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Here is the itinerary for\u00a0one day in Delhi.\u00a0First drop is the Jantar\u00a0Mantar. Completed in 1724, this is one of the five parks built by Jai Singh II of Jaipur. The park contains 13 instruments designed to take observations of the positions of the sun, moon and planets. It is not at all clear as we stroll round the park how the instruments were used, but the park is well maintained and the instruments themselves, reddish plastered and white edged, make interesting patterns. It is still early in the morning and there are few other tourists about.<\/p>\n
Our next stop is the Old Fort, Purana Qila, a sprawling walled enclave on the banks of the Yamuna River. It dates from the middle of the 16th century and the beginning of the Mughal period. The empire was founded by Babur in 1526 with the defeat of the Lodhi\u00a0regime. Babur was a descendent of\u00a0Genghis Khan (1167-1227) on his mother\u2019s and Timur (1337-1405) on his father\u2019s side. He was succeeded by Hamuyun\u00a0(1531-40, 1555-56), Akbar (1556-1605), Jahangir (1605-27), Shah Jahan\u00a0(1628-58) and Aurangzeb (1658-1707). At the time of Aurangzeb the empire extended across most of the Indian subcontinent. There then followed a period of decline and loss of territory to local rulers and foreigners, until the last nominal emperor was exiled for supporting the 1857 rebellion and the empire was replaced by the British Raj. The most interesting features of the site are the three gates, each topped by stone pavilions, and the old mosque. The mosque is a single aisle\u00a0with five doors to the side opening onto the courtyard. It was completed in 1541.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, due to a lack of foresight, we were in Delhi only a few days before the Independence Day celebrations on August 15th, and some of the main sites such as India Gate, the Rajghat Gandhi memorial and the Red Fort were closed. Our next stop\u00a0then was Humayun\u2019s tomb. This is the earliest example of the royal mausoleum in India. It is based on the tomb of Timur in Samarkand and is surrounded by a formal garden representing the gardens of paradise. It is a fine building but I found the visit somewhat flattening.<\/p>\n
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The tomb is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as is our next stop, the Qutb Minar. The tower, built of brick, is 72.5 metres tall. It dates from first Sultanate of Delhi. The sultanates were five dynasties that held Delhi from 1206 until 1526 and whose rule extended over time to most of northern India. The tower was commissioned in 1192 by Qutb-ud-din\u00a0Aibak, the first sultan of the Mamluk dynasty. There are a number of other buildings within the complex, including an iron pillar, surprisingly rust proof due to the high phosphorus content of the iron. The pillar is older than the complex and is thought to date back to the Gupta period. The earliest inscriptions on it are in Sanskrit in a Gupta period script. The Gupta period lasted from around 320 to 554. There is also the base of what would have been an even more immense tower which was never completed.<\/p>\n
We then drove to the southern side of Delhi to visit the Baha\u2019i Temple, a striking lotus shaped building. The Baha\u2019i religion is based on the idea of\u00a0unity, the unity of God, of religion and of humankind. There are many visitors but the process is well marshaled. Footwear has to be left some distance from the building and silence is requested inside.<\/p>\n
It is now getting towards evening and the last site we visited during\u00a0our Delhi in a day tour is Safdarjung\u2019s Tomb. This is another mausoleum set in a paradise garden but much more weathered and battered than Humayun\u2019s tomb, although it is later. It was built in 1754 for a chief minister. But it is a pleasant place to wander in the evening.<\/p>\n
