Mandore Gardens,Jodhpur

Mandore is an ancient town, and was the seat of the Pratiharas of Mandavyapura, who ruled the region in the 6th century CE. The rulers of this dynasty probably became vassals of the imperial Gurjara-Pratiharas.

Jodhpur is now the capital.

Our Bubas were waiting for us at the Mandore Gardens. These are wandering religious men (They don't preach) They had been hired as our models for the time we were at the gardens.  

The Buba in the red turban was quite serious but the one in the white turban had a mischievous look in his eye and a ready smile.

As I pushed my way through the very stiff turnstile my heart sank when I saw the unkempt gardens and I wondered whatever we had come to! Vishal, our hotel owner and guide for the day had told us that the gardens had once been the best in the whole of Asia but had now been left pretty much unattended but I had not thought they would be so unloved.  But..... then as we rounded the bend and the beautiful sandstone buildings came into view I could forgive the slight neglect of the gardens.

The 'Mandore gardens', with its charming collection of temples and memorials, and its high rock terraces, is a major attraction. The gardens house the Chhatris (cenotaphs) of many rulers of Jodhpur state. Prominent among them is the chhatri of Maharaja Ajit Singh, built in 1793.  There is no fee to go in so perhaps if they charged a small amount they could slowly restore the gardens to their former glory.

Resting and contemplating!  We had been working him hard lifting the sacks up and down.

This is what he was contemplating! It is common practice for the religious men.

Walking through the park to the temple at the top of the hill we were hoping that there would be a wedding blessing.  We had no way of knowing and hung around for a while waiting. Luckily a couple showed up. 

Outside the temple, a lady selling flowers.

We were allowed in the temple after taking our shoes off.  We were also allowed to photograph. It was so crowded that I couldn't get any decent photographs of the ceremony but the new husband and wife take small coconuts and give them to the officiator, (we think it was the father of the bride or groom).

After the ceremony the wife is led to the small altar fire (they didn't bring the cow he was already there) and halved coconuts are put on the fire as an offering (It is said by some that coconut is God's fruit) by the wife and husband, relatives and friends.

The husband swapped hats with Steve (one of our gang!)

The new wife was a little over whelmed and shed a few tears!

I took a photograph of this old lady just to spite her because she kept poking me in the ribs in the temple when I was trying to take photographs!

It was all over within 30 minutes and our Bubas were patiently waiting for us by the Hall of Heroes.

The 'Hall of Heroes' commemorates popular folk heroes of the region. It contains 16 figures carved out of a single rock. Next door is a larger hall called "The temple of 33 crore gods" which houses images of various Hindu deities.

In their time these would have been beautiful statues but like the rest of the gardens they have not been very well looked after which is such a great shame.

Now it was time to leave and wend our way back to the car, past a few street vendors selling their trinkets and souvenirs. We passed quite a large crowd of monkeys on our way out. They had been given some food and some had young so I didn't hang around to take photographs. They have a bit of a reputation of being nosy and can be quite vicious.