquisite, and contains an alluring display of detailed workmanship featuring bright peacocks. I also took some nice snaps which was clicked taking reflection of the palace inside the spectacles. 

CHANDRA MAHAL VIEW

INSIDE CITY PALACE

MUBARAK MAHAL - CITY PALACE JAIPUR

*There is another place named Silahkhana (Arms & Weapons) where we see the collection of articles and arms instruments. 

After that we had heavy snacks rather than lunch for the day and moved to Jantar Mantar.

*ROYAL GRANDEUR TOUR: There is another quite interesting place "Royal Palace" for which they charge extra 2000 INR, but we opted out checking the money and time. If the visitor wishes to see the inner quarters of the Chandra Mahal, a separate tour will be arranged known as Royal Grandeur Tour. In this tour the visitor will be able to see the following areas:-

Chandra Mahal

Sukh Niwas

Chhavi Niwas

Shobha Niwas

Sri Niwas

Mukut Mandir

SHRI GOVIND DEVJI TEMPLE - JAIPUR

**The deity of Jaipur rulers, Shri Govind Devji temple is placed between Chandra Mahal and Badal Mahal in the City Palace complex. We visited the temple late in the evening when Janmashtami celebrations were on. Not to mention, The best time to visit the Govind Dev Ji temple is during Janmashtami. The idol of Govind Dev Ji is strikingly beautiful for its complete resemblance with Lord Krishna, and the temple. The wonderful architecture, beautiful chandeliers and paintings, mirror works on the walls and decorations makes the palace a must-see for every visitor. Various 'Aartis' and 'Prasad' or 'Bhogs' are offered at the temple, at different times everyday.

Timings: 5:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M.

Upon visiting the magnificent City Palace, it's easy to see that the royal family of Jaipur was one of the richest in India. The City Palace is a must-see while sightseeing in Jaipur for a day or two. 

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