And now it's Orchha's turn. (I need to get these out of my system before I forget, or they take over my life!) Orchha was the place where the Bundela kings, after getting booted out of one capital after another, went on a building spree in the 18th century, churning out palaces and temples in amazing profusion. Who actually built them, I wonder? There's nobody left: it's a little town, just a few thousand. And just discovered by tourism ... after we went on to crassly touristified Khajuraho we saw in retrospect that Orchha's on the brink: like untouched Chanderi five years ago, it may teem with predatory touts like Khajuraho in another five.
In order you see:
• the cenotaphs of the Bundela kings (across the Betwa)
• the inside of the Jahangir Mahal (built by the Hindu Bundela king for the Mughal emperor and used for exactly one day)
• the view up toward the deliciously forlorn Lakshmi temple and three scenes of frescoes there (the latter two of battle formations from 17th and, er, 19th centuries)
• the cenotaphs again (we were staying just beneath them)
• a view from the Jahangir Mahal in the other direction, showing a landscape littered with temples
• objects for pilgrims
• another view from the Jahangir Mahal, this one showing a huge monastery-like temple in whose niches brahmins used to sit and chant "om" every morning - surroundsound avant la lettre
• and, finally, one of the frescoes - restored - inside the Jahangir Mahal, the colors somewhat distorted for lack of natural light.
Orchha was, in the end, perhaps my favorite place we went - not that one could possibly top the Taj, or the ghats in Varanasi, etc., and the whole point is to have been many places. But as a place where you could be left on your own to explore, full of impressive and as yet unspoiled wonders, it was lovely.
