On modern administrative maps India, . On tourist sites, it is sometimes found. Indian tourism is fueled history, and the role of Bundelkhand in it was very colorful and remarkable.

How did the Bundelkhand form its political integrity in the historical depths of the seventh century? And in the XV century. the Bundel dynasty appeared, which gave the current name to this region. The modern administrative division, which does not take into account the historical past, divides its territory between the two giant states of India-Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

There are many traces of Bundelkhand's great past - castles, fortresses, temples, places of religious pilgrimage. Architectural treasures, lavishly scattered through cities and villages in the semi-desert expanses of Bundelkhand, give a unique historical flavor to this region. It seems that the heavy hand of time has only lightly touched this blessed and mysterious land. Sometimes it is difficult for visiting travelers to get rid of the impression that they suddenly found themselves in the Middle Ages - in the remote corners of Bundelkhand, the buildings, the appearance of people, and the very atmosphere of the measured and primitive life of local residents are strikingly different from the environment in which Western travelers grew up. Arid and hilly Bundelkhand has a special charm due to the few rivers that make their way through rocky channels and turn into indomitable stormy streams during the rainy season. Artificial reservoirs, firmly built more than one hundred years ago, still sparkle in the stifling heat of the Indian summer with a friendly and inviting surface of their clear waters.

Most of the buildings in Bundelkhand are created in the most perfect traditions of Hindu-Muslim architecture. The best architectural structures of Bundelkhand in this style were contemporaries of masterpieces of Mughal Muslim architecture in India, such as the Taj Mahal mausoleum. But only in this area you can find the oldest temples of traditional Hindu architecture in Northern and Central India, which miraculously survived during the campaigns of Muslim conquerors. This region, not much affected by Islamic influence, has surprisingly managed to survive as a citadel of Hinduism in a Muslim environment.

The fact that we now have the opportunity to enjoy the masterpieces of architecture and sculpture of that time is also a great, if not the main, merit of the local Hindu rulers, who courageously defended their native lands from those who encroached on them. Silent witnesses to their legendary prowess are the crudely built walls of fortresses, of which there are dozens in Bundelkhand. Each of them is unique in design; towering over the surrounding settlements, numerous citadels give the surrounding rocky terrain a special charm. Any fort here could tell its own story of fiery love, touching friendship, malicious slander, treacherous treason or treacherous treachery. But the silent walls persist in preserving centuries-old secrets, and only miraculously preserved in some places old and dry chronicles shed scant light on the events of bygone days.

SPLENDOR CAPTURED IN STONE

The unique geographical location between the north and south of India attracted conquerors, caravans of merchants and religious missionaries to Bundelkhand. The fate of a busy intersection was not in vain. In the trials that befell them, the will of the locals was tempered, they learned to rely only on themselves, but at the same time they remained God-fearing.

The ruling dynasties on the territory of Bundelkhand often replaced one another. But the loudest fame about yourself here remains-

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The last two ruling dynasties, the Chandels and the Bundels, were ruled. The more ancient Chandels, who ruled here for a long time and thoroughly - from the VIII to the beginning of the XII century. in Bundelkhand, they are still remembered. After all, thanks to the Chandels, the cultural and linguistic unity of the entire region was formed, which survived all the vicissitudes of political history and has survived to this day. Temples and palaces grew like mushrooms in every town, even the smallest. They were built on donations from rich people and on the treasury funds received from the development of diamond mines in the town of Panna. Time and military invasions did not spare much of what was created then. And yet there are plenty of monuments of this era preserved. There are especially many of them in the former principality of Orchha.

It seems that Orchha has been preserved in time. Here they are, the vicissitudes inherent in the destinies of both people and cities. Until 1783, Orchha thundered throughout the entire district as the capital of the principality of the same name, but now it is a small village, relatively recently discovered by tourists. But until the middle of the 17th century, the princes of Orchha united almost the entire Bundelkhand under their rule.

