Sikandra - Rajasthan (part I).

In Rajasthan folk tales Mughal Emperor Akbar is a capricious and bizarre man with incomprehensible desires and absurd commands. It is Birbal, his wise and patient minister, who solves all situations with brilliant ideas and great courage making the emperor laugh of his own fool requests. In history books, Akbar is the grandson of Babur, the first Mughul emperor who conquered North India around 1526 coming from Kabul. Akbar is described as a strong, fearless and energetic man who fought to expand his empire that, at his death in 1605, extended from the Himalayan Mountains in the North to Godavari River in the South. He worked hard to strengthen and organize a huge territory, providing solid bases that would last in the following centuries. He was interested in culture, a skilled artisan and a curious and enthusiastic inventor. He enjoyed life and its pleasures above all during his youth becoming more restrained as he grew old. He was illiterate but knew the heart of men and knew how to obtain obedience, respect and love.

This man is buried in a peaceful and sacred garden, completed around 1613, at Sikandra some ten kilometers west of Agra.

I visited it in August. It was not crowded, just few Indian families who left rupees, yellow flowers and prayers on the tomb. Then, they walked back along the paved walkway glancing deer in the lawn and sudden flights of birds over tall trees. They exited from a red sandstone gate where monkeys run along the top and jalis broke light in geometrical splinters. Calm and silence.

The gateway is a majestic arch that frames recessing smaller ones built one above the other. They are replicated on each side, in closed balconies, creating a square building edged with crenellations and chhatris. Red sandstone disappears under a rich decoration of floral marble inlays and geometric mosaics made of colored stones. For the first time, Persian style inscriptions were designed along the surface. The famous calligrapher Adb al-Haqq Shirazi (called Amanat Khan), who later decorated the Taj Mahal, chose elegant characters to celebrate this garden as an earthly paradise and to remind the glory of Emperor Akbar and his son Jehangir. At each corner of the building, four white marble minarets topped with chattris stand slender and pure.

Beyond this gate is Akbar’s mausoleum, a place called Bihishtabad, or The Abode of Paradise. And hints of paradise are everywhere.

Mughals celebrated their power with buildings where architectural elements told about their divine origins. Fascinated by the mystery of religions, Akbar went further unifying in his own religion, called Din-i-Ilahi the Religion of God, elements and aspects of the different beliefs present in his empire. He preached tolerance, kindness and purity. He introduced new rites at court exalting the divine nature of his person: a descendant of the Sun illuminated by the light and knowledge of God. Religion legitimated his absolute power and increased loyalty. He was a wise ruler who, with the help of valuable ministers, organized a centralized administration, a solid fiscal system and an efficient army. Order and geometry expressed imperial power in the net of roads and towns developed to support agriculture, small manufacturers and commercial exchange as in the architecture of palaces and gardens.

- to be continued -

Vocabulary:

Chhatri: or umbrella, a small domed kiosk supported on columns  

Jali: perforated stone screen with ornamental design

Further reading:
Maria Grazia Cella, Favole del Rajasthan, 1992, Arcana Editrice – Milano
translated from Birbal ki kahaniya (Birbal’s tales)

Ebba Koch, Mughal Architecture, 1991, Oxford University Press

Francis Robinson, The Mughal Emperors and the Islamic dynasties of India, Iran and Central Asia, 2007, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London

Attilio Petruccioli, Fathpur Sikri La capitale dell’impero Moghul, la meraviglia di Akbar, 2007, by Mondadori Electa S.p.A., Milano

Internet links:
ArchNet online resourch focused on Muslim culture and civilisations
https://archnet.org/lobby/

Good rain for Rajasthan.

After ten years of poor rainy seasons, this year a good rain is falling in Rajasthan, North India.

