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Built in the 18th
century, the City Palace Jaipur owes much of its design to a long
running Rajput palace tradition but it reaches beyond these antecedents
to realise elements of the theoretical paradigm that were not always so
successfully achieved. The indigenous conception of a palace involves a
sequence of enclosures of increasing impenetrability from public outer
sphere to inner apartments of the king and queens. The enclosures are
visualized as concentric zones and each is marked by its own boundary
wall.Here in the City Palace the courtyards are arranged in a linear series. The sense of progressing towards a protected centre is maintained and the visitor approaching from the main eastern entrance still passes through a sequence of seven gates, the first being the Sireh Deorhi or the boundary door located at the centre of eastern side of palace Sarahad.
The conventional and auspicious seven fold scheme, satisfactorily resolved horizontally has been applied vertically too. The Shastric texts specify the importance of seven storeys for the palace of kshatriya kings and the Chandra Mahal is one of the few Rajput palaces to achieve this paradigmatic number. On the ground floor is Pritam Niwas with a small audience hall in its centre. The next two storeys are occupied by the magnificent Sukh Niwas, of double height internally but expressed as two storeys on the outer facade. Above this is the Rangmahal also known as Sabha Niwas, with colour glasswork and then the Chhavi Niwas with blue painted interiors, Shri Niwas with the Sheesh Mahal (palace of Mirrors) and finally the crowning painting of Mukut Mandir. The individual forms and motifs that make up the language of this architecture such as column, arch, opening and balcony all belong to the continuing Rajput palace tradition. The order or the style of architecture reflected here is of a regional character. Asymmetry and greater compactness of masses was the feature of that period which is reflected in the architecture of City Palace.
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