Palace of Maharajah, Jeypore, Rajpootana.

Photograph of the Chandra Mahal or Moon Palace, Jaipur, from an Album of Miscellaneous views in India, taken by Bourne and Shepherd in the 1870s. Jaipur was founded in 1727 as an entirely new and prestigious state capital by Maharaja Jai Singh (r.1699-1743) of the Kachwaha Rajputs. It was built on the site of a royal hunting lodge and garden on a plain ringed by a range of rocky hills five miles south of Amber, the previous state capital. At Jaipur, the city palace is contained within a boundary wall, and is situated in the centre of the city. The Chandra Mahal (c.1727-34) is the earliest and most important part of the city palace. This is a view of the north face of the seven-storey building from the Jai Niwas gardens, with a fountain in the foreground leading to a marble channel. The palace has the screened balconies and a roof-top pavilion found in many Rajasthan palaces, and a symmetrical design which is characteristic of the city as a whole.