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A Bard Sings a Story in Jhansi

 

Lets face it, Jhansi is not really up there on the tourist circuit. But then again, who hasn’t heard of it? Made famous by Rani Lakshmibai, who still exemplifies courage and defiance, whose story the bards of Bundelkhand still sing….well, I like to think the guide sounded like one, reciting lines from the famous poem at the fort as the sun went down over the ramparts, giving me goose-pimples.

 

Reaching Jhansi

The colours flow down the fort wall

We were to RV with the cousins at Jhansi but the train was running late as we crossed the low lying lake on the outskirts of Jhansi town. A huge figure in a strange pose on a hacked hill caught my eye. Later someone enlightened me that it was Major Dyan Chand in a hockey playing stance. Infact it seems that this area gave a handful of hockey players to the national team. Since we were in Jhansi for the night we decided to explore a bit and catch the sound and light show at the fort.

Read about how we beat Murphy’s Law to get here in- Picture Postcards from Bundelkhand

 

Marching through the Fort

One of the remaining pretty structures

The guide took us for a bit of a quick march through the fort trying to give us our bang for the buck considering we’d landed close to closing time. Fortunately it is a tiny albeit well maintained fort with barely a clutch of buildings including a shaft, diligently pointed out to us, where people were hung regularly. It was a spot on the route taken by the queen everyday, to visit the temple nearby. So she apparently prevailed on the king to do away with this macabre affair which I’m sure didn’t help her reach a zen state.

 

Surveying the Town

Facing the fire

This cannon is placed above the Ganesh temple in the fort. It faces the old entrance(Now closed.) with a typical serpentine path leading in. Standing here we spied the orange coloured tower of a church and a butterscotch coloured building which the guide told us was the Rani Mahal. The place where Rani Lakshmibai was moved to when the British took over the fort. The Mahal has some fine wall paintings and is a sort of museum housing ancient stone sculptures. Both structures looked as if they had been transported straight from Spain.( I have no idea why I thought so.) Like a lot many old garrisons Jhansi has more than it’s share of churches.

Explore the churches of another garrison in- 3 Churches in Mhow: Discovering Obscure History and Outstanding Carols 

 

The Fort’s Fire and Fury

Bhavani Shankar on an elephant’s back

So one of the cannons is called Kadak Bijli and another Bhavani Shankar.  I think naming objects confers them distinct personalities instantly. This cannon was a piece of art and I love the way it looks as if it’s been placed on an elephant’s back with the stone base also curving like an elephant’s trunk.

 

More Than What Meets the Eye

An archway to nowhere

The fort was made by a Bundela king around 1613 AD but was gifted to Bajirao a century or so later. A substantial part of it is actually underground including tunnels that disappear in different directions and several structures on top were razed by the British. The voices of Om Puri and Shushmita Sen tell the subsequent intertwined destiny of a fort and it’s last queen, who supposedly (and famously) said- I will never give up my Jhansi!

 

The Site and the Sights

The sun never sets on a legend

Standing literally on the spot where history was made- where Lakshmibai on her horse Baadal with her son tied to her back jumped to escape the British. She survived to fight another day but her horse did not last long. She met her end soon dressed, apparently, as a soldier in a last battle at Gwalior.

Discover the other place in Madhya Pradesh not to be missed in- Mandu & Maheshwar in the Monsoon Mist

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Picture Postcards from Bundelkhand

I picturize Murphy’s Law as a pedantic bureaucrat who has no life so works overtime and holds every little slip up against you and then generally wants to throw you under the bus still for…just, it says with a shrug. It was just a weekend trip that I had in mind but Murphy’s law was working overtime. We had dilly-dallied so there were no seats available on the Shatabdi, there was no accommodation available in Orchha and then the final nail in the coffin -a flurry of travel advisories thanks to Coronavirus! But I think I had a ‘Bundelkhandi’ bee in my bonnet plus it was the last weekend before spring mothballs winter for the year and that area gets hot even in March. I’m a firm believer of the Indian calendar when it comes to seasons, although Mother Nature is in a snit, if yesterday’s hailstones are anything to go by & the blankets which had one leg outside the bedroom door are sprawled back on the bed.

O’er the river lies a palace bathing in sunlight

We finally managed to put some things in place and after nearly missing the train and getting into the wrong compartment full of foreigners, (All without masks!) which made me catch my breath, we breathed a lungful of relief when we found our seats in the next bogey, mask firmly on. Holding my breath wouldn’t have helped the holiday cause anyhow. We watched the sun’s slender fingers lift the misty veil blanketing the green wheat fields as we sped towards Jhansi.

A Shatabdi took me another place in-Dera Jaipur: A Homestay for Stellar Style and Exceptional Experiences

Dawn parts the clouds to touch the green fields

A gentle breeze blows the clouds from the Chhatris of Orchha

Couple of years back from another train I had first seen the towering beautiful lines of the Datia Palace across a lake. An old family connection to it added to the lure and then a little hunting on the net had thrown up the visuals of Orchha- the Chattris by the river Betwa and the magnificent Chaturbhuj temple. Reality didn’t disappoint. Jhansi was a last minute addition. These three places on our itinerary that weekend lie in a region where the state boundaries look like the ravines of the Chambal, a maze of furrowing lines. So while Jhansi is in Uttar Pradesh, Datia and Orchha are in Madhya Pradesh but history and a common socio-cultural identity bind this entire region. Named after the Bundelas, a Rajput clan who came into prominence around the 16th century, Bundelkhand seems to have always been given to strife and a touch of anarchy. So, no wonder that apart from kings, poets and writers like Tulsidas and Maithili Sharan Gupt it has given us figures like Mastani, Rani Lakshmibai and Phoolan Devi.

First stop -Jhansi, coming up soon…

For stories of kings and queens also read  – Mandu & Maheshwar in the Monsoon Mist

A new story is sown in the ravines of the Chambal