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Published: December 31st 2007
We had worried that we would encounter many difficulties here, but mostly for us it was no harder that anywhere else. Perhaps the fact we did it all very quickly and so meant that we were never a sitting target for trouble. Yes our hotel was terrible and rickshaw drivers were pests and it was hard to find decent food, but this was all pretty easy to ignore in the light of what was to see. To avoid the hassles that made Agra as famous as its main landmark, the Taj Mahal, we joined a government operated tour that rushed through the three significant sights all in one long day. Normally we'd do everything independently but at this stage we just wanted to get it done!
The sights we saw were the Taj Mahal (of course), the Red Fort and Fatehpur Sikri. Fatehpur Sikri was rather enchanting, we joined a group to hear the interesting story of its rather short lived history. The palace was built completely out of beautiful red sand stone, as it was to be the new capital, although this was only for a very short while as they ran out of a water supply within forty
years or so and retreated back to Agra.
The Maharaja of the time was a very diplomatic man, and so as not to cause arguments in the mixed religion country of India, he took three wives. A Hindu woman, a Muslim woman and a Christian woman. Along with a rumored 365 concubines. Very thoughtful, wouldn't you say! But this made for some very interesting architecture with an odd mixture of Hindu, Muslim and Christian symbolism.
The Taj Mahal was very much as the famous postcard image. Although the scale and the symmetry was something that couldn't be previously imagined. The entire grounds is based on perfect down the center symmetry. And the Taj itself is square, and appears the same from every side you view it. For those who don't know the story - the Taj Mahal was built as the final resting place of SHA JAHAN's beloved wife. Although what man who loved his wife would make her give birth twelve times? Sorry but one must ask. Anyway, after she died he went a little nuts as he couldn't live without her. His son who was to take his place, couldn't stand having the crazy man in power
any longer, as he was wasting so much of the countries money on his beloveds grave. So the son locked up his father and took his place. Very cruelly though, the place the son imprisoned his father was so that every day he would see the Taj Mahal. This all was too much for SHA JAHAN and he eventually jumped off the balcony.
After a huge day we wound up back at the train station where we started our tour. It was like others we'd seen - no english signage, nobody to help, foreigners without a clue and announcements in Hinda. At one point there was a mass exodus from the platform we believed was ours, so following the crowds just managed to get on our train leaving from another platform. Although express and taking only three hours to get to Delhi, I (J) was put on a bench seat with perhaps two of the biggest Indians we'd seen. By the end I was rather uncomfortable hanging one cheek off the end!
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