Before heading to Rajasthan, we had a couple more stops in Agra that I didn’t cover in my last post. The first was the site of Shah Jahan’s follow-up to Taj Mahal. You’d think one would be beyond content to rest up after constructing as wondrous a monument as the Taj Mahal, but the shah was looking to keep busy. With his beloved wife’s tomb finally complete after 22 years of work, he began to focus on his own tomb, planning to construct a mirror reflection of the Taj Mahal, but out of black onyx, directly across the Yamuna river. It would be built upon Metab Bagh, or the “moonlight garden” that was used for admiring the Taj at night from across the river. Tragically, in the early stages of the project, Shah Jahan was captured and imprisoned by his youngest son, Aurangzeb, who had killed Jahan’s three eldest sons and taken control of the empire. Jahan lived out his remaining days in the Agra Fort, in a room from which he could view his wife’s tomb from afar.
From across the Yamuna river, the quiet gardens of Metab Bagh allowed for a much more tranquil view of the bustling Taj complex. We sat with our legs dangling over the brick wall that made up the garden’s southern boundary, and watched ant-sized tourists scurry across the marble monument, with the setting sun casting an orange light upon the dome. While witnessing firsthand the grandeur of the Taj Mahal, I started to imagine how our experience would have been different had its dark twin been standing behind us.
The next morning, we drove 50 km west of Agra to visit Fatehpur Sikri, the Indo-islamic architectural masterpiece that once served as the capital of the Mughal empire before being abandoned completely in 1610. The city was built by Mughal emperor Akbar the Great in 1571 after a successful military campaign, and so translates to “City of Victory”. Along with a red-sandstone palace, and its own Jama Masjid (similar to the one in Delhi, but smaller), what stands out most is it’s Southern gate - standing at 180 ft, the Buland Darwaza is the highest gateway in the world. While Fatehpur Sikri on its own was beautiful, with many features unique to the other palaces we had seen, I found it a bit underwhelming after having Akbar’s Tomb, Agra Fort, and Taj Mahal all very fresh in mind, which I think is understandable.
Rajasthan
From Fatehpur Sikri, we continued westward to Rajasthan (Sanskrit for “Land of Kings”), the largest Indian state by area, and seventh by population. Much more mountainous than Uttar Pradesh (Agra belongs to U.P.), it contains over half of the Thar Desert, and also borders Pakistan. It almost felt like we had entered an entirely different country, trading the forests and mustard fields of Uttar Pradesh for an arid, rugged Rajasthan. Our first stop in this desert territory was at the Abhaneri step well. Also known as Chand Baori, the step well was built to conserve precious rainwater, and is supposedly the world’s largest, as well as one of its oldest step wells, dating back to the 8th century. This eerie, almost haunting site was the inspiration for “The Pit” in Dark Knight Rises, with the actual set built in London.
From there, we headed to Rajasthan’s capital, Jaipur, also known as “The Pink City” based on the dominance of pink facades throughout. Santosh wound our car through the narrow and congested streets and dropped us off at our accommodation for the night, the Hotel Bissau Palace. With the outer courtyard secured by an iron gate, the interior of the old haveli was ornamented with such ornate paintings, sculptures, and furniture that it really did feel like a palace. After receiving an upgrade for some odd reason, we found our way through the open-air, upper halls to our room, “The Princess Chamber”, its walls painted with colorful, suggestive images that looked to have been taken right out of the Kama sutra. With no internet access in the room, we headed down to the lobby to relax and chat with some other Western travellers - an American and two Brits, all traveling as part of a large group tour.
