India II: Agra and the Taj Mahal

The first full day of my two-week tour of India and Nepal was off to an early start with a 4:30 am wake-up call to catch a train to Agra.   Keeping us entertained were funny train station announcements including reminders that “sleeping on the platform is a bad habit” and “don’t be friendly with strangers”, each prefaced with a trumpet fanfare.  The train breakfast was distinctively Indian – something new (to me) called a “vegetable cutlet”.  It seems like they were trying to imitate a hearty English breakfast sausage but with deep-fried vegetables.  It was interesting although I think if given the choice I’d stick with the continental breakfast.

Our first stop outside of Agra was Akbar’s tomb.  It was built around 1600 on a large estate that now hosts manicured lawns, peacocks and antelope.  This tomb pre-dates the Taj Mahal, which was built by Akbar’s grandson Shah Jahan.   As was tradition, Akbar planned the site himself although it was his son Jahangir who finished its construction.

The four white marble chhatri minarets are similar to those of the Taj Mahal and perhaps inspired Shah Jahan (only two visible in photo below).  The rest of the building is mostly red sandstone.

“Akbar the Great” was a powerful Mughal emperor of a vast empire.  The architecture combines elements from Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity, some think in an effort to achieve religious unity.  Although not all elements are visible below, there were domes and lotus flower motifs associated with Hinduism, crosses for Christianity, and minarets for Islam.  Although difficult to capture on camera optical illusions with the columns and “whispering walls” (points of reverberation amplifying sounds many metres away) were pretty neat for an engineer.

A mix of religious motifs visible in the domes and decorative patterns:

Frolicking peacocks and antelope.  Funny how in India so many of my shots seem overexposed – the sun can be so bright for a Vancouver girl!

Intricate latticed stone screens called jali backlit from inside the tomb.

After Akbar’s tomb it was lunchtime (always delicious, this time Gujurati thali) and then to the Taj Mahal, one of most breathtaking and recognizable landmarks in India.

The Taj Mahal is a beautiful white marble mausoleum built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of this third wife Mumtaz Mahal.  She died during the birth of her 14^th (!!!) child. Sick with grief, legend has it that his hair and beard grew snow white within a few months and  he built the Taj in her memory. Construction took ~17 years and finished in 1657 requiring ~22,000 people including labourers, painters, stonecutters and artists, and more than 1,000 elephants to transport construction materials.

At both the Taj Mahal and Akbar’s Tomb, the four minarets on the corners are not built straight but lean slightly outwards.  Some think this is so that if there was an earthquake (and the area was apparently seismically active in the time before their construction) that the minarets would fall away from the main structure.  However others believe it was done so that the towers appear straight to the eye to correct parallax.

The Taj changes colour depending on the weather and time of day.  Supposedly the best time to visit is during a full moon where the moonlight gives the marble a silvery sheen.  Also recommended is sunrise or sunset with the orange of the sun.  In the winter during my visit there is persistent fog in the mornings, and so we went late afternoon and managed to catch some slanted afternoon light although nothing fiery. 

 Taj in the early evening light:

Unfortunately the Taj’s white marble is slowly turning yellow because of air pollution from Agra.  To try and protect the monument authorities have shut down all industry within 40 km and only electric vehicles are allowed near the structure.

 All Indians seem to want a trick shot of themselves holding the tip of the dome of the Taj Mahal. Kind of like everyone in Europe holding up the leaning tower of Pisa.

Fellow traveller Amy showing off the booties we needed to wear while walking inside the Taj to protect the flooring.

Example bejewelled marble inset inside.  I was taking a break from the crowds in a corner in a patch of light.  I’d never experienced anything like the crowd pushing you through the main tomb area.  So much noise, so many people, so many smells, and yet so dark inside!  This inset escaped unscathed, but sadly many precious and semi-precious stones were ripped from the walls of the Taj by the British during the Indian rebellion of 1857.

There were lots of school kids in uniform and some in casual clothes walking around the grounds.  Some of the boys were particularly interested in us tourists, asking to have their picture taken and posing, like this young man.

These lovely ladies also asked to have their photos taken and enjoyed seeing their own faces on the  screen afterwards.  An outing to the Taj Mahal was a very special occasion.   I hope I can still sit cross-legged at their age – so regal!