by Aline Dobbie
Sonagiri’s pure white Jain temples
On the return journey, we stopped at Datia. The majestic multi-storeyed palace at Datia was constructed at the height of the Bundela Dynasty’s ‘golden age’. It is considered to be one of the finest Rajput buildings in India. The Raj Bir Singh Deo Palace stands in the north of this little town which comprises narrow streets and has little attraction. This uninhabited but reasonably preserved palace is five storeys high and decorated with paintings and stone carving. The construction is clever because, though very gloomy at its entrance floor, it gradually becomes airy and light as one rises, but the construction has been thought out to provide maximum air and coolness in baking summer heat. When one reaches the top among its domes and cupolas there is a splendid view over the tank with its dhobi ghat and memorial chhatris. Sonagiri is visible in the distance. There is also a fort, the Bharat Garh and the home of the current ruling family but we did not venture into either of these. Gautham drove us back to Jhansi and on to Orchha, where we arrived in the long shadows of the evening sunshine. It could not have been more beautiful.
The Datia Palace has clever architectural features to ensure coolness
Orchha mean ‘hidden place’ and it certainly lives up to that name. This deserted mediaeval town is in the middle of a jungle or forest on the banks of the Betwa River. Here lie ruined crumbling palaces, cenotaphs, temples, havelis which are being enveloped by the jungle. It gives one that odd feeling again, that here was a flourishing palace town, rather like Fatehpur Sikri, that must have been grand and important and now, man made structures are crumbling whilst all the while the jungle continues to grow around it.
Orchha graceful in its jungle decay
The Bundelas decided on this remote site because it is strategically placed on a curve of the Betwa River and presumed safe from the marauding of the Tuqluq dynasty that ruled in Delhi in the late fifteenth century. Raja Rudra Pratap started the fortifications and palaces and temples but he was killed in 1531 trying to wrestle a cow from the jaws of a tiger. After that untimely death, the dynasty had to rely on the Moghul rulers’ tolerance but the most famous rajah, Bir Sing Deo, was an ambitious young man who managed to keep on the right side of the Moghuls, and indeed he ingratiated himself with the young man who was to become the Emperor Jahangir by sending him the head of one of his enemies on a platter. He was rewarded for his brutality by Jahangir who helped him to depose his elder brother Ram Shah. Bir Singh Deo ruled for 22 years and in that time erected 52 forts and palaces across the region including the fortress at Jhansi, the palace at Datia (of which I have written) and many of Orchha’s finest palaces. He was killed in 1627 by bandits while returning from the Deccan with a camel train of booty.
You may now appreciate why I took the time to describe dacoits and bandits in such detail, they were there then and they are there now! Curiously, my own grandmother Aline Rose, as a very young woman, wrote a book called Bengal Dacoits and Tigers in co-operation with the daughter of the Maharajah of Baroda about a hundred years ago! We still have one white-ant eaten copy of this delightful book, for which Grandmother Aline painted the pictures. That young princess went on to become the Maharani of Cooch Behar and mother to the present Rajmata of Jaipur, Ayesha Jaipur. I never, sadly, knew my grandmother, but I like to think she would want me to write about India, and I do remember Ma Cooch Behar as she was universally known.
Driving through the living village of Orchha to approach the abandoned mediaeval area we were enchanted by the freshly painted village houses and shops. Everything here looked really attractive with much use of the bright blue and turquoise one sees so much of in Greece against the clean fresh white house walls. Graham and I were eager to arrive and explore.
Our destination was The Sheesh Mahal Palace which is owned by Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation. This was a case of the Sublime being followed by the Ridiculous, and then closely again by the Sublime! Sheesh Mahal is still being recommended by travel agents as the place to stay. Well, let me assure you that if you want an eccentric experience it is just fine, but not otherwise. The building was, in its heyday, the local rajah’s country retreat and we had been assigned one of the two royal suites. The guide books still talk of it with enthusiasm when in fact they are wrong – this has passed its good days but, were its management to be given a hefty kick in the proverbial and supervised more closely, it could re-emerge as a good quiet little rest house. Currently, however, it is a crumbling old palace with shabby grubby steps, colonnaded dining/lounge area and lazy staff. Heritage eccentric would be my term for it! We found ourselves in a huge bedroom with sitting area, old-fashioned heavy furniture in a gloomy room 10 metres long by about 5 metres wide with a barrel vaulted high ceiling. Off this a marble passage led to an octagonal bathroom with its original fittings, a huge marble bath that was like a large sarcophagus with oblong flat base and one metre high sides. It would make an excellent lily pool. There was a basin set in ancient marble and then one went up a few steps to a w.c. – the ultimate ‘loo with a view’ set in its own added-on wooden structure. We hastily assured ourselves that it was positioned on sturdy steel girders. The best view from the suite was from the window behind the w.c. and to the right – the drop was easily 40 metres down!
