What comes to your mind when you hear "Aurangabad"? When my friends and I were looking for people to accompany us on our trip, we were met with lots of quizzical looks and genuine concerns - what is even in Aurangabad? We thought, 'Oh you'll see!' and started putting together an itinerary for the trip. What followed was two days of extensive traveling, sightseeing, good food and great photos to be recycled for all the throwback-Thursdays to come.
On Friday evening the four of us took an overnight bus to Aurangabad from Pune. Before daybreak, we found ourselves at the bus stop struggling to locate our driver for the day who would take us to Ajanta caves. Finally a 20-minute hunt and a 2-hour drive later we stopped at a roadside eatery for some breakfast. It was better than we expected and managed to get a decent meal before carrying on the bumpy ride towards our destination. It was around 9 am when we reached Ajanta Caves. They were majestic.
Ajanta Caves are a series of 32 rock-cut Buddhist caves made in the 2nd Century BC. The caves contain Buddhist monuments, painted ceilings, prayer halls, and monasteries. Each cave is special in its own way but we were told by the staff there some caves were more crucial to understand the story of Buddhism than others. There are four different caves, not adjacently located, that show the life of Buddha from this birth as Prince Siddhartha, to him facing the four noble truths of life, Buddha attaining nirvana and finally his passing away. There are Hinayana and Mahayana styles of architecture in display and some of the paintings look as fresh as yesterday. It took us hours to properly admire the place. The rest of the sightseeing was reserved for the next day but since we managed to complete the Ajanta tour early, we decided to squeeze in one more thing before calling it a day.
Now, anyone who has heard of India has heard of the Taj Mahal. But have you heard of Bibi ka Maqbara? No? Thought so. Its a replica of the Taj Mahal, it was made by Emperor Aurangazeb in memory of his wife Dilras Banu Begum. When she died during the birth of her fifth child, Aurangazeb and Azam Shah, their oldest son, were devastated. In the later years, Azam Shah undertook the task of repairing and maintaining the tomb. It looks like the spitting image of the Taj from a distance but if you have seen the monument in Agra as many times as I have, you begin to notice the subtle differences. The best thing about Bibi ka Maqbara is, however, fortunately, it's not affected by pollution. Only some parts of this monument are made of actual marble and most of it is plaster of Paris and this 'Dakshini Taj' has been able to hold its own over the centuries.
A long and bumpy car ride took us to our hotels where we freshened up and headed to Bhoj for dinner. Again, Aurangabad has surprised us with great affordable food. With a full day's sightseeing ahead of us, we set out early the next day. Our first stop, Ellora caves.
Ajanta caves were majestic but Ellora caves took our breath away. They were a series of 34 caves comprised of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain monuments and artwork. Again here not all caves had intricate artwork or carvings but there were some which were exquisite. Cave 16, in particular, was so beautiful we couldn't get out of it for over an hour. We managed to take in all of the art and beauty of Ellora in the next couple of hours and headed towards Daulatabad Fort.
The fort is on a hill and is uniquely built. It has only one entrance/exit unlike other forts with separate or even multiple exits and entrances. The climb to the top of the fort is a complex one full of long winding staircases, curved walls, pitch dark alleyways, and false doors. It was a bright Sunday afternoon when we decided to undertake this task of trekking up some 600
odd steps to the top of the fort. An hour and a few breathless moments later we reached the
top and it was absolutely worth it.
The best views come after the toughest climb!
Next on the list was Aurangazeb's tomb. It is in direct contrast to other Mughal Tombs. In his last years, Aurangazeb used to stitch skull caps and sell them. The money earned from that was used to build his tomb. Unlike other Mughal tombs, his tomb doesn't have a dome. His wish was to be buried in a simple tomb near Sheikh Zainuddin, his teacher. It was refreshing to see a Mughal monument which was so minimalistic and especially the fact that he wished to be buried next to his teacher showed a humble side of the emperor that history books often don't stress upon.
With that, our sightseeing ended and we had to get the bus back to Pune at midnight. We decided to pass the time by watching a random movie and devouring the buffet at BBQ. I know this does not really sound like most grad trips. We didn't party, we didn't get drunk, we didn't dance and we certainly remember everything that happened. We observed a lot of art and learned about the culture and saw some of the things we have read about in our history books. We were happy, mesmerized and fascinated with everything we got to see. And I am so grateful that we took a trip of this kind because it really brought me peace and so much joy. Although we didn't know it at the time, that was the only grad trip we got to have due to the worldwide pandemic. Lots of things were left undone but I'm glad this trip wasn't one of them. Oh and the icing on the cake? This whole trip including stay and travel got done under 5k per person!
Comments