2011 Biking Rajasthan

To Chittorgarh (125km) next to visit the oldest fort in Rajasthan. On three occasions the inhabitants of the fort committed “jauhar” (mass suicide) rather than face dishonour at the hands of an enemy they could not beat. The men, dressed in orange robes, rode out to do final battle, while the women and children immolated themselves on huge funeral pyres. In 1303, 50,000 men died; in 1535, 13,000 women and children committed suicide; in 1567, 8,000 men rode to their deaths. Thereafter, the fort was (sensibly) abandoned! (I don’t get the death before dishonour thing, personally, nor can I come to terms with women leaping into fires clutching screaming babies!)

We spent a night in Bassi Fort Palace (31km), still owned by the family that built it 22 generations ago. Very romantic setting and rooms, and great food to boot.

Then on to Bundi where we visited one of Rajasthan’s many step wells (water storage a major concern in this waterless area in a bygone era), the local grain auction where we met a young man who auctions 25 grains for his farmer clients (mustard, corn white and yellow, lentils, barley, coriander, sesame white and black, maize, etc), and the palace which Kipling described as “such a palace as men build for themselves in uneasy dreams – the work of goblins rather than of men”. En route we passed some opium farms, grown here for medicinal purposes and strictly monitored by the government. Unfortunately we saw only three lily-white poppies in bloom.