Sights in India
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Kamaraj Memorial
Just next to the Gandhi memorial is this shrine to K Kamaraj, known as ‘the Gandhi of the South’. One of the most powerful politicians of post-independence India, Kamaraj held the chief ministership of both Madras State and latter-day Tamil Nadu, and was instrumental in bringing Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi into the prime minister’s seat. You can also thank the Tamil leader for school lunch, since he instituted the first free ones in Tamil Nadu in 1956. Unfortunately, the shrine is nothing but a collection of dusty blown-up photographs with barely any space given to context or explanation.
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Patna Museum
Behind the impressive but decaying exterior, this museum houses a splendid collection of Mauryan and Gupta stone sculptures. There’s the usual collection of period weapons, including Humayun’s dagger, and a gallery of wonderful Rajasthani miniatures. In another gallery is a motley collection of stuffed animals, including tigers, a large gharial (crocodile), a bizarre three-eared and eight-legged goat kid and an Australian wombat! Upstairs in a locked gallery an extra Rs. 500 permits you a glimpse of a tiny casket that’s believed to contain some of Buddha’s ashes which were retrieved from Vaishali.
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City Palace
Below the fort sprawls the colourful and convoluted City Palace , or Vinay Vilas Mahal, with massive gates and a tank reflecting a symmetrical series of ghats and pavilions. Today most of the complex is occupied by government offices, overflowing with piles of dusty papers and soiled by pigeons and splatters of paan (a mixture of betel nut and leaves for chewing).
The curious can peer through the offices at the once splendid rooms and marvel at their neglect. Just outside the palace you will find clerks busily clacking away on typewriters for their lawyer bosses (who have outdoor 'offices' here).
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Wide Beach
The village is only about 200m from the wide beach, north of the Shore Temple, where local fishers pull in their boats. The beach is cleaner further north, or to the south of the Shore Temple, and you can take long unimpeded walks, although at high tide you need to walk over the rocks in front of the Shore Temple.
It's not a great place for swimming - there are dangerous rips - but it's possible to go fishing in one of local outriggers; negotiate a price with the owner. Despite the beach scene, Western swimwear is not the norm here and you (and local people) may feel more comfortable if you cover up.
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Gandhi Memorial Museum
Housed in the tamukkam (old exhibition pavilion) of the Rani Mangammal is the excellent Gandhi Memorial Museum, set in spacious and relaxing grounds. The maze of rooms contains an impressively moving and detailed account of India’s struggle for independence from 1757 to 1947, and the English-language signs pull no punches about British rule. Included in the exhibition is the blood-stained dhoti (long loincloth) that Gandhi was wearing at the time he was assassinated in Delhi in 1948; it’s here because he first took up wearing the dhoti as a sign of native pride in Madurai in 1921.
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Brahma Kumaris Spiritual University & Museum
The white-clad people around town are studying at Brahma Kumaris Spiritual University. This organisation teaches that all religions lead to God and that the principles of each should be studied. The university’s aim is the establishment of universal peace through ‘the impartation of spiritual knowledge and training of easy raja yoga meditation’. For many, the teachings are intensely powerful; there are over 4500 branches in 70 countries. For others, it gives off a spooky New Age–sect vibe. There’s a Brahma Kumaris museum in town, the entrance labelled Gateway to Paradise!
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Aina Mahal
Next door to the Prag Mahal is the beautiful Aina Mahal which was built in 1752 at a cost of Rs2 million. It lost its top storey in an earthquake, but the lower floor is open, with a fantastic 15.2m scroll showing a Kutch state procession. The 18th-century elaborately mirrored interior is a demonstration of the fascination with all things European – an inverted mirror of European Orientalism – with blue-and-white Delphi-style tiling and the Hogarth lithograph series The Rake’s Progress. In the bedroom is a bed with solid gold legs (the king apparently auctioned his bed annually).
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Gir Interpretation Zone
Twelve kilometres from Sasan village at Devalia, within the sanctuary precincts, is the Gir Interpretation Zone, better known as simply ‘Devalia’. The 4.12-sq-km fenced off compound is home to a cross section of Gir wildlife. Chances of seeing lions here are good but stage-managed, and you’re only likely to get 30 to 45 minutes looking for wildlife and only from a bus. Vehicles run here from Sasan Gir’s main street for Rs150. Just in case you were thinking about dashing off into the bushes on the way to Devalia, we had a lioness cross the road in front of us, about 1km from the compound.
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Makhdoom Sahib Shrine
Hindus believe that towering Hari Parbat Hill was the island where Sharika (Durga) defeated the lake demon Jalodabhava, while Muslims pay homage at the vast Makhdoom Sahib Shrine, dedicated to a Sufi saint who helped the spread of Islam in Kashmir. A flight of stone steps climbs up to the shrine and descends towards Dal Lake, passing the ruined mosque of Akhund Mulla Shah, built by Shah Jahan's son Dara Shikoh in 1649.
