Taj Mahal and Environs

I am starting this post off with a map of India.  Before this trip, I really had no idea exactly where the cities were that we were going to visit.  So this map should help orient those of you that have not yet visited India. I have circled in red the places that we are visiting in India.

Gas is $1.30 per liter or approx. $5 per gallon. 
Auto insurance doesn’t get raised for an accident. There are a lot of signs about drinking and driving but guide said if you had an accident you run away, pretend someone else was driving and come back for your car in the morning

Upon arriving in Delhi, we once again boarded buses for our 4-hour drive to Agra.  Our new guide once again provided us with many interesting facts. 

Delhi has a population of 25 million people (2^nd largest in the world after Tokyo) with 7 million autos, mopeds and scooters.  There is a new rule that will take affect soon and any car older than 15 years must be scrapped.  This is to prevent breakdowns along the road resulting in worse traffic jams as well as added pollution…

There are many green spaces (parks in Delhi) with many monkeys living in them.  We saw monkeys walking down the sidewalk near the park in the city.

The two things that struck me along the way were the amount of agricultural land…we passed nothing but farms for at least three hours of our drive.  The second was the haze and smoke in the air.  This comes from both the burning of crops at the end of the season as well as the brick kilns all along the road.  The guide did say that this was the worst time of the year for the haze.  

49% of the people in India still make their living in agriculture.  Mustard was one of the major crops that we passed along the way and mustard oil is in great demand in India…once as cooking oil but still plays a part in their culture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustard_oil

We finally reached Agra just after dark.  The traffic was horrible and Chris’s description definitely conveys a feel for what we saw:

Typical street scene

Truck overloaded with bricks

“India, especially outside the major cities and around the rural towns like Agra (~1M + residents) is definitely a sensory overloading experience, from its chaotic (totally random) driving patterns next to and between street side vendors (the only form of stores, ranging from veggies to dried cow paddies, rebuilt motors to hot sweets), trying to avoid hitting oncoming vehicles of various types (especially auto-rickshaws (tuck-tucks), bicycles carrying 2-4 people, old trucks stacked 10-20 feet high with bundles of just about anything, avoiding crossing herds of water buffalo and goats in the middle of town, maneuvering around multiple street side weddings happening every evening and causing virtual traffic shutdowns.”

Local street scene.

There were multiple weddings, which completely blocked the streets (this was supposedly an auspicious day for weddings according to our guide).  There don’t appear to be any traffic rules that are enforced and there were numerous times I thought there would be an accident.  Intersections are a nightmare! Although I would definitely consider a return visit to India, I would never, ever drive here!

We arrived at our hotel around 6 PM…the Jaypee Palace Hotel.  It is a 5 star hotel and quite spectacular and in sharp contrast to the surrounding areas.  It was gated, with guards and before a car was allowed to enter, a mirror on wheels was slid beneath it to check for bombs.  India is very security conscious because of the many terrorist attacks that have taken place in recent years, the most recent being a train bombing in May 2014; they are especially worried about terrorist attacks/bombings at their most iconic sites like the Taj Mahal.

We had a great buffet dinner at the hotel and went to bed early as we were departing at 6 AM the next morning to experience sunrise at the Taj Mahal.

The next morning we got up and had coffee and pastries before embarking on the 1.5 mile journey to the Taj Mahal…but even at that hour the trip took probably at least 30 minutes, again passing the weddings…this time just ending after all night celebrations.  Once at the parking lot we were loaded into small electric cars to continue our journey as no polluting vehicles are allowed within 500 meters of the Taj Mahal.  We were dropped off close to one of the gates and once again stood in separate male/female lines while we waited for the gate to open and to go through security.  Our guide had told us that many items were prohibited and thus he told us what we “could” take rather than list all the items we couldn’t take.  A still camera was okay but no video and no extra batteries, no tripods.  We could take a bottle of water.  Chris of course tried to take a small flashlight that our guidebook suggested (to demonstrate the translucence of the Taj’s marble), but that was confiscated in security and given to our bus driver and later returned to him.

Taj Mahal at Sunrise

As one of the 7 wonders of the world, The Taj Mahal has long been on my “bucket” list, but I have to admit I really didn’t know anything about it other than it was a beautiful building in India.  My first new learning was that it was that Mughal emperor Shah Jahan had it built in 1632 as a mausoleum in memory of his 3^rd and favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal (a Persian Princess) who died giving birth to her 14^th child.  It is considered by many to be one of the finest examples of Mughal architecture, which is a style of architecture that combines elements of Islamic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Indian styles.

Construction took 20 years and 20,000 workers including sculptors, stonecutters and inlayers.  Building materials were gathered from all over India and Asia and 1000 elephants were used in transporting the materials needed including pure white marble (Makena, from a region hundreds of kilometers away), but also the 28 precious and semi precious stones including jade, sapphires, turquoise, that are inlaid in the marble.  In fact, this technique of inlaid marble is still a specialty of the area.  Chris went to the marble store and watched a demonstration of this hand technique and we are now the proud owners of a marble inlaid plate.  

Mosque at Taj Mahal

                                                                                  The central building (the one we always see in pictures) is flanked by two other buildings…a meetinghouse to the right and a mosque (entrance facing east toward Mecca) to the left with courtyards in-between (photo of Mosque).

In front of the buildings are beautiful gardens with flowers and trees (full of parrots).  Cross-shaped waterways intersect the gardens, but didn’t have water when we were there.   There are a number of other buildings in the complex also. A curious site was watching all the monkeys climbing and scooting about the buildings, and with all the babies hanging on to their fast-moving mothers.

