Melanie Drury

Thursday 3 January

I feel pleasantly saturated by the exposure I have had to spirituality within the Hindu context during these past weeks, so as I arrive in Agra it comes almost as a surprise to perceive the different dress and custom of the less prominent but substantial realm of Islam in India.

Several men are wearing long, black beards with white, round caps and long shirts over trousers. Some women are wearing black burkas, a stark contrast to the brightly-coloured sarees worn by Hindu women.

The majority of Muslims in India are from the Jammu and Kashmir state bordering Pakistan and Tibet in the Himalayas. At the end of British Colonial India, the British organised the Partition of India which in August 1947 created ‘Hindu’ India and ‘Islamic’ Pakistan and East Bengal (later East Pakistan, then Bangladesh since 1971). The Kashmiri Raj had preferred independence, but was forced into joining India due to Pakistani invasion. Today conflict persists over the Islamic state which is politically still part of ‘Hindu’ India.

Actually, there are Muslims all over India, and Agra is one of those places with an abundant concentration. In fact, Agra, then known as Akbarabad, was the capital of the Mughal Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries, of which Babar was the founder. His grandson, Akbar, is responsible for building the Great Red Fort and a city called Fatehpur Sikri, 35 kilometres from Akbarabad. Further down the line, Shah Jahan built the famous Taj Mahal, today the emblem of India.

After the decline of the Mughal Empire, Akbarabad became known as Agra. Today it is a major tourist destination because of its magnificent Mughal-era buildings, most notably the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri, all three of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It receives two to three million visitors every year, of which more than 200,000 come from overseas.

Friday 4 January

I am surprised to find India’s largest tourist attraction closed. Built by a Muslim emperor, the Taj Mahal incorporates a mosque and therefore it is closed today so as not to disturb the obligatory Friday prayers.

I wander to the rear end of the boundary wall from where I can admire the Taj Mahal’s splendour in the sun from the banks of the Jamuna. I take a boat to the sandbank in the middle of the river, which allows me to admire its perfect symmetry from a short distance. A friendly local remarks that it is especially beautiful in the moonlight, and launches himself into telling me its history and lore.

“In 1630, Emperor Shah Jahan was so affected by grief when his third wife died during the birth of their 14th child that he nearly followed her to the grave,” begins Farouk. He continues to tell me how Mumtaz Mahal is reputed to have been an extraordinary beauty, with whom her husband was extremely in love. So great was their love that it is held as the inspiration for the Taj Mahal, which was built so that Shah Jahan’s beloved could be remembered eternally.

Shah Jahan’s attachment to Mumtaz Mahal manifested the masterpiece before me. The Taj Mahal is considered the finest example of Mughal architecture combining elements from Persian, Turkish, Islamic and Indian architectural styles, while it is designed and decorated in line with the Islamic prohibition of the use of anthropomorphic forms.

On top of gate are 22 small domes, representing the number of years it took 20,000 workers to create this marvel of marble. The best quality materials from all over Asia and Arabia were transported using over 1,000 elephants. Twenty-eight types of precious and semi-precious stones from all around the world were inlaid into the white marble brought from Rajasthan.

Even from this distance I can see the inscriptions of verses from the Holy Koran on it and vague patterns of inlay work and carving. I find it odd that while admiring this great monument so tied in with Islam, I can hear the now-familiar Hare Krishna mantra sung just down-stream near the burning ghats. This India is truly a land of contrasts!

Saturday 5 January

Unlike yesterday, today the area around the entrance gate to the Taj Mahal is like shark-infested waters, with crowds of tourists battling to get through the hawkers. The atmosphere is quite overwhelming until entrance into its landscaped gardens.

The traditional Persian garden was introduced to India by the first Mughal emperor Babur. The garden is laid out according to the mystic Islamic texts of the Mughal period, whereby paradise is described as a garden of abundance with a central spring which feeds four rivers separating the garden into north, west, south and east.

Walking through the marble maze I feel like a woman whose hunger has been appeased by a feast but who wishes her stomach has greater capacity for all the delicious food still available on the banquet table. My eyes revel on the extraordinary beauty of the elaborate inlay designs using pietra dura (hard stone) or semi-precious stones, the calligraphy panels, the incised painting of abstract forms or flower motifs, and fine carving that decorate the monument of love.

The central dome of the Taj has a diameter of 60 feet and rises an impressive 80 feet above the building. Beneath the dome, within an octagonal chamber, lies the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal, flanked on the West side by Shah Jahan’s tomb, which was erected next to hers by his son Aurangzeb. This is the only visible asymmetric element in the entire complex.

Agra’s Taj Mahal certainly deserves its place as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. It is said that during the last eight years of his life as a prisoner of his son Aurangzeb, who forcefully took hold of the empire, Shah Jahan simply spent his time within the Great Fort gazing at the Taj Mahal, perfect like his beloved.

