Visiting Deeg
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| The moat around the Deeg Palace |
As
we intended to have a quick early morning visit to the Keoladeo Ghana
National Park, I got up
early to once again be vanquished by the morning fog and therefore, we waited
out till the weather cleared up. Having
had our breakfast comprising of Bread & Omelets, we proceeded for our days’
scheduled excursion to Deeg. Situated
about 34 Kms. north of Bharatpur is this beautiful garden town of Deeg, the capital of Jat
Kings of Bharatpur. Geographically it
is located at an altitude of 174 meters over mean sea level and placed in
co-ordinates of 27.47 degrees North (Latitude) and 77.33 degrees East
(Longitude). In
1733 AD, Raja Badan Singh’s son, Suraj Mal had captured the fort of Bharatpur
from Khemkaran, the rival chief, whom he killed and thus, laid the foundation
of Bharatpur City.
Deeg in the 18th century was the
capital of Jat rulers. The central citadel, set up in 1730 is square in layout
and stands on a slightly raised ground.
The whole monument is encircled by a shallow wide moat. The protective walls are 8 km in circumference
pierced by 10 gateways and studded with 72 bastions. The
gateway to the fort is protected with anti-elephant strikes. The most impressive are its huge towers, haughtily
standing upto the sky. The towers are fitted with cannons to take a sound shot
at any approaching enemy.
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| Yellow mustard bloom all around |
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| Indian Sarus Crane |
We drove through the Bharatpur
city till we hit upon the Alwar Road and have traversed some distance on this
road, we suddenly we spotted a pair of Indian ‘Saras’ cranes, which had not made
a show at the Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary this season. So we got down and embarked upon our usually
activity of shooting the birds!! Of course with our Cameras, despite the fact
that it was still quite overcast. Having
observed the Cranes for some time, we headed towards Deeg, the road was in
excellent condition coupled with a riot of Yellow (read mustard in bloom in
fields adjacent to the road) thrown on either side of the black tarmac, the
view was mesmerizing. We made our way to
the Deeg township having gone past the old village and there from headed
towards the old fort. The entrance to
the Deeg Fort is by a draw bridge in the north and through a gateway protected
with anti-elephant spikes. One can drive through this road, but albeit a bit
carefully, as it is narrow, with no tarmac and at best can be described as a
dirt track. But the most impressive part
of the fort is its huge towers which stand haughtily piercing the sky. There
are 12 (Twelve) in all, the largest being the Lakha Burj in the north-west
corner. These towers were fitted with cannons to take a pot shot at any
approaching enemy. The cannon of Lakha Burj is still well preserved. The Suraj
Mal Haveli is a nice structure, with its typical domes of the bangaldar style.
This kind of a shaping is based on the Bengali curved bamboo roof, probably
imported to Rajasthan by the Bengali architect of Jaipur, Vidyadhar
Bhattacharya. In fact, such rounded roofs are the high point of Deeg's pleasure
palaces too.
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| Maharaja Suraj Mal's haveli inside fort |
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| Entry carved out of the fortification of the fort |
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| Lakha Burj of Deeg fort |
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| Cannon atop Lakha Burj |
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| Another view of the Cannon atop Lakha Burj with the Deeg township in background |
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| Panoramic view of the Deeg fort and moat around it |
Next
we proceeded towards the Palace in Deeg and as it was getting intensely cold,
we first had a cup of Coffee each at the entrance of the Palace in typical
Indian mud baked cups called ‘Khullars’.
A brief history of the place is as follows – Initially Maharaja Badan
Singh was a small Chieftain who wanted to become the Ruler and sought the
favour from the Kings of Jaipur, under whose jurisdiction the area was
demarcated, but was refused the honor.
Peeved on being denied, the Chieftain started looting the plundering
government treasuries etc., which compelled the Mughals to direct the Mahraja
of Jaipur to cede to his demands and thus, he was declared a King of the State
of Bharatpur. His son Maharaja Suraj Mal displayed immense
courage and carved a niche for himself in the midst of political disorder.
Gathering around him fiercely martial Jat peasants, he went from one success to
another. He accompanied Emperor Muhammed Shah against Ali Muhammed Ruhela and
in 1748 AD, at the battle of Bagru, he led the Jaipur vanguard against the
Marathas. He also defeated the commander-in-chief of the Mughal emperor.
Despite being a very religious man he was secular. He built the Palace in Deeg with the gardens
having being laid with great care and precision, the sparkling fountains and
meticulous palaces add to he beauty of this idyllic retreat of the princes of
Bharatpur. He was killed by the Mughal
General using treachery on 25th December, 1763 who beheaded him and
cut off his hands too and carried them back to Delhi. His son Maharaja Jawahar Singh, being taunted
constantly by his mother who had adopted him i.e. Maharani Kishori regarding
the treachery of Mughals and carrying away the head of his father to Delhi, prompted an attack on Delhi in October, 1764 and he laid siege upon
the city for months. He left after
having been granted a beneficial treaty including cost of the war by the
Mughals. However, he still plundered the
Red Fort of Delhi and took away the door of Chittorgarh fort that was taken
away by Maharaja Akbar. He also carried
away with him the swing of Empress Noorjahan and other stone artifacts, which
he thought was the part of throne, but later turned out to be granite slabs on
which the Royalty (read Mughals) were bathed & robed after demise. All these artifacts are there in the Palace
for one to see.
