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Places of Worship in Udaipur (see individual entries for details). Hindu: Amba Mata Mandir (Temple); Bora Ganeshji Temple; Hazareshwar Mahadeo; Jagdish Mandir (Temple); Karni Mata Temple; Laxmi Mandir; Maachla Magra; Neemuch Mata; Sheetal Nathji; Shiv Cave (near Titardi Village). Islam: Paltan-ki-Masjid. Sikh: Guru Singh Sabah Gudhwara. Jain: Jain Mandir. Christian: Church of North India (Protestant); Our Lady of Fatima (Catholic); Rajasthani Pentecostal Church; Theosophical Lodge. See also PILGRIMAGE SITES, UDAIPUR.
Platform, a colloquial name for the open area near Ram Pol, the main gateway of Chittorgarh, on the western end of BANBIR-KI-DIWAR. From here there is a magnificent view of the township and the plains below. (It is also where guides for the fort are available for hire to show tourists the historical monuments, and where tourist guidebooks are on sale.)
Plays: see THEATRE IN UDAIPUR.
pol, (Hindi) a gate, gateway. See also GATES (POLS) IN UDAIPUR.
Polo, the so-called 'Game of Kings and the King of Games', played on horseback between two teams of three or four players. Each player uses a mallet with a long flexible handle to drive a wooden ball down a field and between two goal posts. It is the oldest of all equestrian sports-according to some authorities the oldest organised sport of any kind. Some scholars consider the game had Oriental origins; others, that the Persians invented it well before the Christian era. Records show that it was played in Iran (Persia) in the 1st century AD. At the time it was more of a training game for cavalry units than a sport, a miniature battle with as many as one hundred players to the side. Soon it became a national sport played extensively by Persian nobility. The game travelled from Iran to Arabia, then to Tibet and China (which might explain claims that it was actually invented in ancient China) and Japan. In China it could be a lethal game: when an emperor's favourite relative died in a game, "he ordered all surviving participants to be beheaded." Muslim conquerors of the 1200s brought the game with them to India. Six hundred years later, Westerners played the game for the first time (the first Europeans to play were British tea planters in Assam in the 1800s ... which might explain why some consider the game is of Indian origin). Thereafter, the game's extension was rapid, reaching England in 1870, when there were eight men to a side and almost no rules. For centuries it was a popular sport among the princes of Rajputana, and today its following in India is widely and enthusiastically pursued.
ARVIND SINGH MEWAR, a skilled rider and polo player in earlier days, is the proud owner of several outstanding polo ponies. The royal ponies are kept at the Imperial Stud Farm near Udaipur's ultimate safari-style hotel, Shikarbadi near Goverdhan Lake, where guests can treat themselves to a game of Polo. One of the leading polo entrepreneurs in India and the UK, Arvind Singh has sponsored The Udaipur Cup tournament at the Cambridge and Newmarket Polo Club. Among his other interests are the Imperial Riding and Polo Club, of which he is Vice President, and the Udaipur Equine Institute where prize polo ponies are bred and trained for the Mewar polo team. Guided by Arvind Singh's vision, Mewar Polo has emerged as a leading team, winning laurels and setting standards in a demanding sport. He says with conviction, "Polo is going to be the most spectacular sport for the next 200 years." Since the 1980s, he has been instrumental in training and grooming young polo players and providing them with the finest horses and playing conditions possible. One of the stars of the Mewar team is LOKENDRA RATHORE, today his son-in-law, married to his daughter, BHARGAVI KUMARI MEWAR, who manages the HRH Group's RAMGARH RESORT AND POLO COMPLEX just outside Jaipur.
Polo Ground-Panchwati, a northern suburb of Udaipur near Sukhadia Circle and Sahelion-ki-Bari.
pooja: see PUJA.
Pooshpavati, Queen (Rani): see PUSHPAVATI.
potia (headgear): see PAG.
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