The very interesting Mehrangarh Museum…View image…is located within the fort walls. Tourists usually spend one hour there (if you’re lucky) but I suggest hunkering down for at least half a day if you have the time. We didn’t and rushed through looking at the most important sights of which the Elephant Howdah Gallery is Number One on the Hit Parade…

Elephants have always been important for warfare and ceremonies. They are valued for their immense strength and intelligence and their ability to be trained. All you have to do is visit Thailand and one of their many elephant camps to be bowled over. Watch the video below from Chiang Dao Elephant Camp and you’ll see exactly what I mean. Royalty rode on the elephant’s back in a Howdah (a seat or platform with a railing and canopy). Not just ordinary Howdahs but ones made of silver, encrusted with jewels and lavish as befitted their Royal status.

The Museum gallery also has one of the richest collections of palanquins in Rajasthan. A “palanquin” is a litter carried by poles resting on the shoulders of several men. ex-Marine and I recently visited Zhangjiajie National park in China and bearers still use these to carry tourists up and down mountains trails! Look at swords, an ivory cosmetic chest, miniature paintings, cradles, weapons, and even a turban gallery that displays the many different kinds of turbans once prevalent in Rajasthan. Every community and region has it’s own style or turban.

One of the colorful sights from Mehrangarh Fort is the blue houses of Jodhpur. The houses are sometimes called Brahmin houses because they are traditionally inhabited only by members of that caste but no one knows the real reason why they were painted blue. One opinion is that the blue color was applied to help protect the houses against termites and mosquitoes, the same reason why we saw copious amounts of blue used in Morocco.

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