ORCHHA -the name spells it all, it means "hidden" and to me was like finding a hidden treasure. Away from the beaten track, this place is about 15 kms from Jhansi. To reach this place, one needs to travel through the dusty roads of Madhya Pradesh, small villages, and long terrains of arid fields. But, I would say its worth the effort and you finally reach Orchha. You can check into Orchha Resorts, which is situated on the banks of the river Betwa. The first thing you notice about the place is that this small town has innumerable temples and palaces that are scattered around. During the 16th and 17th century, Orchha was the capital of the Rajput bundela kings who left behind some of magnificent palaces.
The first place that catches your attention is the Ram Raja temple where Lord Ram is worshipped as King, not as God. This temple is about 400 years old and legend has it that, Lord Ram spends the entire day at Ayodhya, but he comes to Orchha to spend the night. After the visit to the temple, you can have good breakfast in any of the dhabas that are available. These dhabas serve you good food that too at reasonable rates.
Once done with your morning breakfast, you can first visit the Raja Mahal, built by king Madhukar Shah. Though, this palace is in ruins and facades have cracked in several places, exposing the bones and blackened innards behind the mustard walls. You can take help of the guide who can ensure that you will return safely to the entrance of the palace without getting lost among the 400 rooms and seven floors of the palace.This palace has some of the wonderful paintings, and murals that has been miraculously preserved in some of the rooms. The colors are fresh and figures has been drawn with sedulous attention to detail. On the ceilings, there were intricate patterns of birds, animals, flowers, and trees. There were wide open courtyards fringed by latticed windows and arched doorways and behind them were subtly concealed vents and passages that created a natural ventilation with a marvellous interplay of light and air.
The palace has been designed to be cool in summers and warm in winters and their architectural devices seemed to have been more effective than our current electronic gadgets. There were some large basins that were filled with water and scented flowers, so that the cool breeze could blow inside the rooms. There were niches on the walls that held small earthen lamps which would bathe the entire area in their shimmering glow.
The queens had a separate palace for herself and it was called the Rani Mahal, which was situated few metres away from Raja Mahal. This Rani Mahal is now the Ram Raja temple. Legend has it that, the queen of Madhukar Shah was a devotee of Ram. She did a long penance at Ayodhya, and finally Lord Ram appeared and he agreed to go with her to Orchha. But Lord Ram had three conditions that he wanted the queen to fulfill. They were: The queen would reach Orchha by foot, walking in moonlight, and once s=he reached there he would not move. The queen agreed to the conditions and carried the idol of Ram with her. Meanwhile in Orchha, a grand temple was being built for Lord Ram. So the queen temporally, placed the idol of Ram in her private chamber till the temple was built. The day the temple was completed, and it was time to move the idol, it would budge, so the temple stayed there from then on.
The Chaturbhuj temple, significant and dedicated to Lord Vishnu is next to Ram Rajya temple and can be viewed from king's palace. Then move along to Jahangir Mahal, built by King Bir Singh Deo in 1626 for Jahangir's visit after his coronation. This beautiful palace is modelled after a Datiya which was admired by Jahangir. The palace is a symbol of harmony between Hindus and Muslims. The palace is built in Indo Saracenic style and the color theme are blue and green. Though, most of the color has faded away, but you can still brilliant tiled flowers, and geometric shapes of a lovely aquamarine hue embedded in some walls. The room for Jehangir was the largest one with elaborately carved windows, a balcony, walls that had been embellished with gems and a magnificent painted ceiling. Jahangir stayed in that palace just for a night and after that no one lived there.
Another small palace called Rai Praveen Mahal. Rai Praveen Mahal was beautiful and accomplished courtesan whose fame reached Emperor Akbar. He summoned her to Delhi, even though Rai Praveen was besotted with Raja Indramani. On reaching Delhi, for a particular question, she compared Akbar to a crow saying that he was like a crow who lived on the leftovers. Emperor Akbar was so impressed that he sent her back with full honours to her beloved king. This palace was stands for her memory.
You can stop at cenotaphs of Bundela kins on the banks of Betwa. They are like mi nature temples with a pyramid like spears and arched doorways. Though no one hardly visit this place, but one should as it would be a tribute to the Bundela kings who created some of the beautiful jewels in a nodescript place called - Orchha.
Fact File:
- To reach Orchha, you can take a flight to Gwalior from Delhi and there you can hire a cab to cover a distance of 120 kms.
- There are many hotels in Orchha, that suit different budgets. Some of them are: Sheesh Mahal, The Betwa Retreat, Orchha Resort, Amar Mahal
- Food: There are many hotels where you can dine out, but my suggestion would be check out the dhabas, where the food offers you a great value for money and tastes great also.
- Best time to visit would be between October and March, but recommended time to travel would be late November to January.
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