#Udaipur Diaries – Saheliyon-ki-Bari (सहेलियों की बाड़ी)

 

Our next spot to visit post the City Palace Museum was Saheliyon-ki-Bari which is a major garden and one of the tourist spots in Udaipur.

At the outset, we thought it’s just another garden so we won’t take much of a time. However, we spend some good 45 mins there.

You would be wondering why this name and why so much time?

There is a small history attached to it. As per the Rajasthani culture, they followed the parda system wherein the females of the house were staying indoors. This was the only place where females of the Royal family could go with their friends and spend some time in leisure and enjoy themselves. Hence the name.

Built by Maharana Sangram Singh II near the Fateh Sagar Lake the garden reflects the different seasons throughout the year.

I would recommend you to hire a guide because to truly understand the beauty of the place you need to know the right history attached to it. Thanks to him, we understood the significance of the place and thus we spent some good time.

The females wanted to enjoy rain and water. The garden, therefore, reflects the different seasons keeping in mind their wishes.

We were greeted by the wonderful waterfall at the entrance. Then we move to the first part which reflects the monsoon season which has a fountain with a small pond like structure. The water gushing from the top of the fountain gives a feeling of heavy rain. There are sprinklers on the on the edges of the pond to give it a more realistic feel.

In earlier times the entire water used to come from the Fateh Sagar Lake the mechanism was built that ways. Narrow sprinklers still never a problem, however currently considering the lake water is not as pure, they have put pumps.

On the 4 corners of the pond, there were poles which again had a small fountain of water with narrow sprinklers. This is used only for special occasions.

Next is the part which represents the summer season. This part is covered with a large green cover to give relief from the hot summer sun with again a fountain with sprinklers.

There is a lotus pond which has a central fountain surrounded by marble elephants on 4 corners. They elephants trunks have sprinklers in them. They say more the length of water flowing from the trunk more the water level at Fateh Sagar Lake, however, currently due to the pump system you cant determine it.

There is an open garden wherein you can sit back and relax and enjoy yourselves.

Once a year the garden has a special celebration for the ladies only.

After spending some relaxing time you can go and grab a cup of special pudina masala tea. It’s really nice.

 

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Read about my complete trip – 

#Udaipur Diaries – The City Palace Museum – here

#Udaipur Diaries – Sajjan Garh Palace (Monsoon Palace) & Shilpgram – here