Delhi-Orchha-Kahjuraho-Delhi( Part 1) A Photographic Journey

The Route

Delhi-Jhansi (Shatabdi)-Orchha-Kahjuraho (Cab)-Ajaigarh-Kalinjar-Khajuraho(Cab)-Delhi( UP Sampark Kranti) Total 4 nights 5 days

Orchha

Orchha is located about 18 kms from Jhansi and is a town in the Tikagarh district of Madhya Pradesh. Orchha lies on the banks of the Betwa River. This is a small town where there are some beautiful architecturally significant buildings, temples and Palaces. Orchha was founded in the 15^th century by the Bundela Chief Rudra Pratap Singh.

The town survives on tourists. There are two significant palaces close to each other Raja Mahal and Jehangir Mahal. The palaces are visited by numerous tourists( more foreigners then Indian) and are a reflection of the quality with which we maintain our archeological buildings. The palaces cry due to neglect of hundreds of years. Each and every wall of the palaces are carved with names of those amazing people who couldn’t achieve anything significant in life and engraved their names on the walls of these beautiful buildings. The paintings have been destroyed by neglect and lack of maintenance. I think the interior of the palaces are now beyond repair. The architecture of the palaces is excellent and these palaces and cenotaphs ( chhatris) speak volumes of the architectural capabilities of the people 500 years ago. These are mainly examples of Mughal architecture.

The place could have been easily one of the most revenue earning place for the government had someone ever focused on maintaining the place.

Look at the paling blue colour in the photograph above. This would have been the original colour scheme.

The photographs above show what little is left of the art.

Raja Mahal is right next to the Jehangir Mahal and though less beautiful architecturally, is worth a visit.

Below is some dying artwork from Raja Mahal.

Below is a view of the Chturbhuj Temple from the Raja Mahal. The Chaturbhuj Temple was built, during the reign of Emperor Akbar, by the Queen of Orchha Ganeshi Bai

Views from Raja Mahal of Jehangir Mahal are as follows:

This ended the visit to the palaces. We wanted to understand more about the place and thus started exploring some places closeby. The haveli's or what would have been haveli's of significant people of that time. Some are below

Next were the Cenotaphs or Chhatris. A chhatri is an empty tomb in the memory of someone who is buried elsewhere. Honestly, these I felt were in memories of the Kings whose achievements otherwise were insignificant and the world would have anyways forgotten them sooner than later. The gardens around them are probably the only well maintained place in this area.

I did not see any great hotels in Orchha which is like any other small town of India so our idea was to reach Orchha by Bhopal Shatabdi by 11 am, spend 3-4 hours to look at the palaces etc and leave for Khajuraho by late afternoon.

Thus ended the short trip to Orchha where archaeologically important and beautiful palaces, cenotaphs and temples lie ruined.

Khajuraho next.