DOI issue:
Nr. 333 (February 1925)
DOI article:Joyce, Perrin: Ambèr-Indian fairyland
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19984#0124
mceRiiAcionAL
a mighty observatory just outside the palace
walls. This observatory had a dial with an
indicator ninety feet high to throw a shadow
against the sun; and a series of twelve dials
upon one platform so that he might, at any
season of the year, find the moment of true
noon. He made instruments for calculating
eclipses and other devices of appalling accu-
racy, and he died and was buried under a
marble tomb on a hill overlooking the city.
That is how Amber came to be deserted
by its inhabitants. That is why, when you
stand before the palace that crowns the hill
overlooking this ancient capital, you look
into the heart of desolation. Nowhere eles
in the world can you take so sudden a step
backward from the twentieth into the eight-
eenth century; in no other city in India can
you sense, so perfectly, the "riotous, sump-
tuous, murderous life" that went on in the
courts of the rajahs. The princes who came
after Jey Singh II have felt it obligatory to
keep up the palace buildings in Amber and
so, while the city itself is in ruins, the former
royal dwellings are kept in repair. But so
great is their indifference to the beauties of
Amber that no one has ever removed the
stucco from the red sandstone pillars of the
Dewain Khas; and the visitor must chip off
Having exhausted the destructive pleasures of bits for himself if he wishes to uncover the original
war and the creative pleasures of peace, Jey sculptures so artfully concealed by Mirza. Amber
Singh II unfortunately turned to science. He does not awake at the prick of your chisel, for
gave over the building of fairy gateways and began Amber is a dead city, more beautiful in death than
to invent and build math- , any living city of India.
THRONE FKOM THE PALACE OF AMBER .
ematical instruments. He raE ONLY ONE OF ITS KIND NOT IN INDIA Meanwhile the treas-
was particularly interested i -——| u res of Amber are finding
in astronomy and, unlike their way into the markets
other rajahs of India who V^&^S^^^L t'le wor^'- xt ls> 01
dabbled in that science be- E i^^^^^^^m Cl course, impossible for any-
cause, being obscure, it I BL^Miff^* "^'^ fr „ n^^B 0116 t0 aSSert l^at t'1's or
might fittingly engage Iffl'T that thing comes from
royal attention, he took it jm >:' ' ^ ' V :;^£^~feS;i:'... - Amber; the source of such
seriously. Finally he came ■> '! .JgA Qfefi^. precious loot cannot be
to the most regrettable de- mSSu^^f ^^HftHB divulged until many years
cision that in Amber sci- ■ I^H after the looting. Dealers
ence would never have in India invent fabulous
INLAID IVORY DOOR FROM AMBER
room to expand; astron- Wm • m |^ S stories to account for the
omy needed a larger home sudden appearance of
in a more accessible spot. JflL r4LJ'' these things; but no story
So he planned a city to be Mw(NS§£r—•• they can invent ap-
built on the plain five or - j*sJ3aiD3SB0B^ proaches the romance of
six miles from Amber — a their actual origin. To
new, shining city with jgjjjH^flL visit Amber itself, you
wide streets — unneces- SSSpSiw5>- must go I rum Jey pore on
sarily wide streets — and ^^~'/>rJi*a¥g?5^^'^"^^ an elephant provided b\
gardens, and a temple, and I —tne jYIahrajah; but you
three eighty-four
FEBRUARY 1925
a mighty observatory just outside the palace
walls. This observatory had a dial with an
indicator ninety feet high to throw a shadow
against the sun; and a series of twelve dials
upon one platform so that he might, at any
season of the year, find the moment of true
noon. He made instruments for calculating
eclipses and other devices of appalling accu-
racy, and he died and was buried under a
marble tomb on a hill overlooking the city.
That is how Amber came to be deserted
by its inhabitants. That is why, when you
stand before the palace that crowns the hill
overlooking this ancient capital, you look
into the heart of desolation. Nowhere eles
in the world can you take so sudden a step
backward from the twentieth into the eight-
eenth century; in no other city in India can
you sense, so perfectly, the "riotous, sump-
tuous, murderous life" that went on in the
courts of the rajahs. The princes who came
after Jey Singh II have felt it obligatory to
keep up the palace buildings in Amber and
so, while the city itself is in ruins, the former
royal dwellings are kept in repair. But so
great is their indifference to the beauties of
Amber that no one has ever removed the
stucco from the red sandstone pillars of the
Dewain Khas; and the visitor must chip off
Having exhausted the destructive pleasures of bits for himself if he wishes to uncover the original
war and the creative pleasures of peace, Jey sculptures so artfully concealed by Mirza. Amber
Singh II unfortunately turned to science. He does not awake at the prick of your chisel, for
gave over the building of fairy gateways and began Amber is a dead city, more beautiful in death than
to invent and build math- , any living city of India.
THRONE FKOM THE PALACE OF AMBER .
ematical instruments. He raE ONLY ONE OF ITS KIND NOT IN INDIA Meanwhile the treas-
was particularly interested i -——| u res of Amber are finding
in astronomy and, unlike their way into the markets
other rajahs of India who V^&^S^^^L t'le wor^'- xt ls> 01
dabbled in that science be- E i^^^^^^^m Cl course, impossible for any-
cause, being obscure, it I BL^Miff^* "^'^ fr „ n^^B 0116 t0 aSSert l^at t'1's or
might fittingly engage Iffl'T that thing comes from
royal attention, he took it jm >:' ' ^ ' V :;^£^~feS;i:'... - Amber; the source of such
seriously. Finally he came ■> '! .JgA Qfefi^. precious loot cannot be
to the most regrettable de- mSSu^^f ^^HftHB divulged until many years
cision that in Amber sci- ■ I^H after the looting. Dealers
ence would never have in India invent fabulous
INLAID IVORY DOOR FROM AMBER
room to expand; astron- Wm • m |^ S stories to account for the
omy needed a larger home sudden appearance of
in a more accessible spot. JflL r4LJ'' these things; but no story
So he planned a city to be Mw(NS§£r—•• they can invent ap-
built on the plain five or - j*sJ3aiD3SB0B^ proaches the romance of
six miles from Amber — a their actual origin. To
new, shining city with jgjjjH^flL visit Amber itself, you
wide streets — unneces- SSSpSiw5>- must go I rum Jey pore on
sarily wide streets — and ^^~'/>rJi*a¥g?5^^'^"^^ an elephant provided b\
gardens, and a temple, and I —tne jYIahrajah; but you
three eighty-four
FEBRUARY 1925