Bridgewater Review Volume 5 | Issue 1 Article 13 Jun-1987 Travel Commentary: City of Victory Robert A. Cole Recommended Citation Cole, Robert A. (1987). Travel Commentary: City of Victory. Bridgewater Review, 5(1), 27-28. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol5/iss1/13 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Travel Commentary City of Victory by Robert A. Cole hould good fortune ever find you A Muslim by birth and education, appears from the outside to have two in India, plan a stop at Agra ifat all Akbar seemed to growsomewhat disillu­ stories. Here in this "Hall of Public Spossible. This is where the Taj sioned with orthodoxIslam as heapproach­ Audience" the Emperor sat upon a Mahal is located, its fluid lines and ed middle age. On the other hand, he marble platform supported by a large gentle symmetry perpetuating the love displayed a remarkable tolerance for decorative central column. From each of Shah Jahan for his deceased wife, other faiths, therebyshowing his country­ of the upper corners of the structure Mumtaz Mahal. The pure white elegance men some ofthe.nobler possibilities of four passageways with intricately ofthe Taj proclaims it as, perhaps, the life in a pluralistic culture. He was carved rails reached inward to Akbar's most "famous" building in the world, troubled, however, over the thought of central position. A unique but es­ and I doubt that any feeling person not providing the Empire with a male sentially modest building, the Diwan-i­ could by unmoved by it. Stand in the heir, and thus he came to consult Khas is an eloquent architectural testa­ middle ofits 'Paradise Garden' at moon­ Shaikh Salim Chisti, a Sufi mystic who ment to the accessibility of the Em­ rise one evening. Simply look... and lived in the small village of Sikri. peror, both physically and intel­ surely the experience will evoke the Having journeyed the thirty-seven kilo­ lectually. Advisors and distinguished delight of both senses and intellect. meters southwest ofAgra to receive the visitors conversed with him from their Modest judgment will be crowded out blessings of the holy man, Akbar soon places in the upper galleries, while by wonder, and you might easily be departed, confident ofhis prospects. In courtiers listened to the exchanges convinced that the moment has been time his Hindu wife bore him a son from their positions below at ground one that no other person has ever who would one day rule India under level. approached. the name Jahangir. In gratitude Akbar For close to fifteen years Fatehpur The Taj Mahal elevates our notions ordered that a new city be built upon Sikri was the scene of a great many about human accomplishment, but as the site ofSalim Chisti's retreat, and to achievements inscientific studies, aesthe­ it does it offers ironic commentary on reflect its imperial character he added tics and the practical problem-solving our species' yearning for 'perfection.' the word FatehpuT -"Victory." good government requires. Akbar even Itinspires because it is truly and unalter­ Construction of the planned city of attempted to hammer together a spiri­ ably beautiful. But it is a tomb, after all, Fatehpur Sikri began in 1570, much of tual synthesis through the formal estab­ and it underscores the morality ofboth the work being done in marble and fine lishment of his own religion, the Din-i its builders and all who travel far to sandstone slabs cut from local quar­ Ilahi. With him as a type of cultic admire it. ries. Akbar's court biographer wrote "Holy Magnifying Glass ofthe Divine," Twenty-three miles outside of Agra that the Emperor put "the work of his Akbar's strange new religion was a is yet another reminder ofthe transient mind and heart into the garment of mixed bag ofprincely metaphysics and greatness ofMoghulIndia, and a place stone and clay," and as the city began ethical zeal. Few devout Hindus or that no thoughtful traveler should miss. to take shape it reflected both the Muslims were able to make this spiri­ Itis called Fatehpur Sikri, and was once Emperor's curiosity and his broadness tualleap with their ruler, and the new the capital of the Moghul Empire. of mind. Hindu cupolas and Persian "faith" did not survive the Emperor's Deserted since 1685, the site is now a domes were set in exotic yet harmo­ death in 1605. "ghost city," of sorts, and it is undis­ nious mix with places inspired by Bud­ Fatehpur Sikri was deserted in 1585, turbed by all but a relatively few locals dhist temples. No streets were built on and the city was never inhabited again. and tourists. the rocky bluff upon which the central It had been described by Ralph Fitch, As with the Taj Mahal, the origins of city was situated, but the site was an early English traveler, as being Fatehpur Sikri seem to spring more lavished with beautiful open spaces. "much greater than London and very from legend and romance than from One even included a large outdoor populous." However, William Finch, a the bruising experience of history. parchisi board whose living "pieces" fellow countryman who visited the site They are rooted in both the energies added both color and good humor to a at about the time that the Jamestown and eccentricities ofJalal ad-Din Akbar diversion which typified the gentility colony was being established in Vir­ (r.