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The
City At A Glance
Sikri was a decrepit little village till the Mughal Emperor Akbar
came visiting in 1568. Despite marrying the Amber princess Jodhabai
in 1562, and having over 300 concubines at his beck and call, the
monarch was childless.
Desperate for an heir, Akbar
visited the saint, Shaikh Salim who was encamping here and who
predicted that Akbar would have a son within 3 years. As fate had
willed it, Jodhabai bore him a son the next year. The emperor named
him after the mystic.
Not only that, he decided to
move lock stock and barrel to the place and named it Fatehpur, or
the ‘City of Victory’. His military conquest of Gujarat might also
have persuaded him to shift base as must have the local abundance of
red sandstone. In fact, apart from the marble-white mausoleum of
Salim, nestling in one corner of the Jami Masjid – the city is
entirely built out of red sandstone.
Diwani-i-Am
The Diwani-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience) is where the monarch sat
and lent a patient ear to all the petitions he received. A paved
courtyard called the Pachisi was where the monarch played chaubar, a
game that closely resembles chess– using slave girls as pieces.
Diwani-i-Khas
TheDiwani-i-Khas nearby housed theIbadat Khana or the ‘House of
Worship’ where the emperor debated various systems with noted
theologians.
Although semi-literate, Akbar was the most liberal of the Mughal
emperors, and in 1579, he was declared the highest authority in
matters of religion by the famous ‘infallibility decree’. Three
years later, the emperor founded Din-a-Ilahi or the ‘Religion of
God’ which was an amalgam of all the major religions of the world.
Decried by religious zealots from his own community as an apostate,
Din-a-Ilahi disappeared as a faith after Akbar’s death in 1605.
Ankh Michauli
As you enter the Ankh Michauli (Closed Eyes) pavilion, you realise
that Akbar could be as flippant as he was profound. Here the Mughal
played ‘blind man’s buff’ and indulged in frivolous pranks in the
company of his harem.
Jodhabai’s Palace
Jodhabai’s Palace is befittingly the grandest of all palaces in
Fatehpur Sikri – as she was his most favoured wife and the mother of
the crown prince. Other notable palaces at Fatehpur Sikri are the
five-storeyed Panch Mahal and the Hawa Mahal.
The Everlasting Glory of Fatehpur Sikri
By 1585, Akbar wearied of the dry, hot climate of the city and moved
to the cooler climes of Lahore. Within a few years, the pomp and
pageantry of the city vanished – but the sandstone monuments endure
to this day. Such were the construction methods employed, that there
is not a single derelict monument in the city. The Mughal Empire has
long since vanished from the firmament but the greatest of the
Mughal emperors, Akbar etched his name forever in the sands of time
by building the Fatehpur Sikri. |
