Our main stop today was at Fatehpur Sikri, at Bhatatpur, on our journey from Agra to Jaipur. As we got near, we came to a narrow bridge over the road, which was blocked. A lorry had hit the side of the ancient structure and seriously damaged it. We had to abandon our coach, make our way through the crowd of people and vehicles under the bridge and walk to Fatehpur Sikri.
This was another perfect example of Indo-Islamic architecture. Believed to have been built originally by Rajput rulers but later rebuilt and improved by the Emperor Akbar, as a tribute to a holy man.
Here the Diwan-i-Khas, perhaps a debating chamber, but the real purpose of this unique structure is unknown.
Akbar had four wives but had had no sons. He was very superstitious and when he met the holy man, who prophesied correctly that he would have a son, he believed it was because of the prophecy.
He decided to move his palace retinue from Agra to this site.
Fatehpur Sikri is built of Akbar's favourite red sandstone, according to the mathematical grid of all their royal palaces, harems, mosques and public places.
Delicate and exquisite carvings and embellishments are still visible.
Here the inside of the Diwan-i-Khas but it doesn't help to explain the purpose of the building.
Sikri was abandoned 14 years after it was built possibly due to lack of water but probably disease, which may have infected the water.
We then walked back to where we had abandoned our coach ...
....to find chaos reigned.
Traffic of all imaginable kind had built up...
...including monkeys on the back of a bike...
... a camel cart and people on the back of a car.
We had to work our way back under the bridge to find our coach some way beyond.
Our driver somehow found his way round the blockage for our next stop at Keoladeo National Park - yet another World Heritage Site.
Here we again took to cycle rickshaws for the more than 5k track through the Park and then back.
We occasionally stopped to spot a water buffalo...
...or Liz and John.
The Park has a large wetland with more than 350 species of birds.
Some of the rarer ones are snake birds, pied kingfishers, eagle owls and painted storks but I fear my photography was not up to capturing any of these.
We did see great turtles in the distance but again beyond my photographic range.
Our rickshaw cyclist, Surren, talked to us about the park, as he pulled Anna and me along.
It was originally a park exclusively for royals and viceroys etc. At one time Maharajahs liked to go on tiger shoots; now it could be said that, by preserving this park, they had contributed to protecting wild life.
We lunched at Bharatpur and then on our way to Jaipur.
We met the now seemingly inevitable, long, traffic jams, added to by the numerous wedding celebrations we passed. There were maybe 40 or 50 of these in their various stages. We saw long, noisy processions of guests sometimes headed by the groom, on the required white horse, on his way to pick up his bride. There were drummers and brass instruments and colourfully dressed elephants each on their way to the well lit venues we constantly saw as we crept through the traffic. We arrived late at our hotel to find there was a large wedding going on there in its grounds.
Robert Cole
No comments:
Post a Comment