-1556-1605), grandfather of Shah of Akbar's court. ginia, commented that: The Emperor attracted all manner of Jahan, and one ofIndia's most interest­ "the buildings [were] lying waste people at his new capital, and here he ing rulers. When Akbar the Great without Inhabitants; much ofthe presided over an ongoing intellectual came to power in the middle of the ground beeing now converted to dialogue which frequently centered on sixteenth century, England was about Gardens and much sowed with the ~orld's major religions. Many of to enter her Elizabethan Age. Michelan­ nill and other graine, that a man his guests engaged in lively theological gelo had carved his "Pieta," Thomas standing there would little thinke discourse and, given the fact that More had published Utopia, and a he were in the middest ofa Citie." number of European adventurers had Akbar had great respect for "Nazarene explored New England's coast. By the sages," one would be as apt to see an This same individual offered an expla­ end ofthe following decade Akbar had ordained Catholic in the city as a nation for the departure ofthe imperial made scores of reforms in Indian soci­ mullah or Hindu priest. court by noting that the water supply ety, and had added considerably to the Akbar held court in the Diwan-i­ had turned "brackish and fretting [i.e. territories of the Moghul Empire. Khas, a single vaulted building which corrosive]." 27 City of Victory continued With its supply of fresh water in Muslim. His beard was oddly trussed poignant images of India that Walt jeopardy, Akbar left Fatehpur Sikri to in a folded bandana, and dyed with Whitman has left to us: conduct a miltary campaign in the henna to indicate that he had made the You lofty and dazzling towers, north, and he never returned. His Haj to the "holy city." There was a pinnacled, red as roses, lovely city was soon to slide into the touch ofhaughtiness in his bearing but burnish'd with gold! backwash of Moghul affairs. Its cul­ it was thawed by flourishes ofgracious Towers of fables immortal fashion'd tural and commercial dynamism with­ humor, and one could tell his eyes were from mortal dreams. ered and much of its population moved used to an honest smile. That he loved When I left Fatehpur Sikri to con­ on. What remains ofthe metropolis is his work was apparent, and his in­ tinue my travels I was much aware that only the complex of shrines, palaces formal lecture was filled with equal I had been given a valuable opportunity and public buildings percher! on their amounts of Moghul history and affec­ to actively confront not only India's rocky outcrop overlooking a broad tionate lore. However, he was soon past, but a present marked by angry north Indian plain. gone, and we were left to the complete particularism. Today Moghul palaces I had the very good fortune to visit tranquility ofthe site and to the urging still rise up in affectionate memories, Fatehpur Sikri in the Summer of 1984. of our own curiosity. and on occasion they make it a bit As one offourteen New England educa­ I separated myselffrom my compan­ difficult to pass judgement on a coun­ tors I had received a Fulbright grant ions, wandering self-absorbed through try that I have come to admire. Time under the sponsorship of the College. the silent "acropolis." Walking be­ and distance have allowed the exhila­ My colleagues and I journeyed across yond the great arch, I made my way to ration ofmonumental India to subside, India as participants in a cultural and the Diwan-i-Khas, and climbed to its however, at least to a level my profes­ academic program directed by Profes­ roof. As the July sun began to set it sional training in history can contain. sor Abraham Thomas. The broader seemed to apologize for the heat that Yet its essence remains, and it lingers experience was of course wonderful, the day had sent. On the horizon a band there at that balance point within but in quiet moments since that time I of syrupy yellow light was pressed where my academic discipline begins to return often to impressions redolent of against the sharp edge of a patchwork make its own special demands.