Heritage Gwalior - 17th Century - Data Bandi Chhor

Even though many documents depict Jehangir as somewhat secular towards Hindus, he never accommodated certain other minority religions like Sikhism and Jainism. One of the Sikh Gurus, Guru Arjan Dev became a target of Jehangir’s wrath because Arjan Dev blessed one of Jehangir’s rebellion prince Khusro. Jehangir ordered to kill Guru Arjan Dev but after an intervention by some influential Hindus, he replaced the killing order with some hefty  financial fine. Arjan Dev refused to pay the fine, as a result of which Jehangir imprisoned him and subjected him to all sorts of tortures. He finally died in 1606 as a prisoner. Those Hindu well wishers who paid for his fine etc were beheaded by Jehangir in as far as Lahore. Arjan Dev’s son Guru Hargobind Singh became the Sixth Guru of Sikh religion. Jehangir captured him too and imprisoned him in Gwalior Fort as he considered him his enemy. It is believed that one night Jehangir had a dream that he should immediately free the Guru. When the Guru was asked to leave, he refused to leave the prison and asked to free all the Hindu Rajas imprisoned with him. This created a situation for Jehangir as he considered his dream to be a spiritual Order and felt compelled to free Guru Har Gobind Singh Ji. It then got decided that Jehangir would free as many Hindu Rajas as can hold Guru’s Angarkha(a robe) when he is freed. Guru Har Gobind Singh Ji got an Angarkha made with 52 panels. Each of the 52 Hindu Rajas imprisoned with him held one of these panels and thus the Guru managed to get all of them freed. From then on Guru Gobind Singh Ji is also called Data Bandi Chhor. In later years Sikhs got a beautiful Gurudwara constructed of white marble in commemoration of Guru Har Gobind Singh Ji. This beautiful white monument can be seen from almost everywhere in Gwalior, where ever that side of the Fort is visible.

Heritage Gwalior - 17th Century - Jehangir, then Aurangzeb

The two main structures in this area adjacent to Man Mandir Palace, were built by Shahjahan and Jehangir. One of them was used as a prison and the other as a resthouse, rather like hunting lodges where the Mughal emperors would stay during their visits to Gwalior on hunting expeditions. These buildings contain  corridors with round stone troughs where horses and camels were tethered to be fed. The palaces have witnessed many atrocities committed by Mughal emperors.

Emperor Jehangir imprisoned many of his nemesis as well as family members he could not trust, including his father Shah Jahan, two of his brothers Murad and Dara Shikoh, and his own son, nephew Suleiman Shikoh amongst many others. Many pf these prisoners were also killed in the Gwalior Fort plalaces turned to prisons and torture houses.

Diwali..Down the Memory Lane

Its October, my most favorite month of the year, since my childhood. I grew up in a small town called Gwalior, an extremely hot and arid place. October marks a change in season, a prolonged and difficult summer comes to an end by this time of the year and evenings become pleasantly cooler. It brings the festive season which would be a much welcome time in otherwise staid life of my childhood years, around 30 years back. It also helps that it is my birth month. Today I will go down the memory lane, and tell you, how as a child I would enjoy the days leading up to Deepawali, the most beautiful festival of light, commonly known as Diwali.

