Asian Paradises

— I n d i a — – 11 – www.paradises.com Every busy thoroughfare in the cities and towns across India has peddlers and pedestrians jostling for standing room as the traffic streams past uninterrupted. Ancient buildings dazzle the eye at every turn and everywhere there is evidence of the past—conquerors and colonisers from the Greeks and Persians to the Portuguese, French and British: magnificent monuments, memorials, palaces and forts were their legacy. In addition, the Arabs and the Chinese used India as a trading post for spices and silks long before a sea route from Europe was discovered. India is a land of warmth and hospitality, a bright colourful world of saris, festivals and fairs. Capital and major centres New Delhi, in the country's north, is the capital and major gateway. It is a contemporary, busy metropolis, which combines both the influence of the British Raj with modern development interspersed with ancient monuments, some of which have even been incorporated into a golf course. Also in the north are Agra, Varanasi, Lucknow, Srinagar and Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Chandigarh, Amritsar and Shimla. In the west are Mumbai (Bombay), Lonavala, Pune, Bhopal, Khajuraho, Gwalior, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and the coastal regions of Goa and Karnataka. The capital of Karnataka is Bangalore, which is in the south along with Hyderabad, Mysore, Chennai (Madras), Tiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) and Kochi (Cochin). In the east is Kolkata (Calcutta), Bhubaneswar, Gopalpur on Sea, Port Blair in the Andaman Islands and Darjeeling, famous for its superb tasting teas and the World Heritage Toy Train. The people India's population is in excess of a billion people and its religions are many and varied. Hindu originated with the early Aryans and is not only a religion but also a philosophy and way of life. Jainism and Buddhism were introduced in the 6th century BC and the Islamic teachings were brought to the country by Arab traders in the 7th century. The Afghans and Moghuls who followed were also Muslim, so the religion flourished. Christianity reached India with the arrival of St Thomas, the Apostle, and Zoroastrianism (whose total world population is no more than 140 000) found its way with followers who left their homeland in Iran following the Islamic conquest around 766 AD. Judaism dates back to 973 BC while Sikhism was introduced by Guru Nanak, its founder, in the 15th century. Hindi is the official language, popular in the north while in the south, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam is spoken with hundreds of dialects between them. English continues to be widely spoken throughout India and helps bridge the many different dialects. Nature India is divided from the rest of Asia by mountains and sea. It is bound by the Great Himalayas in the north, stretches southward and at the Tropic of Cancer, and tapers off into the Indian Ocean, between the Bay of Bengal in the east and the Arabian Sea in the west. One-fifth of the land is covered with forests harbouring a variety of wildlife. Rare species like the Asian lion, the white tiger, the one-horned rhinoceros, and the Kashmir stag are protected animals. The sights There is so much to see in India. In Old Delhi the river Yamuna runs along the eastern boundary past the cremation sites of Mahatma Gandhi and Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. The walls of the old city were built by Shah Jahan and are nearly nine kilometres long. The Ajmeri and Delhi gates are part of this old wall, which encloses the Red Fort. About 160 kilometres south of New Delhi is the town of Mathura, once a great Buddhist centre and the legendary scene of Lord Krishna's playful exploits. Agra is 200 kilometres from the capital and was the seat of the great Moghul emperor Akbar who built a huge fort there, which contained his palace known as the Jahangiri. His grandson, Shah Jahan, built the incomparable Taj Mahal between 1630 and 1652. Worth a visit is Akbar's proposed capital of Fatehpur Sikri, abandoned after only a few years, and the tomb of Akbar at Sikandra. Varanasi, arguably the world's oldest living city, was once the site of about 100 Hindu temples and 30 Buddhist monasteries. Most did not survive the Muslim occupation, but there is a sacred area called Varamaso, which Hindus hope to visit once in their life. Thousands make the pilgrimage every year to bathe in the Ganges, a sacred river, and visit the holy Viswanath Temple (the domes of which are covered in solid gold) dedicated to Shiva, Lord of the Universe. I N D I A

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