| Literally means "The
City of Victory", Jaipur was founded in the 18th
century by the Great Kachchwaha ruler Sawai Jai Singh
II. Sawai Jai Singh excelled not only in military
field, but also in astronomy, arts as well as
architecture. The magnificent observatories in Jaipur
and its counterparts in Delhi, Ujjain, Varanasi, and
Mathura stand as the testimony of his scientific
prowess. Also, co-working with his talented architect
Vidyadhar, Sawai Jai Man Singh had designed the city
of Jaipur on the pattern stated in Silpa Sastra, a
traditional Hindu architectural treatise. As a result,
Jaipur is the first well-planned city in northern
India. The city was planned in a grid system of seven
blocks of buildings with wide straight avenues lined
with trees and the arranged site for shops. Among nine
rectangular city sectors (chokris), the important
monuments of Jaipur are concentrated in and around the
area of City Palace.
The reputation of being the Pink City came later
when Ram Singh II received the Prince of Wales in
1876. The pink color was chosen after several
experiments to cut down the intense glare from the
reflection of the radiating rays of the sun. Ever
since, the buildings both commercial and residential
buildings are uniformly in rose pink.
After Jai Singh died in 1773, Jaipur had to face
the menacing power of the Marathas and the Jats and
again when the British power was expanding throughout
India in the 19th century. During the British rule,
Maharaja of Jaipur could continue control their state,
but would be supervised by the British under anew name
of Rajputana.
After independence, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer,
Bikaner and other Rajput states merged to form the
state of Rajasthan with Jaipur as the capital.
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