Hindu festivals follow the Hindu lunar calendar and so fall on varying dates on Gregorian calendar. Deepawali can fall anywhere between mid October to mid November, mostly early November. Deepawali, the festival of light, I believe is the undisputable king of festivals, for its beauty, fun and the wonderful buildup of minor festivals and yearly activities that finally culminate into Deepawali day. About 6 weeks before Deepawali a period of “inauspicious” gets started for 2 weeks, called “Pitra-Paksha”. Hindus remember their ancestors during this period and as a child it would make a mark as people do not eat meat during this time, nor is it considered good to start or buy anything new. This quiet period ends with the start of Navaratri  period of 9 days/night where each day is for one form of Goddess or Shakti(the personification of Energy). My mother would fast during these days and I would enjoy all the special goodies she would make for fasting days. Different people set different difficulty level for their fasting and my mother set a moderate level, which suited me even better. The tenth day, the day after Navaratri period ends, is Dussehra or Vijaya Dashmi. Traditionally, during these days the neighborhood would have Ramalila shows. To give you some context on Ramalila, Dussehra is the celebration of Lord Ram’s slaying of the Daemon King Ravana, after a fierce battle of 10 days. When Lord Rama who was Vishnu’s incarnation as prince of Ayodhya, returned home after 14 years of exile, after slaying Ravana, the people of Ayodhya celebrated the homecoming of their beloved prince by decorating the city with earthen lamps, called “Deepam”. This became a tradition and gets celebrated as Deepawali, string of lights, every year. As a child I thought this story was just too awesome. Now the “Ramalila” I mentioned earlier is a folk theatre, depicting episodes from Ram’s very dramatic life and battle with Ravana. Ramalilas were organized all over, by various neighborhoods, sometimes competing for the “best” judged. These were not professional organizations, but just a bunch of neighborhood enthusiasts who would come together, collect money from neighborhood, and organize Ramalila shows for few days, and more or less everybody who participated would be from the neighborhood. Every evening children would start gathering around dusk time where the stage was made, playing, saving place to sit for their families who would join later. As the evening progressed into the night, all would come and sit, and the show would start. This was huge for us as kids as movies and t.v. entertainment was not as pervasive as it is today, and theatre going was unheard of in middle class living. It was a magical  experience to stay out so late in the night, crispy air, under the star filled dark skies, watching the fascinating stories in Ramalila. The final show would happen on the Dussehra day, which invariably depicted the episode of how Rama slayed Ravana on his own land “Lanka”. Thus the Good would prevail over Evil.

The day of Dussehra was much awaited. There would be a big carnival on Dussehra day, where amongst other exciting things, huge, like very huge, effigies would be made of Ravana and two of his daemon brothers. Ravana’s effigy would have 10 heads, that’s how it is mentioned in the mythology. These effigies would be filled with thousands of fire crackers.  My father’s sister would visit us every year with her sons, my cousins, and my father will take all of us kids to the carnival, called “Mela” in Hindi. At the end of Ramlila, Lord Rama would send three fire headed arrows from his bow towards these effigies, and one by one they will catch fire and effigies would start burning in large flames and all the crackers would start blowing, making loud, very loud noise that will go on for many minutes continuously. Oh how we loved this, the exciting smell of crackers mixing in the cool nippy air of October end. Big bangs to mark the arrival of most beautiful season of cultural landscape in India. 2 weeks to go for Deepawali.

  

In the 2 weeks leading to Deepawali, yearly deep cleaning of the house was to be done. It’s a good time for deep cleaning as the monsoons and the season of mold, fungus and insects is over by this time. The houses would get painted completely or partially where needed. Schools would get closed for at least a week for the festival time. That by itself brings a lot of happiness. Somewhere between Dussehra and Diwali days, a group of neighborhood kids would start coming after dusk, with their “Tesu and Jhanji” dolls, a couple from Mahabharata mythology. I don’t know the story behind them, but the kids would collect money to arrange their wedding. What makes it unforgettable is that the Jhanji, the bride to be, was depicted as a perforated clay pot, with lovely decorations, having a Deepam lighted inside it. They would put this pot on ground and rotate it in circles, like a rotating top, and the light coming out from the perforations would make such lovely dancing patterns on the ground in the surrounding darkness, and they would sing a funny folk song that I could never understand over the years, but can never forget either, even after so many years.  And “Tesu” interestingly was depicted as a toy with large eyes and big mustache  attached to a tripod like structure made of three reeds, standing on ground next to the dancing Jhanji, passively looking at all this.

