My India Trip: Passage to India (part 1)
- kwankew
- Apr 5
- 5 min read
In February and March, I spent 25 days traveling in northern India, visiting several cities, starting in New Delhi. I was in India for the first time twenty years ago, volunteering in the Asian tsunami medical relief in Tamil Nadu. Five years ago, I was there a second time, visiting the Golden Triangle: Agra, Jaipur, and Varanasi, and crossing over to Nepal, visiting the birthplace of Buddha. This time, in addition to visiting various cities, I wanted to visit the national parks to spot the Bengal tigers.
From New Delhi, I traveled to Mandawa to visit various havelis and palaces. The sad thing is that the private havelis are slowly slipping into disrepair because of a lack of funding.
At Bikaner, I visited Lalgarh Palace in Junagarh Fort, built by the Maharajas in the 13th or 14th century. The most famous Maharaja was the 21st. He went to school in Europe and fought in WWI against the Germans, and there is a picture of him at the signing of the Versailles Treaty. He brought electricity and water to Bikaner, modernizing it. He had special spoons made for him so as not to soil his handlebar mustache. The line of Maharajas ended with the 24th, he had only 2 daughters.
At the Karni Mata Temple or Temple of the Holy Rats: hundreds of rats live there, being fed by devotees. They were not aggressive but strange to be among so many of them.
At Jaisalmer, “the City of Sands”, I overnighted at a Desert Camp, a comfortable tent. Camel ride to view the sunset on the dunes. After that, we watched a traditional Rajasthani dance performance on the dunes while having dinner. The lights were switched off after dinner for 5-10 minutes. Immediately, the sky was bursting with stars, Orion the Hunter being the most prominent constellation. A bright planet in the western sky, perhaps Venus, shone.
Jaisalmer is also called the Golden City because of the yellow sandstones used to build the city. Jaisalmer Fort: 11th to 17th-century palaces for the kings and queens, now converted into museums. Outside the king's palace is a marble throne and rows of sandstone seats for the royal family to watch spectacles in the square.
The people living inside the fort are 4 thousand Brahmins and warriors, merchants of other casts come in here to sell their wares. Other people of various casts live outside the fort. Here, several temples of the Jain religion have beautiful, intricate sandstone carvings. Hinduism, with thousands of gods and goddesses, is the oldest religion and three branches of religion from it: Silkism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
Salam Singh Ki Haveli (Moti Mahal) has 5 Havelis, which took 60 years to complete. I visited the first one, which has been converted into a museum housing the bedroom, living room, dressing room, kitchen, etc.
Early in the morning, I walked to the Gadisar Lake to watch the sunrise.
At Jodhpur, I visited the Umaid Bhawan Palace, converted into a luxury hotel, only a third of it inhabited by the maharajah and his relatives. It houses a museum with elephant carriages, palanquins. There is also a display of vintage cars. Currently the only son of the maharaja is a polo player, educated in England and lives there.
Jaswant Thada: Centotaph, memorial cemetery for the Maharajahs and their wives. They practiced sati. One of the maharajahs had 30 wives, and when he died in his 60s, all his wives died by sati. Sati was outlawed in the 1920s by an activist group with the help of the British. There are still occasional sati, one recently in the 1990s when an 18-year-old woman burned herself at the husband’s funeral.
The massive Mehrangarh Fort is reached by climbing an incline to the coronation courtyard, where a marble throne is stationed. One enters the hall where the maharaja used to sit on a high cushioned seat, presiding over the meeting of his officials. On the second floor, was a dance hall, where he was entertained by dancers, next to it; his and the Maharani’s bedrooms.
Behind this is the courtyard of the maharanis, no men could enter this space in the old days.
From here, we had a panoramic view of the city. The guide said most of the land belongs to the maharaja, and when he sells it, the new owner has to agree to use red sandstone for his house. Outside his jurisdiction where the common people live, they paint their houses blue, thus the blue city.
Mandore Temple is a Hindu temple. Here, the Maharaja with 30 wives has his cenotaph, 4x bugger than the cenotaph across the street built for his 30 wives who died by sati.
This Clock Tower was built by one of the maharajas for the locals and
also shops around it.
From Jodhpur, my driver drove me to Udaipur. On the way, Ranakpur Jain Temple, an amazing marble temple, with 24 domes and many pillars. The five principles of Jainism are non-violence (Ahimsa), truthfulness (Satya), non-stealing (Asteya), celibacy/chastity (Brahmacharya), and non-attachment/non-possession (Aparigraha).
At Udaipur, the huge City Palace has been converted into a hotel, a museum, with a small part as the residence.
Sahelion ki Bari: A garden set up by the maharana for the maharanis, who could not get out of the palace. This provided them a place to host parties among the women. Only the maharaja is invited. The fountains were from Liverpool, and the falling water sounded like rain.
Chittogarh Fort in Rajasthan- the largest fort in India, UNESCO World Heritage Site: 700 acres
The Rana Kumbha Palace: It was destroyed by the Mughal emperor Akbar. Only the remains of the King's and Queen’s palaces and a seven-horse stable remain. The fort overlooks the village. The Maharana moved from Chittagarh to Udaipur, and this fort was abandoned and is now managed by the Indian government.
By the victory tower, the guide said the women and children executed Jauher in 1303, a mass suicide by fire, when faced with the invading army of Khalji Dynasty of the Dehli Sultante, to avoid capture, sex slavery, and enslavement. The men marched out to meet the enemy to meet their inevitable death, a tradition called saka.
Taragarh Fort in Bundi, built in 1354 AD, and over 200 years, successive rulers added more rooms at different levels of the hill.
It is a great example of Rajput architecture: pavilions and kiosks with curved roofs, temple columns with carved brackets, covered with elephants and flowers.
Instead of the sandstone used in building most Rajput palaces, the palace at Taragarh was built with a green-tinged sandstone from Bundi. It was too hard for fine carving, the rulers covered their walls and ceilings with splendid paintings.
84 Pillared Cenotaph: It was constructed in 1683 by the Maharaja of Bundi, Rao Raja Anirudh, as a memorial to his foster brother, Deva.
At the end of Day 12, I said goodbye to my very able driver, Paras, when he dropped me off at the Ranthambore National Park in search of the Bengal tigers.
To be continued
New book: The Girl Who Taught Herself to Fly
Other book: "Into Africa Out of Academia: A Doctor's Memoir"
Fascinating tour of India including many Islamic architectural gems. Cover yourselves to avoid sandfly flea bites and leishamaniasis, of course. Be well.