Graham and I lay down and laughed – it was all so decayed yet atmospheric. The fan was hideous, incorporating four electric lights which mercifully one could turn off whilst still using the fan. Showering was just possible with an electric water heater that made all the difference. Refreshed we went out to have supper just outside our room. Ten years ago, this might have been attractive but now the shabby decay and lack of supervision made it a boring experience. The food, however, was fine and we stuck to vegetarian dishes. The waiter had to lurch up the steps from the kitchen and by the time it arrived it was cool. Still, we had not had lunch so we finished it all. Television was available but we decided on an early night. In the middle of the night we both woke with a start, the electricity had obviously gone off and when it restarted the fan made a noise like tin cans being swung around, but then settled down to a peaceful whirr!
Next morning we had some very welcome ‘bed tea’ and then a safe breakfast of tomato omelettes and more tea, and then set off to explore. A lot of renovation has been done and is still continuing but somehow their ‘good ideas’ become ineffectual in that they do not blend in, for example, huge electric street lamps that have been vandalised and are stark rusting structures. No-one would walk on these paths in the dark anyway. The paths are constructed, but rubble left on the side with gates off their hinges. Some of the renovation is very coarse and does not do justice to the fine architecture. There is no supervision or quality control. This is modern India’s besetting sin. In the wide open spaces, again one saw human excrement in dollops and this is where tourists would walk, gazing upwards!
Please do not get me wrong, Orchha is a wonder but this should be sympathetically and carefully conserved, with proper attention to detail. Khajuraho proves that it can be achieved, but I have formed the impression that Madhya Pradesh has tried to climb on a tourist bandwagon but has allowed bureaucratic ineptitude, corruption and lethargy to drain its valuable tourist resources. What I saw made me ashamed of India and I passionately want to see it rated as a top tourist destination that will bring it prosperity with the resulting trickle down effect for all. However, the moment one steps outside private enterprise there appears to be no ethos or commitment.
The vultures wheeled high in the sky and then came and perched on the tips of the domes of the Jahangir Mahal. This is Orchha’s most important building which again was built by Bir Singh Deo as a magnificent present for the Moghul emperor when he paid a state visit in the seventeenth century. These are a stunning set of ruins about four centuries old and everywhere one looks there is an ancient mausoleum or chhatri or temple with the trees and vines around. We chatted to other travellers who had come from Korea, USA, and France; they had all reached Orchha by d
ifferent travel routes. Once Gautham arrived with the jeep we settled our bill and started off much to his surprise. He took us through the village to the old Lakshmi temple on a hill. This is a delight and the chowkidar or watchman chatted to us whilst showing us round. There are beautiful wall paintings in vegetable dyes, powdered marble plastering with depictions of the Ramayana, the Bhagavad Geeta and historical events of the nineteenth century, such as the siege of Gwalior. The detail is beautiful and charming and thankfully my photographs have proved successful. The temple had been robbed and vandalised years ago and the Lakshmi statue injured, thus the temple had to be abandoned and a new one built. The watchman was so nice and easy to talk with and glad that we appreciated his architectural gem.
The saga of war and diplomacy at an abandoned temple in Orchha
On the way back from the temple, Gautham pointed out the Animal Clinic unaware that Graham is a vet. I explained to Gautham in Hindi and we asked to stop and pay a visit. The clinic consisted of a square piece of land of about one acre surrounded by a one and half metre stone wall which contained a double entrance gate, one half of which had been demolished, possibly by an enraged buffalo, but more likely by a careless tractor driver. In the middle of the property was the clinic itself consisting of two small rooms, one a dispensary. A cattle crush, a tree and several obligatory chairs completed the scene. There was one young vet plus his assistant, three others and one woman. The clinic is funded by the state. All the services were free for all species including dogs and pigs, although the latter were never presented for treatment. We were both made very welcome, but Graham could not help noticing that the vet did not actually seem to do anything physical – just instructed the others. Not for him the dubious delights of a country vet with his arm up to the shoulder feeling around from the back end of a cow. In our early married life, I well remember the appalling soiled clothes in which Graham would come home, but somehow it was not bad as cows are herbivores and the muck could be washed out very easily with lots of detergent. In India however, as ever, it would seem that ‘Ao laago’ as I call it flourishes, that means roughly ‘Come – do….!’
I enjoyed taking photographs in Orchha village and the charming colours have come out well. Gautham seemed surprised that we did not want to endlessly explore, but you see we had done a lot on foot before he arrived and we did not feel the need to go and inspect every nook and cranny. I just soaked up the ambience of this deserted place with its Chaturbhuj Temple, Unt Khana, Raja Mahal, Rai Praveen Mahal and Jahangir Mahal and Museum plus of course the Lakshmi Temple. It had rained gently in the morning and now cleared to warm sunshine. Sometimes, it is just good to stop and look around in silence.
