Ah….back in the sightseeing saddle. Since I couldn’t get my money back from Paul’s Rentals for the extra day of car rental, I insisted on a car today, and poor Bharat had to take me around yet again. At least he seems over his cold…I don’t think you can keep a cold in this environment because it just gets sweated out of you. He seems happy back in the heat; I just sigh, get out my Dollar Store hankie, wipe my sweat and move on out.
I decided to take advantage of the car to see things that would be too widespread to see on foot (in this heat). For beginners, I wanted to visit the area that’s roughly similar to the mall in Washington, DC, so I had Bharat take me to the India gate and Rajpath. Architect Edwin Lutyens did the main layout for British New Delhi, and he used a series of axes pointed throughout the city, a la Washington, DC, Paris and, to some extent, London. The main administrative axis is the Rajpath. On Raisina Hill at the top of the axis is the President’s home, but it used to be the Viceroy’s home…the seat of British government when it wasn’t this hot (when the temp went up, they decamped to Shimla). As you’d expect, the former Viceroy’s home is big, imposing and colonial with a colonnaded façade and rotunda on the top that faintly suggests the US capital. Here’s where power was. Leading on down the hill and on either side of the mall are more colonnaded buildings with wings that come out toward the center of the Rajpath. These are administration buildings, and they’re made of the same red sandstone as the Red Fort. The Rajpath continues a long distance down – parks and fountains along the way – until it ends at the India Gate, something like a small Arch de Triomphe that’s both a war memorial and focus for ceremonial occasions. The whole Rajpath is very imposing, grand and imperial. Off to the side is a circular building – Parliament! It’s on another axis envisioned by Lutyens, but you can tell by the fact that it’s not even on the Rajpath that, in colonial India, Parliament wasn’t worth much. Looking at this relatively inconspicuous building, I recalled a quote from the Brit who’d proposed the first ‘representative assembly’ in India to the effect that he’d never have suggested the idea if he had thought it would lead to anything resembling a parliament. Ha!
I knew it’d be closed on Monday, but since it was close, I wanted to see the Bahai Temple. It was
as nice as I’d heard. I think it was built in the mid-80s, so it’s very modern architecture, and its form is meant to suggest a lotus opening. As I recall, the Bahai faith sees each religion as a path to the truth, so the Bahai welcome anyone to worship. I associate Bahai with the mid- to late-70s, but that’s probably just my little late hippie experience. As so many places here in Delhi, there’s a great garden around the temple.
Next, we headed through very intense traffic and development to the 13th century Qutb Minar, and as we were going through all the bustle and construction, a sudden realization came to me. There have been many Delhi-s in history – Hindu rulers established their kingdoms here, Afgan invaders built their capitals beside and over these, the Mughals wanted their own Delhi, and the British built their own: New Delhi. Each of these Delhi’s is still extant (Qutb Minar is part of one), so there is Delhi beside Delhi beside Delhi. After visiting the Rajpath, I realized that the British Delhi, New Delhi, is just as dated today as the Qutb Minar and Tughlaqabad Delhi-s; people live in those older parts among the historic structures, but there is a Newer Delhi shooting up that is a massive, unique response to the movement of power and capital in India. This Newer Delhi has wide streets and parks, but it has malls instead of lines of small stores and medical complexes instead of a peppering of doctors’ offices. The Newer Delhi has gigantic mass transit and, for those who can afford it, parking. Newer Delhi has it’s own structure and architecture, and going through it, I was struck by what a genuinely unique historical moment this is in India; what a privilege to get to see this moment as it is taking form and expressing itself in yet another Delhi, replacing the outdated New Delhi with the Newer.