Although we were in Delhi for 3 days, this was our main day sightseeing. We stayed at the Claridges Hotel (*<\/a>) and they also organised the car and driver for the sightseeing.\u00a0 On another day we\u00a0visited Connaught Square which is not very interesting, and Hauz\u00a0Khas, an enclave south of the city centre, which is quite pleasant to stroll around. Just round the corner from the hotel is the Lodhi\u00a0Gardens, an extensive park which contains\u00a0the tombs of a number of sultans of the Lodhi\u00a0dynasty, the last of the sultanates before the Mughal conquest. The gardens themselves were landscaped in 1936 under the supervision of\u00a0the then Governor-general\u2019s wife Lady Willingdon.<\/p>\n We arrived in Delhi on the Saturday and left on the following Wednesday for the journey to Jaipur and Agra, the Golden Triangle of the tourist brochures. The same\u00a0driver who took us round Delhi was organised for this trip. There is a fairly good road between Delhi and Jaipur, a distance of\u00a0about 275 kilometres. Even so, cattle can stray onto\u00a0the highway. We passed a motorbike with three goats stuffed into panniers. We broke our journey for lunch at a roadside restaurant selected by the driver. Our destination is the Samode Palace (*<\/a>), original a fort but turned into a palace in the 19th century and now run as a hotel. The state rooms are intricately decorated and there is very fine swimming pool finished in decorative tiling. The restaurant in an annex though was somewhat underwhelming.<\/p>\n Samode\u00a0is some 40 kilometres north of Jaipur. The plan was to visit the Amer Fort in the morning and the town in the afternoon. Amer was the capital of the region until 1727 when the capital was moved to Jaipur, 10 kilometres down the road. Building was started by Man Singh, the local ruler and a general in Akbar\u2019s army, in the late 16th century, The present structure is substantial and completely covers the hilltop, a complex of courtyards and domes and passageways and pavilions. Elephant rides are available but we preferred to walk up.<\/p>\n In the afternoon we drove into Jaipur. Constructed between 1727 and 1734 and commissioned by Jai Singh II, Jaipur is built and red and pink sandstone, giving everything a cohesive look. The long streets run on a grid pattern. Lunch was at the cafe outside the Anokhi shop (*)<\/a>.\u00a0 Anokhi\u00a0sells block printed clothes and as well as the garments there is an exposition of the workshops and techniques.<\/p>\n We visited the Jantar\u00a0Mantar. Like its counterpart in Delhi this was\u00a0organsied\u00a0by Jai Singh. It is the oldest of the 5 sites. It is possible to climb the instruments; the steps are surprisingly steep. Next stop is the City Palace, another complex of courtyards and passageways. There is a museum in the palace displaying armour and weaponry. The palace was built between 1729 and 1732. But the most memorable building in Japiur\u00a0is the Hawa\u00a0Mahal, the palace of the winds. The intricate stone latticework conceals the passageways which allowed women in purdah to view the street without being seen. It was built in\u00a01798 under Maharaja Sawai\u00a0Pratap\u00a0Singh. On the way back to Samode, we stopped by the Man Sagar\u00a0Lake to look across to the Jal Mahal, the water palace. The lake is artificial and was created by damming a river in the 16th century; the renovations of the original palace were made in the 18th century. The palace has since been restored\u00a0but at the time\u00a0we visited in August 2006 it was still a ruin. Samode\u00a0is at the foot of the Aravalli range of hills and in the evening I climbed to the top of the hill at the back of the palace to the site of the old fort to watch the sunset over the valley.<\/p>\n Next day we travelled on to Agra, but before leaving visited the Jaigarh\u00a0fort which stands above Jaipur in the Aravalli\u00a0hills. Completed in 1726, it is one of the three forts that with Amer and Nahargarh\u00a0provided defence for Jaipur. Extended walls link this fort to the Nahargarh\u00a0fort and there is an underground tunnel between Amer fort and Jaigarh\u00a0fort. The fort houses the Jaivana\u00a0cannon, the largest cannon in the world when it was cast in 1720. We wondered around and took in the views before leaving for Agra.<\/p>\n We only had one day in Jaipur. On reflection, I think we would have done better to cut the stay in Delhi to 2 days and had the extra day in Jaipur. There are other sites to visit in the city and the Samode\u00a0Palace is a beautiful building in which to relax.<\/p>\n It is 240 kilometres or so from Jaipur to Agra, but unlike the Delhi road, this is a single carriageway road of variable quality. Driving discipline in India is poor. You can never be sure there won\u2019t be oncoming traffic on your side of the road. It is not a tranquil ride, but we have confidence in our driver. After lunch at a road side restaurant, again a large hall with benches and long tables, which is fine, we get to Fatehpur\u00a0Sikri\u00a0in mid-afternoon. Fatehpur\u00a0Sikri was founded in 1569 by Akbar. He moved his capital here in 1571 from Agra. In 1585 the imperial complex was abandoned, possible because there was a lack of water supply, perhaps because the political situation required another base. In 1585 Akbar moved his capital on to Lahore before returning to Agra in 1598.