The hill is topped by the imposing Hari Parbat Fort, now occupied by the Indian Army. Around the base of the hill are the remains of the old city walls, built by Akbar in the 1590s.
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Hari Parbat Hill
Hindus believe that towering Hari Parbat Hill was the island where Sharika (Durga) defeated the lake demon Jalodabhava, while Muslims pay homage at the vast Makhdoom Sahib shrine, dedicated to a Sufi saint who helped the spread of Islam in Kashmir. A flight of stone steps climbs up to the shrine and descends towards Dal Lake, passing the ruined mosque of Akhund Mulla Shah, built by Shah Jahan's son Dara Shikoh in 1649.
The hill is topped by the imposing Hari Parbat Fort, now occupied by the Indian Army. Around the base of the hill are the remains of the old city walls, built by Akbar in the 1590s.
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Saraswati Mahal Library
Perhaps Serfoji II’s greatest contribution to posterity is the Saraswati Mahal Library. It’s a monument to both universal knowledge and an eclectic mind that collected prints of Chinese torture methods, Audubon-style sketches of Indian flora and fauna, sketches of the old London skyline and a collection of some 60,000 palm-leaf and paper manuscripts in Indian and European languages. Like few of his contemporaries, Serfoji II understood the need to preserve the Indian written canon, and today the library has converted 243 Tamil and 183 Sanskrit palm-leaf records into printed material.
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Mindrolling Monastery
The region around Dehra Dun is home to a thriving Tibetan Buddhist community, mainly focused on the Mindrolling Monastery, about 10km south of the centre in Clement Town. Everything about the monastery is on a grand scale: it boasts a large college, manicured gardens and the five-storey Great Stupa. At over 60m tall, it’s believed to be the world’s tallest stupa and contains a series of shrine rooms displaying relics, murals and Tibetan art. Presiding over the monastery is the impressive 35m-high gold Buddha Statue, dedicated to the Dalai Lama.
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Aga Khan Palace & Gandhi National Memorial
Set amid a sylvan 6.5-hectare plot across the Mula River in Yerwada, the grand Aga Khan Palace & Gandhi National Memorial is easily Pune’s biggest crowd-puller. Built in 1892 by Sultan Aga Khan III, this lofty building was where the Mahatma and other prominent nationalist leaders were interned by the British for about two years following Gandhi’s Quit India resolution in 1942. Both Kasturba Gandhi, the Mahatma’s wife, and Mahadeobhai Desai, his secretary for 35 years, died here in confinement. You’ll find their shrines (containing their ashes) in a quiet garden to the rear.
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Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary
Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, about 10km past Marayoor and 60km northeast of Munnar, hosts deer, leopards, elephants and the endangered grizzled giant squirrel. Trekking (Rs100 for three hours) and tree house (single/double Rs1000/1250) or hut stays (single Rs1500 to Rs2500, double Rs1800 to Rs3000) within the sanctuary are available, as well as ecotour programs like river-trekking, cultural visits, and waterfall treks (around Rs100). For details contact the Forest Information Centre in Munnar. Buses from Munnar heading to Coimbatore can drop you off at Chinnar (Rs31, 1½ hours).
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Hawa Mahal
Jaipur’s most distinctive landmark, the Hawa Mahal is a remarkable, five-storey, delicately honeycombed, pink sandstone structure. It was constructed in 1799 by Maharaja Sawaj Pratap Singh to enable ladies of the royal household to watch the life and processions of the city. It’s an amazing example of Rajput artistry, and remains a great place for people-watching from behind the small shutters. The top offers stunning views over the Jantar Mantar and the City Palace in one direction, and over Siredeori Bazaar in the other. Inside there’s a small museum evoking the royal past.
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Brahma Temple
Pushkar boasts hundreds of temples, though few are particularly ancient, as they were mostly desecrated by Aurangzeb and subsequently rebuilt. Most famous is the Brahma Temple, said to be one of the few such temples in the world. Apparently Brahma wanted to perform a yagna (self-mortification) at the lake, and when his wife Savitri didn't attend, he married another woman on a whim.
Savitri, understandably annoyed, vowed that Brahma would not be worshipped anywhere else. It's marked by a red spire, and over the entrance gateway is the hans (goose symbol) of Brahma.
