Why Hawa Mahal is named so?
Hawa Mahal is a beautiful palace that is built in Jaipur. Jaipur is called as the pink city of India. This fantastic artistic palace was built by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh in the year 1799. The palace is called Hawa Mahal as it is known as the palace of winds. The palace is built in the shape of the crown of Lord Krishna, the Hindu God. The Hawa Mahal gives the appearance with lot of chambers. The number of chambers indicates that they were constructed in such a manner for the ladies in the palace to have a clear look over the streets of the city. The ladies of the royal family are allowed to get exposed to outside environment in such a manner as they had to follow ‘Purdah’ or covering themselves. This Mahal is built in the Rajputana architecture and is known to contain about 953 windows.
The Hawa Mahal has five floors in the entrance which had red and pink colored stones. When we go inside through the entrance three two-floor buildings are seen. Each of the buildings has ramps instead of steps to climb from one floor to another. This palace is named as Hawa Mahal just because of its way of construction. The palace is constructed in such a way that wind flows through the building which keeps the building very cool even in summer months.
The Hawa Mahal is structured like a pyramid and its construction plan was given by Lal Chand Usta who is a famous architect. The chambers of the Mahal have small sized balconies and arched roofs. The walls of the palace have rich lattice work along with arches. The lattice like screened walls of the palace as well as the arches allow air currents to pass through easily in both the ways. ‘Hawa, means air and ‘Mahal, means palace. Hence the palace derived the name as Hawa Mahal.
Leave a Reply