The short answer
The occasion: in February 1876 the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, came to Jaipur on his tour of India.
The gesture: Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II had the walled city washed in a terracotta pink for his arrival.
- Who
- Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II
- When
- 1876
- Why
- A welcome for the Prince of Wales
- Kept by
- A law of 1877, in popular accounts, and heritage rules today
- Where
- The walled city, not the whole of modern Jaipur
- The rule: the colour was then made compulsory for buildings in the old city, and it has stayed ever since.
- The record: on the same visit, the prince laid the foundation stone of the Albert Hall, the museum named after him.
- The result: the only city we know of where repainting your shopfront in a colour you like is not entirely your own decision.
What colour was Jaipur before?
The planned city: Sawai Jai Singh II founded Jaipur in 1727 on the plain below Amer, with the scholar-architect Vidyadhar Bhattacharya.
The grid: nine rectangular blocks, broad bazaars meeting at great squares called chaupars, and each lane given to a trade. Read Jaipur for the full story.
- The older colours: travellers' accounts and guidebooks describe the city before 1876 as mostly white or a pale yellow. We treat the detail as uncertain, because records of plaster are rare.
- The stone: palaces and gates used local sandstone, much of it already warm in tone. Hawa Mahal, built in 1799, predates the wash by nearly eighty years.
- The lesson: the pink is younger than the city. The plan is what made Jaipur. The paint is what made it famous.
The visit that turned a city pink
The host: Sawai Ram Singh II was a moderniser, and Jaipur under him gained new public buildings, schools and institutions alongside its old palaces.
The welcome: a single colour across the bazaars made the old city look like one great composition, a grand setting for a royal procession.
- The visitor
- Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, later Edward VII
- The month
- February 1876
- The memorial
- Albert Hall, foundation stone laid 6 February 1876
- The museum opened
- 1887
- The host
- Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II
- The memorial: the prince laid the foundation stone of the Albert Hall in the Ram Niwas Garden. Designed by Samuel Swinton Jacob, it opened as a museum in 1887.
- A common mix-up: some books name the visitor as Prince Albert. Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, had died in 1861. The visitor was their son, Albert Edward.
- Why it stuck: the visit passed in days. The colour became the identity of the city, and the city chose to keep it.
The king behind the colour
A long reign: he came to the throne as a child in 1835 and ruled until his death in 1880, through the decades when India changed most.
The gardens: the Ram Niwas Garden, where the Albert Hall stands, carries his name and was laid out in his reign.
- Reign
- 1835 to 1880
- Dynasty
- Kachwaha
- Came to the throne
- As a small child
- Known for
- Public works, gardens and photography
- The camera: he was a keen photographer at a time when few Indians had held a camera, and his pictures of court life survive in the City Palace collections.
- The balance: new institutions outside the walls, old rituals inside them. The pink wash fits that pattern, a modern gesture of welcome on an old royal city.
- See his world: the City Palace museum and its galleries bring his reign to life. Ask your guide for the photography rooms.
Why pink, and not another colour
The colour of welcome: the most common answer in Jaipur is that pink, or terracotta, is the colour of hospitality. It is a lovely idea and a popular saying, not a documented reason.
The look of sandstone: another theory is that the wash imitated the red sandstone of the great Mughal cities, giving plastered buildings the dignity of stone.
- The practical one: an earth-toned wash hides dust far better than white in a dry, windy city. Every housekeeper in Jaipur will agree with this one.
- The romantic one: popular accounts say a favourite queen of the maharaja liked the colour and urged the law that kept it. We tell it as a story, not as history.
- Our view: probably a bit of all of them. A colour that flattered the city, suited the climate and said welcome was always going to last.
How the city stays pink
The first rule: popular accounts say a law of 1877 made it illegal to paint buildings in the old city any other colour. The rule has been carried forward in later forms.
Heritage today: in 2019 UNESCO inscribed the walled city of Jaipur as a World Heritage Site, joining the Jantar Mantar and Amber Fort.
- Uniform facades: the bazaars were designed with matching arcades and shopfronts. The single colour holds that design together.
- Repainting: the city and its shopkeepers repaint stretches of the bazaar from time to time, often before big festivals and official visits.
- The real threats: traffic, oversized signboards, wires and concrete additions do more damage to the old city's look than any wrong colour.
- What you can do: walk the old city, eat at its stalls and buy from its family shops. A living bazaar is the best protection a heritage city has.
Gerua, gulabi: what shade is it really?
Gerua: the word for an ochre or terracotta colour, the shade of the earth and of the robes of ascetics. Many older Jaipuris use it for the city.
Gulabi: literally rose-coloured. It is the word everyone uses, and it gives the city its Hindi nickname, Gulabi Nagri.
- The white lines: look for the white patterns painted around arches, windows and cornices. They outline the architecture against the pink.
- Not one shade: older walls fade towards salmon, freshly painted ones look deeper, and every lane has its own tone.
- Not rani pink: the bright magenta of bandhani and leheriya saris is a different colour, and a different story. Our leheriya and bandhani page tells it.
The hours when the pink glows
Dawn: the first hour after sunrise lights the great facades full on. Hawa Mahal turns coral while the street below still sleeps.