The exact date of the emergence of the principality of Orchha is 1531, the founder was Rudra Pratap of the Bundela family. His fate is tragic - he died fighting a tiger. According to legend, the prince engaged in a battle with a predator in order to rescue a cow, a sacred creature, according to Indian concepts, from its deadly claws. The cow was saved, the tiger was defeated, but managed to inflict fatal wounds on the opponent in this duel of equals. This raja was not only famous for this feat - he began the construction of a fortress and a powerful palace, called "Rajmahal".

The dynasty that had ruled since then had many prominent personalities. But now most often they remember the brave Raja Virsingh Deo, who occupied the Orchha throne in the first third of the XVII century. Deo has left a memory of itself with its grandiose structures, which are still impressive for their colossal size and architectural diversity.

The question arises: where did Virsingh Deo get the money for a giant construction program? After all, the sparsely fertile land of Bundelkhand did not produce much of what economists would call surplus product. The answer is simple. Predatory conquests, always successful, provided Wirsingh Deo with sufficient funds to realize any ambitions. In 1602, for example, he ambushed and killed Abul Fazl, a famous general in the service of Emperor Akbar, near Gwalior. Abul Fazl was returning from a very successful military campaign in the Deccan. He was followed by camel caravans loaded with rich loot, which went to Virsingh Deo. For this provocative act, he had to hide until Akbar's death in 1605. But Virsingh Deo managed to hide the treasures safely, and when his friend Jahangir, Akbar's son, became emperor, it became possible to freely use the treasures to finance the grand construction.

ARROGANCE IS PUNISHED

In an age when the Hindu religion was under the onslaught of the Muslim conquerors of India, Orchha survived as a stronghold of Hinduism in Central India. The temples created by its rulers are eloquent evidence of their devotion to the faith of their ancestors. But such exceptional piety did not prevent the rulers of the principality from perceiving fresh trends in art, architecture and painting. Most likely, this is why the architectural masterpieces of Orchha, in which elements such as the arch and vault are borrowed from Muslim architecture, have gained originality and perfection. It seems that in Orchha, history itself is frozen in reverence for the great builders and patrons of the arts.

An interesting legend is related to the construction of the Chaturbhuja temple, the largest in Orchha, and the unplanned appearance of another temple next to it - the legendary Raja Rama, who became the personification of God on earth for the Indians. The main characters in it are Madhukar Shah, the deeply religious ruler of the principality, and his equally devout wife Ganesh Kunwari.

Blind faith caused discord in the princely family, whose head worshipped Krishna, and his wife-Rama-the legendary ruler of the Ayodhya principality. Apparently, there was a disagreement over which of these deities was more important. From a purely theological point of view, their argument was pointless, but even a well - versed court priest could not explain to the couple that Rama and Krishna were both hypostases of the same god - Vishnu from the triad of supreme Hindu deities. The persistence of each of the spouses in defending their point of view reached such an acuteness that they were forced to part for a while. The wife went to search for the god Rama in the holy city of Ayodhya, where he was supposedly born, and the prince went to another holy city-Vrindavan, associated with the exploits of Krishna.

Before starting the pilgrimage to Ayodhya, the blessed one received a strict order from her husband - not to return home without the statue of Rama. Days passed, then weeks, and still she did not see the statue of Rama.

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Such a failure was already beginning to make the Princess think of committing suicide by throwing herself into the depths of the river that flowed through Ayodhya. But God, who was deeply impressed by the woman's fanatical piety, did not allow the terrible plan to take place. When he appeared to her in a dream, he promised to reward her efforts, but on his own terms: his image must go to Ayodhya on foot, the journey will be possible only when his favorite star is shining in the sky, and upon arrival in Orchha, he will settle in the first building he likes, and only he will be considered the ruler of Orchha. The holy hermit Tulsidas convinced the other saints who lived in Ayodhya that Rama (i.e., his statue) could go there with the pious princess. Legend tells us that Tulsidas then began writing Ramcharitmanas, a story about the difficult life path and exploits of Rama. This monumental work of poetry, in fact a translation of the older Sanskrit epic Ramayana into the Middle Indian poetic dialect of Avadhi, has gained phenomenal popularity among Indians.

