Entries about jodhpur

In the 19th century Jaswant Thada , a royal cenotaph was built in commemoration of Maharaja Jaswant Singh II, the 33rd Rathore ruler of Jodhpur. The son of Maharaja , Maharaja Sardar Singh, in the memory of his father, built the Jaswant Thada.

It is a white marble memorial, built out of intricately carved sheets of marble. These sheets are extremely thin and polished so that they emit a warm glow when illuminated by the sun.

View of Umaid Bhavan from Jaswant Thada

View of Mehrangarh Fort from Jaswant Thada

Om Banna is a temple located in Pali district near Jodhpur, India, devoted to a deity in the form of a motorcycle.It is located 20 kilometres from Pali and 50 kilometres away from Jodphur on the Pali-Jodhpur highway. The motorcycle is a 350cc Royal Enfield Bullet.

Residents of Chotila village have built a small temple for the motorbike and his dead owner, Om Singh Rathore, also known as Om Banna or Bullet Baba, on National Highway 65 in Pali, Rajasthan.The shrine has a Royal Enfield 350cc bullet enclosed in a glass box with a photo of Om Banna, who died in a road accident around 24 years ago in that same spot.

Over two decades ago, 21-year-old Om Singh Rathore, the son of a local village leader, was on his way home when he met with a fatal accident on the highway. The police hauled away the motorcycle and that’s when the legend began.The bike was not in the police station the next day. It was found at the accident spot. The police took the bike back, this time securing it with chains and deflating its tyres. The story goes that the next morning the motorcycle was again found at the accident spot. Police tried everything possible to stop the bike from being moved. The bike somehow made it to the accident site in the dead of the night.

Thus began the legend of Om Banna, or Bullet Baba, the patron saint of all those who use the highway. Following the incident, villagers in the area build the temple to worship it.

The temple itself is an elevated concrete platform on which is a bust of Rathore. Behind it stands the Bullet, enclosed in a glass case.

Rajasthan has been blessed with varied flora and fauna even when majority of its area is desert. The forest cover is also quite limited, despite these adversities, some unique flora and fauna can be witnessed.

The flora and fauna of Rajasthan supports all kinds of animal species and forests.The flora and fauna of Rajasthan will completely spellbound the tourists.

Nilgai - Blue Bull of India:

Sometimes referred to as the "blue bull" (or horse), it is the largest of all Asian antelopes and is one of the most commonly seen wild animals in Rajasthan. The nilgai are very robust animals with bodies similar to horses, but have much smaller heads and small horns (only on the males), leading many to compare them to a cross between a horse and a goat. Females are a lighter brown color and slightly less robustly built. Both males and females have a short bristly mane.

Demoiselle crane:

The demoiselle crane is a species found in central Eurasia, ranging from the Black Sea to Mongolia and North Eastern China.These cranes are migratory birds. Birds from western Eurasia will spend the winter in Africa whilst the birds from Asia, Mongolia and China will spend the winter in the Indian subcontinent. The bird is symbolically significant in the culture of North India, where it is known as the koonj.

These cranes make one of the toughest migrations in the world by crossing the Himalayas and have literally changed the landscape of Khichan near Jodhpur in Rajasthan. The once obscure village has now become one of the most favoured bird-watching vacation hotspots in India.

The Chinkara:

The chinkara, also known as the Indian gazelle, is a gazelle species native to Iran, Pakistan and India. It has a reddish-buff summer coat with smooth, glossy fur. In winter, the white belly and throat fur is in greater contrast. The sides of the face have dark chestnut stripes from the corner of the eye to the muzzle, bordered by white stripes.

Shree Guru Jambheshwar Bhagwan also known as Jambho ji, was the founder of the Bishnoi sect. He preached the worship of Hari (a name for Lord Vishnu). He taught that God is a divine power that is everywhere. He also taught to protect plants and animals as they are important in order to peacefully coexist with nature.

Jambho ji was a great visionary, who had foreseen the consequences of man’s actions destroying nature for economic development. He saw the need for environmental protection and weaved his principles into religious commandments so that people can internalise those principals easily.