But I was all keen to get back to an earlier Delhi, so I was glad to get to the Qutb Minar complex. This part of Delhi is, I think, the first Moslem settlement of the city, and it marked the end of Hindu rule in Northern India. The Qutb Minar itself is a tall tower that commemorates the
Islamic victory; it was started in the 1193, but various rulers over the next 150 years added to it. Still…..it just boggled my mind to look at the refined, sophisticated construction in the area -- the elegant mosques; the gracious, polished gateways; the refined courtyards and tombs – and to think that 12th century Europe was the crude gargoyles and the somber, blocky churches of the Romanesque. Seeing this site drove home to me the advanced level of Islamic culture at this time in a way nothing I’ve read has done.
As much as I liked the Qutb Minar itself, there were other things in the complex that were just as beautiful. There was a 16th century Lodi tomb (another group of rulers in Delhi), and a very beautiful, ornately-carved 14th century gate. Of all these though, I especially enjoyed the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, build contemporaneously with the Qutb Minar itself. When I walked into the mosque, I was struck by how ornate everything was, but on further inspection, I realized that there was an awful lot of representational imagery in the mosque’s carvings. In fact, there were human figures (forbidden in Islam) and vegetal decoration that you never see in mosques. Back at the information panels, I found out that Qutb-ud-din, the guy behind these 12th century masterpieces, had put the mosque right on the location of several large Hindu temples. Since the building material was there, he just tore down the temples and appropriated the pieces for into the mosque, kinda like the way the Spanish would later put churches where there had been Mayan temples and incorporate the material from the earlier temples. A pretty effective technique – not only does the conqueror get material to build with, but by tearing down structures of the conquered and using the pieces in the new construction, you’re sending a message about your power vis-à-vis the loser’s. And a last note – acknowledging that my Asian art history is somewhat weak, I couldn’t help but
notice that some of the “Hindu” figures looked lots like Buddhist asparas; I had to wonder if all the Hindu temples had been created as Hindu (and Jain) temples or if there had been Buddhist structures in the area whose parts the Hindu rulers had used when they gained dominion, just as the Moslem victors were later to do.
The last thing I wanted to get a glimpse of was the “Ashoka” pillar in the courtyard of the mosque. Ashoka was a great, early (250 BC) emperor in India, still revered for his reign. Buddhist, as I recall. In any case, this 21-foot high pillar is made of iron, and an inscription on it dates it at late 300 AD. It was apparently brought this site when Qutb Minar was a collection of Hindu temples, and when Altamish added a courtyard to the 12th century mosque, he just build the courtyard around the pillar. It’s amazing that this iron column is 2000 years old and hasn’t rusted yet.
An interesting thing about being a single guy wandering around tourist sites is that people often ask to take your photo. At all these places, 99.99% of the tourists are domestic, and I’ve had my picture taken time and again with Indians who are on vacation. I figure that’s only fair since I’m always doing the same thing, and I’ll usually hit the photographers back by asking to take their photos, too. While I was looking at the iron column, a family from Tamil Nadu started talking to
me, and we all ended up taking each other’s photos. The grandmother in the group was kind and beautiful, and I gave her one of my cards.
At this point, I was hungry, so when Bharat mentioned stopping briefly at a mall, I jumped at the occasion. I’m not above fast food if it’s in air conditioning. However, the “mall” was just a super-high end Cottage Industries place with wonderful crafts at outrageous prices. I looked at some bedspreads and statues, tried to keep a straight face at the prices, escaped the carpet salesmen, and fled to the car. Close call! Stopped by Air India to get a reservation for Leh but found THAT too expensive, too. I’d found a cheaper rate on Orbitz at the Internet café. Good to know. And one more craft gallery. By this time, I’d wised up and asked for a cold Coke before looking at the overpriced merch. Again, the stuff I liked was way too expensive, but I at least had a couple of cold drinks. Dang…the price thing is just disappointing, but I’d rather take back nothing than something far overpriced or something reasonably priced but shabby. What a concept -- my bags might be light enough for me to carry when I head back!
Finally got to an air-conditioned restaurant and had lunch! Love this Indian food, and my tummy is clearly getting used to it. Went back to the hotel afterwards, took my usual nap, and then decided to go out for my usual tea time coffee. From there, I went to my Internet café and booked a flight to Leh. YEA!!!! I finally have some closure on that, anyway. Leave at 5:40 am (!) on Friday. Figure I’ll loose 1-3 days to altitude at Leh and then get to do at least a little sightseeing.