So, the journey from Ayodhya to Orchha was undertaken in 1630. The temple that was being built for the statue of Rama was not yet ready, and it was temporarily placed in the palace next door, where the princess lived. But upon completion of the construction, the god Rama refused to move to the new temple-the image, despite titanic efforts, could not be moved from its place, and the princess's palace turned from a secular to a religious building. Now it is the only place in India where Rama is worshipped not only as a god, but also as a raja. A statue of Chaturbhuja, the four - armed god Vishnu, was installed in a large new-built temple. This story is a moral one, and is said to have been invented by the priests in order to prove that deep religiosity (in this case, the august spouse) is incompatible with arrogance, and that this lesson was useful to him. In general, in Bundelkhand, history and legends are so intertwined that it is not always possible to make a clear distinction between them.

GIANT TEMPLE

The Vishnu temple of Chaturbhuja is a monumental piece of medieval architecture and, I dare say, the largest Hindu religious building in Northern and Central India created in the Middle Ages. Miraculously preserved during the Muslim conquests, this massive structure impresses with its power even after the ceiling of the narthex was partially destroyed. The serpentine arch at the entrance, carved by the talented hands of an unnamed master from dark ochre sandstone, fortunately survived. The gaping wound in the place of the missing arches is a sad reminder of the fate of many monuments of Hindu architecture that have not come down to us at all or in their original form. According to the chronicles, none other than the Mughal Emperor Shahjahan, who visited Orchha in his time, was responsible for this destruction.

Another serious attempt to destroy the temple was made on the orders of his son Aurangzeb , a zealous fanatic of Islam. According to chroniclers, the entire population of the then capital Bundelkhand selflessly rushed to protect the shrine. But the decisive role was played by the intervention of the Emperor's daughter Badrunissa, who was in love with Prince Indramani of Orchha. Disguised as a young man, she appeared in the temple and, revealing her true identity, stopped the messengers of her father. Romantic episodes of this kind, set against the backdrop of inter-religious violence, rarely color dry medieval chronicles, although, admittedly, they produce a strong dramatic effect on the reader. This story of fiery love is more like a legend, because the daughters of Mughal emperors led, as befits Muslim women, a reclusive life under the watchful eye of numerous guards. This made it impossible for them to secretly disappear from their homes, much less make a public appearance at a Hindu temple.

Whether the chronicle history is accurate or not, the main building of the temple withstood the onslaught of centuries and wreckers, and its strict forms emphasize the grandeur of the architectural design embodied in the local stone. A high cone-shaped tent above the "holy of holies", a spherical dome in the center and pyramidal tents in the side rooms expand the space from the inside of the temple. The asceticism of the interior design of the church, filled with lime and decorated only with small balconies under the ceiling and arched windows that let in light, enhances the impression of solemnity and sanctity, which was expected by medieval architects. This is not an ordinary oratory, but a place worthy of being the refuge of the gods, within the strict limits of which God's grace really descends on believers. Perhaps it is not so bad that the temple did not become the "throne" temple of Orchha; the inevitable gaudy vignettes, spangles and other garish elements of modern Indian decor would have completely destroyed the pristine and harsh simplicity of this ingenious creation of nameless architects.

From the outside, the colossal structure is so proportioned and so directed upwards that the blackened plaster in places does not at all reduce the aesthetic perception of this, without any exaggeration, masterpiece of cult architecture. Built on a rocky hill, the huge temple dominates the surrounding area and simply overwhelms not only the squat mud huts of local residents in the neighborhood, but even the gaily yellow - painted former palace of the local princess, now turned into the temple of Raja Rama-the main sanctuary of Orchha.

Previously, Hindu temples were built with cramped rooms inside, since there are no mass services in them. All the available space was reduced to a small corridor-porch and a dark and narrow passage around the holy of holies, which was supposed to be bypassed clockwise. Such, for example, are the famous erotic temples in Khajuraho, built 200 km from Orchha 600 - 700 years earlier. With the arrival of Islam in India, Hindus became familiar with the congregational form of worship, which mobilized and united believers in a collective. This" feeling of the elbow " was a strong point among Muslims. And the individualism of the Hindus seems to have weakened their resolve to resist the invaders. There was a threat to eradicate Hinduism.

