Agra

12/12/09 at Siem Reap, Cambodia

POST for 12/1 through 12/3, Agra

The visit to the Taj Mahal (and nearby Agra Fort) pictures are posted here. Things started badly (Tuesday night the first) when we were shown rooms too musty/moldy smelling to sleep in. (This was a “3-star” hotel!) They found us better rooms, but as in other places in India, the electricity service was spotty. Denise was particularly affected by the air pollution. She has a tendency to have asthma flare-ups when breathing much pollution, and she started a cough she hasn’t completely shaken yet. Agra brags about being a “green” city where industry has been moved away to protect the marble of the Taj Mahal. However, the haze you see in the picture of us two “lovebirds” posed in front of the Taj is NOT just humidity! Agra has to be downwind of something. The guide denied any pollution damage to the Taj, asserting that the Indian marble used in its construction is the hardest in the world. That’s probably true, especially compared to Michelangelo’s marble in Italy, but my memory has it that acid rain trumps all marble.

All grouching aside, the Taj Mahal is a stunning work of art. It really does have to be seen to be believed. I jokingly labeled a previous post about Indian monuments “He Who Leaves the Coolest Monument Wins.” It’s fair to argue that Emperor Jahan really did win. This has to be one of a handful of contenders for the best art and architecture created by our species. Even the people thronging around it could not break the spell cast by its beauty.

After we saw the Taj, we went to a workshop where the artisans continue to inlay valuable jewels in marble from the same area as the Taj marble originated. Note the flowered inlays created by cutting the marble and inserting precious stones of different colors. This is called “pietra dura” and is believed to have been done first in Florence. Another inlay picture is of black marble inlaid to “write” verses of the Koran.

Emperor Jahan ended a victim of the cutthroat politics of empire. His son Aurangzeb deposed him and locked him in the Agra Fort, across the river from the Taj Mahal. We were shown a room said to be Jahan’s, where it is claimed he installed mirrors to reflect the Taj because his failing eyesight did not allow him to see it looking over the river. The haze I’ve complained about prevented my getting a picture from that room, though I could see an outline of the dome. (At some point, inspired by this or a similar incident, I had a hilarious time trying to explain to our driver the different shades of meaning in the English words “haze” “smoke” “fog” “pollution.” I with no Hindi and he with very basic English made real the concept of Babel!)

Paul