Friday, June 29, 2012

the tourist guide



every fort, palace, mausoleum, temple, church and gompa in the country is best explored with a tourist guide. specimen in this picture with the flared pants, gave us a more colourful history of Ranthambore Fort than one tends to find in textbooks. in the early 13th century, Hamir Dev sheltered Muhammad Shah, a rogue general, formerly employed by Ala-ud-din Khijli. Khijli's begum was apparently "mating" wih Shah on the sly, when a tiger walked in on them. but the general was quickly up and killed the tiger with one fell swoop.

the begum was later "mating" with the sultan, when a mouse walked in and Khijli got all flustered. provoking the begum to remark, "here you are scared of one mouse, while your general kills tigers". Khijli immediately asked for the general's head, who promptly ran away to Ranthambore.

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