BHANGARH: A HAUNTED FORT

                                                            -Bageshwar  Jha
In course of our continuing campaign for collecting toilet related artefacts for the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets, we were in the Bhangarh Fort on Jan.23, 2016.  Bhangarh, at a distance of 235 KM from Delhi, is located in Alwar district of Rajasthan. It is constructedquite in accordance with the established fort architecture of the period in the foothills of the Aravali range of hills. If you try to find out the names of haunted palaces and forts of the world, you are bound to come across the Bhangarh Fort which has created a great attraction for the tourists, indigenous or foreigners. In the beginning itself, the tourists are told that the premises remain open only from the sunrise to the sunset because once it is dark, the spirits haunt the area and something strange may happen with the one who ignored this limit.
Though the internet shows it built in the 17th century, the Archaeological Survey of India puts its date in the second half of the 16th century. According to the ASI records, the fort was built by Raja Bhagwant Das, the then ruler of Amber (Jaipur) and later on it was made capital of Madho Singh, brother of Raja Man Singh (July 15, 1611 – Aug.28, 1667). Madho Singh was diwan in the court of Mughal Emperor Akbar (1556 -1605).
The remains at Bhangarh consist of fort walls, gateways, markets, Chhatris, tombs, havelis, temples, and royal palace. As a matter of fact, the construction had three layers of peripheral walls for security reasons. Being devout Hindus, they had built temples, dedicated to Hanuman, Gopinath, Somesvara, Keshav Rai and Mangla Devi, all in Nagar style of temple architecture. The Gopinath Temple, just near the main gate, stands still erect and due to conservation work done by the ASI is in quite good healt. The wear and tear of over 400 years are not visible. However, this sacred place is not receiving devouts and the regular worship rituals are also not conducted also because of the mystery, no pujari has courage to stay there particularly after it is dark.
The outer periphery of the fort complex has four gates, named as Lahori Gate, Ajmeri Gate, Phulbari Gate and Delhi Gate. The royal palace, known as diwan-e- khas of the Mughals, was in seven storeys of which only four ar still extant. The whole construction is mainly of stone and partly bricks. Marble has been rarely used on floors and door linings. The toilet is a hole in the wall in a corner room through which faeces fell outside. The same room, like in modern flats, had bathing space also in the other corner. We could see a small water tank on that level in the middle, having mechanism for rain-water harvesting.
About the fort being a haunted place, known to the locals as “bhoot bangla”, there are two stories. According to the first story, a sage named Baba Balanath lived in that area. When the fort was under construction, he warned that no building should be taller than  his so that no shadow fell on his temple. If it was not taken care of, he thundered, the whole complex would be ruined. His warning was ignored and as a result the worst happened.
The second story is about a wizard also called a ‘tantrik’ whose small temple atop the northern hill, overlooking the fort palce is still there. The story is that he had a crush for the princess named Ratnavali. She was so beautiful that many princely suitors were proposing. It was a one-sided love as the princes had no  attraction for the tantric. The  princes, at that time 17, came out for shopping. As a matter of fact, from the entrance to the palace door, the one-KM long road had houses on both sides for shops, armym and the people giving other professional services including the courtesans. In one of the shops, when she was purchasing ‘itr’ (perfume), the tantric who was watching her, came there and offered a special potion taking which she would lose control on herself and start liking him. The princess, intelligent as she was, got a hint of the mischief. She threw the small container having the mystery liquid and on a big  round boulder lying aside. The buolder started moving fastly and hit the tantric. While dying, he gave a curse that the entire fort will be ruined. Sometimes later, the Mughal army attacked from the northern side and vandalized the fort. Since then, both of them who could not meet while alive,  are wandering in the campus of the desolate fort.   