I decided to take advantage of the car to see things that would be too widespread to see on foot (in this heat). For beginners, I wanted to visit the area that’s roughly similar to the mall in Washington, DC, so I had Bharat take me to the India gate and Rajpath. Architect Edwin Lutyens did the main layout for British New Delhi, and he used a series of axes pointed throughout the city, a la Washington, DC, Paris and, to some extent, London. The main administrative axis is the Rajpath. On Raisina Hill at the top of the axis is the President’s home, but it used to be the Viceroy’s home…the seat of British government when it wasn’t this hot (when the temp went up, they decamped to Shimla). As you’d expect, the former Viceroy’s home is big, imposing and colonial with a colonnaded façade and rotunda on the top that faintly suggests the US capital. Here’s where power was. Leading on down the hill and on either side of the mall are more colonnaded buildings with wings that come out toward the center of the Rajpath. These are administration buildings, and they’re made of the same red sandstone as the Red Fort. The Rajpath continues a long distance down – parks and fountains along the way – until it ends at the India Gate, something like a small Arch de Triomphe that’s both a war memorial and focus for ceremonial occasions. The whole Rajpath is very imposing, grand and imperial. Off to the side is a circular building – Parliament! It’s on another axis envisioned by Lutyens, but you can tell by the fact that it’s not even on the Rajpath that, in colonial India, Parliament wasn’t worth much. Looking at this relatively inconspicuous building, I recalled a quote from the Brit who’d proposed the first ‘representative assembly’ in India to the effect that he’d never have suggested the idea if he had thought it would lead to anything resembling a parliament. Ha!
I knew it’d be closed on Monday, but since it was close, I wanted to see the Bahai Temple. It was
as nice as I’d heard. I think it was built in the mid-80s, so it’s very modern architecture, and its form is meant to suggest a lotus opening. As I recall, the Bahai faith sees each religion as a path to the truth, so the Bahai welcome anyone to worship. I associate Bahai with the mid- to late-70s, but that’s probably just my little late hippie experience. As so many places here in Delhi, there’s a great garden around the temple.Next, we headed through very intense traffic and development to the 13th century Qutb Minar, and as we were going through all the bustle and construction, a sudden realization came to me. There have been many Delhi-s in history – Hindu rulers established their kingdoms here, Afgan invaders built their capitals beside and over these, the Mughals wanted their own Delhi, and the British built their own: New Delhi. Each of these Delhi’s is still extant (Qutb Minar is part of one), so there is Delhi beside Delhi beside Delhi. After visiting the Rajpath, I realized that the British Delhi, New Delhi, is just as dated today as the Qutb Minar and Tughlaqabad Delhi-s; people live in those older parts among the historic structures, but there is a Newer Delhi shooting up that is a massive, unique response to the movement of power and capital in India. This Newer Delhi has wide streets and parks, but it has malls instead of lines of small stores and medical complexes instead of a peppering of doctors’ offices. The Newer Delhi has gigantic mass transit and, for those who can afford it, parking. Newer Delhi has it’s own structure and architecture, and going through it, I was struck by what a genuinely unique historical moment this is in India; what a privilege to get to see this moment as it is taking form and expressing itself in yet another Delhi, replacing the outdated New Delhi with the Newer.