Bishnoi translates as Twenty-niners and revolves around 29 commandments. Out of these 29 commandments, 8 prescribe to preserve biodiversity and encourage good animal husbandry. Seven commandments provide directions for healthy social behaviour. Ten commandments are directed towards personal hygiene and maintaining basic good health. The other four commandments provide guidelines for worshipping God daily.

29 Rules or commandments of Bishnoi community:

1. To observe segregation of the mother and newborn for 30 days after delivery . To prevent infection to the mother and the baby during a stage when both are highly susceptible to outside infections. Also to provide forced rest to the woman when she is very weak
2. To keep woman away from all activities for 5 days during her menstrual periods .To provide compulsory rest to the woman.
3. To take early morning bath for daily personal hygiene.
4. To maintain both external and internal cleanliness and remaining content .Internal cleanliness means good intentions, humble behavior, character without envious feelings, etc.
5. To meditate twice a day i.e. morning and evening .

6. To sing the Lord Vishnu’s glory and reciting His virtues every evening.
7. To offer daily oblation to the holy fire with a heart filled with feelings of welfare, love and devotion .Daily (preferably morning) oblations with:
Feelings of welfare of all living being
Love for nature and whole world
Devotion to the Lord
8. Use filtered water, milk and carefully cleaned fuel/ firewood .To make the water and milk bacteria free! In case of firewood to see that some insects etc. do not get burned with the fuel and pollute the environment.
9. Filter your speech! Think before you speak.
10. To be forgiving in nature. Forgiveness is a parameter of greatness. This one virtue could uplift a normal person to the standards of great souls of the world. Guru said further, if somebody come to you shouting, become cool like water!

11. To be compassionate. Compassion helps in purifying the heart..
12. Not to steal trying to own someone else’s things through cheating, or stealing is theft. Theft is the dirt of the character. It pinches the soul.
13. Not to revile/ condemn someone .Reviling means insulting stealthily or disparaging behind the back.
14. Not to tell lies. A liar can never attain respect of others. It is insult to the gift of speech..
15. Not to indulge in opprobrium .One should not indulge in any unnecessary/ wasteful debates. All such discussions/ deliberations, which are anti-social, anti-human fall under this category.
16. To observe fast and meditate on no-moon night (and the same day i.e. Amavsya) To provide rest to the body and its internal systems.
17. To recite the holy name of Lord Vishnu.
18. To be compassionate towards all living beings.
19. Not to fell green trees.
20. To kill the non-perishables! To overcome the non-perishable enemies of human beings – lust, anger, envy, greed and attachment.

21. To partake food cooked by self or other religious person or one who is pure by heart and work.
22. To provide a common shelter (Thhat) for goat/sheep to avoid them being slaughtered in abattoirs .
23. Not to have bulls castrated .In rural India, bulls are castrated before they are used as bullocks for agricultural purposes.
24. Not to partake of opium, or any product made out of opium.
25. Not to use tobacco and its products.

26. Not to partake of cannabis.
27. Not to drink liquor.
28. Not to eat meat or non-vegetarian dishes .The underlying rationale of this commandment are two pronged .To protect the animals/birds from being slaughtered by creating a market barrier! To protect the man, the best creation of the nature, from stooping to such low standards as eating meat of dead animals/birds. Scientifically also the structure of man’s teeth, jaws etc. is of not a carnivorous animal but is that of a herbivorous creature.
29. Not to use blue-coloured clothes In ancient India, the blue colour used to be obtained from indigo. Thus it is possible that the Guru wanted to stop destruction of this wild shrub or promote its cultivation in lieu of other life supporting crops.

Umaid Bhawan Palace, located at Jodhpur in Rajasthan, India, is one of the world's largest private residences.

Named after Maharaja Umaid Singh, grandfather of the present owners of the palace, this monument has 347 rooms and serves as the principal residence of the erstwhile Jodhpur royal family.

The present owner of the Palace is Gaj Singh.

The Palace is divided into three functional parts - a luxury Taj Palace Hotel (in existence since 1972), the residence of the owner's royal family, and a Museum focusing on the 20th century history of the Jodhpur Royal Family.

There is also a gallery showcasing the most exotic automobiles owned by the royals.