"Anthem of Eternal Love."

India is a multi-ethnic country, as a result, its inhabitants speak a thousand languages and dialects. Native Indians say that after a mile the language changes, after a mile and a half the taste of water. Representatives of six religious denominations coexist peacefully, Hinduism (80% of the population) and Islam (about 13.0%) prevail. There are 330 million Hindu gods and goddesses (three of them are the main ones) who pray to those closest to them. Interestingly, the gods are married. The creator of the world is called Brahma and is not the only one to be prayed to. The second most important is Vishnu (guardian) and Shiv (destroyer, punishing for non-observance of the divine laws of life). It is easy to determine which god is depicted on the icon by the attributes inherent in him specifically. Indians are also very superstitious. Various amulets are decorated with transport and housing. For example, from the evil eye, in their opinion, well saves a bunch of lemons and black pepper.

Pink hospitality

Indians since the 2nd millennium BC were divided into four castes: brahmanas (priests, scholars), kshatriyas (warriors, rulers), vaisyas (farmers, artisans, traders) and sudras (servants, hired workers). Independent estate - untouchables who are engaged in garbage cleaning, leather or pottery craft or are hired by workers in foreign farms. In modern India caste is abolished, although cases of discrimination on this basis are quite frequent. It is estimated that untouchables make up 18-19% of the population.

Maharajas (Indian princes) also disappeared nominally, although the authorities left them most of their property, and compensation was paid for the property that went to the state. These are the literate and richest people in India, owners of, for example, hotel chains. They turned the palaces of their ancestors into hotels or built new ones. The title of maharaja, now secretly, is passed down through the male line: there is no son, the grandson will become the heir.

In Fort Amber (XVI century) near the city of Jaipur, where the personal residential palace of the living Maharaja can be visited for money, I drove an elephant. A special chair on the back of the animal with handrails gave confidence that I would not fall, since the driver was caught extreme, and periodically sought to go almost at the edge of the abyss, apparently believing that it gives more pleasure to tourists. The fortress is built of red and white sandstone, thousands of mirrors were glued into the inner walls of the Amber Palace, as a result, the halls can be illuminated with a single candle.

Jaipur is called the Pink City for the color of most of the buildings in the old part. One of them, the five-storey Hawa Mahal or Palace of Winds, was built in 1799. The original design of numerous window openings with balconies (a total of 593) allowed women to observe street processions, while remaining invisible to the prying eye. Although pink is traditionally the color of hospitality in the state of Rajasthan, and the city is almost entirely built of local pink limestone, the habitual colors of houses are regularly updated. It is believed to have become mandatory since 1856, ahead of the visit of the Prince of Wales Albert.

Jaipur city planner Jai Singh II, a famous mathematician and astronomer, in 1728 built a grandiose Jantar Mantar Observatory in his native penates, which is translated from Hindi as “tools for calculation”. 16 of them made it possible to accurately determine the position of stars on the celestial sphere. And the world's largest sundial centuries later shows time with an accuracy of two seconds. Modern students go to the observatory for classes.

Star, say it!

Astrologers still play a very important role in the life of Hindus. Businessmen before business negotiations to businessmen, as well as the groom with the bride before the wedding are horoscopes. The stars must guarantee a prosperous marriage, otherwise, for a certain amount, the astrologer will write in the horoscope that will not cause doubts from either side. In India, there are 18 reasons to get married. Love is not the most important thing, the future of the two is in the hands of family and society, relatives often resort to the help of marriage agencies. The age of newlyweds is at least 18 years for a girl and 21 years for a boy, the same religion, caste and other requirements are very strict. The dowry is prepared by the bride's parents, and the couple will live in the husband's house. Nowadays, young people are introduced to the ceremony, allowed to communicate, sometimes listen to their opinions and desires, which was not allowed before. Before the wedding, they are massaged with turmeric oil so that the skin is tender and shiny, henna is painted or artistically painted hands, feet and nails. A groom with a closed face comes to the bride on a horse or an elephant (a female is necessarily chosen), in the XXI century an alternative to an animal can be a car or a helicopter (depending on wealth). Next to the young man put the child as a guarantee of future offspring. Sons in the family are always desirable, daughters are not so welcome - it is very expensive to marry them. Girlfriends joke with friends, relatives exchange flower garlands during acquaintance, beat drums and play national musical instruments. This part of the ceremony I was lucky to see firsthand, as the restaurant of our hotel for one of the nights was rented for the wedding. All participants of the procession should be fed 2-3 times, because the guests walk until dawn. After dinner, the closest ones are left to light a bonfire at 3-4am for the god of fire. The newlyweds seven times round the fire in a circle, receive a blessing from the priest, finally, the newlywed husband puts on his beloved necklace and paints the partition. These, like rings on the toes, are signs of a married woman. An expensive wedding guarantees a happy future for the couple. It is funny that until the henna is washed away on the hands and feet of a young wife, she cannot do any housework.

Love at first sight

The trouble of most cities in the country is poor ecology, the rapid growth of infectious diseases, especially hepatitis and malaria. The reason for the emissions of industrial enterprises, low level of sewage treatment, in addition, almost a third of the urban population lives in slums with no toilets. For men, there are no problems, if the “hooked” right on the street, they turn away and do their job without a drop of embarrassment. There is a fight against the pollution of space. Motorcycle and bicycle rickshaws are not touched, and other means of transportation are gradually transferred to gas, in this case, on cars and buses you can see the sign “CNG”, which means “compressed natural gas”. Traffic jams in Delhi for many hours, experienced on themselves. But when the “pearl of Muslim art” of the Taj Mahal beckons, one can be patient.

An ancient legend says that Prince Khurram (after the accession to the throne of Shah Jahan) met a beautiful girl with beads in his hands at the bazaar, and so she looked at him, that the man firmly decided to marry a 19-year-old beauty (note, for India at that time, the “old maid”), so as not to be separated. Mumtaz Mahal, the only one of the wives, accompanied him even on distant military campaigns, steadfastly enduring all the hardships, he completely trusted and even consulted her alone, ignoring other charming women from his harem!

For 17 years of happy marriage, 13 children were born. Alas, Mumtaz Mahal did not survive the difficult birth of her 14th child during her return from the camping trip. Six months later, the widower moved the body to Agra, where he erected a mausoleum worthy of his beloved woman in beauty, and in grandeur - the strength of their feelings. The building was built for 22 years by the efforts of more than twenty thousand masters from all over the country. Marble blocks were brought 300 kilometers away, inlays were made of gems. The peculiarity of marble is that in bright daylight it looks white, pink at dawn, and on a lunar night - silver. In 1652, the Taj Mahal was ready, then the aging ruler planned to build a similar mausoleum for himself, but made of black marble. The dream remained unrealized, besides, five years later, Shah Jahan was overthrown by his son Aurangzeb, imprisoned in the tower of the Red Fort in Agra, from the window of which he admired the Taj Mahal until the end of his life, where he was buried next to his beloved. The anthem of eternal love in stone is a popular plot for melodrama by Indian cinema.

Olga Yakunina

Facts:

In the city of Jaipur, there are two silver vessels mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest silver crafts. Each is more than one and a half meters high and holds 8,182 liters. When Madho Singh II went to England in 1901 to attend the coronation of King Edward VII, he was so prejudiced against the water in the west that he ordered the urns to be filled with water from the Ganges River and took them with him.

The Taj Mahal is a five-domed structure 74 m high on a platform, with four minarets at the corners (they are slightly tilted away from the tomb in order not to damage it in case of destruction), to which a garden with fountains and a swimming pool adjoins.