7 December to Agra

Today we visited Fatehpur Sikri and the Friday Mosque on our way to Agra.  This is another place I had strong recollections of.  Fatehpur Sikri which is a planned walled city was built by Akbar the Great over  fifteen years. It is a series of royal palaces, harem, courts, a mosque, private quarters and other utility buildings.  There are two leaders who appear to be revered above all others in Indian history.  One is Ashoka and the other is Akbar.  I began to wonder if there was anything that Akbar couldn't do.  He came to power at the age of 13 and a chronicler of his life described him as an artisan, warrior, artist, armourer, blacksmith, carpenter, emperor, general, inventor, animal trainer (reputedly keeping thousands of hunting cheetahs during his reign and training many himself) lacemaker, technologist and theologian. Now there's a varied CV.  It is also recorded that he was illiterate. It makes me wonder how he had time for living the opulent lifestyle he apparently enjoyed at Fatehpur Sikri.

^{Central pillar in the Diwan-i-Khas}

Diwan-i-Khas or Hall of Private Audiences known as the Jewel House, in the background.  Looking across the human pachisi board.  Akbar would sit on the small platform in the middle of the paved area, and would direct his harem girls dressed in transparent dresses to move around the board. 

Left is a madrasa (school for girls), and to the right is the Panch Mahal.  

The Panch Mahal a five-storied palatial structure, with the tiers gradually diminishing in size, till the final one, which is a single large-domed chhatri (umbrella shaped pavilion).  Originally pierced stone purdah screens faced the facade suggesting it was built for the ladies of the court to watch happenings. The floors are supported by intricately carved columns on each level totalling 176 columns.  It acts as a windcatcher and is close to the Zaneena or Harem.

Akbar's King size bed which had water below it in hot weather and a stair well that allowed him to keep his feet dry..

View of agricultural land from FS.

Water supply and the Hamam on the right.

Apparently he would disguise himself and mingle in the market places to listen to what the people were saying about him.  He is credited with halting sati (the practice of a wife being cremated alive with her dead husband) although this is still practiced occasionally.  He is credited with stopping the child marriage system and introduced the right to marry again. 

When he was at Fatehpur Sikri, he held discussions as he loved to know about other religious beliefs. He noticed that the religious people of other religions were often bigots. This led him to form the idea of a new religion, Sulh-e-kul meaning universal peace. His idea was for a religion that did not discriminate other religions and focused on the ideas of peace, unity and tolerance.  The religion did not gain acceptance.

He had three wives: one a Portuguese Christian , one a Muslim from Persia and one a Hindu.  He had no heir so he walked 300 kms to Aajmer each year to see Saint Salim Chisti.   Finally his son Jahangir was born so a tomb was built for the saint at the Friday Mosque beside FS.

 We walked around the three separate houses for his wives.  Apparently they were all given the same amount of money to spend on their houses but the Muslim wife built a very small house, the Christian wife's house was also modest but the house of the Hindu wife was enormous - built around a courtyard the size of a football field and with a separate kitchen. 

Fatehpur Sikh was ultimately abandoned due to lack of water.

The mob sitting on the entrance to the HIndu woman's living quarters.

A short walk away was the Friday Mosque with the tomb to Saint Salim Chisti.  It was a Friday so there were many at prayer when we called in.

Tomb of Saint Salim Chisti at the Friday Mosque.

Today we drove past at least 2 kms of sandstone works on both sides of the road.  Huge chunks of sandstone were being converted into temple statues and statues for public buildings and hotels.  We saw one block being unloaded from trucks by use of a crane.  It was at this point that our bus driver suddenly turned right from the left lane, across two lanes of traffic and then drove up the wrong side of the road.  This was yet another heart-stopping moment. He drove us to a hotel where we had lunch under a canopy in the back yard.

There were also many chimneys for brick works which made bricks from the ground sandstone, I think.  In the fields are mustard in flower, wheat, barley for beer and marigolds.  At the many small "border" stops trucks line up to pay taxes for moviing from one district to another. 

At our Agra  hotel we ate our meal on the  rooftop from where we heard a sudden commotion.  A random wedding just started up in the street below.  The groom was sitting in a carriage with swirling lights behind him and the brass band played loudly in discord, drums thumped and several people stood holding flower covered umbrella shapes.  We watched for more than half and hour but it was clear he was going nowhere fast so we went back to our room to do our washing.

Hotel Crystal Inn.


 

6 December to Bhandarej

From the bus this morning we saw a colourful parade of women who had been to the river and filled pots with water.  These they were carrying on their heads to take to the house of a bride to invoke Lord Ghanesha to bless the marriage.  Ghanesha is the god of hope and prosperity, Hanuman is the god of power, Krishna in the god of love, Brahma is the creator, Vishnu the protector/operator and Siva, the destroyer.  CP described this as:  Brahma the Giver, Vishnu the Operator and Siva the Destroyer = GOD.  There would be some who would find this on the cheeky side.  We were told there are 330 million gods and goddesses in the Hindu religion.  I do wonder who is counting.

