Agra - Masterpiece in Marble

Well, we saved the best of India until the last, that’s for sure.

We dropped into Fatehpur Sikri, a former capital of the Mughal empire founded in 1571. By some minor oversight they neglected to check whether there was a reliable water supply, however, so it was largely abandoned within 40 years.

The remnants are built of beautiful red sandstone, and very cleverly designed to handle the extremes of weather, this being the hottest part of the country. Bedrooms were even designed to have a pool of water on the floor for cool in summer, and cascading water ran in living spaces to cool the breeze.

From there it was a quick run into Agra and its enormous Fort. Built of the same red sandstone, with later rulers incorporating some of the white marble and design elements that make up the Taj Mahal, it seemed to almost glow as the setting sun hit the stone walls.

There was a human element, too. Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj as a memorial to his wife (Mrs Jahan, also called Mumtaz Mahal) was not only responsible for the beauty of the Palace but also spent his last days imprisoned there after being deposed by his rather greedy if not despotic third son. His apartment, fittingly, looked over the Yamuna River toward the earthly masterpiece he had created.

At six the next morning we were in the lobby, along with about a hundred other guests, to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise.

This most perfect, most beautiful memorial to love, rose majestically from its slumber as the new day dawned, white marble seeming to change colour minute by minute in the growing sunlight.

Well, maybe sometimes it’s like that. We stood around in thick fog less than fifty metres away from it and could not see a single thing!

Our guide ran through his entire repertoire of interesting and moving stories of this incredible labour of love while we sat in the cold grey morning and waited.

The faintest outline of the building was visible as we donned our shoe covers and ventured inside the mausoleum itself, where the happy couple rest for eternity.

And it was inside that the incredible scale of this masterpiece became apparent. No painted designs for these people; twenty thousand artisans spent 13 years on the main building alone, with every pattern an inlaid work of art, from the floor to the ceiling. An artisan was almost guaranteed to lose a finger through grinding the precious stones, and his sight from the intricate detail of the work.

As we emerged from the building, so too was it emerging ethereally from the mist, and the hordes all clamoured for the best vantage points.

It was indeed crowded, but not so much so that we felt hemmed in. As we made our way though the grounds, still awestruck, it became obvious what a fitting final destination in India this was.Read more