As the Diwali day would approach, there would be an increase of activities at home. Mom would start making a variety of sweets and savories for Diwali. Friends and family would drop in to meet for Diwali and exchange these home-made sweets and savories. We would decorate our house with paper lanterns, flower garlands, and hang mango leaf garlands on the doors to welcome all. About eleven days from Diwali, is a festival called Karva-Chauth where married women fast for the longevity of their husbands. Mother would fast sometimes and not others, depending on whether dad was good or annoyed her the previous day. Fasting on Karva Chauth ends with a sumptuous dinner, that she will make either way, so I would look forward to it.  I also helped her make the traditional motifs on wall, for Karva Chauth puja decorations, using rice water as white paint. The day long fast can end only when the lady gets a sight of the nascent moon late in the evening. It’s the job of kids to find the rising moon the earliest possible, so I and father would climb up the terrace and anything that will give him a better view, to sight the rising moon for mother. Many times the night would be cloudy and it will get very difficult to sight it, for mother to be able to end fasting, so we would make do by looking in the direction where we thought the moon would be behind the fluffy clouds.

Three days before Diwali is “Dhan Teras” – the official shopping day for Diwali. Markets on Dhan Teras would be all decked up in decorations and shops are bustling with stuff. The whole town seemed to be on those roads that day and shops would not have an inch of empty space, there will be either people or stuff everywhere. These were the days of traditional shops when market would mean rows of smaller shops along a main road, and the various by-lanes around it. We would buy new clothes, and some utensils for kitchen. Buying metal utensils for kitchen, or precious metals, gold or silver, is a tradition for Dhan Teras. These were the times when even getting new clothes was truly exciting as people didn’t buy “stuff” all the time, like today. Later in the evening we would do Lakshmi Puja, as Dhan Teras is the festival of wealth; “Dhan” means wealth, and “Teras” means 13th day of a lunar fortnight.

Next day, that is a day before Diwali, is called “Annakuta”, or Narak Chaudas.  A heap of food and grains from fresh harvests is made and done puja upon, the heap represents a mythical hill Govardhana related to Lord Krishna. During the day time, all those who provide some house hold service through out the year, like maids, driver, handy-man, school-rickshaw-man, security guard, street sweeper, gardener, post-man etc, would come home, and mother would give Diwali sweets and bonuses to them, along with grains from the “Govardhana” heap. We  would go for fire cracker shopping with father. Oh it would be so exciting to choose from the multitudes of large shops selling an un-ending variety of firecrackers. I would buy a whole lot of fire crackers of all kinds. We would also buy the clay diyas, the little earthen lamps. Later in the evening mother would do a short puja and I and my father would put few diyas at certain spots in the house, like main gate, entry way, kitchen, tulsi plant, courtyard and so on. The beautiful flickering light from these little diyas was supposed to send the evil away from our home and bring the auspicious in. And I would go to sleep excited about the next day.

Diwali day. A day of heightened activity. I and my father worked like a team, decorating house with flowers and strings of electric light, putting fire crackers in sun to dry them up nicely, making little wicks out of cotton for the diyas, cleaning and decorating the little home temple, mother working in the kitchen at an industrial level to get the festive dinner ready for the evening. I and my father would put little diyas all over the house, on boundary walls, stairs, niches, doors, parapets, window sills…and hope that there would be no breeze that evening. All through the day there would be occasional sound of firecrackers coming from here and there. As the evening would fall, we would get ready in our new clothes, mother would do puja for Laxmi, the Goddess of Prosperity, and Ganesh, the Lord of Auspicious. By the time our Puja ended the fire cracker sounds coming from outside would have increased to a full crescendo. I would be getting impatient on how long the puja has to go while others have already started  fire crackers. At the end of Puja we would alight all diyas earlier placed everywhere in the house, from the main Deepam used in Puja. By this time mostly all houses have lit up their diyas and it would look so amazingly beautiful. And then we would start firing all the crackers and other fire works. That would go on for couple of hours. Sometimes, some family/friends will come over with their stock of fire crackers and then we would enjoy it together. And I loved the smell of fire crackers laid heavily in the cool November air.  With high atmospheric pressure of the on setting winter season, the gray smoke and smells from fire crackers just stayed close to ground, the ground would gradually get covered with marks and paper shreds from the fire crackers and the air outside would become cooler and cooler as the evening progressed. Oh those would definitely be the most awesome hours in the whole year. Once our fire crackers stock would get exhausted, we would return inside to attack on the most delicious Diwali dinner. The sound of fire crackers outside would go on deep into the night as I would go to sleep with the wonderful smell of crackers surrounding me.