The reaction to the arrival of Islam in India was the movement of bhakti - an all-consuming and all-conquering love for a particular Hindu deity. In some ways, it was akin to the teachings of the Islamic Sufi mystics. The practice of Hinduism began to introduce the chanting of sacred poetic texts - tales about the exploits of Rama or Krishna in front of a mass audience, which is very happy to hear the story.-

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rom sang along with the reciter. This required large rooms, and the Chaturbhuja Temple was one of the first places of worship with a large interior space. It should be noted that the idea of bhakti was so attractive that it stopped the spread of Islam in India. It is perhaps the only country in the East where Islam, as practiced by the ruling class, has not become the predominant religion.

Our ode to the majestic Chaturbhuj would be incomplete without mentioning the journey to its roof along a hidden and dark staircase hidden in the powerful walls of the temple with dilapidated steps, whose step was clearly designed for people of gigantic stature. It is rather strange, because the inhabitants of Bundelkhand for the most part do not differ in large size. But now the dangerous climb is over, and from the roof of the temple there is a fascinating view of the surrounding area - the wide-spreading river, the fortress wall, the defensive rampart in the distance, and hundreds of small, but abandoned and greatly touched by decay monuments of that time. Each of these small chapels and cenotaphs, so lavishly scattered around the Orchha citadel, has its own intriguing story that no one else can tell. What is particularly intriguing is the story of the theft of stone idols from local temples, which has become a widespread disaster for Orchha. These works of native Hindu art find good sales in the West. The Chaturbhuja temple and another rather large temple immediately behind it were damaged. Often with the loss of statues, the temple has to be renamed, since, as a rule, a sculpture of another god is installed.

There is a special charm in the landscape of Orchha. Its expanses can be admired endlessly, to the point of oblivion, so that you even stop paying attention to the unwanted campaign of vultures nesting on the roof of the temple. Their fat chicks, covered with down, feel completely safe on the impregnable eaves. At the sight of approaching people, adult birds with bare necks take off heavily and, gradually gaining altitude, soar for a long time and beautifully in the streams of warm air rising from the heated ground. They are an integral part of the Orchha panorama.

But it is time to descend from heaven to the mortal earth. The way down is not safe, dark openings after being on a brightly lit roof are completely invisible at first, at your own peril and risk, you move by touch, blindly. It seems that the temple could once have been used as a shelter for the besieged. A hidden staircase built into the thickness of the wall, which abruptly changes its direction at different tiers of the building, could help the hunted to hide from their pursuers.

TEMPLE-PALACE

The Raja Rama temple is unusual for two reasons. First, at first it was a palace, which was later adapted as a temple. There are no other examples of such metamorphosis in Indian history. Secondly, it is the only temple in India where Rama is worshipped not only as a god, but also as a raja - the legendary ruler of the Ayodhya principality. The history of the transformation of the palace into a temple is already known to us, it remains only to get acquainted with its architecture, however, nothing outstanding. This is a typical example of the original Orchha style. A wide quadrangular courtyard, well lit by the sun and surrounded on all sides by high impregnable walls, balconies-all this was an ideal home for the female half of the princely family. It is also quite acceptable for a patronal church.

The square in front of the temple is the center of all public life in Orchha. There they meet, exchange news, sell and buy everything necessary to make offerings to the priests, ask for alms from lepers, perform religious rites and hold mass celebrations on the occasion of religious holidays. Next to the square is the Anand Bhavan, a pleasure building with an underground chamber that was ventilated by two tall Persian-style twin towers. They are called Savan-Bhadon here-two months of the Indian monsoon season. We somehow underestimate the ingenuity of past generations, but they, as can be seen from the example of Orchha, and in the old days found original ways to facilitate existence during the suffocating monsoon period. Attached to the Anand Bhavan building is a fountain - a huge stone bowl from which wine is said to flow like a river on holidays. Near the building there is a flower garden, called Phulbag in the local dialect. To get into it, you have to dodge lepers sitting on both sides of the narrow path and stretching out their rotting fingers to passersby. In the middle of the flower garden is a platform under a canopy and with a made bed, near which the priest is almost always located. Undoubtedly, this is an iconic place, but the presence of a bed will seem strange if you do not know some details of the eventful Bundelkhand history.

