♪ ♪ [sitar & tabla play in bright rhythm] ♪ ♪ (Rudy Maxa) I'm hurtling across a land of myth and legend, a majestic, colorful, chaotic region, the land of kings, Rajasthan.

(woman) "Rudy Maxa's World," proudly sponsored by The Leading Hotels of the World.

Quests for travel begin at LHW.com, where you'll discover a collection of nearly 450 unique hotels worldwide... including the distinctive family of Taj hotels, resorts, and palaces.

♪ ♪ Every quest has a beginning-- online at LHW.com.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (Rudy) The Raput, the legendary maharajas of Rajasthan, claimed they were descended from the sun, the moon, and fire.

Indeed, it feels true.

The elemental pull of Rajasthan comes from its brilliant colors, scorching days, ghostly twilights, and the fiery spirit of its people.

From the pinks of the capital Jaipur, to the moon-white stone of spiritual Pushkar, to baby-blue Jadpur, a trip through Rajasthan is a kaleidoscope of sights, sounds, and smells that leaves the visitor spinning.

Rajasthan, the largest state in India, occupies the northwest corner of the country, just west of the capital, Delhi.

First stop, Jaipur, the pink city, a teeming madhouse, a sensory stew of color, cars, cows, camels, and barely controlled chaos.

Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan, population near 3 million and growing.

Language--Hindi, Pakistani, and English.

The vast majority of the people are Hindu in faith.

Like many Indian cities, Jaipur is bursting with new development.

People flock to Jaipur seeking work and a better way of life.

♪ ♪ Jaipur's Indian pandemonium fills unusually wide, straight boulevards.

The pink, or at least to my eye, tangerine-colored buildings, seem spun by fairies.

Jaipur is a planned city, created in 1727 by the Rajput Maharaja Jai Singh, to accommodate a growing population in the nearby city of Ajmer.

Jaipur and all of Rajasthan, offers dazzling shopping, with gigantic gems, delightful block prints, to miniature paintings, and antique maharaja hand-me-downs.

♪ ♪ Indians adore ornamentation.

Everything from cattle trucks to princesses are exuberantly decked out with bangles, mirrors, and garlands.

In India, the every day is celebrated.

In the midst of abject poverty, beauty finds a place.

The festive overcomes the mundane, saris turn the bleakest landscape technicolor.

♪ ♪ Ornamentation is in full force during winter wedding season, and processions light up the streets as the groom, on horseback, is brought to the bride's house.

Parents often consult horoscopes to determine the most auspicious date for a marriage, and normally it falls between November and February.

Lots of dancing happens on the way, slowing the procession to a rollicking crawl.

♪ ♪ For at least 5000 years, India has embraced dance.

♪ ♪ Gypsies, or Roma, are believed to have come from Northern India.

Their language, Romany, closely resembles Sanskrit.

♪ ♪ Gulabi Sapera, invited me to her home studio for a performance.

As a little girl, Gulabi danced while her father charmed snakes out of baskets with his pipe made from a gourd.

Gulabi's family supported her desire to dance professionally, even though her rural Rajasthan community partially disapproved.

She moved to Jaipur and began to perform internationally.

♪ ♪ Everything is bejeweled in Jaipur.

Jewelry has a long history in India and Jaipur is the epicenter of the gem cutting industry.

This is a raw emerald.

A raw emerald, it's a rough stone, we dig it out from the ground, with a small hammer and chisel.

We just try to cut the stones, break them as big as possible because size plays a very important role there.

This is a big piece of emerald.

Oh yes, it should be nearly about 50 carats.

Wow!

And then there's some other stones, also from Indian, that's from South India, a ruby piece.

Ruby, I wouldn't know this was ruby if I came upon it.

I would just think it's a purple stone.

Yes, and they're all real stones from the mines.

They're not easy to get actually, they're rare stones since they're precious stones.

(Rudy) The great grandfather of Jaipur's founder Jai Singh, invited jewelry makers from all over the country to settle here.

Jaipur has evolved as the gem cutting and polishing capital of the world.

Nearly 90% of all emeralds are cut in Jaipur.

Now, why are emeralds the best purchase here?

First of all, they're mined here locally.

How about this one here, sir?

My goodness, I think I need sunglasses to look at this one!

Yeah they all sparkle, they all dazzle.

So would these cost more in the United States?

Yeah, I would imagine they should be double the price.

Many of the best, especially Europe or America.

So I should buy as many of these as I can right now.

You're very right, sir.