The parade was led by a wedding band. 

Most days we see funeral parades down the road.  Today it was a Muslim funeral.  These parades cause long traffic hold-ups.

India is 82% Hindu but the Muslim and Christian populations live harmoniously most of the time.  The Hindu believe that camels, cows and oxen should be protected because they help work the fields.  Vishnu is the god who looks over these animals.  Because cow's milk will keep a baby alive if the mother is unable to feed it, the cows have taken on a "sacred" role of mother which introduces an emotional connection to the cow.  Cows of many breeds cruise around and boldly stand in the middle of roads along which fast trucks zoom when possible. 

We've probably been past them often, but today for the first time I saw open-air urinals but close-by a man urinating in the street so perhaps they need to hand out a supply of face masks.  As for overcrowded transport, we haven't seen it very often but occasionally have seen people hanging out of mini-buses and sitting on the roof of large buses.  Also worth mentioning is the fact that we haven't seen anyone making gravel with a hammer which we saw in Darjeeling and Sikkiim.  This practice we also saw in Nepal in 1981 when we went trekking there.  The "lowlanders" thankfully must have thought of a better system.

Today we began to see the cow pats drying on roofs and road edges and piled high in poo-stacks ready for use as fuel so the cow is forever useful.

We stopped at a place called Abhaneri to see a Step Well  built in the 8th century  Chand Baori is a famous step well.  Its 3500 narrow steps in 13 stories extend 100 feet into the ground, making it one of the deepest (and largest) stepwells in India.  It is located opposite Hashat Mata Temple  It has served as a location for films such as "The Dark Knight Rises".  The entrance has 12 doorways which is typical of Mughal architecture and the carvings show a broad acceptance of the diverse population:  flora and fauna for Persian, animals for Hindu and geometric designs for Muslims.

The beautiful arched hallway in front of the step-well adds to the beauty of Abhaneri Step-Well.

I borrowed this from a copy-write free website (sorry, didn't make a note of which) as the day we visited, the sun didn't allow the water to be seen in my photo.

Hashal Mata Temple was built in 7-8th century.  It has been destroyed but the stones have been re-stacked to give an idea of  the original structure.  CP explained the rounded flat stone at the entrance to all Hindu temples.  It represents the Ganges water.

The stone representing the Ganges water.

We checked into the Bhanrawati Palace, had lunch of dahl, rice, chapati and eggplant and then went on a camel cart ride.

The chairs where the attack of the monkey clan happened are clear to see.

While waiting we were sitting in chairs in the courtyard when the monkeys got active.  First we heard a challenge sound from a male and then monkeys ran across the roof on the other side of the courtyard and over to a water tank where they had a drink and then they disappeared.  Next thing, one of our group said, "look, that monkey's got a bucket' and before I could turn around to see the cheeky thing had thrown it at Steve and I. Fortunately it missed us but fell a couple of chairs away from us.

The bucket bandit.

The camel cart ride was to local villages where we visited a house and tried to communicate with the people but more grinning was achieved than anything else.  The children kept asking for "pen" and touching our bags.   They were delighted when we took their photos and showed them what they look like.

Dorchta on the camel and the cart behind.  

 It was quite challenging for me to get back on the cart once off.  I showed the camel driver a mound of dirt I could stand on, on one occasion but on another,  I was comprehensively goosed by our guide as he and the driver tried to push me up from behind.  My protests met deaf ears - I did have a better idea which involved simply what we call "a leg-up" where the helper puts both hands together, the helped puts one foot in the hands, and hey presto!! but it was never tested unfortunately.  CP said he was glad Steve was on the camel but I suspect Steve wouldn't even have noticed.  I'm glad they didn't drop me as they would have come off much worse than I.

Notice the cow pats drying on the fence.

This was a very neat village. 

A school.

The matriarch of the first family we visited was smoking a chillum pipe which seemed to have "perfumed tobacco" in it.  Here we had a look at the kitchen and then we walked to another family, the proud owners of a newly built house, for a cup of chai.

 

One of our camel cart stops was at a stepwell which is being restored.  Here there was a small work team making the plaster for the bricks from crushed sandstone and sand.

The stepwell. 

Restoration work under way. 

That night in the Maharajah's Palace we were treated like one.  We had dinner while being entertained by musicians in an alcove especially for that purpose. One of the musicians then got up and danced to the music and we tried to do the dance with him with mixed success. 

Dorchta and Lindsay having a go.  This dance was not easy.

I've been trying to upload a video but there seems to be a glitch.  I'll keep trying.