Monkeys at Taj Mahal

From the courtyards of the complex near the main building you have a great view of the countryside with the Yamuna River in the distance.

The main building contains the tombs of the “beloved wife” in the center of the building, but also the tomb of Shah Jahan off to the side, which destroys the symmetry of the building. Their actual tombs were underneath the building with its memorial marble tombs. The guide told us there is a bit of an interesting story to this.

Shah Jahan had two children by his first two wives but after marrying Mumtaz Mahal supposedly remained faithful to her.  Of the 14 pregnancies she bore, only 7 produced surviving children.  She also had great power as his wife, and was an important advisor for her husband.  After her death, he was quite distraught and after building the Taj Mahal in her memory, the story is that it saddened him to view it.  When he became ill in 1658, the oldest of his sons by Mumtaz assumed rule, which angered his brothers.  After a lot of intrigue, the third son, Aurangzeb won out and even though his father recovered, he declared him incompetent and imprisoned him in Agra fort (more on this later) where he remained a prisoner for 8 years until his death.  His prison in the fort allowed him a view of the Taj Mahal in the distance (see the picture below later in the post.)   The story is that this was done to “torture him”.  And upon his death, Aurangzeb had him placed next to his wife in the Taj Mahal in such a way as to purposely destroy the symmetry of the setting.

Local color

As we returned to our buses after our sunrise visit, multiple vendors selling souvenirs accosted us.  Our guide told us just not to make eye contact…but I give them points for persistence.  Along the way we also passed a snake charmer (with a python not a cobra, although we heard that there are lots of cobra around, especially further south near Cochin) and a number of individuals with deformities looking for donations.

We returned to our hotel for breakfast and a choice of other excursions.  We chose to visit Fatehpur Sikri (also known as the deserted city).  The journey took a bit over an hour but also allowed us a great opportunity to view the surrounding areas (please excuse the quality of some photos as they were taken through the window of a moving bus with not very clean windows). 

Stacked cow paddies drying

Roadside shops

What I found most fascinating was that most business seemed to take place along the roadsides, often in lean-to type buildings.  This included fish and vegetable stands, auto rickshaw repair, cow/water buffalo paddy drying and stacking (used as a fuel), basket weaving, etc.  Clothes were drying on lines across sidewalks, small children were playing seeming unsupervised, men were peeing on the roadsides and piles of trash were everywhere.  According to an article from the NY Times about the antibiotic resistant bacteria rampant throughout India (India Superbug), more than 50% of the people in India still defecate outside!  (see stacked  cow paddies below)

Fatehpur Sikri was founded in 1569 by the third Mughal emperor Akbar and was the capital from 1571 to 1585.  Akbar was the grandfather of Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal.  Akbar decided to shift his capital to this location to honor a Sufi saint Salim Chishti.  The multiple buildings that make up this “city” are constructed of red sandstone.

Fatehpur Sikri Courtyard

In the early 16^th century, northern India was mostly under the rule of the Muslims as which time the Mughal took over.  Akbar was considered one of the greatest rulers of the Mughal Dynasty.  He instituted many political and social reforms and created a multicultural society.  He was originally a devote Muslim but built a hall at Fatehpur Sikri called Ibadat Khana, which was a house of worship where he encouraged discourse among the different religions and laid the foundations for a new faith.  He allowed Hindus that had been forced to convert to Muslim to reconvert.  According to our guide, he had a Muslim wife, a Christian wife and a Hindu wife with the residence of the Hindu wife being the largest as she had given him heirs (including a son) and was favored (although I couldn’t find any references to support this).

Among the buildings of the Fatehpur Sikri are residences purportedly for the three wives, a mosque, a Hall for Public Audiences and a Hall for Private audiences, a treasury building, the Astrologer’s seat and in the center of the courtyard a Pachisi Court…squares marked out for a game.

More about Akbar can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akbar

Entrance to Agra Fort

Next we visited the Agra Fort that is located near the Taj Mahal.  It is considered the most important fort in India and the great Mughals ruled from here.  It contained the largest state treasury and mint.  It is a brick fort that was mentioned for the first time in 1080 AD.  Akbar, realizing the importance of its central location, made it his capital when he arrived here in 1558.  The fort was in a ruin at that time and he had it rebuilt.

Marble Inlay

Shah Jahan later added to the buildings on the site with a beautiful marble summer palace with inlays similar to the Taj Mahal.

View of Taj Mahal from "Prison"

During the battle for the throne during Shah Jahan’s time, his son Aurangzeb besieged the fort and stopped its water supply from the nearby Jamuna (aka, Yamuna)  river.  Unable to drink the well water, Shah Jahan surrendered and was then imprisoned here for 8 years until he died in 1666.  Agra Fort is a UNESCO World heritage site. 

Balcony of "prison"

  returning to the hotel, we once again set out to view the Taj Mahal at sunset.  On this visit, it was much more crowded and thus we were glad we had been able to visit in the morning.  I took numerous pictures of people in beautiful saris, but was startled when an Indian family wanted to take a picture with me.  I asked the guide about this and he said that many Indian people had never seen white people except on TV so we were an oddity to them.

Hotel decorated for wedding.

Upon our return to the hotel, it had been elaborately decorated for a wedding.  Flowers abounded in archways up the stairway and with strings of hanging orchids…I can’t even begin to imagine how much this all cost…once again…the sharp contrasts.

We got up at 4 AM the next morning for breakfast and left the hotel at 5 AM for the drive to the airport in Delhi and our flight to Goa to re-board the ship.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to see much of Goa other than the bus ride from the airport to the ship.  Goa is the smallest state in India and supposed to have beautiful beaches….maybe we will need to visit again in the future.