To get to the Taj you buy a ticket from the tourist office and then travel down a long, Rickshaw ridden street to the East Gate of the Taj Mahal ('Madame, Rickshaw! Very good price! Madame' yu say 'No No No!' but ey can still follw you for a few hundred metres trying their luck). At the East Gate you go through an imposing sandstone archway that in the days of the Mugals was guarded by sworded palace soldiers. Today there is a metal detector and a few semi-automatic carrying members of the Indian Army.
Of of the first things you see when you enter is a wonderful sandstone entrance way. This is inlaid with semi-precious stones and is very elegantly proportioned. We thought it was simply beautiful - and this was before we even saw the Taj.
You step through the gate and then, suddenly, there she is. The most etherial beauty on earth. Your fist glimpse of the Taj is a moment of wonder that you wish could last forever. The grand, fine-boned white-clad lady takes you to a different place. You could be living in a kingdom in Arabian Nights or a Persian fairy-tale. Photos can't do it justice.
The long water channels leading to the Taj throw its own image back to it; a vain princess looking in a mirror maybe? Each carved relief and inlaid stone is so perfectly placed, so meticulously planned that you have to wonder how many hours go into each piece.
Inside is the tombs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan. He built it as her tomb and drained the coffers of an empire. He planned a black version for himself but he was arrested by his son before this could happen. Fittingly his own tomb is the one non-symetrical thing in the Taj and in the main mausoleum it's to the left of the centrally placed Mumtaz and skews the perfection he aimed for, even though the finely inlaid casket is beautiful in its own right.
Mugal architecture has two main characteristics I've noticed. It loves symmetry and it is heirachical to the extreme. The closer you get to the emperor or a sacred place the more decorative and ornate it gets. In the Taj the outside is wonderfully inlaid and so are the entrance ways, but they are bigger pieces, and possibly even less precious stones. On the inside walls the inlay is slightly more detailed and then on the marble screen around the two tombs it is superb and maybe 100 pieces or more make up a single flower. But peering through the screen you realise that the tombs themselves are even more wonderful and intricate.
Outside we were lucky enough to see one side of the Taj illuminated by bright, bright sunlight. It glows white.
I could wax lyrical about this for hours, but for now I'll just say, make sure you go to the Taj Mahal one day.
To our relief our driver turned up punctually at midday and we sped off to the Red Fort of Agra. I forsee a number of posts about forts in this blog. Apologies in advance! I got the audio guide for this one and it really helped me to get an idea of the interior workings of a Mugal palace. Most fascinating to me were the ruins of the harem. On the inside, in courtyards surrounded by high buildings, were huge shallow pools where the women would keep cool - these pools are one o fthe few remaining features of this palace. And many were quite powerful and rich to the extent they could be and operated businesses from inside the harem. Naturally, however, penalties for transgression were harsh and one concubine found canoodling with a eunich (come on, he was a eunich!!!) was buried in the sand alive.
Through palaces and terraces we wandered for several hours drinking it all in. Again that heirarchical nature of Mugal buildings is evident. The palace is wonderful everywhere, but in every terrace and pavillion where the emperor dwelt the oppulence is staggering.
Something very incongruous about the whole place is hte tomb of Sir Russell Colvin, who was the lieutenant-governor of north-west India during the Indian Mutiny (if you're British) or The First War for Independence if you're Indian. He died of cholera when the fort was under seige and had to be buried there. With typical Imperial British sensitivity he was interred right outside the Diwan-i-am (magnificent marble hall of public audience). I suppose it's an incongruous memorial to an incongruous empire.
I've written is from the rooftop restaurant of the hotel and watched the sun rise over the Taj. Today we travel to Jaipur.
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