Rajasthan April 2009: Day Two

Monday, April 6, 2009

The first stop for Day Two was the main purpose of the trip- visiting Nathdwara, a temple dedicated to Lord Shreenathji, a form of Lord Krishna. Approximately 55 kms from Udaipur, it was mom's idea that praying at this famous temple will get me married soon. :-)

Nathdwara temple wasn't crowded, perhaps due to exams, as the priests claimed. But the crowd management was abominable, to say the least. Queueing up is meaningless because you get to see the shining dark Vishnu idol from at least 20 feet away. Thus, in the quest for heavenly blessing, I was pushed and shoved by women, a fat woman placed her sumo-wrestler bicep across my neck till I choked, my dupatta was all over the place, and I even fell once. And oh, mom's purse was literally in shreds when we were done with the spectacular darshan.

After this mind-boggling experience, we headed to Ranakpur, couple of hours' drive from Udaipur. Ranakpur houses a 15th century Jain temple, built during the rule of Rana Kumbh of Mewar.

We first had lunch there- a filling meal for a mere Rs 20. They served puris with subzi, chutney and dal, gurudwara-style, except we were seated on long tables and benches.

We headed to the temple after lunch. A notice informed us that visitors must be decently dressed. I saw foreign women putting on loose pyjamas over shorts, jackets over their tank tops and ghagra skirts over their itsy skirts before entering. One American student had to cover up with a pink nighty!

I didn't think much of this grand marble temple at first glance. But a closer look quickly changed my mind.

Once inside, it's easy to lose your sense of direction because their are imposing pillars, ornate ceilings and separate "sections", demarcated only by steps and change in levels. Lining the temple's entire inner perimeter are statues of the Jain tirthankaras. They all look similar, but each tirthankara is identified with a symbol just below the idol. The sculptural style of these Jain gurus closely resemble depictions of Buddha- the lotus pose, half-closed eyes and a serene expression.

Other than that, there were sculptures of elephants, Lord Krishna with Radha and kalpataru (the wishing tree). And when I looked up at the ceiling and inner domes, I realised that this temple was a class apart from the Dilwara temple at Mount Abu.

The large number of seriously-interested foreigners accompanied by Indian multi-lingual guides surprised me. But nothing prepared me for the following conversation:

Temple priest to a European couple (after hearing them speak): "Are you from Spain?"
Man: No. From Eee-taa-lee.
Priest: Oh! Ciao! ("Hi" in Italian)

The priest had observed the couple talking, and like most people, confused Italian with Spanish (it's happened with me earlier too). Which means the priest had an ear for recognising languages.

The same priest gave pithy explanations of the temple's main features to an American student group while some of us eavesdropped. He pointed out that some of the sculpturing on the pillars was actually hollow, and that the temple location was ideal- far away from possible invaders and sheltered from wild animals.

As I left the temple, I tried to capture the temple's length in a single photograph, but just couldn't get it right. Capturing the entire temple in one photo is possible only if you're standing far away, hence losing the important details.

Rajasthan is synonymous with history, so it was time for a real history lesson. Haldighati was to be our learning ground. That's the place where Maharana Pratap Singh I's army fought against the Mughals in 1576. The place is called so because the mud there resembles the colour of turmeric (haldi used in cooking). In this battle, Maharana's loyal horse Chetak died defending his master. What happened was this- Chetak was struck by a spear in his hind leg as he attacked an elephant(!). On just three legs, he limped more than three kms to take his master back to safety, even crossing a stream. In his memory is Chetak Smarak. I was touched by Chetak's story, and thought he was great competition to Lassie.

Further up the same road (or what could pass for a road) was the Maharana Pratap Museum. It's a small place with paintings depicting his life and ancestors, small-scale models of his fort and Haldighati, and a short film about the battle. There was also a "light and sound show" during which we passed by scenery that came to life- with striking lights and sound. Not a world-class affair, but passable and a good attempt to create a somewhat realistic experience.



At that point, I wished we could have more funding to make better museums- there could be so much more edutainment for the people. And as expected, the place was devoid of foreigners. Outside the museum was a rose processing unit, so we bought a bottle of rosewater. There were also some cultural depictions of the Rajasthani life, but nothing interesting. And a couple of small touristy souvenir shops- which were well-stocked with stuff I would never want to buy.

The sun had almost completed its east to west journey by then. We drove back to Devigarh, exhausted. The candlelight dinner on the terrace was the perfect end to a tiring day of history lessons- all infinitely more interesting than my school texts.