It was our first night on our own for dinner, as we weren’t put up with a local family for a meal or home stay. Having eaten almost exclusively Indian cuisine for the past week and a half, we decided to satisfy an intense craving for pizza with the help of a nearby Italian restaurant called Bella Italia. Nathan and I found our way on foot through the lively streets and bustling markets of old Jaipur after dark, seemingly incognito as no one so much as acknowledged our presence. As we arrived at the restaurant, a host greeted and led us into an elevator for a ride to the fourth floor and rooftop patio. Adorned with lush Rajasthani flora, and bathed in vibrant mood lighting, the rooftop created a dramatic and luxurious atmosphere, as our table offered an aerial view of the surrounding city, and of the twinkling lights of the Amer fort sitting upon a distant mountain. Splitting a couple of wood-fired pizzas, and Sula (Indian wine), we looked out over the city and reflected on some of our biggest takeaways from the trip, as our last full day of exploring India together had come to a close. I’ll cover some of those takeaways later on, when I’m closer to the end of my own journey.\
The next morning, we had a complementary, western-style breakfast at the Bissau Palace, before being picked up by Santosh for the last time. Our first stop was brief, at Hawa Mahal, or the palace of winds, located in the city center. It was here that we picked up our guide, Varum - a tall, broad-shouldered, and dapper man of the pink city. He explained that Hawa Mahal was part of the city palace complex, comprised of five stories full of small windows covered with intricate lattice-work, designed to allow the women of the palace to watch the happenings of the city below while being veiled from sight of the public. This is a very common feature of Indo-islamic palaces, allowing the women to adhere to the practices of purdah, which require that they are not seen in public without covering their faces. It is called the palace of winds because of architectural features that enhance air circulation, making the chambers more tolerable during the hot season.
We then left the city, and spent the rest of the morning exploring the Amer Fort and palace, situated on a nearby mountain overlooking Jaipur, and encircled by a high outer wall covering a vast perimeter throughout the surrounding hills. The series of structures that make up the fort and palace display a unique blend of Rajput (warrior class of Northern India) and Hindu architecture, with a lot of design features borrowed from Muslim sites we had visited. The most unique aspect of Amer Fort to me, was the Sheesh Mahal, or mirror palace. This was a room covered with thousands of coin-sized, convex mirrors crafted from imported Belgian glass, that completely adorned the walls and ceiling of the chamber. The purpose of this was to at nighttime, create the optical illusion of sleeping under the stars, as the light of even a single candle would reflect into each of the several thousand mirrors. As the evening breeze caused the candle flames to flicker, the lights on the ceiling would begin to twinkle and dance, which must have been a magical sight to behold. While we accessed the fort via car, a popular way for tourists to approach is upon the back of an elephant. We watched the long line of tourist-laden elephants wind up the causeway in single file, which was a sad sight to see after reading that there have been numerous complaints over the years about the mistreatment of the animals by their keepers. Varum assured us that the elephants are properly cared for by their owners, but I had a hard time believing him, seeing just how many dozens of elephants were being worked at the same location at once.
After returning to Jaipur, we arrived at our last stop, the Jantar Mantar. This centuries-old outdoor observatory is filled with monumental instruments for study of the sun and stars with the naked eye. It contains the Samrat Yantra, the world’s largest sundial, which at a height of 27 meters measures the time of day, accurate within mere seconds. The site contains over twenty astronomical instruments that perform a wide variety of functions, such as pointing out the precise location of the North star, estimating the altitude and azimuth (a celestial object’s direction in relation to an observer) of the sun, and forecasting the times of sunrise and sunset of a given day to name a few. There is also a group of 12 unique sundials, each one dedicated to a different zodiac sign, used in the process of predicting events as part of one’s horoscope. It was so fascinating to me that hundreds of years ago, a civilization could possess such a mastery of trigonometry and astronomy to construct with their hands these massive instruments of stone. Instruments that could be used with precision even to this day to help humanity to understand our place within the cosmos. I realize that far older displays of this knowledge exist in other ancient places in the world, but it was still a meaningful experience to walk among and admire these stone instruments. After our tour of the observatory, we parted ways with Varum, and then made for the Jaipur railway station, where I was dropped off by Nathan and Santosh before their drive back to Delhi. I’m really thankful to have had such great company on my trip thus far, and this made the realization that I was about to continue onward alone for the majority of my journey a bit difficult come to grips with.
Taj Mahal seen from Metab Bagh
Nathan awaits the sunset at Metab Bagh
The Buland Darwaza from a distance at Fatehpur Sikri - the world’s tallest gateway
A single piece of lattice work at Fatehpur Sikri, taken from inside a marble tomb.
Rooftops outside of Fatehpur Sikri
Abanheri Stepwell
Our room at Hotel Bissau Palace
Outside our door at Hotel Bissau Palace
The windows of Hawa Mahal, the palace of winds
The view from the ramparts of the Amer Fort above Jaipur
A small glimpse of the ceiling in the mirror palace of the Amer Fort
Samrat Yantra - the world’s largest sundial
One of the many astronomical instruments at the Royal Observatory in Jaipur