Fatepur Sikri (Agra trip, part 3)

Diwan-i-Aam - houses the king's throne

We were glad to have gotten our Taj visit in early, because, apparently, it's closed on Fridays! One pleasant side-effect of this was that all shops around the Taj (and our nearby hotel) were closed and the streets were somewhat deserted. This meant a break from relentless requests to "come see my shop, only look is free, very nice, cheap and best." We started the morning off with breakfast at Joney's Place. When you find a winner, stick with it, right? After breakfast, we headed back to the hotel to catch a taxi to Fatepur Sikri. We spent the extra $4 for a cab with A/C…and boy was I glad for that, especially on the ride home. The journey took about an hour, but it was nice to see some of the "country-side" along the way.

What is Fatepur Sikri? Fatepur Sikri is a deserted, but well-preserved city west of Agra. It was constructed by King Akbar before he built the Agra Fort, which was itself built before the Taj Mahal 

Pillar holding up the king's throne

(see, I told you we visited things in the wrong order…we experienced history in reverse). Here's the story (disclosure: I get most of my information from Wikipedia) – King Akbar had three wives: one a Hindu, one a Muslim, one a Christian. None of the wives had given him any children (this is a big problem for kings), so he went to see a holy man in Sikri. The man blessed him and prophesied that he would have a son. His Hindu wife did in fact became pregnant and bore him a son. King Akbar was so grateful to the holy man he decided to build his empire there. So Fatepur Sikri is actually two separate places: Fatepur (fate = victory, pur = city) and Sikri. Fatepur is the palace/fort, and Sikri is a religious site with both a temple and a mosque, as well as an elaborate tomb for the holy man. (Akbar was sort of an inclusionist – he picked his favorite parts of all the religions). We arrived by taxi and were sort of ambushed and coerced into purchasing a guide. This turned out to be well worth the money, but we didn't like the feeling that it wasn't a choice.

We started our tour in the fort/palace. King Akbar had constructed the palace in this location because he was so grateful to the holy man. The palace was huge and constructed primarily of red sandstone – just like the Agra Fort. Apparently this is a readily available local stone. The palace was only used from 1571 to 1585, and then, because it was difficult to access enough water in this region, it was abandoned 

Engravings all over the palace

and the empire moved east to Agra. It remains very well preserved, and it's kind of incredible that it was only used for such a short time. Each of the three wives had her own palace/space within the fort – the Hindu wife's was by far the biggest and most elaborate, because she was the one who bore him and heir. While the Christian and Muslim wives each had what amounted to an elaborately decorated room, the Hindu wife had an entire kitchen and a huge courtyard. Around the perimeter of the courtyard were her summer palace, winter palace, and her own personal Hindu temple. The king also had his own separate chamber (even it was smaller than the Hindu wife's), as well as an entire wing for the harem (because three wives were not enough?). The architecture throughout the fort was an interesting blend of Hindu, Muslim, Christian and other styles. Akbar loved to combine the various elements to create his own style (and religion). One of the more interesting parts of the tour was the Diwan-i-Aam. This unique structure was two-stories tall, but supported by one massive carved pillar. The pillar, in the middle of the structure, supported the king's throne – I guess so he could look down upon his subjects?

Our tour guide with Brandon in front of the Mosque - (Brandon pretty much looks like a giant here)

Huge courtyard with HOT, HOT tile floor - and no shoes allowed!

After the tour of the palace, our guide led us over to the still-used Mosque, Jama Masjid. It is apparently one of the largest mosques in India, and it is said to be modeled after the main mosque in Mecca. We had to remove our shoes before entering, which proved to be a problem because red sandstone gets very hot in the sun! After entering, we found ourselves in a large open courtyard. We made our way around the perimeter (in the shade, thankfully), past a cemetery of sorts where family of the holy man are buried. Our guide lead us into a covered area where there many people sitting on mats with colorful fabrics and bags of flower petals piled in front of us. He had us sit down, and the man in front of us began to explain that many people come to the tomb of the holy man to make a wish; each person gets three wishes. All

Holy man's tomb

you have to do is present a piece of cloth and tie a string to the gate in front of his tomb. …And wouldn't you know, he had some lovely pieces of cloth he was willing to sell to us. It was a sales pitch! We passed, and the tour continued. We walked to the tomb, but could not go inside (no cloth offering = no entrance). Then it was finally time to walk across the middle – the hot, hot middle, open to the blazing sun. Our tour guide was smart and had worn socks. And Brandon, apparently, has tougher feet than I do. Even with the carpet, my tender little feet were on fire! We stopped to look at the main gate, and then back across the middle to look at the mosque. We couldn't go in the mosque either, because they were having a service. And then we had to walk all the way back to the entrance where we came in. My poor feet! We went to retrieve our shoes, and the guy sitting by the pile of shoes indicated he wanted us to pay him – for what? Brandon forked over a little money anyway. We took a bus back down to our waiting taxi, and enjoyed the A/C all the way back to Agra.

Back in Agra, we hit up Joney's Place again, for dinner this time (we are so boring, I know), and stopped into an internet café to catch up on some emails. On the way back to the hotel, Brandon got an iced coffee that he could not stop raving about. We got talked into taking a cycle rickshaw back to the hotel, and somehow the driver managed to convince Brandon to do the pedaling while he rode along in in the back of another cycle. He must have been extra sneaky, because we still paid him for the journey when we arrived at the hotel!

Friday's Stats:

• High Temp: 109^o
  
• Liters of water consumed: 7
  
• Requests to pose for photo: 2