362595 3 Location 558505 <p>Its difficult to explain how much of India is religion. It seems to dominate their lives like nowhere I have ever seen - not even Spain, Italy or Ireland. Every kiosk I have been to has a little statue of Ganesh or a poster of Shiva. The Hindu gods go back 5000 years and seem to be just as involved in life now as they were then. But its the range of religions which is so striking. The Kashmiris brothers were mussulmen (muslims), Suresh Kumar is Hindu (brahmin caste of course), I've seen Christian churches, Jain temples and Buddhist shrines. India may be the worlds most secular nation.</p><p>Nowhere is this so obvious then at Fatehpur Sikri. This ghost palace out in the Rajasthani desert was meant as a place to bring all the religions of Bharat together. Akbar the Great was a secularist of the highest order and he was fascinted by all the religions of India and was working towards a religion that enfused all the religions of the world. The more I read about Akbar the most impressed I am - certainly a ruler ahead of his time.</p><p>So before we hit Agra we stopped off at Fatehpur Sikri which isnt that far from Bharatpur. Once again there was a piranha feeding frenzy as I emerged from the car for my custom. Postcards, knives and souvenirs were aggressively shoved under my nose and each was vying to be my guide. I turned to a greenshirted lad next to me</p><p>"You can be my guide if you get rid of all these people!"</p><p>Within seconds he had shooed them away and grinning in triumph he led me up to the Gates of Fatehpur Sikri.</p><p>I had to leave my shoes at his families stall (what a surprise), wrap a lunghi around my bare legs and walked through the looming gate of Shahi Darwanza. The guide was very useful it was built in 1572 (I did my English history calculation - Elizabeth the firsts era) and I was being taken to the masjid (mosque). The courtyard is colossal and the redrock was blistering in the blasting sun. Ribbons of cloth were thrown across it to protect bare feet. </p><p>The mihrab was beautifully cool. A domed marble area with arabic enscriptions and Akbars fascination with other religions were pointed out to me - Hindu columns, muslims inscriptions, and a Christian dome. Across the courtyard was the tomb of Sheik Salam Christi. The place was filled with Indian tourists dressed in lovely coloured saris and latticed screens filtered the sunlight in gorgeous patterns. Inside was a tomb inlaid with mother-of-pearl where a sadhu sat on cushions meditating.</p><p>All in all Fatehpur Sikri was very satisfying and I managed to fend off his families offers of chai and buying their wares. But it was only when I got back in the car that I realised that he had only shown me half the palace - the mosque - and I missed out on the royal apartments.</p><p>On the road out of Fatehpur Sikri I noticed six indivuals with dancing sloth bears.Each was controlled by a ring on its nose which makes them rear on their hind legs when the chain is yanked.</p><p>Local colour or cruelty to animals? You decide?</p> 2008-02-19T20:50:26-08:00 285212728 2000-06-02T17:00:00-07:00 0 16 244569 6571553 362595 0 233074 0.0 2000-06-02T17:00:00-07:00 Published 0.0 2008-02-23T20:45:03-08:00 60714 0