The day next to Diwali would still be a holiday so we would get a day to recover from too much of merry, and come to the real life of waking up early for school from the next day.

A Brief History of Saree

As the yearly event, the mother of all OWC parties – India Night - is coming close, its bringing excitement along with anxiety! As it is out now, according to some study somewhere, Women start preparing their Saturday night outfits at 1.35pm on a WEDNESDAY afternoon! Well, this is no ordinary Saturday night for sure. Not only do we have to dress up and look good, but we have to dress up in Indian attire! That sure needs more effort and planning than usual. One can take up a task only when one finds value in it, value worth all that effort and time it is going to take for the challenge. Looking at the “Saree-ed” up ladies in their super sexy avatars is inspiring enough, knowing the cultural depth and history of this amazingly simple yet complex attire will certainly help. So we invited the noted designer Anjali Sharma,  to tell us more about Saree, and what shall we do when we get one. Anjali has been trained at the prestigious National Institute of Fashion Technology and has established her own Bangalore based Fashion Studio called The French Curve.

Through a series of beautiful drawings illustrating the costume and fashion details noted in ancient sculptures, murals, paintings, from periods as early as Indus Valley Civilization, she showed us how the present day Saree has evolved. I find it amazing that it has actually changed so little over thousands of years. The word “Saree” is derived from Sanskrit word “Shati” which means “Strip of Cloth”. The length of this unstitched cloth can range from four to nine yards and is simply draped around the body. Here lies the devil. This draping creates a wrap, gathering, drape, cover - all by the same length of cloth. And there are more than a dozen prominent styles of draping, different subcultures from various states having their own different style. I personally take solace in this, I translate this fact to that there is no fixed rule, there’s a lot of flexibility and one can have one’s own style.  :)

Historical and archaeological evidence suggest that women all over the Indian subcontinent wore Saree in some form from the very early times. Saree drapes can be seen in the figurines excavated from Indus Valley Civilization, dating roughly 3000-2000 BC. There have been mentions of Saree in the ancient Sanskrit and Tamil literary writings. Sculptures from Gandhara and Mathura schools, dating 1st-4th Century AD show women draping Saree but only below the navel. During that time there is no sign of any garment on upper half of the body although there was an elaborate system of jewelry worn on the upper body, arms and hair. Observations made from the sculptures from Gupta period, around 6th Century AD, and frescos from Ajantha-Ellora, dating 5th to 7th Century AD, show amazingly detailed fashion and sartorial details. The Saree looks very similar to how to is wore even today, mainly a drape around lower body. By this time early versions of Blouse started making appearance at places. The great Sanskrit poet Kalidasa(6th Century), in his works, mentions 'Kurpasika' a form of tight fitting breast band that simply covered the breasts. This was also sometimes referred to as “Stanapatta” which can be closely translated to “Boob Tube”. The earlier forms of blouse or choli were only front covering; the back was mostly strings to tie the blouse, was always bare but covered with end of saris pallu. Bodices of this type are still common in the state of Rajasthan.