Rain for the Yamuna River that reflects the white marble of the Taj Mahal in its flowing water in Agra, the endless flowing of time and the symbol of an eternal love

Rain for the insatiable buffalos that, careless of the busy traffic, are guided to the river in small groups to spend long hours in refreshing baths

Rain for pilgrims that, wrapped in orange clothes, walk for hundred kilometres carrying the water of the Ganges River; they rest by the roadside under trees or in tents where carpets are roof, walls and floor

Rain for the tourists' endless showers; they face hot and humid days with large hats and plunges in crystal clear swimming pools and, while a dark night cancels every shape, candles are lit in courtyards where echoes the note of peacocks in love

Rain for the patient drivers who guide groups of tourists along a well known circuit for a handful of days, waiting for hours with too many cigarettes, thick cups of masala tea and long languid songs that remind them of their far away loves 

Rain for the markets, the relentless flies, the stalls that sell fruits and vegetables piled in tempting pyramids of pineapples, bananas, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, papaya, bundles of herbs and expensive apples from Kashmir

Rain for the untamable traffic of cows, motorbikes, bicycles, carts, taxi, cars, bus, people that crowds roads where it is impossible to walk

Rain for the symmetric net of canals and fountains that surround the tombs of Mughal Emperors: red sandstone buildings with white marble chhatri, calligraphic inscriptions, floral inlay works and whispered prayers

Rain for the rice fields, the sugar cane cultivations and popocorn plants


Rain for Indian boys who, squatted close to jet of water that gushes from mysterious pipes by the road, squeeze small envelopes bought at the kiosk covering hair and body with a rich white foam, but not their smiles

Rain for the imposing entrance of the forgotten city of Fathepur Sikri

Rain to wash carpets knotted in Jaipur and hand dyed fabrics spread out on the roadside

Rain for men who sell street food; they slice, cut, mix, whisk and fry in huge frying-pans essential, tasty, cheap and very-very spicy all India Chaat

Rain for the flowers ready to be offered at the temple by the holy lake in Pushkar; roses, jasmine, rice, sugar, sandalwood, coconuts, spices to pray supernatural gods for human desires

Rain for the pots filled with pure water at the pomp in country villages by women in coloured sari; they walk home carrying them on their heads 

Rain for the Aravalli hills glittering in a soft emerald tropical green

Rain for puddles where float plastic and waste, for lakes where white palaces seem to float, crocodiles are supposed to live and children wait for the sunset diving next to women who do the washing

Rain for a Jain temple with thousand of carved marble pillars and waving flags, where light and shadow play among refined inlay works that tell a story begun long time ago, as old as the tree that grows in a quiet spot inside the temple

Rain for the busy commerce of bangles, made of gum, brass, bones, wood, glass, silver, gold, ivory, camel teeth and silk threats; they break easily to increase a busy commerce of bangles...

Rain for the blue houses of Jodhpur scattered at the feet of Mehrangarh Fort, seven gates, thick walls, corners cleverly built and sharp tips to defeat elephants attacks

Rain that digs insidious holes in the road, that drags trees and mud and blinds truck driver who decked their lorries with black tassels against the devil eye

Rain for the wild animals, butterflies, insects, deer, monkeys, tigers, peacocks, antelopes, snakes, mice and the millions of mosquitoes that born every day

Rain to wash dirty roads, spits, piss, excrements and carrions of caws and dogs that heat deforms and flies devour

Rain for the desert spotted of green with low shrubs and flowers, where, in painted villages among the dunes, camels sleep peacefully and old dances are performed under the full moon
 
Rain for the men who waste no time to look at it as they are busy on sewing machines in small open rooms overlooking the street in Mandawa

Pouring rain that stops motorbikes that run fast and then start again, the whole family in balance: husband, wife and children in a trusting interlacing of hugs

Rain clouds painted on the walls of the Badal Mahal, the Cloud Palace, in Bikaner. Lightings are scattered among blue and white clouds so that, in the hottest and driest days, the Raja could sit there to breath a good rain for Rajasthan




Photos:
Travel in a Garden, Rajasthan India -August2010