A Trip to Mandu

I was on the trip to Mandav/Mandu (6-9-9) Sunday. My friend Vijay is having the bike “Theunderbird :Royal Enfield”. The area local manager of Royal Enfield had organized an official trip to this place. Mandav is around 90Km from my residence place Indore, Total 16 people were in the group along with the manager & two mechanic.

We started around 6:15 from Indore. It was nice fresh morning the sigh of relief was there were no signs of getting rain.

I was thrilled to have fun with photography as it was my first experience to shoot while having a ride on bike. I have tried motion panning considering nothing can be better than this time to work on that. I kept wide open aperture to get slow shutter speeds & keeping image stabilization on of my canon 18-55mm IS lens. Some shots turned out really well. It’s really difficult to get very sharp images but I got some images with acceptable quality. I was also interested in taking some people portraits as always.

Here is a bit more information about this place:

History Of Mandu:
Mandu was founded as a fortress and retreat in the 10th century by Raja Bhoj.It was conquered by the Muslim rulers of Delhi in 1304. After the victory of Mughals in the early 16th century on Delhi, Mandu came under the administration of Afghan Dilawar Khan, the Governor of Malwa. Hoshang Shah, son of Dilawar Khan, transferred his capital to Mandu. Until 1561, it remained under the Afghans when Akbar defeated Baz Bahadur, one of the Afghan chieftains ruling a part of central India. Baz Bahadur fled Mandu instead of facing the Mughal army. During the administration of Marathas, the capital of Malwa was shifted back to Dhar and Mandu became a ghost city for some time.

Best Time To Visit:
Mandu enjoys an extreme climate. The best season to visit this place is during the monsoon, that is, from July to September. While other places in Madhya Pradesh and most of the north and peninsular India are closed for tourism during monsoon, Mandu is more of a monsoon resort than anything else. The natural surroundings are in full bloom during this time. The monsoon is to end in India so everything is with lush green & beautiful atmosphere. We were able to mage our visiting in the best period :)

Places:
Rupmati's Pavilion is a very beautiful piece of architecture & I got some very nice images of arches in symmetry along with there reflections in water. I also like to take picture of beautiful caves with good light & shadows. The Rupmati's Pavilion is situated on the very edge of Mandu Fort. It is a very romantic building, a perfect setting for fairytale romance. Nevertheless, unfortunately, the love story of Baz Bahadur and Rupmati had a tragic end. It is said that Akbar attacked Mandu for the sake of Rupmati and Baz Bahadur fled Mandu leaving Rupmati to poison herself. We all enjoyed the beautiful view of lush green fields, mountains & atmosphere with dramatic fog. I have taken snaps with my wide angle(18-55) & medium telephoto(55-250).




All of us enjoyed & shared the beauty of nature & I was with my camera on almost all the time & busy with taking the snaps. The most beautiful place we visited were Jahaz Mahal & Hindola Mahal. Just before going to this place there was a short rainfall. The beauty of these places was much enhanced with nice sunshine after the rain.



Jahaz Mahal (or the Ship Palace) is probably the most famous building in Mandu. This ship-like structure was constructed by Ghiyas-ud-din, son of Mohammed Shah, for his harem. According to the legends, this harem was home to 15,000 maidens. There are two lakes on the east and west side of the palace that create a perfect illusion of a ship with its rectangular shape.

Hindola Mahal (or Swing Palace) was a pleasure to me that gives the impression that the inward slopes of the walls are swaying. I was really impressed by the interior beauty of this Mahal.

It was a real fun & we all enjoyed that.You can see the images taken in this tour at my flikr link:Mandav On Royal. I hope you will enjoy my snaps of this tour. I really look forward for an opportunity to visit another place :)