The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-06-23
ROSE.RED JEYPORE.
The Marve1ous1y Beautiful Indian Me-
tropolis Founded BY icy Singh.

The Marve1ous1y Beautiful Indian Me
tropolis Founded By icy Singh.
Jeypore is city that mi ght be bull
in the fantastic architecture of dreams
or tabled by some poet deyising strange
and unparalleled combinations of color
and outline. There is nothing like ii
in India Or the world; and, albeit not at
all ancient--for the present metropolis
was founded bv Jey Singh in 172S-it,
no doubt, reproduces many traditional
features of the old times, and well suits
the romantic chronicles of the country
by it's extraordinary beauty of aspect
and site. Nothing reveals the character
of the place to the traveller as he alights
at the railway station and drives to his
temporary quarters. The rose-red city
of Jeypore, with its beautiful streets and
fairy-like palaces, is shut within the
fence of high seven-gated walls Just as
the Rajput ladies Of proud degree are
screened from view by latticed windows
andjealous portals. But you turn sudden
~ from the open space before, say, the
Amber Gateway, where camels are load.
ing, and ox-carts toiling along, and
mean, mud-built novels cluster close to
the tall screen walls, protecting and
concealing the real entrance. Your car.
riage crosses the square, beneath the
crenellated breastwork, rattles over the
pavement of the guard-house, where the
Rajput sentry, in long, black cloak and
red turban salutes the vehicle of the
Maharaja, and suddenly then opens on
the well-pleased gaze the vista of busy
thoroughfare wholly unique and beauti-
ful-in general almost beyond descrip-
ton. The entire city effect from this
point Of view is one and the same tint, a
delicate rosy red relieved with white.
If one could dream of building a capital
with blush rose leaves or pink coral,
this is how it would look! 1t is an in
terminable prospective of roseate house
fronts, bathed by soft sunlight, nowhere
ungraceful, and at many spots on
either side of the way broken
magnificently by stately fronts Of
palaces, and long lines of light pavil-
ions, embellished with columns and
cupolas, and enriched with floral or pic
torial designs in all sorts of hues. The
splendid street, thus entered, runs on a
perfect level from east to west, more
than two miles, always of the same
grand breadth of one hundred and
eleven feet, and so absolutely straight
that throughout its entire length. each
house, each palace, each traders shop,
can be seen on either side, fading away
in the long perspective of rose red to
the battlements of the far off Manak,
Or Ruby Gate. A gay and bustling
crowd of citizens gives animation to the
charming mise en- scene, which is backed
by mountains, rising nobly to the pure,
blue sky, almost every peak of them
covered with some commanding fort
Or fantastic pleasure house. Two
main road-ways of the same rosy color
from end to end, and each of them as
wide as the great Central street, cross
it at right angles, forming at the points
of dissection two spacious piazzas called
the Gambler Chank" and the "Ruby
Chank." These subordinate thorou OH
fares are each a mile and quarter Ion Q,
and have their picturesque roseate lin es
of dwellings and shops, broken in a
similar fashion by buildings of the
strangest fancy and most elaborate or
namentation: 1t is true that the lovely
pink flush which thus clothes the entire
visible city is only wash Of color laid
upon the chunam with which the rough
masonry of the structures has been
covered, but it beauties the face of the
capital almost as much as if Jeypore
were really constructed of rose-tinted
alabaster.-G. Il. Sala, in London
Telegraph.