After 10th Century there wasn’t much evolution in dressing as culture in general was taking back seat due to constant attacks and invasions from west. The next big change came with Moghul influence, from around 15th Century, that chiefly brought in “Purdah” (veil) practice. A lot of couture details can be read from the very elaborate and fine works of Moghul and Rajasthan schools of paintings of this era. The garments by this time period became very heavy, elaborate and detailed in their workmanship as well as bulk. The outfits by this time, both for men and women, were covering most of the body. There was a variety of styles in fashion for women including pants, sheer skirts, chogas that had stylish details like slits, ties, heavy embroidery and brocade work, layering of fabric for varying textures and so on.

The next big influence was the British Raj that brought western aesthetics in the mix. That brought tighter sleeves, interesting new cuts for neckline, different fabrics, slimmer outfit profiles, to emphasize on waistline etc. It is interesting that for western women it was desirable to show the beauty of their décolletage but their dresses would never show the midriff, whereas Indian women would never show their décolletage but considered the midriff showing between the Saree’s drape below the waist and the Choli, to be a desirable element of feminine beauty.

Finally she showed us how the blouse cuts and Saree draping saw some more slight modifications as an influence of Hollywood fashion during the 20th century.

After this, she gave us a quick demo on how to drape a Saree in the most common current style. She used a beautiful green silk Saree she got from her studio, and draped on an enthusiastic volunteer from amongst us. It was wonderful to see a jeans clad person turn into a very feminine lady in couple of minutes. We saw another demo of slightly different style on another volunteer who was very comfortable with Saree already.

Demo followed questions we had in mind to prepare ourselves for the upcoming India Night.She suggested that we choose fabric keeping in mind how easy it will be to manage them. She thinks it may not be a good idea to choose cotton based fabrics as they tend to wrinkle and puff. Silks may be more suited for the weather, occasion and easy wearability. Lighter silks may be better than very heavy silks. Lighter fabrics with fall and drape like chiffons, georgettes will be good too. She suggests to be more experimental with color, but also getting something that you feel comfortable, eventually it should be enjoyable to wear and should suit who you are.

Its best to get the Sarees dry cleaned professionally. Look for references when trying a new dry cleaner. You should also check the cleaners or when you purchase the Saree if and how often should it be “Polished”.

And then the discussion came to the trickiest part of getting a Saree ensembled – the blouse or the Choli. It is acknowledged that getting a choli stitched and getting it stitched right is by far the most effort and time consuming part of getting a Saree ready. You again can only go by reference, whether you are going to one of the tailors at Commercial Street or to a high end designer. The issues can be similar – not getting the blouse ready on time, not getting the right size or right cut, or any unforeseen issue. The two most important things you can do to have a better chance at success are, one, start finding the tailor, and drop the cloth to be stitched well in advance, Anjali suggests we should keep at least couple of months if possible, especially if you do not have a trustable established tailor or boutique. Second, its always better, for a tailor you haven’t tried before, to give a cheap cotton or muslin cloth for a sample stitch first before giving the actual blouse piece that comes with the Saree or that you especially purchased otherwise.

With this and a little more chit chat our session with Anjali ended leaving all of us looking forward to the next trip - for actual Saree shopping and some more helpful tips on this beautiful classic outfit.

Heritage Gwalior - 16th Century - Tansen - The King of Indian Classical Music

Raja Man Singh was a great lover of music and had instituted multiple learning centers for Indian classical music. He patronized various masters of classical music and “Gwalior Gharana” flourished during this period. It is believed that 16 of the 36 singers of Emperor Akbar’s court, as named in Aine-Akbari, came from Gwalior, including the legendary musician Mian Tansen – the most famous musician at the court of Akbar. Regarded as one of the treasured “nine jewels” of the court, Tansen was an exponent of the Dhrupad.  Legend has it that by the intense allure of his mellifluous voice - Tansen could make thunderclouds appear, followed by rain. His ragas (melodies) caused lamps to light up and held animals and birds spellbound.

