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| Agra Fort |
Our plan to visit Agra was made in less than 15 minutes. Two
bored souls, desperate to take a break, sat together one auspicious
evening. One said, “I wish we could take leaves and go on a long vacation.” “We
can’t. It’s time to wrap up projects at work. We can’t be on a long
leave now,” thus spake the more pragmatic other. I was about to change the
topic, when he added, “But, you know, we surely can go somewhere this weekend.
A two-day break will do, won’t it?”
And we decided to go to Agra.
The next 15 minutes whizzed by in a blur. We looked up the
route map; browsed through hotels; swore at the internet connection whenever it
got slow, let out a round of lamentations which ultimately compelled Destiny to
be a good girl and propitiate us and, voila, we chanced upon an incredible five star deal!
I did a short jig in the room. Such rare luck demands
appropriate celebration.
Our next job was to download suitable music to play on the
road and pack munchies. Next morning saw us happy souls getting into the car
and driving towards Agra.
For someone like us, with a lust for the past and an appetite for the road, Agra is the perfect destination. Being only 5 hours away from Delhi, Agra is ideal for a weekend gateway. Now, people like us who have already visited Agra more than
once surely need a revamped itinerary to lure us on. Of course the Delhi-Agra
road was fascinating enough to inspire one to take the trip, but we needed to
find something new in Agra, something besides the obvious attractions of Taj
Mahal or Agra Fort.
So this time we decided to visit Mehtab Bagh (the
little-known Moon Garden which in its ruined glory shows the finesse of Mughal
garden-art), the palace of the Mughal Mary and Sikandra, where Emperor Akbar
rests in eternal peace. But of course, can any conscientious traveller come
back from Agra without paying a visit to the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort? Not
really! We planned to turn up at these two spots at the wee hour of dawn to
enjoy an undisturbed rendezvous with the past.
Day 1
Mehtab Bagh
Day 1
Mehtab Bagh
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| Taj, seen from Mehtab Bagh |
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| Mehtab Bagh |
Shah Jahan built this garden during 1631 and 1635 A.D., as apart of hid grand mausoleum dedicated to his beloved wife.Romantic in its name, Mehtab Bagh or the Moon Garden was designed by Shah Jahan as an ideal place to enjoy the beauty of Taj Mahal on moonlit nights. To read about how we enjoyed ourselves in this shahi garden, read my article on Tripoto.
Day 2
Agra Fort
I am not a morning person, have never
been one. But the next day saw me hopping off my bed at precisely 5:30 a.m.
with a plan to see the morning sun touch the ancient fort.
Agra fort is a seat of history. The site was originally
called Badalgarh. It had witnessed the rise and fall of many dynasties—from the
Lodis to the Mughals. The design and architecture of the fort too had undergone
many changes following the whims of its royal inhabitants. Ibrahim Lodi
held this fort for 9 years, after the death of his father Sikander Lodi, who
incidentally was the first to make Agra a centre of power. The fort still has
several mosques and wells that were built during the Lodi period. But the glory
days of the Lodi dynasty ended with the Battle of Panipat in 1526 when Babur
defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi and pioneered the march of the great Mughals
in India. Humayun, Babur’s son, captured the Lodi fort and seized vast treasure
which included the celebrated Koh-i-noor diamond.
In 1558, during Akbar’s reign, the fort got renovated with
red sandstone, but only to be draped again in immaculate white marble as per
the wish of its Shah Jahan, whose love for white marble found its finest
expression in the Taj Mahal. Shah Jahan built white marble palaces and mosques
inside the Agra Fort called Moti Masjid, Nagina-Masjid and Mina Masjid. Agra
Fort also saw him spending his last days looking over the Jamuna to the Taj
Mahal, where his beloved wife slept in heavenly peace.
Standing inside the Musamman Burj (the octagonal
white-marble tower, facing the Taj Mahal) in the purest golden light of a
morning sun, one can almost see the old Emperor Shah Jahan’s melancholy face as
he counts his last days in imprisonment.
