|
The architectural grandeur of this deserted city cannot be described in words and one can only experience the aura of its magnificent edifices by seeing them. Fatehpur Sikri is the most popular day excursion from Agra, the city of Taj and capital of invincible Mughals for a long time.
Fatehpur Sikri is located only 40 km from Agra city. Agra is well connected by air with Khajuraho, Varanasi, and Delhi.
Soon after Akbar succeeded Humayun as the third Mughal Emperor in 1566, he started campaigns against his adversaries-Rajputs and Afghans with determination to win. In 1569, with the blessing of the Sufi saint Sheikh Salim Chisti of Sikri, Akbar's Rajput wife, Harkha, princess of Amber, gave birth to his first son and cherished heir to the throne. Akbar called him Salim, after the saint. He decided to build a grand city on the ridge of Sikri where the saint lived in a humble hermitage. It was Babur's (the first Mughal emperor in India) resort but now Akbar's new capital. Ajmer, the great spiritual center of the most venerated Chisti order presided over by Akbar's guru Sheikh Muinuddin Chisti thus came nearer to Agra with the building of Sikri. Besides, it was also a shrewd diplomatic move to uproot the nobles from Agra and put them in a gilded prison at Sikri, in new humble houses below the ridge crowned with the Emperor's palaces.
Today, as one enters Sikri from the Agra Gate, one of the nine gateways on the way to the palace complex, Diwan-I-Aam, or the hall of public audience appears first. It is a huge rectangular walled-in courtyard where petitions were heard, proclamations made, embassies received and entertainment programmes held. The royal balcony, set within a frame of jali screens, appears on the western front. In front of the royal seat, a stone hook is still found embedded in the ground. As per tradition, Akbar's pet elephant Hiran was tied to this hook to crush to death under its feet the head of the guilty. If it refused to obey thrice, the victim was freed.
The most recommended sites to visit around Fatehpur Sikri are the Agra's Taj Mahal and the Bharatpur bird sanctuary. touristplacesinindia can arrange excursion trips to these destinations from Fatehpur Sikri
The Indian city of Fatehpur Sikri is easily accessible through air, road and rail from the other major Indian cities and states. touristplacesinindia can arrange for you all types of transport for your comfortable journey to and in Fatehpur Sikri and throughout the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
| |
