Читать книгу Abandoned Places: 60 stories of places where time stopped - Richard Happer - Страница 10
ОглавлениеDATE ABANDONED: Eighteenth century
TYPE OF PLACE: City/Fortress
LOCATION: India
REASON: Political
INHABITANTS: 300,000
CURRENT STATUS: Abandoned
THIS HUGE FORTRESS TOWN WAS ONCE THE CAPITAL OF A MIGHTY MUSLIM KINGDOM. NOW, NEARLY FOUR CENTURIES AFTER IT CEASED TO BE THE PLEASURE GROUND OF EMPERORS, IT STILL POSSESSES EXQUISITE AND EXOTIC BEAUTY.
The Rupmati Pavilion commands princely views over the Narmada Valley.
Capital of kings
India has an abundance of romantic ruins, lost towns and derelict forts, but perhaps none of them are as magical as Mandu. It lies at the end of a dusty bus ride 100 km (62 miles) southwest of the city of Indore in the state of Madhya Pradesh. An eyrie-like plateau 300 m (990 ft) above the fertile plains of the Narmada River offers a fine defensive position and a glorious vista.
A Sanskrit inscription from AD 555 records that Mandu had already been a fortress for a thousand years. It was expanded in the tenth and eleventh centuries, but its true golden age began in the fifteenth century with the crowning of Hoshang Shah, the first Muslim king of the surrounding Malwa region. He made Mandu his capital city and a truly formidable fortress. The ridge-top plateau, which measures 10 km (6 miles) from north to south and 15 km (9 miles) from east to west, was completely ringed with a defensive wall, presenting 37 km (23 miles) of battlements to would-be conquerors. Twelve heavily built gates controlled humanity’s ebb and flow. Inside the battlements, gorgeous buildings sprouted like flowers in a walled garden: mosques, palaces, Jain temples, mausoleums, and courtyards.
Hoshang Shah died in 1435 and was interred in a white marble mausoleum. His ancestors were from Afghanistan, and Hoshang’s tomb is a beautiful example of their style of architecture. It is India’s oldest marble building, with a shapely dome, marble latticework, handsome towers and courts with shady porticos. It’s easy to see why the designers of the Taj Mahal came here to draw inspiration.
The Jahaz Mahal
Ghiyas-ud-din-Khilji ruled as sultan here from 1469 to 1500, and much of that time he devoted to the pursuit of pleasure and the arts. He built the Jahaz Mahal to house his harem, which was reputed to have numbered thousands of women. Sited between two artificial lakes, it is also known as the Ship Palace for the way it appears to float above the water in the mellow light of dawn and dusk. Its arches, galleries and domes appear as if in a dream from the Arabian Nights.
Keeping cool
Mandu’s elevated position meant that getting water could be tricky; but the Mughal engineers were more than up to the task. They constructed a series of wells, reservoirs and conduits to bring water to where it was needed. There are several baolis, or step wells, where elaborate staircases descend into cool subterranean chambers, and pools of water offer sweet refreshment from the summer heat and dust.
The Jahaz Mahal, or Ship Palace, sits between two artificial lakes.
Rupmati’s Pavilion is a large sandstone structure that was originally a military observation post. Clinging to the clifftop over a 305 m (1,000 ft) precipice, it was ingeniously supplied with water by a reservoir situated below its elevated position.
Mandu even had its own hammam, or Turkish bath house, where the sultans could steam away their stately cares.
Abandonment
The city was the king in a continent-sized game of chess played by opposing Islamic and Hindu dynasties. It frequently changed owners over the centuries until it was taken for the last time by the Hindu Marathas dynasty in 1732. However, they soon moved out, choosing the city of Dhar as their capital, and life began to drift away from Mandu.
Today a modern village, also called Mandu, lies just to the south of the ruined citadel. Its ancient heart is the huge Jama Masjid, or Friday Mosque. This is notable for its serene central courtyard and the neat ranks of red sandstone arches around the mihrab. Old Mandu may be gone, but already its seeds have grown new life.