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Spituk Gompa
Founded in the late 14th century as See-Thub (‘Exemplary’) Monastery, the extensive Gelukpa-order Spituk Gompa is incongruously perched overlooking the end of Leh airport (don’t photograph the militarily sensitive runway, soldiers are watching). The gompa’s multiple mudbrick buildings tumble appealingly down a steep hillock towards Spituk village on the Indus riverbank. Behind its central, gilt-roofed Skodong Lakhang shrine, the very colourful Chikang hosts a yellow- hatted statue of Tsongkhapa (1357–1419), who inspired Gelukpa Buddhism.
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Junagadh Zoo
If you don’t make it to Sasan, Junagadh’s zoo at Sakar Bagh, 3.5km from the centre, on the Rajkot road, has Gir lions. The nawab set up the zoo in 1863 to save lions from extinction and, though the concrete enclosures at the front rival much of Asia for sheer cruelty, it has a surprisingly good ‘safari’ park, with an abundance of lions, tigers and leopards. There is also a museum at the zoo with paintings, manuscripts, archaeological finds and other exhibits, including a natural-history section. Take bus 6 (Rs. 5) or an autorickshaw (Rs. 25) to get here.
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Secretariat of the Tibetan Government in Exile
Inside the government compound at Gangchen Kyishong, the Library Of Tibetan Works & Archives preserves the Tibetan texts saved from the Cultural Revolution. Many of the texts have since been translated into English and other European languages, but you must become a temporary member (Rs 50 per month; passport needed for ID) to access the collection.
Upstairs is a fascinating cultural museum with statues, old Tibetan artefacts and books, and some astonishing three-dimensional mandalas in wood and sand. Also worth a visit is the Nechung Gompa, home to the Tibetan state oracle.
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Akbar’s Fort & Patalpuri Temple
Built by the Mughal Emperor Akbar, this 16th-century fort on the northern bank of the Yamuna has massive walls with three gateways flanked by towers. Most of it is occupied by the Indian army and cannot be visited, but a small door in the eastern wall near Sangam leads to one part you can enter, the underground Patalpuri temple. This unique temple is crowded with all sorts of idols – pick up some coins from the change dealers outside so you can leave small offerings as you go. You may be pressured into giving Rs100 at some shrines. A few coins are perfectly acceptable.
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Golden Temple
True to Sikhism’s inclusive nature, everyone is welcome at the Sikhs’ holiest shrine. As when at any sacred site, dress and behave respectfully. Everyone must remove their shoes and socks, wash their feet (take your cue from pilgrims), and cover their head; scarves can be borrowed (no charge). Tobacco and alcohol are strictly prohibited. Temple officials request tourists not to casually dangle their feet in the (holy) water tank but, rather, to sit cross-legged. Photography is only permitted from the Parkarma, the marble walkway surrounding the pool.
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Supreme Court of India Museum
Showcasing India's judicial history, this small Supreme Court of India Museum, which is accessed from Mathura Rd (opposite Appu Ghar Gate), contains two interesting galleries. One gallery has a focus on the evolution of India's justice system, which harks back to the Indus Valley civilization (3500 BC).
The second gallery is dedicated to the Federal and Supreme Courts with exhibits including an early 20th-century judge's chair, portraits of Raj-era judges and original manuscripts of landmark cases including the assassination case of Mahatma Gandhi. Photography is prohibited.
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Akbar's Fort
Built by the Mughal Emperor Akbar and completed in 1583 after decades of construction, the fort stands on the northern bank of the Yamuna. It has massive walls with three gateways flanked by towers. Most of the fort is occupied by the Indian army and cannot be visited, but a small door in the fort's eastern wall near Sangam leads to one part that you can visit, the underground Patalpuri temple (admission Rs 21; h07:00-17:00).
This unique temple is crowded with all sorts of idols - pick up some coins from the change dealers outside so you can leave small offerings as you go.
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Southern Gateway
The back-to-back lions supporting the oldest gateway form the state emblem of India and can be seen on every banknote; they're an excellent example of the Greco-Buddhist art of that era. The gateway narrates Ashoka's life as a Buddhist, with scenes of Buddha's birth and another representation of the Great Departure. Also featured is the Chhaddanta Jataka, in which Buddha took the form of a six-tusked elephant. One of his two wives became jealous and had the elephant hunted and killed. The sight of his tusks, sawn off by the hunter, was sufficient for the queen to die of remorse.
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Hoysaleswara Temple
Construction of the Hoysaleswara Temple, Halebid’s claim to fame, began around 1121 and went on for more than 80 years. It was never completed, but nonetheless stands today as a masterpiece of Hoysala architecture. The interior of its inner sanctum, chiselled out of black stone, is marvellous. On the outside, the temple’s richly-sculpted walls are covered with a flurry of Hindu deities, sages, stylised animals and friezes depicting the life of the Hoysala rulers. A huge statue of Nandi (Shiva’s bull) sits to the left of the main temple, facing the inner sanctum.
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