A Day Trip to Glorious Gwalior from Delhi

Gwalior Fort

Gwalior is known for its medieval history, hilltop fort and musical heritage that boasts of many Sangeet Gharanas and musical celebrations till date. It was beginning of the Indian summer season and I decided to take a day tour of historical Gwalior. I chose to travel by Bhopal Shatabdi Express that leaves New Delhi Railway Station at 06:00 Am and reaches Gwalior around 09:30 AM to save time as well as to experience the fastest train on Indian Soil at that time. It is always pleasant to travel while Winter is going away and summer starts settling in since you don't have to wait or ponder over train delays due to heavy fog or bad weather condition across norther India. Shatabdi started well on time and I was served breakfast along with tea by catering staff. I won't say it was very good but was neither bad. I would say an average one ( Though I found it better during my previous travels in Shatabdi Express). In about an hour and half train reached Mathura - The birth place of Lord Krishna. I'll take you though to my 2 day trip to Mathura Vrindavan in a separate post (Day Trip to Mathura - Vrindavan. The Train ran well as expected and after Agra ( City of famous Taj Mahal) and Morena it reached Gwalior Junction well in time.

• For info related to trains operated by Indian Railway please go to  https://enquiry.indianrail.gov.in/ntes/index.html or http://www.indianrail.gov.in

I got down and hired an auto to reach my hotel which was in close proximity to Gwalior Railway Station. It turned out to be a decent budget property and food was really delicious. It took me about an hour to settle down and by that time I was given he key of my room. I unpacked and got ready to explore the glory of Gwalior.

Jai Vilas Palace & H.H. Maharaja Jiwajirao Scindia Museum

My first destination was Jai Vilas Palace. I walked down the street outside my hotel and could catch a shared auto to reach the beautiful Jai Vilas Palace. It was quite close and took only 10 minutes to reach. It is a nineteenth century palace that was established in 1874 by Jayajirao Scindia of royal Maratha Scindia dynasty, then his highness of Gwalior. It is still the residence of Scindia descendants and almost half of the palace has been converted to an eye catching and glorious museum. The entire Palace is built on European architecture and has great blend of British and Maratha culture. I purchased the ticket for museum and camera and stepped into the royalty. The Palace had huge walls painted in bright white and entire space was beautifully decorated. At entrance there were small canons. When I got inside the palace it had luxury all around, room by room and every room was filled with the oil paintings of Scindia clans. The main courtroom was glorious. It is believed that eight elephants were suspended from the durbar (royal court) hall ceiling to check if it could bear with two 3.5 tonne chandeliers with 250 light bulbs. It is said to be the largest pair in the world.

Jai Vilas Palace

Western Dining

The cavernous dining room displayed the model railway with a silver train that carried after-dinner brandy and cigars around the table.

Cavernous Dining - Silver Train

Silver Train that was used for Dining 

Maratha Dining 

It took about 2 hours to see each any every room within the palace. After that I set off to The Gwalior fort which was around 5 kms and took about 15-20 minutes.

Gopachal, Gwalior Fort, Man Singh Palace & Gujri Mahal

The hill top Gwalior fort is known as "pearl among the fortresses" and the most beautiful part of the journey to the hill top fort are exceptional Jain sculptures and monuments in-craved in hills that are known as Gopachal while you are on the way to the imposing fort that has Many temples and historical places like Gujri Mahal, Teli ka temple and Man Singh Palace. These Jain monuments are located on the south side of Gwalior Fort, and showcase Jain Tirthankaras in seated and standing Kayotsarga posture in naked form.

Gopachal  - Gwalior Fort

On the way I saw Scindia School and other establishments from the Royal Family. First thing that catches your eyes upon reaching the hill top is the gigantic fort wall which is not only huge but beautiful due to colors and the impeccable architecture. This imperial-style palace, built by Tomar ruler Man Singh between 1486 and 1516, is definitely one of India's more most decorated monuments: its colorful exterior includes a frieze of yellow ducks and mosaics of elephants, crocodiles and tigers in blue, yellow and green! Hence its alternative identity of Chit Mandir (Painted Palace). Man Singh, a connoisseur of the arts, would surely be delighted to know that his creation is now considered the only intact Pre-Mughal palace in India. The Gwalior fort encloses six Mahals, numerous water tanks and three temples. The fort has been witness to many ups and downs and has changed hands from one ruler to another. Initially ruled by the Tomars it passed to the Mughals, then the Marathas, the British and finally Scindias. There are two main entrances to the fort, one from the North East and other from the South West.

Walls of Gwalior Fort

The palace of Gujari Mahal was built by Raja Man Singh for his wife Mrignayani, a Gujar princess. as she demanded a separate palace for herself with a regular water supply through an aqueduct from the nearby Rai River. This part of the palace is converted to museum and depicts range of stuff from that era.

It was around 4 in the evening and I couldn't stay back for the light and sound show which was to start at 7 PM. I decided to skip it and move towards thenext destination "Tansen's Tomb".

Tansen's Tomb

Not a big tomb but very significant for music lovers. It is a small tomb of a renowned classical musician from North India, Tansen who lived from 1500–1586 and served among the "Nav-ratnas" ( Nine Gems) in the court of Mughal Emperor Akbar. Every year Gwalior hosts the Tansen Music festival at this place in Tansen's commemoration. It was an experience to be there and I thought of visiting the place once the music festival was on.

After paying my tributes to the music maestro I concluded my day trip and came back to hotel to take some rest and dinner. Food was awesome and I went in to sleep rather quickly due to tiring yet amazing day in Gwalior.