<\/p>\n Its characteristic aspect comes from the red sandstone used in the building. The buildings are very well preserved. It isn\u2019t a ruin, but neither is it intact, the buildings aren\u2019t \u2018sealed\u2019 in the way functioning buildings are \u2013 many of the structures are shells and there is no real distinction between interior and exterior spaces. This means that the impact on the ground is not quite\u00a0what you expect from the distant views. The complex contains private quarters for Akbar\u2019s wives and ministers, audience halls, meeting houses, and a mosque. There is also a garden with an ornamental pool surrounding a square platform connected by four bridges.<\/p>\n 40 kilometres further on we arrive in Agra, and check into the Oberoi\u00a0Amarvilas (*<\/a>).\u00a0The hotel is only a few hundred metres from the Taj\u00a0Mahal, and all the rooms face across the garden and a hedge of trees to the dome which you can watch reflecting the setting sun. Flocks of kabutar, pigeons trained to fly in groups, rise from the town hidden behind the hedge and circle before returning to ground. The last Lodhi\u00a0sultans moved their capital here from Delhi in 1506 and it remained their capital until the defeat of Ibrahim Lodhi at the first battle of Panipat in 1526. It became the Mughal capital from 1556 to 1571 and then again from 1598 to 1658.<\/p>\n Transport to the Taj\u00a0Mahal\u00a0site\u00a0the following morning is by golf kart. This is another mausoleum, built by Shah Jahan\u00a0for his favourite wife Mumtaz\u00a0Mahal. It is faced in marble\u00a0inscribed with Koranic verses in elaborate calligraphy and surrounded by a rectangular formal garden. Work started in 1632 and it was completed in 1653, the twenty years of construction marked in the count of small domes over the main entrance gate. To one side is a mosque. It is a very fine building, particularly the delicate minarets at each corner, but like the mausoleums in Delhi it is not a building designed to be lived or worked in and that is its limitation. Below the walls a lawn mower pulled by oxen is working to keep the lawns maintained.<\/p>\n In the afternoon we visited the 3rd of Agra\u2019s UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Red Fort. Construction of the current fort started in 1558, two years after the second battle of Panipat in 1556, at which Akbar re-asserted Mughal control. It was extended by his successors Jahangir and Shah Jahan. The fort is a little upriver from the Taj\u00a0Mahal, and there is a less well known\u00a0view of the\u00a0Mausoleum from here. Shah Jahan was deposed and imprisoned in the Fort by his son Aurangzeb.<\/p>\n In the audience halls I try to picture the emperor Jahangir receiving an embassy\u00a0from king James I of England, although in fact this happened at Ajmer\u00a0in Rajasthan. Sir Thomas Roe was the king\u2019s ambassador to the Mughal court for 3 years between 1615 and 1618, trying to gain protection for the East India Company\u2019s trading post at Surat on the coast. Agra was also\u00a0visited in 1615 by an english traveller called Thomas Coryate, himself trying to reach the court of Jahangir. He eventually catches up with\u00a0the emperor\u00a0at Taragarh\u00a0fort in Ajmer. Here he hangs around with the men from the East India Company who are themselves waiting for Roe. Roe was looking for an agreement between the Company and Jahangir, while Jahangir wanted English help against the Portuguese, but Roe needed confirmation from king James before he could agree to this. Coryate\u00a0wants to continue on\u00a0to China and hopes Roe will introduce him to the emperor so that he can ask Jahangir for money and letters of introduction. However, Roe doesn\u2019t think he is impressive enough and might give the emperor the wrong impression of Englishmen, so eventually Coryate\u00a0has to join the petitioners in the courtyard. Jahangir refuses to give him letters; the Chinese are not friends; but does give him a paltry gift of money. The story is in Dom Moraes\u00a0and Sarayu\u00a0Srivatsa\u2019s book about Coryate called \u2018The Long Strider\u2019.<\/p>\n This is the last day of this tour. The final leg of the triangle is the 240 kilometres return to Delhi, and we are back on dual carriageways. We are dropped directly at the airport for the flight back to Mumbai.<\/p>\n 2<\/p>\n In November we flew south from Mumbai to Kerala. Kerala has traded spices for thousands of years and it was here at Kozhikode that Vasco de Gama arrived in 1498 after the first voyage from the west round the Cape of Good Hope.<\/p>\n