20 DAYS AND 19 NIGHTS FROM NEW YORK
Early morning arrival in this fast-paced, cosmopolitan city. Afternoon tour: overview of Back Bay from fashionable Malabar Hill and Kamala Nehru Park, Hanging Gardens, somber Parsi Towers of Silence; visit the city's sweeping Marine Drive -- the glittering "Queen's Necklace" thronged nightly by people of all walks of life -- and adjacent Chowpatty Beach; the Prince of Wales Museum and the great Gateway of India at Apollo Bunder (erected to commemorate the landing of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911): symbol of the Age of Imperialism when British might was at its zenith and India was "the Jewel in the Crown" of the English Monarchy. You may shop at the adjacent Central Cottage Industries Emporium and other fine venues hereabouts or other areas such as the famous Zaveri Bazaar.
Morning excursion by motorlaunch to Elephanta island's 7th century cave temples with their rock shrines and sculptures dedicated to Lord Shiva; the colossal 3-headed Trimurti -- Shiva as Creator, Preserver and Destroyer -- radiating might and mildness, awesome power and tender benevolence in one majestic icon, is one of the world's supreme religious sculptures.
Morning flight to Aurangabad, your home base for 2 unique trips into the heart of ancient India -- the incredible caves of Ajanta and Ellora. .Afternoon excursion to Ellora, where Buddhist, Hindu and Jain shrines chiselled by hand out of sheer rock from 7th to 13th century stand side by side; the supreme example is the stupendous rock-cut temple of Kailasa 96 feet high for which 200,000 tons of rock were excavated in creating what one authoritative source calls "the noblest Hindu memorial of ancient India."
Day excursion to Ajanta's Buddhist cave chaityas (chapels) and viharas (monasteries) where subterranean statuary and world-famous murals -- miraculously preserved in the twilight world of the caverns for 2000 years -- present avivid panorama of the life and legends of the Buddha, born Prince Siddhartha, whose "great renunciation" led him on the exemplary spiritual pilgrimage so memorably depicted here, away from the endless cycle of human suffering and desire to the supreme blessedness of Nirvana.
Morning flight to Udaipur, romantic and photogenic "city of dreams" and shimmering blue lakes and green hills lying like an oasis in the deserts of Rajasthan, whose name means "Abode of Kings"; the city's Maharanas claimed highest rank among Rajput chiefs for their martial prowess and gracefully sumptuous court life as befits the descendants of Kusa, elder son of Rama of the eponymous epic The Ramayana. Visit City Palace and exquisite white marble Summer Palace, reflecting itself in mirror-like Lake Pichola (now Lake Palace Hotel) and Saheliyon Ki Bari, princely pleasure garden.
Fly in morning to Jaipur, Rajasthan's capital. Afternoon tour of this "pink city" built of rosy sandstone features the City (Maharajah's) Palace and Museum displaying the royal way of life in fascinating detail plus the extraordinary futuristic-looking (actually early 18th century) Observatory, one (and largest) of 5 built along with the layout and construction of the city itself in the 1720s planned and executed by the brilliant "Renaissance Man" of Rajputana, Maharajah Jai Singh II : astronomer, mathematician, urban planner, (assisted by Vidhyadhar of Bengal) military general and statesman
Morning visit to a most celebrated building, Hawa Mahal or Palace of Winds, a five-storeyed structure of pink sandstone with tier upon tier of delicate overhanging balconies creating a unique lacy, undulating surface effect. Continue on to the isolated hilltop splendour of the 17th century Amber Palace in Mogul style from its magnificent gateway to fountain garden and sumptious interiors of mirrors, mosaics and inlaid marble. Your appropriately royal "taxi service" will be a decorated and caparisoned elephant.
Morning departure by motorcoach eastward for Agra, stopping en route to view the once-glorious ghost city of Fatehpur Sikri, a perfectly preserved outdoor museum of mosques, mansions and palaces. Arrive late afternoon in Agra, heart of Mogul India, an industrial city today but 4 centuries ago the residential capital of a legendary succession of India's most wealthy, powerful and cultured rulers in the 16th and 17th centuries. Agra is also, of course, the site of India's most famous symbol. Tonight you may view the Taj Mahal at its most haunting and ethereal, bathed in moonlight
Reflecting the morning sun, theTaj seems to float in perfect, pearly symmetry above the waters of the River Jamuna in eternal tribute to Queen Mumtaz-i-Mahal, whose death giving birth to her 14th child drove the emotionally devastated Shah Jahan to erect over 22 years (1630-52) this double mausoleum embellished by countless quotations from the Koran on the walls plus the actual tomb inscriptions reciting the 99 names of Allah. In the afternoon you visit the fabulous Agra Fort completed by Akbar a century earlier (1564) with its 70-foot-high walls enclosing lavish palaces and audience halls, courts and gardens, the lovely Pearl Mosque and also see nearby Tomb of Itmad-Ud-Daula,. a masterpiece of inlaid marble and wonderfully carved lattice work.
Leave in morning for the national capital Delhi by way of Sikandara, where the motorcoach stops for viewing the imposing Akbar the Great mausoleum, a structure unlike any other Indian tomb: a 4-storeyed pyramid 74 feet high of red sandstone and marble. It stands as a reminder that by the close of his half-century reign (1605) the Mogul Empire stretched from Kabul and the Khyber Pass in the northwest to the mouth of the Ganges and the Bay of Bengal in the east and the rugged Deccan in the south-central subcontinenet, encompassing at its height as many as 150 million subjects.
India's modern rulers, by contrast, are seemingly now intent on leading the government and its huge bureaucracy centered here into making the difficult transition from a more state-directed to a more private-enterpreneurial type of national economy, a historic step in India's post-1947 history. City tour: famed Red Fort, enclosing Pearl Mosque, royal courts, baths and audience halls Diwan-i-Am and Diwan-i-Khas; Chandni Chauk bazaar, Jama Masjid (India's largest mosque), and Rajghat Memorial Shrine where the remains of the venerated "Great Soul" or Mahatma (born Mohandas K.) Gandhi were cremated 31 January 1948 following his shockingly tragic and senseless assassination.
Morning sightseeing: the 234-foot Qutab Minar tower of Islam and Hindu Iron Pillar dedicated to Vishnu 1500 years ago, plus Humayan's Persian-style tomb. Drive to New Delhi proper and its broad boulevards laid out by Lutyens (1919-36) in European Renaissance/Oriental styles: India Gate war memorial and majestic Rajpath avenue, site of Republic Day's annual pomp and circumstance, National Museum and Parliament and immense Presidential Palace. Finally visit Connaught Place, the country's national market and outstanding source for buying Indian crafts, fabrics and antiques.
Depart from Delhi, arriving on same day at New York's Kennedy airport due to crossing the International Date Line.
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