Agra Diary

Situated 30kms away from the present day city of Agra-
Fatehpur Sikri, was once a small village,
but it holds a captivating tale behind its being
the capital of Mughal Emperor Akbar.
Legend says, Akbar, who had no son,
decided to seek the blessings
of Shaikh Salim Chisti who used to reside in the village, Sikri.
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The saint prophesied that Akbar would have three sons and
soon the saint’s foretelling came true and Akbar was blessed
with his first son Salim, whom he named after the saint.
Akbar was so glad that he decided to build his new capital near Sikri
He renamed it Fatehabad (and ultimately Fatehpur)
meaning ‘city of victory’.
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Water was a scarce item at Sikri
and the short splendor of this city came to an end,
when Akbar had to move to Lahore.
The dumped city then gradually witnessed the signs of
administrative neglect and never recuperated its gone grandeur.
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The Khas Mahal palace, here stands apart
from other Mughal architectures
Its Indian style of finishing and the pleasure
of Persian dignity can be felt.
The handsomely cut bell shaped pedestals and
elephant head columns of the complex
are the features that give it a colossal dignity and royalty.
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Large number of architectural treasures
that ornate the city, with effortlessly-
varied colours of red and pink
are the best treasures of the Mughal creativity.
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Designed with costly stones and marble, Buland Darwaza,
the semi-octagonal shaped massive triumphal arch
,is on the southern wall of the courtyard.
It celebrates Akbar’s conquest of Gujarat.
This 176 feet towering is the most brilliant of its kind
in the complete series of Mughal design in India.
Modest decoration with calligraphy contains a famous line:
’The world is but a bridge: Pass over but build no houses on it’
The Buland Darwaza commands the landscape for miles.
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Akbar was uneducated, how ever he took a keen interest
in literature, architecture, and the arts.
He has the reputation of being a very open-minded ruler,
and the buildings and environ at Fatehpur Sikri
blended both Islamic and Hindu styles.
The whole atmosphere at Sikri reflects the faith founded by Akbar,
Din-e-ilahi, very short-lived religion marred with controversy
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As you take a walk inside the barren palaces and halls,
the great majesty and excellence of the Mughals
slowly unfold in front of you.
Just as the light that creeps into the
interior of this royal window
peeping secretly into the mysteries
of the historic yesterdays
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Saint Chisti’s tomb is built on a marble platform
higher from ground level and the cenotaph
inside the mausoleum is enclosed by white marble screens
adorned with exquisite lattice work.
In the middle of The Emperor’s Courtyard this tomb is crowded
by Childless women, particularly those without a male kid.
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The walls of the verandah are filled with
holy inscriptions from the Koran.
There is also a ritual of knotting a thread
at the windows of this ‘dargah’ to fulfill the wishes.
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Queens and princess on the top terraces enjoyed the cool breeze
and watched splendid view of Sikri fortifications and
the town huddled at the foot of the ridge.
‘Panch Mahal’ the Palace of 5 storeys,
also known as ‘Badgir’, the wind tower,
is an extraordinary structure, entirely columnar;
consisting of four storeys of decreasing size.
The pillars support the whole structure.
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Fatehpur Sikri is a monumental mistake,
it leaves you in a state of wonder
An amazing amount of effort must have gone
into carving these splendid palaces,
every inch carved in painstaking detail,
all that effort and wealth that was spent
was inhabited only for less than 20 years,
as Akbar left to Lahore.
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Back to the city of Agra:
An elegant poetry of coloured stone decorate
set into convoluted prototype of flowers and Arabic prayer
with the faultless rhythmic symmetry on each tower,
composed in a pitch of splendor, poise and peace.
This marble magnum opus, India’s most photographed view,
even when the eyes are closed, an astonishing cherish able moment.
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“My world will light its hundred different lamps with thy flame
and place them before the altar of thy temple.
No, I will never shut the doors of my senses.
The delights of sight and hearing and touch will bear thy delight.
Yes, all my illusions will burn into illumination of joy,
and all my desires ripen into fruits of love”
Tagore : Gitanjali
–Taj, the jewel and pride of India–
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Urban India’s water bodies were always clogged with dirt.
We cleaned our house holds but not our minds
and persistently competed to add our share of rubbish
even to the historic streams and later lament on them.
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Water conservation and environmental agencies are still mocked
by the industrial houses on the northern banks of Yamuna,
who flooded the sacred river with tons of
toxic waste over a period of time,
to leave this great river in shackles, a view from the back side of Taj
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A startling sight, we Indians were not allowed to put on footwear
any where inside the Taj complex,
but surprisingly these foreign nationals
were spotted with a unique display on their feet.
All it was a sack kind of stuff tied at the bottom
to protect from the hard ground!
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