Agra fort tells a strange tale of love
and hate. Aurangzeb’s hatred culminated in the imprisonment of his father,
while the last days of the long-suffering Shah Jahan saw Jahanara nursing her
dying father with an almost maternal love. One never knows if it’s a husband’s
love for his deceased wife, or an artist’s love for his masterpiece that made
Shah Jahan draw succour from the view of the Taj Mahal. Seen from the fort, the misty Jamuna looks
like the dim eyes of an old man. And in the distance stands the Taj Mahal, half
visible through the morning fog, like a long-forgotten but eternal lovestory.
The sun rises, its rays piercing through the filigree work of the marble arches
and lighting up the place from where centuries ago Shah Jahan had departed to
meet his bride at the other side of life. Day 2
Fatehpur Sikri
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| Fatehpur Sikri |
After stuffing a sumptuous breakfast at our hotel ClarksShiraz, we headed for Fatehpur Sikri. It was a meagre 3 hrs. drive from Agra.
The road between Agra and Fatehpur is smooth and wide, making the drive a
pleasant experience.
Fatehpur Sikri, as everyone knows, used to be the capital of
Emperor of Akbar between 1569 and 1585. In his attempt to glorify his religious
mentor Salim Chisti, Akbar built this exquisite red-stone citadel and it is
here that the foundations of Akbar’s secularist creed, Din-i-Ilahi, was laid.
All that is common knowledge. Having
visited Fatehpur multiple times, we wanted to delve a little deeper, to dig
out some more treasures of history. And we chanced upon not one but many:
palaces of Mariam-uz-zamani and Birbal.  |
| Inside Mariam-uz-Zamani's home |
Yes, you have heard about Maryam’s palace before. Your guide
has told you that the palace was dedicated to Akbar’s Christian wife Mariam.
Wrong that was! The palace of Maryam was dedicated to none other than Akbar’s
beloved wife Jodha Baai. Fatehpur Sikri does have a separate palace for Jodha
Baai. Mariam or Mariam-us-zamani was the name Akbar gave to his wife after she
became the mother pf Jahangir. Jodha Baai was honoured with the title Mariam-uz-Zamani
which means "Mary of the Age" after she gave birth to their son. She
herself used this name to issue official documents.
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| Where Tansen used to sing |
Our second major attraction was standing on the dais where
Tansen used to perform for the emperor. An amateur classical singer, I was
thrilled to imagine the scene where the maestro sits singing mian-ki-todi or
mian-ki-malhar—his own divine creations—and carrying his royal audience into a
trance. The starry night-sky under which Tansen sat singing must have filled
with the magical tune of his voice.
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| Birbal's home |
Day 3
Sikandra
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| Sikandra |
Where the soul of a great emperor rests in eternal peace. An
emperor who placed humanity above religion, love above difference. In this
world where religious differences have only led to bloodshed, we need to learn
tolerance from Akbar’s great mind. He was a warrior, to be sure. Desires for
expansion that characterised the great Tamburlaine or Genghis Khan ran in the
veins of Akbar too. Yet he was different. His was the mind of a poet who conquered
only to embrace. He expanded territory as well as human communion. He loved and
respected the Other, embraced difference: fell in love with a Rajput woman,
found his best friend in a witty Hindu, got carried away by the divine voice of
a Hindu singer.
We, the modern day secularists desperately looking for love
and humanity, found a brief comfort in his mausoleum at Sikandra. The place is
so green that it soothes the eye. Deer, black buck and many other animals roam
freely here. The ceiling of the mausoleum is decorated with brilliant fresco
painting. The inscriptions are from the Quran. Fittingly so for a man who
understood the essence of Islam: peace.
The inner sanctum where the emperor lies in his eternal
sleep is dark and quiet. Distanced from the clamours of outside world, peace
remains supreme here.
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| Fresco inside Sikandra |