[Rudy laughs] (Rudy) While you'll get no guarantees on the street, vendors here claim they have the best deal on local rocks.

There's a lot of people in this market with a lot of stones in their pockets.

Do you come here every day for this?

Yeah, every day.

In the morning, and the evening too.

Interesting.

Pratap Singh built Jaipur's most famous landmark.

The Hawa Mahal, or Palace of the Winds.

This pink confection is but a shell of a building, five stories high, but only one room deep.

It was designed for the women of the court, who were kept in total seclusion, or purdah.

From behind the lacy pink curtains, they could catch a glimpse of life on the streets.

Attitudes toward women in Rajasthan have been slow to modernize.

More than half the female population is illiterate.

Women are often married at a very young age and purdah is still practiced.

Women also tend to work harder than men.

A study in the north of India reported that "On a two-acre farm in a year, a pair of bullocks works 1000 hours, a man works 1200 hours, and a woman 3500 hours."

However, things are changing as the economy grows and young women have more options open to them.

Men in Rajasthan prize their mustaches as signs of virility and power.

Contests are held for the longest mustache and some of the world record holders hail from Rajasthan.

Turban tying contests are also a big deal.

I asked a local shop owner to show me the art of turban tying.

Okay, hold this under the arm, ♪ ♪ I feel like a sausage!

My God, he's still got another 9 feet to go!

♪ ♪ Aaargh!

I don't think my head goes that way!

Do I look like a Rajasthani now?

I need a bigger mustache, I need a bigger mustache.

♪ ♪ Oh, that's got a little flare to it.

(ph) Nah-mah-STAY!

♪ ♪ Rajasthan is in love with color.

Every region has its particular textile, and every village has families of dyers and families of printers.

The result is a riot of saris, bedspreads, scarves and quilts.

Intricate patterns are carved in wood or metal blocks.

Each block adds color and design to the fabric.

Typically, up to seven blocks are used, and the price of the textile goes up with each additional block.

This is 100% cotton; vegetable color is used and the block print, now I explain how we do.

You see this joint here, joint here, joints comes one by one, and here you see also, this is joint, like this block.

But this is made all with vegetable dyes.

Yes.

You make the dyes yourself?

Yes.

You use what?

The vegetable, white, limestone and onion.

Blue.

Indigo.

Red.

Sugar cane.

Sugar cane... it's beautiful.

Known as the soldier astronomer, Jaipur's founder Jai Singh was a Renaissance man.

Even as a child, legend says, he so impressed the Mogul Emperor who ruled Rajasthan, that he called the boy "Sawai," or One-and-a-quarter, meaning he was that much superior to others.

Jai Singh built the city palace in Jaipur.

Rajasthan is known for its many ornate palaces and the architecture is a medley of Rajput and Mogul styles, unique to India.

The current maharaja, a figurehead politically, but still a respected and powerful city leader, lives today in a portion of the palace.

To hold on to their palaces, many royal families opened them to the public as hotels.

The Rambagh Palace in Jaipur is still home to royalty, but now visitors can also enjoy the regal life.

Peacocks parade on the lawns, fountains quietly splash, and in the palatial suites, canopy beds await the weary.

Rambagh Palace is an experience, not just a place to stay.

♪ ♪ It's easy, safe, and inexpensive to see India on your own.

My suggestion: hire a car, driver and guide from a local travel agency or your hotel.

♪ ♪ India can challenge the traveler, but with common sense about what to eat and good accommodations, it's a delight.

So many people speak English and speak it well, a great gift that makes the culture accessible.

Fourteen different spices.

Four different spices--14!

Certainly the poverty can be heartbreaking, but India's economy is growing rapidly, and with it, the middle class.

[brass bells ring & chime] A cultural highlight in India is to visit a temple.

On Wednesdays devotees purchase sweets and garlands to offer to the god Ganesha.

One of the most beloved of the gods in the Hindu Pantheon, elephant-headed Ganesha is the remover of obstacles and the god of success, wisdom, and wealth.

It's said his father, the powerful Sheva, struck off his head in a rage and replaced it with that of a nearby elephant.

People pray to Ganesha before undertaking a journey or pilgrimage.

[loud bell rings] [woman announces information on trains] Indian Railways is the world's largest commercial employer and one of the only railways that turns a profit.

Under British rule, private investors were encouraged to develop railways in the mid 1800's.

Soon all of India was crisscrossed with rail and the country grew and changed because of the train.

My journey takes me further west into Rajasthan to Pushkar, a Hindu pilgrimage center.

