Agra: The Fort [Closing Shot]

(Continued from Agra: The Fort [White Marble])

Featured Photo: “Diwan-i-Am – Hall of Public Audience”  Agra Fort, India—2011

Leaving the balcony beside the arched pavilion, with its view of the Taj Mahal, I walked through sections of the fort built almost entirely of white marble. I followed a path that led to the searing daylight outside…

…and emerged onto a large courtyard—the Anguri Bagh—containing a charbagh (garden) with marble walkways and a central platform, like I’d seen at the Taj Mahal, but on a smaller, more intimate scale.

The garden was surrounded by buildings on all sides, but I was standing in the most exquisite of these—the Khas Mahal—which flanked the garden’s east side and had been Shah Jahan’s private palace when he ruled. The scalloped archways provided an atmospheric interplay of light and shadows…

…and his palace contained several rooms, possibly drawing rooms or sleeping chambers…

…which were some of the most elaborately decorated and best preserved in Agra Fort.

I ventured out into the Anguri Bagh and took a couple of exterior images. One was centered on the Khas Mahal itself—beyond the wide walkways and the raised platform—which also captured the two gold-roofed, arched pavilions (where I’d stood before, looking at the Taj) that were located on either side of the palace…

…and another highlighted the pleasant, colorful garden.

Just north of the Khas Mahal, along a columned hallway…

…was the Macchi Bhawan, a large two-story structure of sandstone and marble overlooking a spacious, grassy courtyard.

The building’s exterior was relatively plain, but the interior contained additional rooms…

…with stunning ornamentation: inlay, calligraphy, and carved marble screens.

Beyond the central platform overlooking the grassy courtyard was a raised terrace adorned with two thrones, one of white marble, which had been used by Shah Jahan…

…and the other of black slate, which had been used by his father, as a young man, to watch elephant fights in the enclosure below.

Beyond the black throne, my eye was drawn to the Musamman Burj, a striking octagonal tower with gilded roof, set upon a two-story marble pavilion.

I wanted to get a closer look because this was the part of the fort in which Shah Jahan had been imprisoned by his son, and where he had lived the final years of his life. On my way to the Musamman Burj, I passed the Mina Masjid, a plain white marble mosque with a three-arched prayer chamber topped by three domes, said to have been used by Shah Jahan during his captivity.

Continuing on to the pavilion and looking up at the octagonal dome of the Musamman Burj, I was again struck by the elaborate decoration in marble.

I zoomed in on one of the column capitals, its exquisite floral patterns made of pietra dura inlay…

…intricately woven from precious stones, as I’d seen earlier at the Taj Mahal.

The interior space was lavishly covered by these decorations, with carved marble screens adding even more splendor.

I imagined that such beautiful surroundings must have given the Mughal emperors both pleasure and serenity. But I also recalled it was here in the Musamman Burj where—as legend has it—Shah Jahan caught his last glimpse of the Taj Mahal before he died.

There was one more sight to explore in Agra Fort from Shah Jahan’s time. Winding my way back in the general direction of the Jahangiri Mahal and the courtyard where I’d first entered, I reached the graceful Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience).

Open on three sides, the pillared marble hall, which replaced an earlier wooden structure, was commissioned by Shah Jahan during the first year of his reign. I approached for a closer look, capturing an angled shot of visitors on the raised platform…

…and another view of the other side of the platform with fewer people, today’s Featured Photo. Climbing the steps and gazing up at the interior, I thought the scalloped arches seemed even more elegant.

Back in the day, the overall beauty of the setting would have been enhanced by the addition of brocade, carpets, and satin canopies for audiences with the emperor. An ornate marble alcove, decorated with flowers and foliage in bas-relief, had been built to house a gem-encrusted Peacock Throne—long since looted—where Shah Jahan would receive petitions and conduct trials.

Having scheduled no audience with the emperor, and since I’d spent nearly two hours exploring Agra Fort, I decided it was time to follow the crowd exiting through the multiple portals of the Amar Singh Gate.

Outside the fort, I found my driver again waiting patiently and we talked briefly about what to do next. I was tempted to visit more of the remarkable sights in Agra—gardens, tombs, and mosques. But I needed to prepare for my business meetings the next day, and my driver reminded me of the long return trip, so we left Agra and headed back to Delhi. As we drove away, I took one last snapshot: a portrait of Agra Fort in red sandstone and white marble.

Back on the road, it wasn’t long before I was once again immersed in the India that felt so foreign to me. I no longer saw the rich and powerful empire from the ancient days of the Mughal emperors. Nor did I witness the modern, dynamic, productive nation making rapid progress as the world’s largest democracy and a global economic power, with growing IT, healthcare, and manufacturing sectors. Rather, the return trip felt more like I was passing through a third-world country.

(To be continued…)