But I was all keen to get back to an earlier Delhi, so I was glad to get to the Qutb Minar complex. This part of Delhi is, I think, the first Moslem settlement of the city, and it marked the end of Hindu rule in Northern India. The Qutb Minar itself is a tall tower that commemorates the
Islamic victory; it was started in the 1193, but various rulers over the next 150 years added to it. Still…..it just boggled my mind to look at the refined, sophisticated construction in the area -- the elegant mosques; the gracious, polished gateways; the refined courtyards and tombs – and to think that 12th century Europe was the crude gargoyles and the somber, blocky churches of the Romanesque. Seeing this site drove home to me the advanced level of Islamic culture at this time in a way nothing I’ve read has done.As much as I liked the Qutb Minar itself, there were other things in the complex that were just as beautiful. There was a 16th century Lodi tomb (another group of rulers in Delhi), and a very beautiful, ornately-carved 14th century gate. Of all these though, I especially enjoyed the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, build contemporaneously with the Qutb Minar itself. When I walked into the mosque, I was struck by how ornate everything was, but on further inspection, I realized that there was an awful lot of representational imagery in the mosque’s carvings. In fact, there were human figures (forbidden in Islam) and vegetal decoration that you never see in mosques. Back at the information panels, I found out that Qutb-ud-din, the guy behind these 12th century masterpieces, had put the mosque right on the location of several large Hindu temples. Since the building material was there, he just tore down the temples and appropriated the pieces for into the mosque, kinda like the way the Spanish would later put churches where there had been Mayan temples and incorporate the material from the earlier temples. A pretty effective technique – not only does the conqueror get material to build with, but by tearing down structures of the conquered and using the pieces in the new construction, you’re sending a message about your power vis-à-vis the loser’s. And a last note – acknowledging that my Asian art history is somewhat weak, I couldn’t help but
notice that some of the “Hindu” figures looked lots like Buddhist asparas; I had to wonder if all the Hindu temples had been created as Hindu (and Jain) temples or if there had been Buddhist structures in the area whose parts the Hindu rulers had used when they gained dominion, just as the Moslem victors were later to do.The last thing I wanted to get a glimpse of was the “Ashoka” pillar in the courtyard of the mosque. Ashoka was a great, early (250 BC) emperor in India, still revered for his reign. Buddhist, as I recall. In any case, this 21-foot high pillar is made of iron, and an inscription on it dates it at late 300 AD. It was apparently brought this site when Qutb Minar was a collection of Hindu temples, and when Altamish added a courtyard to the 12th century mosque, he just build the courtyard around the pillar. It’s amazing that this iron column is 2000 years old and hasn’t rusted yet.
An interesting thing about being a single guy wandering around tourist sites is that people often ask to take your photo. At all these places, 99.99% of the tourists are domestic, and I’ve had my picture taken time and again with Indians who are on vacation. I figure that’s only fair since I’m always doing the same thing, and I’ll usually hit the photographers back by asking to take their photos, too. While I was looking at the iron column, a family from Tamil Nadu started talking to
me, and we all ended up taking each other’s photos. The grandmother in the group was kind and beautiful, and I gave her one of my cards.At this point, I was hungry, so when Bharat mentioned stopping briefly at a mall, I jumped at the occasion. I’m not above fast food if it’s in air conditioning. However, the “mall” was just a super-high end Cottage Industries place with wonderful crafts at outrageous prices. I looked at some bedspreads and statues, tried to keep a straight face at the prices, escaped the carpet salesmen, and fled to the car. Close call! Stopped by Air India to get a reservation for Leh but found THAT too expensive, too. I’d found a cheaper rate on Orbitz at the Internet café. Good to know. And one more craft gallery. By this time, I’d wised up and asked for a cold Coke before looking at the overpriced merch. Again, the stuff I liked was way too expensive, but I at least had a couple of cold drinks. Dang…the price thing is just disappointing, but I’d rather take back nothing than something far overpriced or something reasonably priced but shabby. What a concept -- my bags might be light enough for me to carry when I head back!
Finally got to an air-conditioned restaurant and had lunch! Love this Indian food, and my tummy is clearly getting used to it. Went back to the hotel afterwards, took my usual nap, and then decided to go out for my usual tea time coffee. From there, I went to my Internet café and booked a flight to Leh. YEA!!!! I finally have some closure on that, anyway. Leave at 5:40 am (!) on Friday. Figure I’ll loose 1-3 days to altitude at Leh and then get to do at least a little sightseeing.
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