This is a full-day excursion from Udaipur into the mountains of the Aravalli range to see the impressive Kumbhalgarh Fort and the Ranakpur temples.
Kumbhalgarh: Built on a hilltop 1100 metres in altitude, Kumbhalgarh fort has perimeter walls that extend 36kms in length, claimed to be the longest in the world after the Great Wall of China. The frontal walls are 15ft thick. Over 360 temples are within the fort, 300 ancient Jain and the rest Hindu. The vista from the palace top typically extends 10kms into the Aravalli Range. The sand dunes of the Thar desert can be seen from the fort.
Ranakpur: Ranakpur houses a collection of Jain temples unmatched in their beauty. The temple at Ranakpur is dedicated to Adinatha, the first Jain Tirthankara (spiritual leader) who conquered the cycle of rebirth and achieved enlightenment. Ranakpur is a village located in Desuri tehsil near Sadri town in the Pali district of Rajasthan in western India. It is located between Jodhpur and Udaipur. 162 km from Jodhpur and 91 km from Udaipur, in a valley on the western side of the Aravalli Range. The Jain temple at Ranakpur is a slice of heaven relocated on earth. This architectural marvel is as delicate as finely embroidered lace yet as imposing and complex in design as it is profoundly logical.
As you stand before a single pillar, you realise that it is very different from the other 419 that supported this divine creation. While no two pillars in this lavishly carved temple are the same, this particular one was unique in a very special way - it was distinctly crooked. No, it was not the light playing tricks. It was intentionally built that way. The structure is huge and stood on a massive elevated plinth measuring 45,000 sq ft. The moment one enters the temple doors, he is immediately awestruck by the scale and audacity of its design. It is like witnessing a bewildering maze where shafts of light sliced through corridors of carved pillars and sprayed their warmth into the cups of ornate domes overhead. Across the compound is a tight cluster of smaller temples that merit only a cursory visit as they pale in comparison to the main structure.