Between the Mughal padishahs, the suzerains, and their vassals, the proud and wayward Orchhin-

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the two Rajas had a complicated relationship. Emperor Shahjahan could not even forgive the late Virsingh Deo for not supporting his ambitions to succeed him. In addition, the strong principality of Orchha and its freedom-loving rulers were a thorn in Shahjahan's side. The emperor summoned the son of the late ruler Jujhar Singh to his presence, while his people spread a rumor in Orchha about an alleged illicit relationship between the raja's main consort and his uncrowned 23-year-old brother Hardol, who commanded troops and was in opposition to the Mughal central government. Jujhar Singh was an extremely hot-tempered man and ordered his wife to poison her brother. She tearfully told Hardol of the prince's intentions, but Hardol, who revered his brother's wife like a mother, valued her honor above all else. To prove his innocence, he drank a poison potion, then went to the temple, but on the way he died. Since Hardol was a devout and popular member of the princely family, 900 people from the Bundela clan committed suicide in solidarity with him. After his death, all sorts of miracles began to happen. Including the appearance of Hardol to relatives. The people began to condemn Jujhar Singh for his fratricidal act and canonized Hardol. In the villages of Bundelkhand, small platforms were built in his honor, and Hardol was revered as a god and hymns were sung to him. According to custom, Bundelkhand residents still send him wedding invitations.

And Jujhar Singh began to suffer misfortunes. It did not help that he made a sacrifice to atone for his guilt, and built a memorial in memory of the martyr. Pursued by the Mughals, Jujhar Singh fell, as they say, out of the fire and into the flames, into the hands of his sworn enemies, the Gonds, and was brutally killed by them in revenge for past wrongs.

FORTRESS TEMPLE

Orchha never ceases to amaze visitors with the soaring imagination of nameless but exceptionally gifted medieval architects. An architectural curiosity can rightly be called another temple of this town, originally dedicated to the goddess Lakshmi, who brings wealth. A quadrangle in plan, with narrow loopholes in the high walls, it looks more like a fortress than a religious building. Only the high octagonal tower in the open courtyard of this building, which houses the holy of holies, gives it a temple. Externally, the building is perceived as triangular, since it is turned to Orchha not by one of the sides, but by the angle in which the entrance to the temple is located. Even if you repeatedly walk around the temple from all sides, moving away for some distance and looking at it from different angles, the optical illusion of its triangularity will not disappear. Built by the same indefatigable Virsingh Deo in 1679, on a high hill far from the village, the cream-colored temple looks from a distance like a large bird soaring over Orchha. The vicissitudes of Indian history have not spared this temple. The Marathas took away the golden statue of Lakshmi, and in 1809 statues of other deities - Radha and Krishna-were installed there. Nevertheless, the old name is firmly established behind the temple, which is still named after the goddess for whom it was built. Sometimes it is called Lakshmi-Narayan, adding to the name of the goddess one of the thousands of names-epithets of her husband - the god Vishnu.

The ceilings and walls of the three spacious vaulted galleries inside the building are richly painted, and not only religious subjects are presented, but also quite secular themes, modern to the period of reconstruction of this structure in the XIX century. It is interesting that mundane subjects are completely different from other religious buildings of Bundelkhand. The battle scenes between Indian Rajput warriors and the British bear a certain touch of realism, of course, as much as it is possible in fresco painting. The well-preserved painting of this temple is considered the most elegant example of the Bundelkhand drawing school.

