Agra Fort and Taj Mahal

January 19, 2010

Miscellany

Birds - we have seen light green birds, both at Amber Fort and yesterday. They look like parrots but we don’t know the name of them. So we call them “green Indian birds.” And outside now, there are many, many birds adding to the cacophony, and at times drowning out the distant early-morning honking. P. S. Shankar says they’re parakeets, and parrots are much bigger, holding his hands about 2 1/2 feet apart!
Taj Mahal is an experience, according to Shankar. Yes, it is beautiful when you look at a picture or a postcard, but you only feel the presence of this great love when you are there. He has been there many times and it is always a new experience to him.
Meals - Bay has two bananas, while I have scrambled, watery eggs and a croissant or two with jam, and watermelon and pineapple squares; Bay and I usually have a power bar for lunch with water; and for dinner, Bay has had margherita pizza twice, and I have the buffet consisting mostly of rice and some chicken if I can find it, and last night also had a margherita pizza, of course with a couple of beers (thereby violating one of the Five Prohibitions diminishing my chances of attaining nibbana). Last night, for two pizzas and three beers, the cost was 1167 rupees or about $25 and the tip was 200 rupees, or $4.50 which is a little high (10% is recommended). The dinner at the restaurant with the dancing girls flame-eating boy, etc. was 550 rupees or $12 without drinks. So it is more expensive in the hotels.
A surprise at the palaces and forts is that a guard will ask if you want to take a picture of him beside the cannon or marble elephant and you do because he is all dressed up in a fancy military uniform. So you take the picture and then he immediately comes up to you with his hand out and asks for a “teep.” Can you imagine the soldiers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, or those at Buckingham Palace asking for a tip after you take their picture? I was shocked the first time it happened. I gave him about 10 or 20 rupees, and they look disappointed. Even on the elephant ride, I gave the driver 100 rupees when we were advised to give no more than 50 rupees, and he looked very disappointed and said, “No, 200 rupees.” No matter what you pay them, looking disappointed at what they are given is part of the dance. A boy came up to the bus yesterday and pleaded with Bay through the closed window for a pen by miming writing on his hand. When she had dug one out of her backpack, he was gone to another group 40 or 50 feet away. When the bus started moving, he looked over and she threw the pen at him. He picked it up, looking disappointed of course, and then asked for money.
The power here has been going off every ten minutes or so for the past 40 minutes, but it has been coming right back on. It is a little disconcerting - like now it just went off again. What’s THAT all about? And now it’s back on. Better go shave.
Our bus is comfortable and the seats are almost separated enough for me to sit with my knees straight forward, but not quite so I have to encroach onto part of Bay’s space, one of the drawbacks of traveling with me. And we change seats every day by design moving two seats forward or backward in a counterclockwise position so each couple will have the opportunity to sit in front with the better view and to talk with Shankar.
And the fog is so thick right now (7 AM) you can’t see 10 feet.


Chick magnet

Yesterday at Fatehpur Sikri, Pat, the Vietnam vet was sitting on a stone structure in the center of the courtyard, when a group of Asian girls made a beeline for Pat with his large size and bald head, surrounding him and one approached him and asked if she could have her picture taken with him. All the others giggled excitedly and took pictures. Then others wanted the same until he was surrounded with pretty college age girls. Many, many pictures. He had a grin from ear to ear. Damn him! The only one who wanted to take a picture of me earlier was a young teenage boy.

Agra Fort

We left on the bus for Agra Fort (instead of the Taj Mahal) due to the fog. When we arrived, we could barely see the fort as we walked over the bridge above the moat. There are three gates, two in a straight line and the third to the left. The reason is that elephants were used to knock down the doors at the gates but they needed a long run to do that, and the position of the third wall prevented that. And if they got in that gate, there is a long ramp they would have to come up and the defenders would pour hot oil down the ramp. Akbar built much of the fort along with his son, Jahangir. Those portions of red sandstone were built by them, Jahangir had a harem of 600 women and accordingly, did not mind the business of running the territories he controlled. We saw where the harem lived around a courtyard that was guarded by eunuchs, i.e. hermaphrodites. According to Shankar, they castrated no one and they had a ready supply of hermaphrodites to serve as eunuchs. They would keep track of every person who entered and departed the harem area.
Shah Jehan then added wings with a lovely palace. He went to the Agra bazaar and fell in love with Arjumand Banu Begum (known as Mumtaz Mahal) and she became his third wife and inseparable companion for 19 years, giving him fourteen children in that time. She was dying in childbirth for the 14th child and she made Shah Jehan or Jahan promise her that he would build a symbol of their love for posterity. So he build the Taj Mahal, using 20,000 men and taking 22 years. It is famous for its inlaid precious and semiprecious stones, and its translucent marble. The workers (not slaves) were paid from a minimum of 4 rupees per month (when 1 rupee per month was enough to sustain a family) up to 800 rupees per month for the most skilled craftsman doing the inlay work. Shah Jahan was overthrown by his youngest son, who by various means had killed his three older brothers and imprisoned in the palace where he had lived with Mumtal Mahal which overlooked the Taj Mahal. It is a lovely area with a room with a sunken pool, lots of doors and then a beautiful porch, all constructed with the white Indian marble. There was a diamond in one of the rooms that reflected the view of Taj Mahal into the entire room. Before the diamond was taken, the sun never set on the British Empire. Once they took the diamond, they lost their empire. The Indians don’t want it back because it is bad luck. Shah Jahan spent the last eight years of his life in this palace, and upon his death in 1666 at the age of 72, he was buried in the Taj Mahal alongside Mumtaz Mahal. I asked Shankar why the son who deposed him did not imprison him elsewhere or in the dungeon at Agra Fort. He surmised that the bond between a father and a son is strong and that patricide would just be the last straw and would never get you to paradise so maybe he was starting to seek redemption.
Despite the fog, the fort looked indomitable sitting so high above the river on one side and with high walls and a moat on the other sides.

Inlaid marble

From there we visited a store where they showed us how they made the inlaid marble and then allowed us time to look around the store for 30 minutes of so. The marble comes in several colors and it can take months to make a piece of inlaid marble. The cost can be many thousands of dollars depending on the complexity of the design. Some tables there cost more than $7,000 but they were absolutely spectacular. He showed us the translucence of the marble by shutting out the lights and then shining a flashlight up from under the table and the light passed through the marble. This is the astonishing thing about Taj Mahal as it is built entirely with this marble.

Taj Mahal

After lunch, we traveled to Taj Mahal. The fog was still present but less so than in the morning. Shankar took us through the gates to the site and showed us good places to take pictures. Unfortunately it was not good weather to take pictures but as it approaced 4:15 or 4:30, it cleared more and the sun shown through the fog. When we entered to view the burial vaults, it was dark and we were told it would be very light in there without the fog. The detail on the walls is phenomenal, with the inlay of designs, Koranic printings, and carvings. Surely there is no finer example of craftsmanship in the world. Bay and I both loved it. Check it out on the Internet.

Best laid plans

Off to Kharajuho (sp?) tomorrow and our plans are up in the air due to the fog. Our wake-up call is at 5:45 and we’re supposed to board the bus at &:30 to go to the train station for departure at 8:30. Lately due to the fog, that train has been delayed for up to 6 hours. Then the train ride is 2 1/2 hours in good weather, followed by a 6 hour bus ride from Jhonsi. Or it can be a 14 hour bus ride from here. So equanimity will be the word tomorrow.
So we go from the City of Love to the City of Lust. See you there.
Love, Nat, Dad, Matt, DB et al.