Dominated always by indomitable Mehrangarh, the Old Walled City of Jodhpur is all hustle and bustle, charm and colour and chaos…invigorating even as it exhausts! It is the western desert’s great melting pot and people from all walks of life and from every corner of the region throng its busy and narrow and twisting and turning by-lanes.

It is also an architectural and urban marvel. Though under relentless siege from the ravages of modernity and changing tastes and lifestyles the Shahar is full of wonders; breathtaking beauty that takes one by surprise...an old magnificent gate to a new ordinary house, an intricately carved over-hanging Jharokha balcony, an exquisite Jaali frieze, a square cooled by a three hundred year old sacred Peepul, a dilapidated bastion, blind alleys and shaded cul-de-sacs, an elegant wall... In fact, the entire city was walled in till as recently as 1949 with six main Pols. The walls have all but been absorbed…the gates still stand; splendid and mute witnesses to a more ordered past.

Commercial order lives on though in a system akin to the European guilds; with specialized markets from the Kapron ka Bazaar (cloth) to the Sarafa Bazaar (jewellery); from the Juni Dhan Mandi (grain) to the Mirchi Bazaar (spices)...to an entire Supari ki Gali (Betel Nut Street). The Clock Tower Bazaar on the other hand, listed in Conde Nasts’ ‘100 Great Markets of the World’ is a veritable super-market. A shopper’s paradise, it offers everything from fruit and spices to textiles and bangles; rare books to American WW II jerry cans to junk jewellery!

Unseen but clear divisions exist in the residential sections too; undoubtedly the most beautiful is Brahmpuri, the Colony of the Priests. It is the oldest but gave rise to Jodhpur’s more recent allure as the Blue City; for centuries the fastidious Brahmins have white-washed their homes with a dash of indigo. It is cooling and keeps the mosquitoes away... This distinctive blue has now become immensely popular and for many it is Jodhpur’s signature in the tourism world.

But more than that, and more than any other medieval Indian city, Jodhpur has been able to retain her old-world charm, a contagious feeling of contentment, an innate sense of style and a fine tradition of hospitality. In the heart of it, and yet an oasis within it, there is no better base than RAAS to explore and discover this hidden treasure...