Tansen, was born a Hindu, named Ramtanu Pandey, but later converted to Islam under the influence of his music guru, Mohammed Ghaus. The name Tansen was given to him by Man Singh, and much later Akbar conferred the honorific title of “Mian” on him. Tansen, is considered the greatest singer-musician ever born in India. Young Tansen was one of Man Singh’s  court musicians and learnt and practiced music with Man Singh’s gujri wife Mrignayani who herself was a music lover. He became part of Akbar’s court when he was around 60 years of age and for rest of his life enriched Indian classical music with his prolific work, creating music that is regarded in highest esteem even today. Several of his raga compositions have become mainstays of the Hindustani tradition, and these are often prefaced with Mian ki ("of the Mian"), e.g. Mian ki Todi, Mian ki Malhar, Mian ki Mand, Mian ka Sarang; in addition he is the creator of major ragas like Darbari Kanada, Darbari Todi, and Rageshwari.

The sufi saint Mohammed Ghaus, was not only Tansen’s music guru but also his parent’s spiritual master.  It is believed that Mohammed Ghaus helped Babur annex the Gwalior Fort. According to local folk lore, he also granted the boon of a son to Tansen’s  parents, and is therefore venerated as Tansen’s janma daata (the giver of life). According to another version, Mohammad Ghaus was an Afghan prince.  Whatever be the truth, his mazaar (tomb) suggests that he was a man held in great esteem. The tomb is made very close to the eastern gate to the Fort, designed in the typical Mughal style, and is a grand structure that arrests one’s attention. The path leading to it is flanked by a garden decorated with roses and other flowers.

Built in the late 16th century, the tomb is square-shaped built with stone, with huge towers which are crowned by small domes. The building is enclosed on all sides by delicately carved filigree in stone, over which rises a large dome – once inlaid with blue tiles. The tomb is a pilgrimage centre for both the Hindus and the Muslims. The structure is an amazing architectural masterpiece and is made of huge walls with “jali”, or the filigree, work in all its intricacies and glory.

Its amazing to see filigree as intricate and delicate as a lace, but actually carved in stone. The “jali” work on stone walls is a contribution of Gwalior to other parts in north India.

Right next to the tomb of Mohammad Ghaus is the mazaar (tomb) of the simple and humble mazaar of Tansen, lying in piece next to his Master.

Heritage Gwalior - 16th Century - End of Romance, Begining of a Long Doom

Few years after Man Singh’s death the Fort eventually fell to Ibrahim Lodhi and soon went to Babur, the first emperor of the Mughal Dynasty. The buildings and palaces made my Man Singh where music, beauty and love once thrived were converted into prisons and torture houses. A beautiful rounded “Bawri”, a stepped well, made by Man Singh to collect water for the population living on the Fort, was converted into state prison. This stepped well is accompanied by a large open hall with 84 pillars. The hall  was later used as a prison by Aurangzeb and pillars were  used to keep the 52 kings who  were later freed with Sikh Guru Hargobind Singh Sahib.

The indoor bath for queens at one of the underground floors which used to be filled with fragrance and flower petals at one time, was used as torture dungeon for royal prisoners, mainly Murad by his brother Aurangzeb, who later killed him on the reasons of treason. 

Heritage Gwalior - 15th Century - Mriganayani

While Raja Man Singh is remembered very highly for the peace and glory he brought to Gwalior region, he is also very fondly remembered for his love to his eighth wife, a love affair that has now become a lore.

Once when Man Singh was hunting in jungles surrounding Gwalior, he came to a gurjar village next to river Sank. On his way he encountered two wild buffaloes fighting with each other. While fighting, the buffaloes ended up entwining their horns, such that they both got stuck and were not able to untangle. No one in Raja’s hunting group nor in the villagers gathered to see Raja, had courage to help the buffaloes. Suddenly a young girl from the village came out and without any fear went ahead and helped the buffaloes untangle themselves. This act impressed Man Singh to no end. That the girl was extremely beautiful added to the enigma. Her name was Ninni. Man Singh put a flower garland around Ninni to express the mark she had made on him and left the village. Some days later Man Singh arranged another hunting trip in the same area. This time, Ninni was asked to be a part of the hunting group. During the hunt, Ninni killed a tiger with her fierce arrows. Man Singh was floored again to see such a mix of beauty and strength. Man Singh proposed Ninni, to marry him and be his eighth wife. Ninni responded saying that she can go with him only if he gets water from her village river Sank, to Gwalior. After all, it was water from Sank that had made her as strong and beautiful as she was. Man Singh agreed to build a canal from Sank to Gwalior. She also put a condition that she will not stay with the first seven wives Man Singh had, as they may not respect her for lack of class and caste. Man Singh promised to make a new palace for her and keep her pride.

