Off the Betwa river, the
skyline of Orchha is marked by the pinnacles of the cenotaphs constructed in
memory of the Bundela kings and lords. The
chief hobby of most kings and lords in the olden days was conquest. The victors and the vanquished fill the pages
of our history books in the colour of blood.
Orchha’s cenotaphs have
stood for centuries reminding us of the futility of all victories. All cenotaphs and mausoleums remind us of the
ultimate fate of all human beings: “Out of dust, to dust again,” as Bahadur
Shah Zafar wrote after being imprisoned by his British conquerors.
But the last Mughal
Emperor also wrote the following lines in the same poem.
You pressed your lips upon my lips,
Your heart upon my beating heart...
Life is a love
affair. A series of love affairs,
rather. We love people, things, and
whatever else adds delight to our life which would be a dreary enterprise
without these love affairs. Political power
and sublime art, religious piety and worldly pleasures, racial smugness and facile
miscegenation... contradictory forces meet and mate in the process called life. That’s how life is. That’s how it has to be, perhaps. Because life is an endless lesson until the
inevitable lesson descends upon us.
“But things cannot remain, O Zafar,” to quote the Last Mughal
again.
Flesh merges into dust in
the end. Only cenotaphs and mausoleums
will remain on the dusty pages of history.
The Betwa will continue to
flow. While it carried the blood of the
vanquished in the erstwhile years, now it will carry the plastic waste dumped
by careless visitors. However, you will
be relieved to see that the Betwa looks much cleaner than most holy rivers in
the country.
Orchha has an amazing ambiance. Check out my visit at http://magictravels.blogspot.in/2013/01/magical-orchha.html
ReplyDeleteTrue, Deepak. Your pictures bring out the magic in Orchha. I missed some of that magic, I realise.
DeleteGreat!!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteThe serenity of Orccha and the river Betwa is really luring in your lucid style of the blog, sir. Thanks for the posts on Orccha. Enjoyed reading them!
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked this. This post did not attract many readers, in fact. Too philosophical?
DeleteDeep contemplation..Universal in nature: Orchha is just a prop!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant writing! I loved this piece:)
Thank you, Amit. You console me.
Delete