Monday 7 January

The forbidding red sandstone bastions and deep moat around Agra Fort hide a semi-circular paradise stretching across 2.4 kilometres. Built by Akbar in 1565, it was converted into a palace-residence and reworked extensively with marble and pietra dura inlay similar to that of the Taj during his grandson Shah Jahan’s time. Remarkable buildings within the fort include a mosque, several palaces and audience halls.

Tuesday 8 January

Fatehpur Sikri was the Mughal capital for 14 years. The city, which was abandoned probably due to lack of water, still flaunts amazingly beautiful buildings in Akbar’s architectural style. It is certainly worth the day-trip!

Wednesday 9 January

I feel sport for his game when cycle-rickshaw wallah Mahadev suggests a mini-tour of Agra for free on the condition that I simply view a couple of shops on the way. The commission he will receive will pay his day’s rent of the rickshaw, while I am keen to see what else Agra has to offer.

The main shopping areas are the Sadar Bazaar, Kinari Bazaar and Munro Road. We halt outside a grand, three-storey building and through the revolving doors I discover a delightful array of Agra’s speciality handicraft products: marble inlay work, carpets, zari embroidery work, leather goods, brass-ware and jewellery.

Although everything on display is extraordinarily beautiful, especially the rich, bead-worked wall-hanging carpets, I am particularly fascinated by the marble work, which has become a prominent traditional craft here in Agra since the time of the Taj Mahal’s construction. Today’s artisans fashion vases, lamp bases, table tops, chess-sets, plates, coasters, trays, boxes and also much larger items such as fountains and chairs!

Marble work includes intricately carved jaalis (perforate relief) that filter light and mosaics of white marble, other colours of marble and red sandstone. However, the most exquisite work is certainly inlay work, with Arabesque being the most frequently used decorative motif, in geometrically interlocked floral designs similar to those used in the Taj. The marble is obtained from Makrana and the semi-precious stones come from all over the world.

The shop assistant takes the time to show me the work-shop and explain the highly skillful procedure being performed by the three men. I begin to understand why the number of stone pieces in more complex, fine inlay designs determines the cost of the item rather than its size.

First is the very slow process of finely slicing semi-precious stones such as Lapis Lazuli, Cornelian, Black Onyx, Turquoise, Jasper, Malachite with a bow of tensed steel wire. Then the stone is washed and cut into smaller pieces to facilitate shaping. The delicate shaping of the minute stone is done by holding the stone in the left hand against a rotating disc controlled by the right hand.

When each carefully shaped piece is ready, it is placed in its designated position on the marble surface. The outline of the pattern is defined with a sharp, pointed instrument and the stone pressed into place and fixed with a burning charcoal. If the whole process has been skillfully executed there should be no line of cement visible between the inlaid stone and the marble. The final polishing is done with zinc power to produce fine pieces of art.

Expressing my dismay at the cost of the items, Mahadev takes me to a smaller, local shop where I am able to purchase a beautiful marble box with perforated design and inlaid flowers, of less refined quality but also for a fraction of the price!

Thursday 10 January

Dilal, a young man in full Muslim attire, runs the family business of Persian carpet-making. He is very friendly and takes me to where his sister is seated at what looks like a hand-loom. He sits beside her and invites me to sit between them.

Dilal begins by explaining that there are two types of knot used in making carpets – Turkish and Persian. The Persian method was brought to India during the era of the Moghul Empire and to this day remains a local tradition. Cotton or wool is knotted around jute twine and, today, weavers produce both traditional and new designs to satisfy market demand.

“This method of making an eternity-shaped knot around the double line of twine was conceived by a Sufi about 400 years ago, as a meditation. He chanted names of God with each knot,” he says, showing me how it is done. Although the history of knotted carpets dates back 2,500 years, the first concrete evidence of the Persian craft does date back to around the 16th century.

Dilal cuts the wool from each knot with a rounded knife, “Try it!” As I attempt a knot, I comment that chanting the names of God sounds so much like Hindu tradition. He specifies that Muslims chant glories to Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, or that “God is Great.” An interesting discussion ensues on the similarities, and diversity, between the Muslim and Hindu conception of God. After all, Muslims and Hindus in India commonly live peacefully together in day-to-day life.

An entire row completed, the knots are secured with a strong line across the twine so that the next row can begin. “We use a picture-pattern whereby each box is a knot,” he shows me, “but in the past the pattern was sung. Persian carpets are thus also known as singing carpets.”

Dilal shows me the rear side of the carpet so I can see the design more clearly, then explains that the final stage is to cut the emerging wool to size using special scissors to produce the beautiful finished products displayed in his shop. He is a humble, religious man yet proud of his family’s tradition and kind enough to share insight to the craft.

Despite so much familiarity with this country, India does not cease to amaze me with its diversity and extraordinary beauty. I often contemplate how the subcontinent seems to offer an entire planet’s culture, religion and tradition within a single nation!

The Faiths of India: 80% Hindu, 13% Muslim, 2.5% Christian, 2% Sikh, 1.5% Buddhist and 0.5% Jain and 0.5% other faiths according to the 2001 census.

Episode 26 of Melanie Drury’s diary is due on 28 January

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