Here intense spiritualism and crafts commercialism exists side by side.

Hindu stories say the God Brahma, the god of creation, dropped a lotus flower and it landed here, creating Pushkar Lake.

This is one of the five sacred "Dhams," or pilgrimage sites for Hindus.

Along the lake, "ghats," or steps, lead down to the platforms where worshippers bathe in the sacred water.

Some 500 temples in Ashram surround Pushkar Lake.

[drums & sitar play] ♪ ♪ In Hinduism, everything in the universe contains the divine.

The religion has no set dogma, central organization.

It's dynamic, ever-changing and tolerant.

Father of Creation, inventor of art, music, and theater, Brahma is worshipped in many Hindu rites.

But there are only a few temples to him in the world, including one in Pushkar.

♪ ♪ In the autumn, hundreds of thousands of people descend on Pushkar for the Camel Fair, an epic festival of camel trading and religious devotion.

Anytime of the year, Pushkar is alive with chanting, drums, souvenir stalls, holy men, hawkers.

The holy and the irreverent, the sublime and the ridiculous coexist joyfully.

♪ ♪ Local custom is to refrain from alcohol, meat, and eggs while in Pushkar, so I have a gorgeous vegetarian spread in front of me.

This is Aloo Jeera, which is potato and cumin, this is Gobi Masala, spicy cauliflower, and Matar Mushrooms, mushrooms and peas.

♪ ♪ Deeper into Rajasthan, into the Land of the Kings, my journey is by road now, a hair-raising ride at times, with flashes of beauty and color.

♪ ♪ The blue city of Jodhpur, encircled by desert, feels remote and mysterious.

Rao Jodha, a Rajput of the Rathore clan, founded this city on the hill in 1459.

Camel caravans, trading opium, sandalwood and silk, gave the kingdom its wealth.

India produces nearly 3 million tons of different spices.

India's climate, from tropical to subtropical, provides ideal spice-growing conditions.

No other country grows such a great variety of spices.

You have a lot of spices in there.

This is a curry you can make for the rice, for brinji.

It's a curry, in India say "marsala."

Curry and marsala are the same.

The marsala, the mixture of the spices.

(Rudy) Aside from spices, Jodhpur is renowned for its textiles and its warehouses of antique furniture, sculptures, old pictures, and memorabilia.

I met Italian-born Roberto in a previous trip to Jodhpur.

He and his wife, Cathy, from Canada, are the only foreigners living full-time in this city of more than a million.

Roberto deals in antiques, and he invited me to browse the warehouses, A virtual Ali Baba's den of treasures.

Aisle after aisle of beautiful hand-carved and painted tables, armoires, columns, benches, and vases, many from the palaces of former princes.

The furniture is pretty much beat up and we have a lot of people fixing all the things.

(Rudy) How many people work on this?

(Roberto) We have lots of them, we have hundreds of people, that they help us to put it back, the furniture together.

It was very good also for the economic in Jodhpur.

Is the ability to do this passed down from generation to generation?

Do you find sons learning from their fathers how to do this?

Yes, we actually, this is what they do, because they are family, where they are carpenter from generation to generation and they continue to do the same work.

I know there's everything from small boxes here to gigantic doors and armoires, but give me a price range of these products.

We have actually from the small item, $20, $30, $40, and the bigger item they go a couple hundred dollars, $200, $300, $400, it depends.

The items here, they are 5 to 10 times cheaper than you can find them anywhere else in the world.

(Rudy) Roberto's wife Cathy designs textiles using existing tribal fabric and employing villagers to produce her modern designs.

(Cathy) These are pieces of old blouses and skirts that have been put together to make wall hangings, cushion covers.

We do pieces of these old tribal dresses that come from Gujarat and some from Rajasthan.

We try and keep things mostly original in the old textiles and then we do a whole line of new textiles here.

I get silks from Varanasi, I do my own cottons in Bihar.

We do our own designing.

India is good with colors, isn't it?

Great with color.

It's a great country for color.

Excellent, yes.

♪ ♪ Jodhpur's Meherangarh Fort, the most dramatic in Rajasthan, rises straight out of a rock cliff.

Built by Rao Jodha, the fort encompasses enormous gates, palaces, and a museum.

Rudyard Kipling described the palace as "the work of angels, fairies, and giants, built by titans and colored by the morning sun."

In the Flower Palace, dancing girls performed for the Maharaja, spinning beneath the gold ceiling.

The Pearl Palace was reserved for royal women who listened in on the court from hidden balconies.

