Drivers, Stepped Wells and Baolis

Travel date 16 March 2008
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When I was planning the Indian section of my trip I did a lot of research into the various methods of travel. There is an excellent train service in India and I spent some time poring over timetables and asking questions on http://www.indiamike.com/ about that option, but eventually it was advice from the knowledgeable people on that site that convinced me to use a car with driver.

I am so glad I did. I eventually booked with Gajraj Travel, (or http://www.gajrajtravels.com/). Not only did I see the country at the pace and route that I chose, there were so many other benefits. Raj, my driver, was not just a nice guy who could survive on Indian roads but he was also an invaluable interpreter and advisor. His presence made the awkward things that could have been hassles into simple things – finding an ATM, knowing the restaurants, shops and markets, interpreting when needed, and answers to all the small questions that occurred to me as we travelled along. The sort of questions that aren’t important enough to appear in guide books but provide insights into the real India.



No matter how much research you do for a trip you always miss something. I had never heard of India’s stepped wells. On the way from Fatehpur Sikri to Jaipur, Raj asked if I would like to see something unusual. Of course I said yes. He turned off the main road onto a bumpy, narrow, rutted dirt road winding through arid farmland sparsely dotted with occasional dwellings. Eventually we came to a small village next to a low, very old, stone building. Raj introduced me to a guide and after paying a small fee the guide took me inside.

Later I saw the pyramids of Egypt. Imagine a giant picking up a pyramid, inverting it, and thrusting it into the ground, then pulling it out again to leave a pyramid-shaped hole in the ground. That is what a stepped well, or baoli, is like.

This particular one, the Chand Baori, is one of the deepest. There are 13 flights of steps and it is over 100 feet or 30 meters deep. It apparently dates back to the 9th century and was only re-discovered recently. I’m sure the locals knew about it, but no-one else seemed to be aware of it until the late 20th century.



In this hot, arid region there were significant benefits to controlling the local water supply; the baoli was also a cooler place to be in summer. Consequently the local ruler used the buildings on one side as his summer palace, with rooms for wives and concubines. Inside the palace there are many rooms cut deep into the rock.



I saw no-one else there apart from my guide and a couple of beggars. This is not a place that most tour buses would reach. However, there were signs that archeologists are working on the many carved stone sections that have been salvaged from the site.

The lower levels were used in drier times but became submerged as water levels rose in the monsoon. Within the buildings there were aqueducts and pipes cut in the stone for a water supply system. It’s not clear how the palace servants raised the water from the well to the upper areas, possibly there were pumps of some sort. The local peasant ladies used pitchers balanced on their heads as they descended the steps, filled the pitchers at the bottom then climbed again. I must admit I wouldn’t drink the green stuff sitting in the bottom now, but it would have looked very different 11 centuries ago.



Cheers, Alan

Indian Forts and Palaces

Travel dates 16-19 March 2008

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I’ve included pictures from several sites interleaved with the text; the names in bold font relate to the pictures.

Jaipur City Palace

Indian History has interested me since my teen years, when my High School Library sold some old unwanted books in 1961 and I became the proud purchaser of Cassell’s Illustrated History of India, Vol 1 for the princely sum of 3d.

Fatehpur Sikri

There is no publication date noted, but there is a pencilled inscription on the inside cover page by a student "A Boyd, 1/2/1909". The introduction page mentions that India has a "population of more than 150 million souls" and there is a note in the same hand beside that sentence "1909, now 400,000,000".

That book, somewhat battered, is sitting in front of me now. I did not do well in my final year of history at school but that fascinating book had me reading into the wee small hours, when I should have been studying other things. I have been interested in history ever since. It covered the period from Ancient times to 1824 and I learned about Alexander, and Clive, and John Company, and the Black Hole of Calcutta and many other things from the incredibly biased, racist, paternalistic and totally fascinating viewpoint of the British Raj. This was the India of fabulously wealthy Maharajas and even wealthier British traders, diplomacy and deceit, bravery and battles, subadars and sepoys.

Amber Fort



Later I discovered the books of John Masters, an officer in the Gurkha Rifles between WWI and WWII who writes about India from the unique view of a man who loves the country and understands it, while having to leave it after independance and partition.

