Thursday, February 12, 2009

Agra Fort

This is the place where Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son for the last 6 years of his life. If I had to pick a place to be imprisoned...this would be it. Across the river, the outline of the Taj was striking in the fog. He died in a room, overlooking the Taj where his beloved was buried. Then his body was taken up the river and he was buried beside her.
The carved red sandstone has stood the test of time...being over 400 years old, it's still breathtaking.

The doors in this place were so delicate.

The monkeys were crawling all over the great walls of the fort. They live here now, along with a handful of dogs, green parakeets, pigeons, and the striped chipmunks. The chipmunks are so tame people were feeding them by hand. The legend goes that when Rama's wife got kidnapped, they had to build a giant bridge across the ocean to get her back. Haunaman (the monkey king) recruited all creatures to help. The chipmunks would get wet and roll in the sand, carrying it to the men who were making cement and shake it off their fur. Rama was so impressed with the help of the chipmunks, that he held one in his palm and blessed it with 3 fingers...leaving the 3 stripes. These chipmunks are special to this place.




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree... I'd take this "prison" anyday! Wow, it's beautiful.