Perfection in Agra

The early morning, five hour train ride from Orchha to Agra was much more like what I thought travelling by train in India would be like. The overnight train from Varanasi was air condition, with small, sealed windows and nothing much happened except sleeping. This morning we were in the non-air conditioned class, though the seating was the same (sitting on the bottom bunk). There are three big fans bolted to the roof while the windows have no glass, just bars bolted to the outside and shutters for the night time. Sitting at in the window seat, my arm up on the window sill and not so slowly baking in the morning light, I sat there with the warm air blowing into my face and watching the world go by. Massive dilapidated palaces sat on the top of the rare hills in and otherwise flat landscape and kept a good view on the fields below. The family sitting across from us ate a breakfast of cold rice with their hands and washed it down with chai bought from a vendor who walked down the hall every five minutes, calling out his wares with a foghorn voice. It really was like a scene out of the movie Darjeeling Limited and I loved every minute of it.

Upon arrival in Agra station, it became apparent that it was very similar to every other place that we had yet been on the Ganges plain. Hot, dusty, loud and smelling of human excrement. Touts are everywhere, trying to sell you taxi rides, hotels and god knows what else. After a couple of relaxing days in Orchha, the constant blaring of horns was a little jarring. Of course, Agra does have something that the rest of the cities on the Ganges plain do not have, a little thing they like to call the Taj Mahal.

The first thing that I noticed that was different was the number of foreign tourist in Agra. During our two days in Varanasi, I probably saw twenty foreigners and in Orchha, with the exception of the other Intrepid group, you could have counted the number of foreigners on one hand. But since we were staying at a place about fifty yards from the east gate of the Taj, there was a constant flow of tourists around us. For security reasons, the government does not allow vehicles within a couple of block radius of the Taj, and so at least we were not assaulted by the sound of horns all the time, but there were even more touts than usual.

Our first sights in Agra, was not in fact the Taj, but Agra Fort, the center of the Murghal empire and the place where the guy that built the Taj lived (and died). The fort is a massive place, built on a bend in the river and well protected by high red sandstone walls. We were lucky enough to have a local guide in his mid seventies and has been giving tours here for over fifty years. Even after all this time he made the entire time very interesting and amusing, and many of my former professors would do well to take a leaf out of this guy's book when teaching the same thing over and over again.

Our first stop was the Prince's palace, which is a magnificent building in its own right and a homage to religious tolerance. The ruler that built, even though he was a Muslim, was trying to bring peace to religious factions and, was in fact trying to start a new religion that would encompass all faiths (guess how long that lasted after he died). There are motifs of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Jainism and Christianity displayed right on the entrance gate and throughout the building. And all this was great, but through grates in the wall overlooking the river, we got our first glimpse of the Taj Mahal. And to be perfectly honest, after a long period of anticipation, it was a bit of a let down. The Taj was built by the mourning king as a tomb of his favorite wife (who died giving birth to her 14th child). Thus it was built a few kilometers down the river, on a beautiful site that was in perfect view of the king's rooms in the Fort. The trouble with the view, is not with the building itself, but that it is far enough away that you just cannot appreciate it's grandeur. It is one of those places (a bit like the Pyramids at Giza) where you really want your first glimpse to be turning a corner and have the true scale arrayed right in front of you and not come at it from a distance.

This notwithstanding, the views from the fort, and the fort itself are amazing. I didn't really know anything about Agra Fort going in, and I was pleasantly surprised. Every time that I thought that we had seen everything on offer, we would be led through another archway to a new palace or garden. The red sandstone of the Prince's palace gives way to the brilliant white marble of the King's rooms (and where the Peacock Throne once stood: it is now in Iran). Beyond that was built as the Queen's rooms, but ended up being used as a prison by the new king to imprison his father until death. Within this there are a couple of wonderful optical illusions that were generated using water (though not in use currently) and some beautifully carved marble with intricate inlays. The next courtyard, which once housed a massive fish tank (supposedly 18 feet deep and at least 50 peters per side) and now has a perfect lawn that I am sure was used by the British for croquet.

The last place on the tour was the formal receiving area, with a massive portico surrounded by beautiful gardens. It was here that the British East India Company received it's patent to trade in India and it was this act that almost directly led, years later, to the British taking over the country. Funny how looking back, how such seemingly innocuous acts can have the biggest effects. The remainder of the fort is still used to house various elements of the Indian Army and a mosque, which is under renovation, so we didn't get in either of these.

Heading back to the hotel after a delicious lunch of Chicken Tandoori we waited out the heat of the day before heading into the Taj itself for sunset. Even though we were staying so close to the gates of the Taj, the walls surrounding it on all sides (except along the river) block all views from ground level and so create a high level of anticipation. The entry gates and gardens themselves are fine works of architecture, though it is hard to not race past them in order to get to the main event. Even in the entry courtyard you cannot see the Taj, and it is only when you pass through the small gateway that you get your first sight of it. And what a sight it is: immediately the full splendor of Taj, gleaming white and with all the gardens and reflecting pools is arrayed right in front of you. This is what you see in every postcard and even they do it no justice. If you ever come here, do yourself a favor and make this your first glimpse of the Taj, not the long distance view from Agra Fort.

We were lucky enough to be here on an afternoon when there wasn't a cloud in the sky and so the white marble is perfectly displayed against the blue (if a little hazy) sky. And since it was deliberately built on a mound on the river, there is nothing behind the building but sky. Not surprisingly, there is a crush of people right here taking photos, with a reflection in the partially filled pools and it is only with the judicious use of elbows and a 6 foot 2 frame that I got in to get a decent photo. As Bob and I made our way to the Taj, we kept snapping photos and while I got all I wanted and headed off to go inside, Bob followed a local guy around to various parts of the garden to get different angles.

