A five-storey facade with no real building behind most of it — designed so that royal women could watch the world go by from hundreds of latticed windows, unseen. Five photographs of Jaipur's most photographed monument.
Seen from the street, Hawa Mahal looks like a palace in its own right — five storeys of pink sandstone rising in a pyramidal shape, covered edge to edge in a honeycomb of small overhanging windows. Step around to the back, though, and the illusion becomes clear: Hawa Mahal is essentially a screen, a single-room-deep facade attached to the rear of the City Palace complex, facing Jaipur's main street.
That facade was the point. Built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh, Hawa Mahal was designed so that the women of the royal household — living under purdah, the practice that restricted women from being seen by men outside the family — could observe everyday life on the street below: processions, festivals, markets, the ordinary movement of the city. The 953 jharokha windows, each individually latticed with carved sandstone screens, let the women see out while remaining invisible from outside. The same lattice work allowed air to circulate through the building continuously, giving Hawa Mahal its name — the Palace of Winds.
The architecture itself blends Rajput and Mughal influences, consistent with the wider City Palace complex of which Hawa Mahal forms the outward-facing wall. From the front, in the right light, the building appears almost weightless — a wall of pink stone lace standing against the sky, hundreds of small arched openings catching shadow and light in a pattern that shifts through the day.
Photographer's note: Hawa Mahal has no formal entrance from the main street facing it. Visitors enter through the City Palace complex behind the facade, and the famous honeycomb view is best appreciated from across the road — particularly in the soft, direct light of early morning.
Hawa Mahal, meaning "Palace of Winds", is a five-storey pink and red sandstone facade in Jaipur, built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh. It was designed primarily as a screen wall so the women of the royal household could observe street life and processions below without being seen, in keeping with the practice of purdah.
Hawa Mahal's honeycomb facade is made up of 953 small overhanging windows known as jharokhas, each latticed with carved sandstone screens. The design lets air circulate through the building — giving the palace its name — and creates the distinctive honeycomb appearance that makes it one of the most photographed buildings in Jaipur.
Hawa Mahal was commissioned in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh, generally attributed to the architect Lal Chand Ustad. Its design blends Rajput and Mughal architectural elements, consistent with the broader style of Jaipur's City Palace complex, of which Hawa Mahal forms the outer facade facing the main street.
Jaipur is known as the Pink City because many buildings in its old walled city, including Hawa Mahal, are built or painted in a distinctive pink-terracotta sandstone colour. The scheme is traditionally said to date to 1876, adopted to welcome the Prince of Wales — and the old city has maintained the pink facade tradition since through municipal regulation.
Early morning, shortly after sunrise, is best — the facade catches warm direct light and the street in front is comparatively quiet, allowing an unobstructed view from across the road. There is no formal front entrance from the main street; visitors enter through the City Palace complex behind the facade.
All photographs were taken by Prashant Dhingra during a visit to Hawa Mahal, Jaipur. More India travel photography is at prashant.dhingra.website/travel/india, including the Udaipur gallery, also in Rajasthan.