7 April 2012 by Shankar
Back from Bundelkhand and as always it was great. Visited some new areas and as usual IT WAS ENCHANTING.
There are things about Madhya Pradesh that are absolutely astonishing, some are more fascinating and some more depressing, but overall it has become one of my favoured destinations in India. Bereft of the usual touristy false lore, the crazy desperate attempts of luring guests into so called authentic culture, it still has so much of original Indianness (Whatever that might be). Here I’ll just do a small best of selection, why this place is so incredibly interesting to travel. Only highlighting hidden gems since the obvious ones (Khajuraho, Gwalior Fort, Orcha etc) have enough Internet footing already.
1. Gwalior – Raj Bara Market Square
The first ten visits to Gwalior, i was always pressed of time and only did the main Fort, which by no doubt is impressive. Yet once i had chance to check out the main market square of old town Gwalior i was flabbergasted. This place had so much charm,and yet hardly mentioned in guidebooks. Mainly due to its eclectic architectural experimentation in various states of decay, the square portrays perfectly what happens to a place that was first ambitiously planned by a maharaja with eclectic and manic ideas setting out to decorate his capital, given the availability of cash,later falls into the not so ambitious hands of modern indian town planning commissions, lacking the availability of cash definitely the desire to spend it). Voila, a true concrete rhapsody of modern India. Round it off with a horse cart ride and it will be imbued in your memories for ever.
2. Panna
Here we have some more of the Maharajas going crazy in the middle of India stuff going on. Unprecedented wealth, concentrated with most probably one family, in an area surrounded by abject poverty (= abundance of cheap labour), fusing european inspiration ( from many booze filled travels during the study years I presume) into architecture of Desi Needs. Does that make sense? Well Panna doesn’t and yet for the discerning traveller days can be spend here without boredom becoming an issue. 99% of Tourists in this whole area visit only and only Khajuraho, generally arriving by plane from Varanasi and then continuing via Orcha to reach the shatabdi back to Agra or Delhi. Little do they know what they are missing. For example the Court looks like this:
And this Krishna temple is more renaissance cathedral then anything indian i have seen. But Krishna temple it is.
Nearby Khajuraho is the only village in India with a couple of 5 star hotels, more than 20- 4 star hotels, many dozen no star hotels and its own Airport. Yet before the fornicating couples in stone were discovered to be of world heritageous importance the riches of this region were originally locust in nearby Panna, approx 45 Kms from Khaj. The local king had helped the british during the great mutiny of 1857, thereby being in good books for them, retaining his maharaja title and other benefits (with it of course the license for seamless debauchery if preferred).
3. TIKAMGARH and the Bottle House
Well once on a Train ride from Chennai to Delhi, i was sitting on the door an enjoying the scenery. After like one hour through wild scrub jungles we reached a station called Tikamgarh. It was then that i decided that i will visit this place with a tour group to explore it. Well explore it i did and it was way beyond my expectations. So many exciting and eccentric things to see and once again some crazy rich maharaja had left a curious legacy,the bottle house.
This was the circuit house, for visiting govt officials, or even wandering guests, though one would need a clearance from the local SDM (sub divisional magistrate) for that. I didn’t have time to research the history behind this 300 Rs./per room Guest house, though i guess it was the British collectors home or something.
Here is a beautiful example of old heritage being used by someone in a more purposeful way. actually the whole area is full of ruins with people living in them. I know its shanty housing and not the highest standards of living but still i consider it dignified.
Actually they had a quite nice Water well and children’s pool behind the wall.
And this curious building is not the tower of pisa gone native but a rather innovative Hanuman temple. Apparently the new queen in the palace was a Hanuman devotee and her wish was to see his mural everyday in the morning (darshan is an essential part of Hinduism) so the king built her a temple 5 stories high. Not much left of the queens bedroom but the temple still standing stiff.
And finally to the mythical Bottle house.Well some people had jokingly told me that a maharaja used to drink so much beer and given the fact that beer was imported those days he could not part with the valuable empty bottles, he decided to build himself a small rangmahal (pleasure house or lust house in german) with the bottles. Yet since the Raja had lost a lot of property after independence the whole garden surrounding the Bottlehouse had been a guava orchard. My attempts to visit the place rather failed but i was already to curious to be let down. The only description on the internet those days was this marvelous report
So Ladies and gentleman here it is the bottle house. Well it was in a very deplorable condition and had become more of a cow shelter and storage room, yet still had that eccentric touch to it. I am also a terrible photographer with no patience….
Well this is it… for the time being.Though its just half of the trip covered. The Madhya Pradesh tour happens every year and we visit many such incredible places.
