Agra

Last part of my India travel log. 


Agra is the home for world famous Tajmahal, I was pretty skeptical of the place before I went there but after seeing the place in person, I agree the place has a charm of its own. There are two other buildings in the same complex as TajMahal, one of them is a mosque and the other  one was under renovation. It is one of the well preserved archeological monuments of the country.The security arrangement for TajMahal had some weird rules, they wouldn't allow you take your tripod with the camera or a charger with the cell phone. 

It was here I witnessed the looting of foreign nationals, the government charges them 10 times the money for entrance fee and the guy who takes care of shoes for them was also doing the same. 

Inside is also well preserved as the outside, tombs of both Shahjahan and Mumtaz Mahal are next to each other (united at death). The semiprecious stones used to decorate the walls inside are still intact and haven't been looted, needless to say photography is not allowed inside the Mahal. Even if they did I am sure I wouldn't have gotten anything nice considering the crowd inside the place. 

One thing I didn't know was the existence of Agra fort, this one is much better than the ones in Jaipur. It was first captured by Babar from the Lodi's (who had captured it from Rajputana and who in turn had captured from others) and has remained under Mughal control from then on. On the outside it is built with redstone and the interiors are partly white marble. It was surprising to know that the fort was the center of Mogul empire, for I always believed Delhi to be the center of Mughal empire. It had a treasury and even housed a mint inside it. The fort was naturally protected by the river yamuna whose waters were used to surround the fort in case of a siege. 

Just like Amer Fort, Agra fort had the section where the king met the ministers and a section where king met with the people and finally the inner section with a garden like the one in the below pic where queens used to live. 

The fort has a beautiful view of Taj Mahal. It was the official abode of most Mughal emperors and was once home for the famous Kohinoor diamond. It supposedly was here that emperor Jehangir declared himself as the king even before Akbar died and this is where Aurangazeb imprisoned his father Shahjahan during his last days. Looking at Taj Mahal from the fort made me think, "Is this what Shahjahan saw during his final days", may be a more clearer view as there wasn't any pollution in the air during those days. Only part of the fort is accessible to visitors as mode of the fort is under renovation.

I didn't like UP as much as I liked Rajasthan for the roads were pretty bad and infrastructure hasn't been developed much.