Mongolian Grandfather and Grandson

Today and yesterday we visited two large complexes built by Akbar the Great, grandson of Babur, the first Mongolian ruler of India, and then Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal built by his grandson Shah Jahan. Today's was the earlier one, Akbar's Fatapur Sikri built in 1560? out by itself and lasting only 16 years because of lack of water, inspite of the advanced irrigation engineers. It was fabulously beautiful and intact, and well restored where needed. Building after building of the most beautiful carved red sandstone. Dripping with exotic pendulous forms. Akbar had sought to distill the best of Hinduism, Muslim and Christian religions, and brought all the great thinkers together here. I forget the term he used for his new religion, "The Spirit of God" I think. Well I guess it lasted six years... Why do only the stupid, cruel, self-absorbed versions go on and on...? The saint that helped give him a son is buiried in a white marble mausoleum that we visited. Akbar had a Hindi, a Christian, and a Muslim wife (and 800 concubines), with stars of David and Chinese motifs all carved in the walls.
Got to visit our first Muslim temple, on the premises, truly gorgeous, much more to my liking than the Hindu temples so far which are a bit gawdy in their painted statues that look to me almost reminiscent of carney shows. I'm sure theere will be beautiful ones to come.
Sometimes it was hard to view the buildings for all the hawkers in our face. But they did have great jewelry on their fingers, and we did our first shopping, especially since it was Leanna's birthday. I bought her a necklace of teeny garnets looking like one long rasberry... Prices were great.
Yesterday it was the Taj Mahal. Then Agra Fort, also buit by Akbar originally and enhanced by Shah Jahan and then his son Aurangzeb, who ran the dynasty into the ground. The tour where Shah Jhahan was imprisoned by Auragzeb was gorgeous white marble. Driving out of Agra was such a sight of endless poverty. The contrasts are just too much to bear. As we went through the countryside it was like traveling throught the 11th century... so many Bethlehem-like scenes, of thatched huts built onto rock formations, tents, lean-to's, shacks. Ravishing women in diaphonous saris carrying brass water jugs on their head, passed by camels, passed by pigs, goats, an elephant now and then, mules pulling wood racks of hay and big bags of whatever, passed by bicycle richshaws, passed by three-wheeled auto-rickshaws, passed by cars with the loudest horns in the world, high pitched whistles constantly going off- that can drive you CRAZY.
Leanna wanted to get a picture of one of the beautifully stacked displays of buffalo pies, all beautifully laid out in a circular geometric pattern for people to purchase to use for their fires--at home for cooking and heat or be it on the side of the road. Of course the whole settlement gradually appears, and we had an instant crowd of kids, all wanting to see their pictures on the digital camera.
It's amazing to watch the women doing serious manual labor in these long gowns with veils flying around. The colors are gorgeous--they love the shocking pinks, bright yellows, oranges, greens, so when there's a group it's quite a kaleidoscope. They may be overly sheltered and supressed but at least they are allowed to LOOK GREAT... And Rajistan has a bad reputaton for the supression of women. This is where many of the maharagis lived, maintaining their independence even after the British took over. So male dominance is strong here, illiteracy high among women.
We stopped at a lovely white inn for lunch-- sitting outside with a harmonium player and a drummer. Great for her birthday lunch.
Every hotel we've stayed at uses a room key that drops into a socket to turn on the electricity in the room. Very unusual... The toilet paper rolls are less than a half inch thick, with a thicker cardboard cylinder in the middle. Shower curtains are only a meter wide. Lots of scrimping everywhere. We're in a more upscale hotel now in Jaipur, but they want to charge us for the space heater that every other one has provided and has been quite necessary. Days are so warm but nights can be bitter.
Times up at the cyber cafe!