Agra
After a little over a day in Delhi, we left early on the Saturday morning to take the Gatimaan Express from Delhi to Agra, the location of the Taj Mahal. The train took a little over two hours to cover the 150 miles from the current capital of India to what was once, in the time of Lodi, prior to the start of the Mughal Empire, a previous capital.
Like Delhi, Agra is on the banks of the Yamuna river, and it was on the river that we had our first visit, to the tomb of Itmad-ud-Daulah, more commonly known as the “Baby Taj”. The mausoleum was built in the 1620s, and was one of the first buildings to be built in white marble rather than the red sandstone of buildings such as Humayun’s tomb. Itmad-ud-Daulah was the father in law of emperor Jahangir, and the grandfather of Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of emperor Shah Jahan for whom the Taj Mahal was built. Although the mausoleum itself is of white marble, the entrance gate is of red sandstone, which gives some great contrasts with the mausoleum itself.
Although we had had some glimpses of the Taj Mahal in the distance during the day, our first proper sight was when we visited the gardens on the opposite bank of the Yamuna river to the Taj Mahal as the sun began to set. The Taj Mahal took many years to build, starting in 1632 and not being completed until about 20 years later. The Taj Mahal was built for the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for the tomb of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Unlike the paradise gardens of earlier monuments, which are at the central crossing point of two water channels dividing the garden into four, the Taj Mahal is built on the banks of the Yamuna river, and therefore there is only one water channel, albeit a wide and long one, that extend from the front of the building, something that we would see when we returned to the Taj Mahal for sunrise the following morning. Being a Mughal emperor, Mumtaz Mahal was not Shah Jahan’s only wife, and there are also tombs for other of his wives on the site. However, Shah Jahan is buried with his wife in (actually below) the Taj Mahal. Interestingly, the four minarets that are around the corners of the main building lean outwards. The reason for this is that if there is an earthquake or other disaster which causes the minarets to fall, they will fall away from the main building, and therefore avoid damaging it.
Whilst in Agra, we also visited a colonial house, and visited Agra Fort – somewhere I will remember for being about the hottest weather we had in India.
