Anecdotes from Gwalior fort

Recently I visited Gwalior fort and had my first real encounter with a tourist guide. So far I was averse to the idea of hiring a guide as most of them are known to spice up historical facts. Although there were instances in Washington DC, USA and Mysore, India when I was part of a group and the guide came along with the package, I never thought of hiring one.

This guide however had earned my cousin's respect during his last trip to the fort. Staying in Gwalior, my cousin has been there a couple of times. Every time people like me visit Gwalior he takes them around town in keeping with the traditions of a true Indian host. Mr. Guide was really impressive with his above average vocabulary (like he he knew that the "Hindu Trishul" is called a Trident, he knew the difference between an alligator and a croc etc.).

Something which I really want to share with everyone is the guide’s interpretation of some common ground between Hinduism and Christianity. He told us that the main palace inside the fort was built as per the norms of Hindu architecture and had various Hindu Symbols engraved into the walls. One of them was a triangle which symbolized the holy trinity (Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh – Creator, Sustainer and destroyer). We were told that the holy trinity in Christianity was the Holy Father, the Holy Son and the Holy Ghost (although they might not perform the same roles). Another revelation came in the shape of decoded “GOD” (Wow!). We discovered that day that GOD is actually an acronym for Generator, Operator and Destroyer (Interesting stuff, ha!). I had learnt earlier that Hindu religion also has a mention of the flood and a king (Manu) saving life on earth by protecting one specimen of each species so this just brings the two religions even closer, I suppose!

Another interesting aspect of the Gwalior fort, which I was unaware of, was the huge rock carvings of Jain statues resembling the Bamiyan Buddha. It seemed like the same sculptors had worked on these carvings to save their talent from Taliban.

Not to forget the "Saas-Bahu" temple this reminded me of the hit theme of some of the Indian Soaps. But it was only the name; the architecture was pre-Mughal with lots of carved figurines inside and outside the temple.

Another discovery at the fort was that due to the physical properties of sound it was eerily quiet in the fort while we stood away from the parapet but as soon as we reached the surrounding wall we could hear the humdrum of Gwalior city quite clearly. Seemed like a nice way to choose when one wants to stay clued in and when one would like to enjoy tranquility.