The road to the Lakshmi Temple leads through a winding street in Orchha with cozy-looking houses, the flat roof of which is used as a playground for various household needs. These modest, one-story dwellings have a special touch of stone trellis patterns for natural ventilation and brightly colored yellow or blue doors with ornaments. Among the monotony of the dusty terrain around, this decoration immediately attracts the eye. The inhabitants of Bundelkhand are no strangers to a sense of beauty, it, and even regular trips to the temple, helps to brighten up the monotony of village life.

At the end of the street, under a shady tree, is the caravan of a family of Indian gypsies. I asked them where they came from. "From Rajasthan," was the reply. (It is a neighboring state of Madhya Pradesh.) It turned out that they were engaged in blacksmithing. Well, just like the Russian Gypsies, who in the past also specialized in this craft. Orchha probably doesn't have its own such masters, but the Gypsies have a hope of earning money.

PALACES

There are many palaces, large and small, within the walls of the citadel, but the face of the city is defined by two giants-Rajmahal, the oldest sooru-

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There is a building in the village dating back to the second third of the XVI century, and the Jahangir Mahal, whose construction began a little later. Surrounded by a swimming pool, camel house, arsenal and residential palaces of "small" but very elegant shape, two gigantic palaces form the core of the completed architectural ensemble of the fortress, surrounded by a high battlemented wall. The two palaces, separated by a courtyard, form an asymmetrical group, and Rajmahal is only slightly inferior to Jahangir Mahal in terms of architectural expressiveness. And even then only externally - because of the simple solution of three of its four facades. From the inside, they are artistically absolutely equivalent, although they are strikingly different from each other. Individually and together, they create a harmonious impression of shape, proportion and color and look great in the monsoon season, framed by an emerald setting of raging greenery. The walls of the palaces are two meters thick, each with underground rooms. There are exactly 100 small rooms in the basement of Jahangir Mahal. The caretaker let me in after making sure there were no cobras in the main passageway. According to him, he often meets them there. I walked deeper until the faint ray of light from the narrow front door disappeared completely into the pitch darkness. As a matter of fact, there was nothing to look for but cobras in the empty basement, and I didn't see any of them at that time.

The five-story Rajmahal, i.e. the Raja's palace, is a massive and seemingly uncomplicated structure that looks like a castle. Inside, it is much more interesting with two open courtyards surrounded by galleries. It is in it that the best preserved wall paintings. At the entrance to the second courtyard of the palace for private receptions, there are two guards-well-preserved sculptural figures of elephants. The architect managed to create a rather complex space-planning structure of the palace. The divan - e-am hall for public receptions is located at the outer wall of the building, somewhat diversifying its facade. The arched divan-e-am in many ways resembles similar structures of the Mughals.

Jahangir Mahal - a more elegant structure with a royal entrance, dating from the first third of the XVII century. The same elephant guards stand on both sides of the entrance gate. In front of the gate is a platform where the reigning personages who came to the palace on elephants dismounted. It is believed that Virsingh Deo built the palace specifically so that his patron Mughal Emperor Jahangir could make a one-day stop in it on his way to the south of the country. It is difficult to say whether this statement is true. There was a taste for hyperbole in the Indian chroniclers, though in truth it was in Virsingh Deo's nature to make such a theatrically magnificent gesture of loyalty.

In the middle of the palace is an open courtyard, flanked by galleries with small rooms on all five floors. The long balconies that surround the entire perimeter of the building and are hidden from prying eyes by stone bars allow you to admire the magnificent panorama of this idyllic place. The building is solid, but the successful combination of architectural elements-lattices, balconies, turrets and domes creates the impression of openwork, lightness and aspiration to the sky. No matter how many times I came to this palace, I was always struck by the variety of patterns of stone bars on the windows.

In Jahangir Mahal, apparently, lived the princely family itself, which gradually grew. Otherwise, why did the construction of the Shish Mahal-the guest wing of this palace, now used by the government of Madhya Pradesh for its intended purpose - as a hotel-take place in 1763?

