Buildings and India, Delhi

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It is getting really hard to title blog posts these days. Nothing like what it used to be in the old days, before the time of Hemingway. He got away with "The Old Man and the Sea." I'm jealous.

My very first day in India, after taking my first shower in 2 days, I went with my Indian aunt (actual relationship: the wife of my Indian friend's father's brother. Sorry, Tamanna, to reduce you to the epithet Indian Friend) Nikita to see Akshardham. I'd never heard of it before a month ago, but because I work with a lot of Indian nurses, I got lots of recommendations of where to go on this trip. So, armed with a letter to get me a personal tour in English, I entered the amazing grounds of Akshardham. At the request of security, I left my camera, phone, and even shoes, so to my great disappointment I cannot show you how awe-inspiring that temple is. The best I can do is borrow photos from the Akshardham website.
This doesn't even start to give you the idea of this place, whose name means 'heaven.' The perimeter of the temple grounds had intricately-carved screens, polished walkways, and a low chanting in Sanskrit broadcast over well-hidden speakers. At the main entry towards the monument, two gates with hundreds of carved peacocks (the national bird of India) faced each other in-between fountains. The water in the fountains came from holy places around the country. At the base of the actual monument, scenes of elephants in various roles (relationships with each other, with nature, and with man) scrolled around the whole building.
And finally, up cool stone steps, I found the cast and carved demonstration of devotion to Hinduism. From the bottom of the floor up the wall and across the ceiling, devotees had carved symbols, people,and scenes from the life of the Swaminarayan
(or at least I think so. My understanding of Hinduism is very poor).
The central room had an immense statue of Swaminarayan, regarded as an incarnation of the divine personality, covered in gold. The paintings, inlays, and gold leafing of the rest of the room reminded me of the Baroque age in Europe: extremely ornate.

I had hoped to go to the Lotus temple after Akshardham, but we spent so many hours in Akshardham that I ran out of time. So the next day, accompanied by my new Indian friend Christina, I explored more of Indian architecture.

 Technically, the name of the Lotus temple is Bahá’í House of Worship, and I got the feeling that it was non-denominational. They use the shape of the lotus flower in the building because the flower symbolizes purity, but I think it also is a great natural amplifier. As we sat inside, several men sang prayers (probably in Hindi. definitely not English.) and the sounds reverberated around the room.
Next we the Qutb Minar. Minar means tower, so that's what it looks like. I really loved everything about it, so there are lots of pictures.





Christina!


This used to be on the top, put there by the British. No longer.
As we drove to the next site (of which I was clueless. It's nice to just enjoy the moment), we stopped by something I could actually recognize
Or rather, a person I could recognize: Gandhi. This is the Salt March Monument, which is how India protested Britain's salt tax. Americans can relate: we threw tea overboard to protest Britain's tea tax.

It turned out we were going to governmental buildings. I like visiting other's seats of government, and this was no exception. Especially because I kept it short.

India Gate. I took this shot from the roof of the car
One last building in the Delhi area: Humayun's Tomb. It was built by the guy's wife, to contrast with the Taj Mahal, which was built by the (different) lady's husband. I would make a great tour guide.





The tomb of an Afghan noble, Isa Khan



I sort-of jumped barriers to get this angle




Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 31, 2013 at 1:32 AM

    Great Post but I don't see our company(Melissa Tours and Travels) business card.

    ReplyDelete

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