A Journey back to 1000 years in time--Jhalrapatan

Jhalrapatan-shantinath mandir
Flower-seller by the Surya Mandir
Nursing past memories
The Cylindrical jharokha has emerged from a grand Palace of yore
A tiny diamond sitting over a ring of crass commercial base

When you walk in the Jhalrapatan you suddenly seem to distrust your senses. A world as in all probability as it might have existed a thousand years earlier flourishes in the thoughts, life, rituals,economic activities, social life. The streets as you walk them offer you architectural memories from several centuries gone by. A styled cylindrical latticed Jharokha in a smaller avatar seems to descend from mighty heights of a Rajput Palace. A grand pillared entrance of a majestic residence of yore is reflected in a tiny first floor apartment nudging a sturdy tree growing in the courtyard of neighbouring house. sometimes you discover a tiny but very beautiful gem fixed on an inept ring of a garishly painted shop on ground floor. As you walk where your feet take you, you may come face to face with a house going in amnesia about its glorious history.

Besides houses it is the humming life of people that will deposit you back in centuries. There are a number of jewelery shops where the gold or silversmith is working his art for the pleasure of decorating the persona of handsome women of the place. the gold/silversmith are in large numbers here for th.e women are no different from the ones you see so bejeweled on the Surya and Shantinath temples. Continued distrust of your senses makes you feel that the women you see have just come of the temple wall. these smiths still produce the designs that decorate the temple sculptures. The women selling flowers by temple steps seem to be there from time when these temples were built.

further afield you find women in rainbow colours shopping for garments. The clothiers are aplenty for their forefathers were carrying he best textiles from here to Rome in camel cart caravans. If you have not traveled here you would not understand what kind of clothes the ladies shop for. on the soft colourful blouses and skirts there is lavished as much attention as parents lavish on an only child. There is very elegant embroidery in different colour threads, millions of moon shapes shiny mirrors, sequins in all imaginable forms, and the finest and bold designs.

As I told you if you do not trust your senses you may enter this veritable castle of time past, flourishing in present.