After walking around the marble tiled platform on which the Taj sits (wearing booties over my sandals) I walked almost straight into the sanctum itself, though the door is way too small and since it serves as both the in and out door, there was quite a crush for a minute. I guess it is to be expected, but the inside itself is a bit of a letdown after the magnificent exterior. There really isn't much except for the two tombs (the king was buried here after he died and as a side note, his tomb is the only thing that spoils the perfect symmetry of the place as the building was only designed for one). There are magnificent carvings on the marble walls, with the symmetry of the place even held here with a vase of flowers perfect mirrors images of each other. The inlay of semi-precious stones in the shape of flowers is wonderful and I managed to find a small corner out of the bustle of people to spend five minutes to look and really take them in. The high ceilings and marble interior mean that the place is a great echo chamber and it seemed that every young Indian boy wanted to see how loud an echo he could make. Even though this is not a religious site, it is a tomb and would be the perfect place to quietly contemplate the things people do for love and making noise is just not appropriate. It really made me with that I had a "Where's the Beef?" t-shirt on.

I didn't realize how lucky I had gotten with getting in to the inner sanctum, for during the five minutes that I was inside a line of at least 200 people had formed (the sunset crowd I guess). Leaving the masses, I found an unused bench with a spectacular view and just sat down to enjoy the view during sunset. I would suspect that when I get back home that more questions will come about the Taj than any other specific place and so over the hour and a half that I sat here (Bob saw me and ended up joining me for about half that time) I tried to sort out my feelings of the place. Though very difficult to put into words, here is what I came up with:

- It is bigger than I thought that it would be. In all the pictures and movies there are so few people that it is really hard to get a perspective. Until you stand at the foot of the building and feel it soaring above you, you cannot get a feeling of the true size.

- On the wall of my cube at work I have a list of the top 100 sites in the world and this is number three, after the Pyramids and the Great Wall of China (most of the rest of the top 10 are natural like the Amazon rain forest or Great Barrier Reef). Having travelled a lot and having seen the Pyramids and Great Wall, I have no problem with it being number three. It is certainly not as impressive as the other two. It is, without a doubt, the most beautiful building I have ever seen and I find it hard to imagine a more spectacular structure. I have not, however, been to either Angkor Wat or Macchu Picchu and reserve the right to move those two above the Taj, if necessary.

- I think that without the huge garden area and backdrop of sky, the Taj itself would not seem nearly as beautiful. The gardens themselves are simple geometric patterns: rectangles of well maintained grass, divided by viewing platforms and shallow canals that provide perfect reflections. Part of any beautiful piece of art is how it is displayed.

- For all the beauty of the building, I will never understand the desire that rulers have of erecting such structures when large sections of the general populous is suffering in poverty and often starving. And this remains as true in today's world as in ancient times.

- The white marble does indeed change colour as the sun sets, adding first golden hues and then a pinkish tinge before going quite grey. I would love to see it under a full moon but alas that is not to be.

Reluctantly turning our backs on monument to excess (or love, depending how you want to look at it), Bob and I headed back to the hotel. Given the perfect light and sunset that we had, I doubt that I will go back in when I am back here on my next tour. A bit like Mount Everest and not taking the scenic flight, sometimes you see something for the first time and it is perfect and it can only be spoiled by going back. We headed out for a great dinner of chicken curry with Raj (the spiciest I have had so far, but very tasty) and then were once again in asleep by 9pm. It is weird but I don't think we have been awake after 9.30 all trip and since there are almost no bars in India and no TVs in our rooms, there ain't much else to do but sleep. The one advantage is that we are up early and can take advantage of the cooler mornings to sight see.

Unfortunately I woke up in the morning with a good case of the squits (a word that Maria taught me on the last trip and s combination of two words that I am sure you can all work out). Fortunately, we didn't have anything planned for the morning and were leaving to Delhi in the early afternoon, by which time I was well and truly empty. It wasn't so much that I felt bad but my body just decided it needed cleansing. I think it was just a combination of the chili, a little bug and way too much salt in my diet (the tap water here is almost as salty as sea water and even the super filter bottle Sarah lent me couldn't get it out).

The Taj itself is closed on Friday (guess which day it was) and so the streets were almost deathly quiet and most of the souvenir stalls don't even bother opening. I wasn't about to let a little upset stomach stop me from doing the one thing that I really wanted to do today and that was walk down to the river and see if I could see the Taj from behind. Braving the monkey on the way, I the walk took longer than I anticipated and gave yet another perspective on how big the Taj is. Since I was walking parallel to the main gardens, this is the same distance as we walked from the main gate to the back to the Taj. This time, without the view of the Taj to distract me from noticing how far the walk is, I was surprised the walk took a good 5 or 8 minutes at a good pace, not the 2 or 3 I was expecting.

Down on the river's edge, the view is not great and a contingent of soldiers stopped me walking around under the walls to get a better view. However, there is an old guy with a sturdy wooden boat that poled me out onto the river for 100 rupees and with almost dead calm conditions, I was able to get a great view and some nice shots of the Taj fully reflected in the river. I think that when I am in Agra next time I will come down here for the sunrise instead of going inside, at 10 times the cost.

Well, that is about it for my first visit to Agra. I have left myself a couple of nice sights to visit when I am here next month, including the "Baby Taj", so stay tuned for that. I leave not looking forward to a five hour train ride to Delhi, but ever onwards they say, so tune in to this space for tales of my time in the most polluted city in the world.

　

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Part of trip: The Big One

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