H2 LIFE AND WORK OF SIR JAGADIS C. BOSE 



Beginning broadly in historic order, with old centres 

 and shrines before later ones, one of the young couple's first 

 journeys was to the Sanchi Tope built by Asoka's queen 

 over a relic of Buddha ; and with the life of the time carved 

 upon its gigantic gateways. It was from Sanchi that 

 Asoka's son and daughter went on the mission which estab- 

 lished Buddhism in Ceylon to this day. Our present pilgrim- 

 pair, having some adventure with dacoits by the way, went 

 next to Mandhata with its huge old megalithic-based and 

 iron-clamped gates of the temple, built at the junction of 

 two sacred rivers which so readily and fitly becomes a 

 sacred spot in India of the thrice sacred Nerbudda with 

 the Tapti. They visited the adjacent temple ruins, whose 

 legends link them with the heroes of the ' Mahabharata ' 

 Bhima, Arjuna, and others. Another inspiring visit was to 

 the noble old hill-city of Chitor, once and again the heroic 

 centre of Rajput chivalry and woman's sacrifice tales of 

 defeat surpassing those of its famous Towers of Victory. 

 A j mere too, with its pilgrimage-centre of Pushkar on the 

 lake, was duly visited. Next came the striking contrast of 

 modern Jaipur, laid out with formal magnificence by its 

 astronomer-prince, and of Amber, his ancestral hill-city 

 one to the Western eye recalling, perhaps surpassing, that 

 of Edinburgh, new and old. Agra and Delhi were, of 

 course, also included. Another year, for health reasons, 

 Naini Tal was taken as centre, with a visit to Lucknow by 

 the way. From Naini Tal Bose went alone to the Pindari 

 Glacier. A hairbreadth escape for guide and self proved 

 only stimulating ; so the next year, starting by way of 

 Almora, he piloted his wife and several friends to the glacier 

 again. Another year, starting from Rawal Pindi, then the 

 railway terminus, they made their way up to Baramulla, 

 hired a house-boat for Srinagar, and saw much of the 

 landscape beauty, the gardens and monuments of Kashmir. 

 In two later years Kashmir was revisited, the last time as 

 guests of the Maharaja, and so with fuller acquaintance, 

 and a standing invitation to return. 