With that background I should not have been surprised by the magnificence of the Forts and Palaces of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, but I was. I visited several. I’ve included some photos here taken in Fatehpur Sikri, Amber, and Jaipur as examples. I’ve culled them to show the quality of the architecture, the detailed workmanship, their beauty or simply their sheer size, because there is not space to include all of the photos here.

Pictures can only show what the eye can see, but I hope these convey a small part of the atmosphere and my feelings as I gazed on these ancient places and wandered through their corridors and crannies.

Cheers, Alan

Jaipur

Travel Dates 15-18 March 2008

My apologies. I can't believe it is over four months since I last posted on this travel blog. I've made a New Year's resolution to spend more time here before the memories fade.

Where was I? Ah - India!

It took over an hour to leave Agra. At one point we inched along in a grid-lock of cars, bikes, pedestrians, scooters, auto-rickshaws, camels and donkeys; moving ten feet in twenty minutes. It was only when a policeman finally appeared (I think it was to usher a cow through) that we finally got moving again

After the chaos and grime of Agra we visited Fatehpur Sikri then crossed the border from Uttar Pradesh into Rajasthan. I'll come back to Fatehpur Sikri later, when I write on some of the other forts and palaces in the region, such as Amber Fort.

The change was quite abrupt, in many small but noticeable ways. The road was better maintained and although the drivers were just as crazy the traffic was a little lighter. The villages beside the road were still poor, but clean and tidy and better cared for. One of the contradictions I noticed as we drove past those villages was the poise and grace of the women and the wonderful colours of their saris and the variety of their jewellery. Possibly their posture was aided by the habit of carrying quite heavy loads balanced on their heads.

We saw several groups working in the fields, but the most noticeable village industry seemed to be dung production in the form of dinner-plate sized discs. The finished items are left in the sun to dry, then stacked in piles like giant beehives; often the stacking is done in a decorative spiral.

Despite that, even when I noticed the ladies carrying loads of the stuff on their heads, their clothing always looked spotless. Presumably the source of the product is the cows, camels and goats or even elephants that we regularly swerved to avoid, but I didn't ask the driver for more detail. There are some questions you don't really want answers to.

We arrived in Jaipur and I checked into Hotel Arya Niwas, as I mentioned in the previous post.










Jaipur, after Agra, was a much more pleasant city. I felt quite comfortable wandering alone in the roads near the hotel and also downtown later when I went shopping.

However, by Australian standards the traffic was still chaotic.







I learned as a pedestrian that the only function of pedestrian crossings was to channel all the targets for the motorists into one area; woe betide any pedestrian still on the crossing when the lights changed. I was actually quite proud of myself at one stage, when I realised that I had crossed the road seven times without injury. Of course, on the eighth crossing I was grazed by a car. It must have been my fault, from the reaction of the driver; he was probably right. Silly me for thinking he was supposed to stop when the light went red...



The people of the "Pink City", Jaipur, are proud of their heritage as the capital of Rajasthan; certainly my driver, Raj, was.








It is a sprawling city, surrounding the central "Old Town" which includes the famous Observatory and several palaces including the City Palace, which is now effectively a museum, and the fascinating Hawa Mahal.







This palace is effectively a facade one room thick but five stories high. It was built in the late 18th century in the form of the crown of the Hindu god Krishna as a place where the Maharaja's royal ladies could gaze out without being seen. So this was their view of the world. As I arrived on the fifth floor this procession was passing; I'm not sure what was being celebrated. The place is being renovated at the moment. Once again I was impressed by the bravery of the Indian workers and their faith in the bamboo and rope scaffolding five floors up.






The observatory was impressive. Built by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the Rajput ruler of Amber, in the early 18th century it is an amazingly accurate celestial observatory. Most of the structures are shadow-dials of one form or another, designed to track the progress of the sun, moon and the astrological constellations of the zodiac. It served as local clock, calendar and the ruler's predictor and guide. Astrology was considered an important science at the time.

Click on the text photos for descriptions for the associated photos. The large picture above is a reverse view of the Brihat Samrat Yantra, the giant sundial.

Cheers, Alan