Exploring Bhopal

10th February 2018 – Exploring Bhopal

We were met at the hotel by our driver and guide for the day.  I was thrilled to find out that our guide was Rehka, who it transpired is the only female guide in the whole state of Madhya Pradesh.  I can’t speak highly enough of her – she was interesting, curious and very well informed, and has been a guide for 31 years and had switched careers from being a teacher by answering an advert to being “an ambassador for incredible India”, which she certainly is.

Our hotel - the Jehan Numa Palace

Most people know Bhopal because of the horrendous Union Carbide “incident” that killed at least 3000 people in 1984.  It’s very sad that it carries such a stigma, as in fact, its local name is “city of the lakes” as it sits on a large number of natural and artificial lakes and is also one of the greenest cities in India.  It also has a larger than the average percent of Muslims and has a lot of mosques including the largest mosque in India – in terms of area.  I queried this as thought we’d been told the largest mosque in India was in Delhi, but was corrected as that is the biggest i.e. it has the largest buildings but not the largest site.  Hmm – so now I know the difference between largest and biggest.....I have just been rather careless with my usage of such terms in the past!

Chick peas for sale

We exited Bhopal via some rather run down royal buildings (currently under restoration) and then drove through the very cramped and busy Muslim quarter before getting out into open country side.  Apart from the ruins of the Union Carbide plant (no-one is allowed within a kilometre of it even today) and a sesame oil factory, most of the land we drove through to Sanchi (one of the most important Buddhist sights in India) was agricultural.  When Rekha discovered we had an interest in plants, the land, birds and the local way of life, she went out of her way to ensure we got a good understanding of what we were driving through.  We stopped off to look at various lentil fields, got a bunch of chick peas to eat and visited a brick factory.

Making a brick

The brick factory was amazing.  It started off with a couple of guys mixing up the local clay with straw, ash, coal dust and a couple of other ingredients that I can’t remember to make a thick “dough”.  A lady then measured out equal sized lumps of this which were then put into what looked like loaf tins which had first had fine sand shaken in them.  The tins were banged on the ground a couple of times to shake the air out of them and then the “brick” was unceremoniously dumped onto the ground where it dried in the sun for about 4 days.  The bricks were then piled up into an open cylinder and left to dry for another 2 weeks or so.  A kiln was then made with 65,000 bricks – it was a work of art with bits of wood and coke being carefully incorporated into the pyramid shape so that when it was lit, all the bricks would be fired.  It takes 8 days to make a kiln which is then left for about 2 weeks after it is lit.  We all thought it looked very hard work and were thankful we weren’t born into that sort of life.

After the brick factory we had a stop at a yellow line in the road that shows where the Tropic of Cancer is.  We also got to look closely at some lentils and took some nice bird photographs of the Indian Roller, a kingfisher and a black shouldered kite.

The great stupa

We then drove onto Sanchi which is about 46 km north east of Bhopal.  The Great Stupa at Sanchi is one of the oldest stone structures in India and was originally commissioned by the emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE. Its nucleus was a simple hemispherical brick structure built over the relics of the Buddha. It was crowned by the chatra, a parasol-like structure symbolising high rank, which was intended to honour and shelter the relics. There is a gateway at each point of the compass and they are marvels of symbolism in sculpture dating from the 1^st century BC.  We learned that Buddha cannot be shown in his human form so is present in the panels as either a tree, an umbrella, a stupa or a line above people.  Various stories of his life are shown in the carved panels which even now are so vivid in terms of the detail and feeling of movement. They were just stunning and the photos are so much more vivid than any description I can write.   The great stupa, No. 1, is surrounded by a stone balustrade and you can go up to a higher level via a double staircase, which we duly did.  We also looked at Stupa No. 3 which is a smaller version of the main stupa but only has one gateway and the balustrade is no longer standing.

Part of a gateway showing the intricate carving

The funny thing about Bhopal and its environs is that we found ourselves to be objects of curiosity and everyone wanted to have photos of themselves taken with us, which was a real laugh as we’re no oil paintings to be sure.  The brave ones amongst them came up and asked outright and we were only too happy to oblige.  However, some were shyer so made sure they walked by us taking selfies with us in the background, which amused us no end.

We then retraced our steps to Bhopal and spotted more birds – a great sign of things to come.  We went back to the hotel for a 30 minute rest and had a much needed cup of tea.  Then it was back out again for our city tour.

Taj-ul-Masajid

We started off at the Taj-ul-Masajid, the largest mosque in India, which literally means “Crown among Mosques”.   The construction of the Mosque was initiated during the reign of the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar by Nawab Shah Jahan Begum (1844–1860 and 1868–1901) of Bhopal (Wife of Baqi Mohammad Khan) and continued to be built by her daughter Sultan Jahan Begum, during her lifetime. The mosque was not completed due to lack of funds, and after a long lay-off after the War of 1857, construction was resumed in 1971. The construction was completed by 1985.  The difference between the new and old structures are easy to spot as the old part sof the mosque are made of sandstone, whereas the newer parts are made of brick with a concrete veneer painted pink to try and blend in with the sandstone  - not very successfully in my opinion.

Young boys at their lessons

The Mosque has a pink facade topped by two 18-storey high octagonal minarets with marble domes. The Mosque also has three huge bulbous domes, an impressive main hallway with attractive pillars and marble flooring.  It has a courtyard with a large tank in the centre and a double-storeyed gateway with four recessed archways and nine cusped multifold openings in the main prayer hall. The Quibla wall in the prayer hall is carved with eleven recessed arches and has fine screens of trellis work. The massive pillars in the hall hold 27 ceilings through squinted arches of which 16 ceilings are decorated with ornate petaled designs.

We went into the mosque where lessons were being held in all sorts of subjects.  One young lad read to us from his English book and allowed us to take his photograph.  Other young men were learning the Koran by rote and rhythmically rocking back and forward as apparently that helps their concentration.  The stern teacher strode amongst his pupils with a cane and walloped them around the head if they made any mistakes.  It was an interesting experience if not a bit intimidating.

Total madness!!

After that we were dropped off in the bazaar area just to experience what shopping is like.  It was a chaotic blur of people (including loads trying to take selfies with us in the background!), motor bikes and shops selling everything and anything.  We all enjoyed it but were glad we had Rekha with us.  Afterwards we bought some local sweets made from sesame seeds and sugar cane juice also known as jaggery, which are delicious.

Our final part of the tour was a quick drive around the upper lake which is near our hotel.  We passed all sorts of little stands selling food and drink as well as various water sports facilities.  We had the option of getting out of the car and walking for a bit, but by this point, we all felt a little jaded and asked to be dropped off at the hotel so we could sit out on our balcony and watch a horse being exercised on a track that goes around our building – very bizarre!