Outside the iron gate are 15 little handprints from the widows of Maharaja Man Singh.

All 15 threw themselves on the Maharaja's funeral pyre in 1843.

This practice, known as "suttee," may have begun in Rajasthan.

Rajput women were famous for burning themselves after their men were defeated in war, to avoid being taken by the advancing invaders.

Later, it became the supreme act of devotion to one's husband.

Suttee was outlawed in 1829, but cases continue into this century.

I've never met a maharaja, but since I'm staying in his palace, I think I ought to.

Well, am I fit for a king?

The maharaja's palace, the Umaid Bhawan, which is also my hotel, dominates the Jodhpur skyline.

This enormous, stately palace was built in 1929, complete with Italian marble and Burmese teak.

The current maharaja's father died in 1947, only four years after the palace's completion.

His son, His Highness Gaj Sing II, ascended the throne at four years old.

I asked him about the palace's history.

The history of this palace goes back to 1929, when there was acute drought, so this project was launched as a work-providing project.

3000 people worked for about 13 years and as a result of this, also the stone industry of Jodhpur was born.

In 1917, our special status as princes had been done away with by a change in the constitution.

And there was just my mother and myself in this huge place.

So I felt something had to be done, and we had a lot of stuff to look after and the obvious thing was turning it into a hotel, because it was built for hospitality, built for culture, built for entertainment, so that's what we did.

♪ ♪ (Rudy) His Highness was off to a polo match and I joined in the festive atmosphere that felt right out of the 1920's.

Polo's an ancient game, but the Rajputs established today's rules and developed the polo stick and the use of a ball.

The British quickly adopted the game.

Around 1890, Maharaja Sir Pratap Singh of Jodhpur, started wearing riding pants tailored for the game, wide at the thighs, with leather patches between the knees.

These became known as "Jodhpurs," and soon all polo players everywhere sported the trousers.

♪ ♪ Some 35 million people in Rajasthan live in small villages.

A friend of mine, Ricky, also a member of the Jodhpur royal family, takes me to see the Khasi outside of town.

♪ ♪ The arid land is home to black bucks and antelope, endangered here because of lack of habitat.

The male has a black back and spiral horns.

At full speed, he can run 50 miles per hour.

Agriculture is the major occupation of 94% of villagers.

But agriculture is risky because of lack of water and frequent crop failure.

If the monsoon season doesn't bring enough rain, family members go to town to make additional money to survive.

Some tribes raise cattle, sheep, and goats as a source of revenue in this drought-prone region.

Villagers grind their own flour from millet, make rope from grass, and make their houses and floors from mud and cow dung.

May we look in the kitchen?

Sure you can.

So this is where all meals for the family are made.

Where would they eat the meals?

Sometimes in the kitchen, sometimes they will bring them out.

My tribe, they're called "Khasi."

The Khasi are basically people who live off livestock, sheep, and goats.

This is their living right here, the animals?

That is correct.

The sheep, the larger ones that you see, I didn't know this, but I was told that they go grazing and they return home on their own.

They have the sheep for the wool only?

For milk, for wool.

♪ ♪ (Rudy) Here in the midst of rural poverty, I find once again, the grace and beauty of India.

♪ ♪ From bejeweled Jaipur, to spiritual Pushkar, to the ramparts of regal Jodhpur, Rajasthan is a magnificent blend of past and present, rich and poor, profound and playful.

It's colors seep into your soul; it's people into your heart.

I've been captured by Rajasthan, by the courage and tenacity of its people, by its keen everyday beauty.

Reporting from the Land of the Kings, I'm Rudy Maxa, Nah-mah-stay!

(woman) For information on the places featured in "Rudy Maxa's World," along with other savvy traveling tips, visit... To order DVDs of Rudy Maxa's World or the CD of world music from the series, call or visit... ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ CC--Armour Captioning & Twin Cities Public Television ♪ ♪ "Rudy Maxa's World," proudly sponsored by The Leading Hotels of the World.

Quests for travel begin at LHW.com, where you'll discover a collection of nearly 450 unique hotels worldwide, Including the distinctive family of Taj hotels, resorts, and palaces.

Every quest has a beginning, online at LHW.com.

Additional funding for "Rudy Maxa's World" provided by Medjet.com, medical evacuation membership protection for travelers.

Take trips, not chances.

And by... Yokoso!

Or "Welcome to Japan."

And by Delta--serving hundreds of destinations worldwide.

Information to plan your next trip available at delta.com.

[orchestral fanfare] ♪ ♪