The Hidden Heart of Agra
Author: Thomas Smith
Publisher: SP Print, Rs 250
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore likened the Taj Mahal to a teardrop on the face of time. Such is the effect of this emblem of love and passion that this mausoleum of white marble has enthralled viewers down the ages. Such too is the effect of the Taj that it has quite eclipsed the many other gems hidden in the city and deterred many a visitor to go looking for other, lesser-known but no less beautiful monuments in this historic city beside the Yamuna river. At long last we have someone who can hold us by the hand and take us deep into the hidden heart of the city. That this guide and chronicler, Thomas Smith (1910-1995), is no more is a pity. But his book, The Hidden Heart of Agra, a collection of essays retrieved from old and tattered manuscripts, speaks to us over a half-century after they were first written. Edited and compiled by his sons, RV and NR Smith, the book is a labour of love. And like all labours of love, it requires a willing suspension of disbelief. It requires of its readers to believe that such a city once existed.
Smith’s writing glows with erudition and knowledge, born of an eclectic reading culled from a variety of sources as well as an intimate knowledge of the city of Agra, its people, places and passions — qualities passed on to his son, RV Smith, the indefatigable chronicler of Delhi, the other great city in upper India with a glorious heritage. Having long been an admirer of RV Smith’s columns and essays on Delhi, I picked up his father’s book on Agra with some excitement. It turned out to be a delightful and engaging reading, a bit like a tantalising smorgasbord of vignettes: On the city’s many little-known monuments, its myths and legends, its pirs and poets, the many communities that once lived here in peaceful co-existence. Covering a range of subjects, the essays are written in what is obviously a Smith family legacy, a felicitous turn of phrase combined with a liberal sprinkling of facts and generous supply of anecdotes.
Here is a sampler: “As a part of the territorial Army, we were in camp for annual exercises way back in 1928. There were contingents from various places and each contingent was tented separately and well apart. When they all came together, they formed an interesting heterogeneous group.”
On the meteoric rise of one Munshi Abdul Karim in Victorian England: “Abdul Karim, 24 years of age, tall and slim, smart and clever, was employed as a clerk at the Central Prison, Agra, where his father was serving as a doctor, when he was selected for the assignment. The Queen engaged an English tutor for him, but soon he had Victoria as his own pupil. He instructed her in sociology, religion and language.” And on the Italian nuns who came to Agra in 1903 and set up foundling homes and schools: “The parable of the mustard seed comes true for organisations like the Franciscan Clarist Sisters, which under the dynamic leadership of Mother Benigna, has mushroomed in India during the past 80 years, well deserving the encomiums showered on it.”
Of special interest are the essays on the Christian presence in Agra, such as Akbar’s Church which is believed to be the oldest Christian place of worship in northern India, the many tumble-down cemeteries, the tombs and cenotaphs of the domiciled community in Agra, and lively portraits of merchants, mercenaries and missionaries who adopted ‘native’ manners. Bearing ample testimony of Thomas Smith’s diverse interests, there are essays on the rich tradition of Urdu poets and ‘sukhan-nawaaz’ in Agra, the sufi shrines and dargahs as well as ‘qissas’ about the thugs and dacoits who preyed on wayfarers.
Mutatis Mutandis... only the necessary changes are made or so claim town planners and architects of urban renewal. The Hidden Heart of Agra shows us how much is lost in the process when cities reinvent themselves in the cause of tourism.
The reviewer is the author of the book, Invisible City: The Hidden Monuments of Delhi