There was a Bunela king Rudra Pratap Singh, once came on the banks of Betawa river, in MP. Its the same royal family who also built fort of Jhansi, the Chandeles.
We had just seen the fort of Jhansi, which is scented by the bravery of a Maratha girl Rani Laxmibai, but now was the time to see the art and architecture of one of the most powerful kingdoms in India.
So the king along with his hunter dogs arrived on the banks of the river. And after lookng at some movement in some bushes on the riverbank, he in the local language, prompted his dogs to hunt down the prey/animal, if there is any, and he uttered words "Urchha",and the dogs ran in the woods.But to his surprise the dogs stopped barking and there was silence, then his excellency himself walked in to the jungle, and instead of any deer there was a Rishi, who was already been distrurbed by the kings dogs.The furious Rishi, with all his godly might and agony, was about to curse the king, but king surrendered and bowed to the Rishi's feet. With such honesty, humbleness of the king the rishi, instead of giving any "Shaap" to him, gave a "U:Shaap" and oredered the king to establish an empire in the region and name it with words he uttered first after entering the territory. It was "Urchha". and the kingdom came in to existent as "Orchha"
A 15 minutes long story, which we heard from a guide in Orchha. They have a very speacial way of narrating the story.
This area is highly rich in terms of ancient monuments. There are many great sights to see. The speacial one is Chaturbhuj Temple. The mandir shikhar and kalas is approximately 100 to 125 mtrs tall from the base. The rarest of the architecture. Again a multistoried buidling with narrow staircase to get to the height. As I entered the Sabhagriha of the temple I saw 4 small balconies at the roof Sabhagriha, a curious me, instantly asked a question to a local guide, "what are those small balconies for?", He said those are the areas from where Kings and the queens were welcomed by showering flowers on them. What a nice idea that is.
We met a local guide there, Manoj Sen,a localite, however he had been facing issues speaking hindi with, sudden he started speaking French with some french tourists and they also spoke with him. After some time he told us that he is a multilingual person and can speak french,German, Spanish, and some Asian languages. From him we came to know that people other than UK and USA are the oldest visitors of these monuments.
Then we moved to see the fort of Orchha. Again a multistoreied buiding, with hell lot of surprises. The "Tatbandi", The bedrooms of Raja and his wives. The natural color paintings in the bedroom of Rani Ganeshi bai and the king. These paintings are said to be 500 yeras old. There we could see almost every colour that we see now a days.
While I was viewing the fort, I recalled the forts of Sahyadri. The forts built by Satvahan empire and Raja Shivaji. And realised why it was difficult for Mughal to beat Shivaji and Marathas. The main strenght of Hindvi Swrajya was these forts of Sahyadri. Unlike forts in central and North India, our forts are atop the tallest mountain in the visible range. The greatness of Marathas is in these forts. How difficult it had been for our "Mavales" to build such unbeatable forts. And what is our youth doing on these forts. They drink, dance and booz on our forts. Last year I happened to trek Harishchandra gad, and to my surprise and fate of all Gadpremi and nisargpremi, I must tell you that Harshchandragad has now becoome a dustbin. People go there with plastic bottles,plastic bags, plastic glasses, plastic plates and come down the fort leaving all these plastic things behind on the firt itself, which has made such an amazing fort a dustbin. Once 15 years ago, when we trekked it with College(12th) mates, we collected each and every piece of plastic and burried it, but this time when I saw the situation, it would require almost 100+ volunteers to work couple of days to clean the fort. Alas..
But the good thing about Orchha and overall MP tourism dept is that they have maintained the monuments. The surroundings of the fort and temples is plastic free. Yet We could see some along roadside.
I am intentionally not uploading all the photos of Orchha. And I must say, its a must see place. At least we Indians should see and feel the height of Chaturbhuj temple and the great heights of of culture, art and dedication.
Also my perception about our forts have changed greatly. The respect towards Sahyadri forts and Raja Shivaji and Maratha "Dharkari and Warkari "has increased in great extent. I felt really proud that I belong to a land where the forts are really touching skies, Gaganchumbi, Abhedya, Ajinkya, full of bloody wars with enemies, martyrs,victories and memoirs of a warrior who challenged might Mughals,Nizam and Adilshahs and killed many of them.
