INDIA'S 1ST PLANNED CITY - JAIPUR

The first-ever planned city in India is JAIPUR. As you all know it is also called PINK CITY, every inch of the city is filled with aesthetics and vibrant colours, Their traditional structures, decorative architecture resembles the love towards architecture.

It all started with "Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh 2". He is also called a Bengali architect. Around the 1700s, Amber city was hit with water shortage then Jai Singh decided to construct a new city with all the protocols and with thoughtful planning.

He wanted the new city to be 12km away from Amber so that resettlement might not be very hard for people. He didn't start constructing city right away but done some desktop studies and case studies of previously constructed cities in Europe and came up with a blueprint of city planning which encourages trade, employment, commerce activities into the city. He Planned the whole city with Vidhyadhar Battacharya who is an Indian architect.

So Jai Singh started with dividing the master plan into 9 rectangular sections with roads intersection only at 90 degrees. Also, he gave 9 gates into the city and walled the whole city. The division of 9 rectangular areas is based on Vedic astrology. All the 9 gates around the city were named Sun, Moon etc., Grid planning of Jaipur was inspired by the ancient city Indus Valley Civilization.

The wall which is of 6meter height protected the city from intruders. He planned Jantar Mantar and kept 20 astronomical instruments. Also constructed Hawa Mahal which is also called as Palace of Winds for ladies to enjoy the day to day activities.

Around 1853 Prince of Whales visited Jaipur, King ordered to paint the Mahal Pink which represents Welcoming and hospitality. From then it remained as Pink City which welcomes people all over the world and provides good hospitality throughout their stay.

The city was constructed in a span of just 4 years and completed in 1727. Following all the traditional techniques in Vastu sastra which is also called as "Science of Architecture"

Jaipur is one of the few cities in India with still existing walls, palaces and monuments. This city was placed in UNESCO World heritage site in July 2019.