Midday: the colour washes out. Spend these hours at the City Palace or at lunch.
- Sunrise
- Warm coral on the main facades
- Midday
- Flat and pale under a high sun
- Late afternoon
- Rooftops glow, facades in shade
- Dusk
- Deep rose turning to ochre
- After rain
- Sandstone darkens to a rich rose
- Dusk: from a rooftop near Badi Chaupar, watch the walls turn from pink to rose to ochre as the lamps come on.
- Monsoon: in July and August, between showers, the stone darkens and the sky is washed clean. Some of our favourite photographs were taken then.
- For the walk: our a Jaipur morning piece describes the hour before nine in detail.
Where the pink is best
Hawa Mahal and Siredeori Bazaar
- Why: the most famous facade in the city, 953 small windows in five storeys of pink and red sandstone.
- When: just after sunrise, from a rooftop across the street.
Johari Bazaar
- Why: the long run of uniform arcades shows how the single colour ties the design together.
- When: early, before the shutters lift and the crowds hide the facades.
Tripolia Gate and the city gates
Nahargarh, for the whole city
- Why: from the ridge, the entire grid spreads out below you, pink turning to gold at sunset.
- When: the last hour of daylight, with kites circling overhead.
Badi Chaupar at dusk
- Why: the great square at the meeting of the bazaars, where the walls change colour while families come out for kulfi.
- Where to sit: a rooftop across from Hawa Mahal with a cup of masala chai.
A pink city walk, the way we take guests
Chandpole Gate, at first light
- Start here: the western gate, where Jai Singh's main bazaar begins. The street lights are still on and the arcades are shuttered.
- Look at: the long line of identical shopfronts running east, the clearest sign that this city was designed rather than grown.
Choti Chaupar and Tripolia Bazaar
- At the square: the vegetable sellers set up as the first light reaches the upper storeys.
- On Tripolia: brass and steel shops beneath the triple-arched Tripolia Gate, and the bangle-makers' lane, Maniharon ka Rasta, just off it.
Badi Chaupar and Hawa Mahal
- The finish: about 2.5 kilometres from Chandpole, at the great square beside Hawa Mahal, just as the sun reaches its windows.
- The reward: chai on a rooftop opposite, and kachori from a counter in the bazaar. Our food of Jaipur guide names the stalls.
If you would rather ride
- By bicycle: the same route at dawn, with a car following. See cycling the old cities at dawn.
Pink in Jaipur life
Turbans: at weddings, men of a family often wear matching safa turbans in pinks, saffrons and reds. Our page on the art of the Rajasthani turban explains the styles.
Saris and dupattas: rani pink, the queen's magenta, is the colour of celebration in bandhani and leheriya.
- Festivals: pink and saffron fill the streets at Gangaur, when women in their finest line the route of the royal procession.
- Weddings: in the season from November to February, the old city's squares glow with marigolds, lights and pink-turbaned bands.
- Sweets: rose-flavoured gulkand, made from rose petals and sugar, turns up in paan and in summer drinks across the old city.
- Kites: on Makar Sankranti the sky above the pink rooftops is full of paper in every colour, and the cry of woh kata rings from roof to roof.
Rajasthan's other city colours
Jodhpur, the blue city
- The look: the old town below Mehrangarh is washed in blue, most densely in the neighbourhood of Brahmpuri.
- The reasons: caste, cooling and insects are all offered. Read Jodhpur, the blue city explained.
Jaisalmer, the golden city
- The look: the whole city is built of yellow sandstone, so it glows gold at sunset.
- The reason: the stone itself, not a wash. See Jaisalmer.
Udaipur, the white city
- The look: white palaces, havelis and ghats around the lakes.
- The reason: lime plaster, and a court that loved marble and water. See Udaipur.
Bundi, the other blue town
- The look: blue-washed lanes below the painted palace, quieter than Jodhpur's.
- See it: in the lanes around the stepwells. Read Bundi.
Myths and half-truths about the pink
All of Jaipur is pink: no. The colour belongs to the walled city. Modern Jaipur, home to more than three million people, is every colour under the sun.
Hawa Mahal was built for the visit: no. It dates from 1799, nearly eighty years before the prince arrived.
- The visitor was Prince Albert: no. It was his son, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII.
- Pink means hospitality in Rajput culture: a popular saying, and a charming one, but not a documented reason.
- A queen chose the colour: the story of a favourite queen urging the law appears in popular accounts. We tell it as tradition.
- The colour never changes: it does. Shades vary from lane to lane, fade between repaintings and change completely with the light.
How to see the Pink City well
Stay inside or close to the walls: Samode Haveli is a nobleman's townhouse inside the walled city, a short walk from Hawa Mahal.
Or stay grand: Rambagh Palace was the home of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II and Maharani Gayatri Devi, and became a hotel in 1957.
- Walk with a local guide: private and commission-free, someone who grew up in the lanes. Our heritage walks start at dawn.
- Give it three nights: a day for the old city, one for Amer and Nahargarh, and one for crafts and the Jantar Mantar. See Jaipur in three nights.
- Come for a festival: on Makar Sankranti, 14 January, the sky over the pink rooftops fills with kites.
- Photograph with care: ask before photographing people, and read our photography tips for light and lenses.