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| The main entrance gate of Deeg Palace |
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| The close-up shot of the Royal insignia on palace gate of Deeg |
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| Braj Bhoomi - statute of Lord Krishna on the entry gate of the Deeg Palace |
The
outstanding feature of the Palace is its 2000 odd fountains that spew colored
water. The water is stored in a huge reservoir
of 6 lakhs gallons capacity, which used to be filled up using Cattle draw well
technique during the medieval times, taking almost 20 days to fill it to the
brim and even as on date it takes two days to fill it up by using electric
pumps. The flow of colored water in the
fountains was an ingenious design, as there were several burnt clay pipes
inserted in the reservoir side that carried water to the fountains with
specific markings. When the fountains
are closed, these were inserted with wooden poles and when water was required
to be released cloth bags containing colored vegetable dyes were stuck at the
exit end and as the water flowed through them, the water absorbed the colors
and thus created an aura of color & fragrance. The
fountains are still in working condition but they are made functional only
twice during a year, once during the rainy season of July/August on occasion of
‘Teej’ festival and on 4th February every year for the special
invitees. The tourists enjoy the
charming settings of this agricultural town, along with the well preserved
palace pavilions and gardens. Some very
interesting buildings can be observed within the Palace precincts are as
follows, however, no photography is allowed inside these ASI protected
buildings.
GOPAL BHAVAN:
Completed in 1760, an imaginatively
designed building complex with beautifully laid gardens at its entrance and the
rear overlooks the Gopal Sagar which is flanked with smaller pavilions Sawan
and Bhadon. The formal gardens face a raised terrace with an arch of lustrous
marble installed on a pedestal in the form of swing. This exquisite swing is a
war trophy brought in by the famous Jat king Raja Suraj Mal from the Mughal
court in Delhi.
The spacious and well proportioned Banquet Hall has a double row of graceful
pillars. The rear of the chamber is further divided by a charming sunken pool
with fountains. The Banquet hall houses a rich collection of curios, souvenirs
and Victorian furniture. Staircases wind upstairs to the upper floors. One room
contains a solid black marble bed from Delhi. Behind this building is housed the temple
dedicated to Lord Hanuman and the statute is made up of reddish brown Jade and
is South facing, in honor of the fighting capabilities of the deity shown
during the war with Ravana in South of India.
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| The Prime Minster of Deeg's Office in Deeg Palace |
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| View of Sawan Sagar |
BENGAL CHAMBER
It houses the dining room, and has
sloping arches, with comfortable cushions along the outer edges forming the
seating area. It is a two storied complex with the upper one with seating
arrangement on the floor with raised platform in the middle made of marble with
an entry/exit point for servants, for serving the Royals. The lower floor consists of typical European
dining table that could host about 100 guests at a time and was used to host
the Britishers etc. Adjacent to the
upper Dining room is the royal Chess Room, which has trellis design and is
painted in soft red color.
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| Noorjahan's swing captured from Red Fort, Delhi in Deeg Palace |
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| Lord Hanuman's statute inside Deeg Palace |
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| Exotic Mughal stone inlay work in building shifted from Agra Fort by rulers of Deeg |
SURAJ BHAVAN
To the east of the main building, this
palace has balconies overhanging the water. The entire palace in marble is like
an airy pavilion with fine ornamentation within the apartments. The guide informed us that this palace was
reserved for the guest’s of the Royalty and was in fact the Madrasa (teaching
place) for the Mughal rulers of Agra
and during the occupation of the fort by the Jat Kings they had removed the
entire building and re-constructed it in Deeg.
He tried to defend his theory by stating that the Jat Kings did not have
access to quality marble or trained artisans for the same and that the entire
palace had been constructed in sandstone and the local artisans were apt in
sandstone cutting, rather than marble.
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| Fountains in Deeg Palace |
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| Intricately carved yellow sandstone pillars in Deeg Palace |
NAND BHAVAN
It is a large audience hall. KRISHNA
BHAVAN, and the ingeniously designed water works of KESHAV BHAVAN, with open
twelve pillared pavilion are of great interest.
Here the water used to gush in with speed upto the Keshav Bhavan roof
and at the entry point of each pipe a round sandstone ball was placed and the
water pressure displacing the ball and ball hitting the masonry would create a
sound and all of the balls striking together would create a noise akin to
thunder and with the water falling in cascades through various pores of the
roof and walls, would create an aura of a rainy day. As the roof is caving in, the ASI has
constructed a grotesque wall in the middle of the building, thereby destroying
the basic vision of the structure.
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| Water game in Deeg Palace |
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| Founder of Jat kingdom - Maharaja Badan Singh |
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| Maharaja Surajmal |
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| Maharja Jawahar Singh |
PURANA MAHAL
It is the oldest palace, planned as a
spacious rectangle encircled by compartments and chamber, it has a collection
of some very fine Rajput and Mughal schools.
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| Another view of the famed water fountains of Deeg Palace |
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| View of Keshav Bhawan |
Deeg is of religious significance as well as it is in the Braj Bhoomi i.e.
land of Lord Krishna and as per Hindu Mythology, Deeg comes in the path of the
Parikrama of Lord Krishna that starts from Goverdhan parvat, about 12 Kms. from
here. The region is also known as ‘Braj
Bhoomi’ that literally means ‘land
of Lord Krishna’. Deeg also find mention in ancient Hindu
scriptures of ‘Skand Purana’ as ‘Dirgha’ or ‘Dirghapur’.
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| View of Bhadon Sagar from |
We
spent the entire day at Deeg and returned to Bharatpur in the late afternoon,
as we were to return back to Delhi
the next day after having visited Sariska on the way back.
Here is a video of the destination -