DAL KA HAAL

               For last one year, the sky-rocketing price of lentils has been disturbing everybody as it happens to be an important ingredient of the traditional Indian thali whether you are in Northern or Southern part of the country. Can a Gujarati live without dal-bati? Will anybody in south tolerate sambhar disappearing from his menu? On the other hand, in Bihar and Bengal legume is the inseparable partner of shining white rice in the plate on the dining table. If you are in Mithilanchal part of Bihar and it is an occasion festive or hosting an important guest, any lentil will not do, it has to be arhar dal, sprinkled with desi ghee. If in such societies dal goes beyond the reach of common man, the bickerings are bound to be there.
In this backdrop, the search of a new variety of arhar dal by the agro-scientists has come as a much awaited good news. The scientists of Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa have brought into being an audable variety which is scoring multi-sided improvements on the traditional breed. In Bihar and UP farmers plant the traditional  crop in June/July and harvest it after 250-280 days in March/April. The new variety takes only 120 days and gives the same 20 quintal yield per hectare. Normally in Bihar, the field of arhar remains engaged for nearly ten months which makes arhar costly. When the maturing period is shortened, the field is available for some other crop to the benefit of the farmer.
Going a step further, it is said that the traditional plant is taller with several branches which not only creates problem in spraying pesticides but the grains do not ripe at a time. As a result at the time of harvesting, some branches may have still raw grains while others will be in flowering stage itself, causing loss to the farmer. The new crop plants are short and straight which make spraying exercises easier and the grains of the whole plant matures simultaneously. Though not popular in South, this crop is grown also in Maharashtra, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh etc. For the timebeing, the research centre is giving seeds to Punjab to grow it and if successful, even registered private units will be allowed to    produce it for seeds. It is hoped that the cultivation of arhar of this new breed will start on mass scale by 2018 and will be available to the people at large for consumption. It will no more remain a luxury for the common man. The country will feel obliged and urge upon these scientists to explore avenues to enhance products of other crops as well. Its patenting is bound to bring us sufficient foreign exchange as some other countries are also having arhar cultivation.

BIHAR''S SUPER CHIEF MINISTER

I have been a keen watcher of socialist movement in India in general and Bihar in particular since the first general election of 1952. Over the years I could study the politics of R.M. Lohia, J.P. Narayan, Acharya Kripalani, Hem Barua, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lohiaite products of post-Emergency like R.V. Paswan, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Sushil Kumar Modi and others. The most perceptible trait of these political leaders has been that each of them is a leader in himself resulting in the continuous erosion of party discipline and its resultant repeated truncations. We know that the Emergency compelled the main non-Congress political parties to come together under the umbrella of Janata Party, sponsored by JP. The word Janata became so popular that despite several fragmentations of the party, the name of every group retained it, like Janata Party, Janata Dal, JD/U, JD/S, BJP and RJD. The remnant Janata Party, headed by Subramnian Swamy finally merged with the BJP and today there is no political party of this name.
Another trait observed  in these earstwhile socialists is that at the time of elections they come together and part ways immediately after that as everyone could not be made a minister. If we leave these old aspects, we can add a new one that all of them have developed strong faith in family rule for which they had been chastising Nehru-Gandhi family. You may refer to Mulayam, Lalu, R.V. Paswan and some others. It has been stretched so much that when Lalu had to resign, ignoring qualified party leaders including Prof. Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, he installed his illiterate wife as the new incumbent. In the last parliamentary election, SP in UP could win only five seats and all of them happened to be of Mulayam family. In the last assembly poll in Bihar, Lalu got his both sons elected and both of them are in the ministry, the younger being the DY CM. Moreover, Lalu has plans to send his wife and daughter to  the Rajya Sabha.
These being the charesterics of socialist brand leaders, the Bihar watchers like me, made a forecaste that both Nitish and Lalu had joined the Great Alliance to say goodbye to one another before long as the clash of interests was bound to be there. Nitish wants to cling to chief ministership at any cost and Lalu goes out of proportions to prove that he is the real boss.
The information is there that the revenue collection in Bihare is much below the target. The developmental projects are held up for want of fund. The govt. is persuading the Centre to release the funds assured in course of electioneering. The Centre on the other hand is reluctant to oblige as it is afraid that the Nitish govt might divert the money to other use like giving payment to its employees. The sufferers of earlier RJD rule’s jungleraj were forecasting that Lalu’s victory would usher in jungleraj part ii, which has already ensued. The murder of three engineers connected with road construction has made the investers wary. The overall law and order situation is already worsening.
In this background, there is an unannounced war between Lalu and Nithish to prove who really matters. Nitish has plans to experiment mahagathbandhan of like minded parties in other states so that in 2019, he could emerge as a strong PM prospectl. On the other hand, at no cost, Mulayam is inclined to give this space to anybody else. In Bihar, despite being disqualified for electoral posts by the SC, Lalu has started spreading his wings to project himself as the super CM. He not only directs his both sons to abide by his dictates but also goes on surprise visits of public institutions to monitor their performance. The local BJP leaders have taken an objection to these unparliamentary developments and urged upon Nitish to compel Lalu to behave. We remember that before the election, when Lalu was criticizing BJP and JD/U, Nitish had warned him to remain within limits as he was a convict, out on bail. It is unbelievably true that the same CM has to meekly tolerate the same Lalu assuming bigger than a life size proportion of super CM.