THE BRILLIANCE AND TALENTS OF COURTESANS

In the history of medieval India, there were many versatile, talented and intelligent women who, due to their exceptional merits, played a large role in state affairs. It is known that

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women from the harem of Mughal emperors had a strong influence on the foreign policy of India at that time. The court of the Orchha princes was also famous throughout India for its talented odalisks, especially during the lifetime of Prince Indrajit (the third son of Madhukar Shah), a contemporary of the Mughal emperors Akbar and Shahjahan. The most perfect of them was Rai Praveen - a poet, dancer, musician and, of course, a woman of unsurpassed beauty. She was one of the six royal dancers in Indrajit's court.

Rai Praveen was not a concubine in the European sense of the word - it would be more accurate to call her the faithful companion and delight of a prince whose legitimate wife was, rather, a reclusive victim of dynastic connections. Rai Praveen's beauty, piety and multi-faceted talent inspired Keshav Das, a poet of all-India fame who lived at the court and dedicated many works to her.

The fame of Rai Praveen finally reached the ruler of India, Akbar, who ruled in the second half of the XVI and at the very beginning of the XVII centuries, who demanded to send her to the imperial court. The subsequent refusal angered the Emperor, who imposed a colossal fine of 10 million rupees for such disobedience at that time. The Emperor also threatened to send an army to Orchha in case of another disobedience. There was no way out-even suicide as a sign of loyalty to Indrajit was also out of the question, because it could make the padishah even more furious. In 1602, Keshav Das volunteered to personally escort the idolized Rai Praveen to the imperial capital of Agra and, through his friend, the Grand Vizier Birbal, introduced her to Akbar. Needless to say, she completely dazzled the emperor with her beauty and captivated him with her refined manners, singing, and sharp and precise answers to the emperor's questions. But Rai Praveen was not only pretty, she was also smart. She ended her impromptu speech to Akbar unexpectedly with a rather ambiguous sloka, a traditional Indian couplet.: "Listen, O great lord, to my humble words , for only servants, dogs, and ravens eat what others have already eaten."

The hint was more than transparent. Such an unheard-of audacity might have cost anyone else their life, but not a woman as unique and stylish as Rai Praveen. Even the jaded emperor was impressed by her obvious virtues. He showered her with gifts and allowed her to return to Orchha with all the necessary honors.

Now about Rai Praveen reminds a small but elegant two-story palace, which was placed at her complete disposal. The interior walls of the upper floor of this building are still decorated with frescoes (it is possible that they depict her together with Prince Indrajit), and the first floor is stuccoed. Right outside the Rai Pravin Palace is the platform where she once staged her performances. The building occupied by the dancer has a unique air-conditioning system. They escaped from the heat in a basement room with a fountain in the middle; open wedge-shaped pits opened directly to two shallow pools, which were constantly replenished with water. Water flowed through the pit windows and down the basement walls.

No less unique for that time was the very economical irrigation system for the garden located near the Rai Praveen Palace. Water was supplied to the trees by the same reservoir that cooled the inner chambers of the palace. Priceless moisture flowed through the grooves directly to the octagon-shaped flower bed near the trunk. With the exception of the flower beds, the rest of the surrounding area was cemented so that the precious moisture simply did not go into the sand. This not only saved water, but also created an original geometric pattern. The garden was laid out in Mughal style-in the form of a square.

The decline and desolation experienced by Orchha also affected the garden. It is said that the height of Rai Praveen Palace was designed to be on a level with the trees of her Garden of Eden. Time and local residents, who needed fuel, did not spare the landings. The young pomegranate seedlings that have taken their places will not soon shoot up their magnificent crowns.

* * *

Here it is, a legendary and at the same time quite real Orchha, whose territory is littered with architectural fragments - fragments of its great past. Alas, in a very short time, just a few years, and under the inescapable onslaught of modern civilization and commercial interests, the medieval charm of this settlement will disappear without a trace. The ruins will be removed, the collapsed walls will be repaired, the masonry exposed in some places will be covered with lime, and something will be recreated anew - everything will seem to be without flaws, but in a rapidly urbanizing village you will not experience the delight of living contact with the untouched past.

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