11. Much Ado About a Kiss or The Capitals of Rajasthan
Rajasthan for over fifteen hundred years has never surrendered to foreign power
Jaipur had never been the capital of Rajasthan. I asked a friend if I went to India and met some acquaintances what would I do when I greeted them, since we had established a reciprocating friendly relationship over the years; would I kiss them on the cheek? At the time, my friend said no, but from the time Richard Gere kissed the Indian star Shivani Ghai in public, on the cheek, I think: I understand why my friend had said no; which was something I had never figured out and put it down simply to his puritanical outlook on life. But the television, the papers, were full of it especially after the Judge from the capital of Rajasthan had issued a warrant for the ‘offending’ pair.
Apart from the cultural interest, I had not otherwise considered the matter worthy of great attention and certainly would not have taken the time to write about it were it not that Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and upon hearing that name rumble through the modern electronic media in an Italian accent stirred the memories in the vault of my brain.
The capital of Mewar, the name by which Rajasthan was known before it was named thus, was as early as 569 Idar, then Nagda, Chittor, Ahar, and briefly, even Gogunda, then from the 1570s to when Rajasthan joined the Union of India in 1949, it was Udaipur- it was never Jaipur.
Jaipur, in fact, at one stage in time was in opposition to the then capital, the renown city of Chittor. The Ruler of Rajasthan (Mewar) was given the title of Maharana which translates into ‘King of Kings’, whereas the Rulers of other major cities in the kingdom, such as Jaipur, were known as Maharaja meaning ‘Great King’ and the lesser cities as Gogunda, the palace restored by my boss, had a Raja meaning simply, King. Rajasthan, in other words, the land of Rajputs, warriors of royal blood, stood out from the rest of India by its invincibility to be dominated by the Islamic forces that invaded India and be subject to the Muslim Emperor which at the time of these events was the Great Akbar.
The year was 1568 when the Ruler of Rajasthan Udai Singh II suffers a massive defeat by Akbar’s Imperial Army and is forced to surrender the Capital Chittor and take refuge in Gogunda. It is after this Ruler’s death that his son Pratap Singh I is crowned Maharana in Gogunda in 1572. It is during this period which culminates in the battle of Haldighati in 1576 that Akbar, in order to make Pratap succumb to the Mughal power that the Emperor sends the Rajput Man Singh of Amber, that is from Jaipur, as his emissary with Pratap.
Man Sigh is not just a normal Rajput, a royal warrior: indeed his father, who was the Ruler and Maharaja of Jaipur, allowed his own sister to marry the Mughal Emperor Akbar, hence committing what was to a devout Hindu like Maharana Pratap, the greatest of all treachery- defiling the blood of Rajputs. In sending Man Singh, Akbar could not have made a less infelicitous choice to mediate his cause. The Royal House of Jaipur, conceding itself to Mughal Rule was considered as a betrayal by the then Ruler of Rajasthan, Maharana Pratap and was to be cast off from the enjoyment of any future contact with the Royal House of Mewar.
That is why when I heard on Italian TV the name of Jaipur being the capital of Rajasthan, my heart gave a stir and the kiss, fell into the background.
Rajput is the history of Rajasthan from the 6th Century to the present day told through the events and vicissitude undertaken by the Princely warriors known as Rajputs. Hence it reads with the ease and pleasure of a work of fiction, yet every detail, inference, fact has been meticulously researched, revealing the previously untold wonder of an amazing past that would otherwise be left smoldering in its own ashes.
Read more:
http://evaulian-thebestoftheworst.blogspot.it/p/rajput-princely-warriors-of-rajasthan.html
NOTE: Bhupendra Dubey commented on your link.
Apart from the cultural interest, I had not otherwise considered the matter worthy of great attention and certainly would not have taken the time to write about it were it not that Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and upon hearing that name rumble through the modern electronic media in an Italian accent stirred the memories in the vault of my brain.
The capital of Mewar, the name by which Rajasthan was known before it was named thus, was as early as 569 Idar, then Nagda, Chittor, Ahar, and briefly, even Gogunda, then from the 1570s to when Rajasthan joined the Union of India in 1949, it was Udaipur- it was never Jaipur.
Jaipur, in fact, at one stage in time was in opposition to the then capital, the renown city of Chittor. The Ruler of Rajasthan (Mewar) was given the title of Maharana which translates into ‘King of Kings’, whereas the Rulers of other major cities in the kingdom, such as Jaipur, were known as Maharaja meaning ‘Great King’ and the lesser cities as Gogunda, the palace restored by my boss, had a Raja meaning simply, King. Rajasthan, in other words, the land of Rajputs, warriors of royal blood, stood out from the rest of India by its invincibility to be dominated by the Islamic forces that invaded India and be subject to the Muslim Emperor which at the time of these events was the Great Akbar.
The year was 1568 when the Ruler of Rajasthan Udai Singh II suffers a massive defeat by Akbar’s Imperial Army and is forced to surrender the Capital Chittor and take refuge in Gogunda. It is after this Ruler’s death that his son Pratap Singh I is crowned Maharana in Gogunda in 1572. It is during this period which culminates in the battle of Haldighati in 1576 that Akbar, in order to make Pratap succumb to the Mughal power that the Emperor sends the Rajput Man Singh of Amber, that is from Jaipur, as his emissary with Pratap.
Man Sigh is not just a normal Rajput, a royal warrior: indeed his father, who was the Ruler and Maharaja of Jaipur, allowed his own sister to marry the Mughal Emperor Akbar, hence committing what was to a devout Hindu like Maharana Pratap, the greatest of all treachery- defiling the blood of Rajputs. In sending Man Singh, Akbar could not have made a less infelicitous choice to mediate his cause. The Royal House of Jaipur, conceding itself to Mughal Rule was considered as a betrayal by the then Ruler of Rajasthan, Maharana Pratap and was to be cast off from the enjoyment of any future contact with the Royal House of Mewar.
That is why when I heard on Italian TV the name of Jaipur being the capital of Rajasthan, my heart gave a stir and the kiss, fell into the background.
Read more:
http://evaulian-thebestoftheworst.blogspot.it/p/rajput-princely-warriors-of-rajasthan.html
NOTE: Bhupendra Dubey commented on your link.
Bhupendra wrote: "the controversial kiss featured Shilpa shetty at the receiving end not Shivani ghai.."
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