Gautham at our request drove us to The Orchha Resort and, once there, we decided to go in and investigate. Now we had again arrived at the Sublime! How we had wished we had stayed here the previous night, as there was very little difference in the tariff! This hotel is a charming, well-maintained low-built complex of rooms opening onto an attractive swimming pool in the shape of a lotus flower with a central fountain. The terraces and gardens are elegant and the whole complex is sited on the banks of the river Betwa, with a sturdy wall providing a boundary over which one can view the river. Sitting later in the gentle warmth of the setting sun, which was slowly descending behind the huge memorial chhatris behind the hotel, the serene sound of water splashing from the pool fountain in front of me will be an abiding memory. The Betwa River itself is beautiful and clean and I loved looking out over it resting my arms on the wall. I was writing up my observations in diary form while Graham had a refreshing swim. The management of this hotel is excellent and pays enormous attention to detail. We took a room for the afternoon and were enchanted by the fittings that are all in marble with inlay, like the Taj Mahal. The cleanliness, vibrancy and elegance made this a very good place to stay with the addition of delicious food.
As well as the conventional rooms with well-appointed bathrooms, there is also a tented accommodation complex that is also attractive and presumably a bit cheaper. For us, this was a welcome find because we were not due to leave till the evening train from Jhansi, and, if one is hanging about in decayed surroundings, it can be a vexing experience. Gautham came back to collect us for an 18.30 departure to get us to Jhansi for the 19.25 train to Umeria, due to arrive there at 06.15 the next morning.
I have the most recent editions of two of the most famous guides to India and I am a little disappointed in that they still continue to include details about the charms of the Sheesh Mahal Palace and seem to be dismissive of The Orchha Resort. They should update their research, this was also evident by the fact that in a reference to the Bandit Queen they appear to be unaware that she had been murdered. Editions printed in 2001 and 2002 should not lack this sort of detail otherwise they become slightly unreliable. I have also come to appreciate that guide writers have an exaggerated sense of what can be enjoyable, rather like young Naveen saying hopefully ‘This can also be fun?’ Graham and I usually look at the cup as half full, but I suspect we fall into the large category of well-travelled middle-aged people who no longer want to experience ‘eccentric’ in the ablutions department, or see the waiter lurching along outside with the food being brought to us uncovered, where a passing bird or fly might render it unwise to eat!
Jhansi, similarly, on The Lonely Planet website had been described as ‘a hole’, but this was not our experience. The railway station is quite impressive architecturally and reasonably maintained. There is a big army cantonment and the civilian community is made up of half and half Christian and Muslim. Being an important railway junction, there is the evidence of the colonial era with good wide roads, fine old bungalows and Raj-type architecture, plus of course Jhansi Fort itself. This is interesting but in no way does it compare with Gwalior. The Rani Lakshmi Mahal, however, was the palace of the Rani of Jhansi, a sort of dower house, and is now a museum warehouse, but still charming and interesting. It is worth noting that it was the scene of an awful massacre by British troops in 1858 when they bayoneted all the occupants. So much is repeated of what the rebels had perpetrated on the British civilian population; it should be remembered that in extremis our soldiers behaved very badly too. Two wrongs do not make a right. Innocents inevitably pay a terrible price, as we have seen recently in Iraq, in Viet Nam and other war zones but, even when I was growing up in India, there was a foolish defensive attitude about the wrongs that British and European people perpetrated. Lord Attenborough showed this so delicately in his wonderful ageless film of Gandhi, which I watched again very recently.
As we stood waiting for the train, the platform was covered in sitting and sleeping bodies, some of whom answered a call of nature on the railway line. There was an unwholesome fragrance wafting up which was rather stronger than that from Venetian canals on a hot day! We boarded the air-conditioned second class sleeper without any problems. On this train, there was no alternative of first class. The porter and travel agent helped us settle in and as soon as the train was on its way the bedding was brought in and Graham and I settled ourselves down to relax and sleep. We could have read but it had been an eventful day and quite honestly the movement of the train was very soporific. Graham climbed onto the top bunk and I fervently hoped that no-one else would join us at the one stop en route to our destination. They did, however, and that amusing event I will describe in a following chapter. I had taken the precaution of arming myself with a little torch for any visits to the loo, and we took very good care of our luggage and placed it right under my bunk so that anyone trying to divest us of our belongings would probably wake me.
CHAPTER
EIGHT
Earth’s Proud Empires
As I relaxed and tried to sleep, the day’s events revolved in my visual memory and I knew that at some point I had thought of something which I wanted to explore mentally.