Thus Man Singh married Ninni and named her Mriganayani, the doe-eyed one, and made her his eighth wife. A new palace was made at the foot of Fort hillock, on the way to Man Mandir’s entrance, Hathi Pol. This palace is called Gujari Mahal. Fresh water from river Saank was brought to Gujari Mahal through a canal and one can see beautiful aqueducts running in the palace, which must have been flowing Saank water at that time.

Mriganayani was a true match for Man Singh as she too was a great lover of music. She learnt music from the greatly respected musician in Man Singh’s court, Haridas who had also been the early teacher of the greatest in Indian Classical Music, Mian Tansen. In fact Mriganayani shared a very friendly relationship with Tansen, and they remained in touch long after Tansen moved to Delhi. Another great musician, Baiju, who is mostly known through the lore surrounding him, was a fellow student of Haridas at the time of Tansen and Mriganayani.

The palace currently houses Gwalior’s  Archaeological Museum. The museum hosts an impressive collection of Hindu and Jain sculptures and artifacts found in and around Gwalior, dating from 400BC.  It also is the proud home of an exquisitely carved Salabhanjika sculpture that is considered as one of the most beautiful and valuable in its kind.

Heritage Gwalior - 15th Century - Man Mandir

Raja Man Singh built 3 beautiful monuments on Fort that are testimonies to his love for architecture. One of these is a remarkable palace called “Man Mandir”, which can be considered the crown jewel of Gwalior’s architectural wealth. The palace sits at the eastern wall of the fort and is the main building next to the northern Gate called Hathi Pol, as it was the way for elephants. The Palace is built in Rajasthani or Rajput architecture but with some very surprising elements like frescos in unusual colors like turquoise, green and yellow, of geese and crocodiles with entwined tails. The parapet wall of the palace depicts elephants, peacocks and trees. This large palace was primarily used as Man Singh’s residence and has multiple courts, rooms, auditoriums etc. The elaborate description of the palace in Babur’s autobiography Baburnama describes it to have six large main domes on the north wall that were gold plated and interior walls of rooms and salons to be studded with precious and semi-precious stones. These were later looted by the Lodis who captured the Fort after Man Singh. One can still see the hollow depressions where the stones might have been studded.

Two inner courts inside the palace are enclosed by a series of apartments all around, which have perforated screens or “jalis”. The “Jali” or “Jhilmili” as they are fondly called are astonishing example of craftsmanship on stone and get even more refined and complex in design in later decades as seen on the tomb of Mohammad Ghaus. Jalis became integral part of moghul architecture of later years and can be seen in monuments in Agra and Delhi. The inner courts of Man Mandir have an ornately carved facade. They are decorated with carved brackets in the form of lotus petals, friezes on the walls of colourful tiles and with projecting upper balconies. The southern façade, however, depicts figures of elephants, tigers and ducks. The feature which makes it truly unique is that it has 6 floors out of which three are above the ground and 3 below, out of which the lowest one is now closed. There is not much natural light in the underground floors but one can feel the circulation of air as the north wall of even the underground floors has windows opening to fresh air, as the palace sits on the edge of hill top.

One can only imagine how the Man Mandir would have looked in past when its 6 golden domes atop the hillock would have caught morning rays. No wonder there are beautiful accounts of the palace and Fort in various documentation of Moghul court.