Okay, I know everyone wants to hear about the Taj Mahal. Right? For those of you unfamiliar with Taj Mahal, he’s a blues musician who’s been around since about the 60s, and while he’s certainly rooted in the country blues tradition, he has never been one to stick to the well-beaten traditional blues path. Oh, and there’s also this palace thing with the same name. It’s in India somewhere I think. No, Indiana. Actually, it’s in Agra. It takes about three hours to get to Agra from Delhi. We got up at five. And woke up at the Taj Mahal.
It’s pretty much the best gravestone I’ve ever seen. See, Shah Jahan (with a little help from thousands of his friends) built it for his wife after she died. That’s right, AFTER she died- she never even got to see this thing. And yeah, people say it’s over-rated, and yeah it’s a tourist trap. But when you walk out of the ticket building and into the courtyard it still manages to take your breath away. But it’s been described a thousand times before, so go ahead and google “wordy Taj Mahal descriptions”. I’ll just tell you that it’s overwhelmingly majestic but simply beautiful at the same time. That’s from a distance. Up close the detail would make any mason cry. Picture a small floral design, designed in a pattern where the stems meet to form heart-shapes (love), and pull away to represent loss. Picture it about twelve inches high and twelve inches wide and carved into the translucent marble. Picture different types of coloured stone inlaid into the carving- lapis lazuli for blue, onyx for black, etc- shaped to fit the delicately weaving carving. Picture camels bringing sacks of these various stones from as far away as Turkey and South Africa. (It helps if you picture magical, flying camels. They’re pretty cool to picture. Especially spitting on people from great heights. I digress..). Now picture this little 12x12 design, and multiply it by about 400, so that it can adorn the walls around the entire inner circumference of the mausoleum. This should give you an idea of just one small piece of detail on this ornate corpse-box. (Is this the first time the Taj Mahal has ever been called an ornate corpse-box?)
We hung around the corpse-box for a while. Lots of pictures. Then we went and argued with our driver to take us half an hour out of Agra to Fatehpur Sikri. His boss tried to tell us on the phone that this place was in another state- Rajasthan- so he’d have to charge us out-of-state fees. We were like, We’re looking at two different maps, buddy, and Fatehpur Sikri is not in Rajasthan. It was a bold attempt by the honest car-company man, but a failed one. Our driver took us there, and we spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the illiterate emperor Akbar’s hilltop palace abode, complete with a judgment courtyard (where elephants would literally stomp convicted criminals brains out), a frolicking nymph pool with a musician’s island in the middle (because it’s hard for nymphs to frolic without tunes),and denominational temples for each of Akbar’s three wives (Catholic, Muslim and Hindu).
We ate some dal on a rooftop overlooking the village and got back in the car. Tablas are good for falling asleep to.
It’s pretty much the best gravestone I’ve ever seen. See, Shah Jahan (with a little help from thousands of his friends) built it for his wife after she died. That’s right, AFTER she died- she never even got to see this thing. And yeah, people say it’s over-rated, and yeah it’s a tourist trap. But when you walk out of the ticket building and into the courtyard it still manages to take your breath away. But it’s been described a thousand times before, so go ahead and google “wordy Taj Mahal descriptions”. I’ll just tell you that it’s overwhelmingly majestic but simply beautiful at the same time. That’s from a distance. Up close the detail would make any mason cry. Picture a small floral design, designed in a pattern where the stems meet to form heart-shapes (love), and pull away to represent loss. Picture it about twelve inches high and twelve inches wide and carved into the translucent marble. Picture different types of coloured stone inlaid into the carving- lapis lazuli for blue, onyx for black, etc- shaped to fit the delicately weaving carving. Picture camels bringing sacks of these various stones from as far away as Turkey and South Africa. (It helps if you picture magical, flying camels. They’re pretty cool to picture. Especially spitting on people from great heights. I digress..). Now picture this little 12x12 design, and multiply it by about 400, so that it can adorn the walls around the entire inner circumference of the mausoleum. This should give you an idea of just one small piece of detail on this ornate corpse-box. (Is this the first time the Taj Mahal has ever been called an ornate corpse-box?)
We hung around the corpse-box for a while. Lots of pictures. Then we went and argued with our driver to take us half an hour out of Agra to Fatehpur Sikri. His boss tried to tell us on the phone that this place was in another state- Rajasthan- so he’d have to charge us out-of-state fees. We were like, We’re looking at two different maps, buddy, and Fatehpur Sikri is not in Rajasthan. It was a bold attempt by the honest car-company man, but a failed one. Our driver took us there, and we spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the illiterate emperor Akbar’s hilltop palace abode, complete with a judgment courtyard (where elephants would literally stomp convicted criminals brains out), a frolicking nymph pool with a musician’s island in the middle (because it’s hard for nymphs to frolic without tunes),and denominational temples for each of Akbar’s three wives (Catholic, Muslim and Hindu).
We ate some dal on a rooftop overlooking the village and got back in the car. Tablas are good for falling asleep to.
1 comment:
oh Jees! Adrian , well i should say here is a man who spoke the truth...yeah,if you haven't heard they say Shajahan killed his mumtaj and then built this...gravestone, which we consider the marvel and wonder in the world.Wonder how it ever became a symbol of love...
On fatehpur sikri ....how come you missed the dice game Akbar used to play with all girls as the coins...
And Jeez its worrisome you had one crazy car company man...argh! Brand India is going for a toss....and looking through the eyes of an individual, a first time visitor to India, it hurts...
tablas are good for falling asleep aei? hahaha OMG wish ustad zakir hussain doesn't read this..
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