Ruins, ponds & a college for princes

Photograph by Preeti Verma Lal

When the gods fitted their easel and pulled out their camel-hair brushes and started painting Chattisgarh, they perhaps could only afford swatches of green and a little red. How else could a place look so green - there's emerald green of the grass, the rectangular green patches of paddy, the felled logs slanting on a dark green rug, the thick green lotus leaves that blanket the ponds, there's the evergreen sal, the moist teak…. For that dazzling contrast, there's the red of the tiled roofs, the pink of the lotuses and the orange naked skin of the hill mynah. The Muse sure must have struck the gods that moment. There's no other explanation for such magnificence.

Chattisgarh was carved out of big, fat Madhya Pradesh in November 2000. In its lap fell huge stretches of sal forest, the last refuge of the hill mynahs, the precious iron ore, tin, coal, diamond, bauxite and quartzite mines; several cement factories and power plants. And of course, the Bhilai Steel Plant, which has seen no labour disputes since its inception and individually, the plant has never dipped in the red.

Its capital Raipur that dates back to the 9th century proudly displays its glorious past - the Town Hall, the Co-operative Building, the Bottle House, Raj Kumar College, the Dudhahari Math, the 600-year old Budha Talab, the Qaser-e-Hind darwaza and its rich history of trade in rice, minerals and spices.

Raipur that was once the capital of the Dakshina Kosala kingdom and later the seat of power of the Haihaya dynasty, today sits in the heart of Chattisgarh. Also known as the city of ponds (once there were 130 of them), Raipur played an important role in the national movement and remains a center of education, rice trading and religion. Traffic lights are manually operated by the cops in Raipur (there are no orange lights, it is just green and red), but if you are looking for comfortable lodging and great food, the town would not disappoint you. You can even find nachos here!

If you are in Raipur, spare a few days to roam around its periphery and get pious a little. There are temples and more temples. Rajim - the Prayag of Chattisgarh - has the 1,300-year old Rajiv Lochan Temple that houses a rare idol of a barefoot Lord Vishnu and the pujaris here are Kshtriyas, not Brahmins. Not too far in Sirpur is the country's only Lakshman Temple. Archaeologists have recently unearthed a huge treasure trove of Buddhist temples in Sirpur. Champaran owes its solemnity to Saint Vallabhacharya, the founder of Vallabh sect, who was born in this sleepy town in the 15th century. But no talk of temples in Chattisgarh would be complete without mentioning the erotic sculptures in the 11th century Bhoramdeo Temple.

If you into music and other performing arts, spend a day in Khairagarh, it is Asia's only university dedicated solely to performing and visual arts.

When in Chattisgarh, plan a separate itinerary for the south, for that's where beautiful Bastar is. Nature has been immensely kind to Bastar - it has beautiful sal forests, Kanger Valley is the last refuge of the hill mynah, there's the Chitrakote falls, the stalactite caves in Kotamsar, the Danteswari temple… And yes, the lovely tribal women, the now-famous bell metal handicraft and the rare railly wild silk. So much to see that days would hurry past and you would still sigh at all that you could not touch.

Before you pack your bags and bid adieu to Chattisgarh, remember to have the salfi (if you want to get drunk wait for the sun rays to peep into the earthen pot), the red ant chutney and at least one of the 23,000 varieties of rice that grows on its belly.

P.S: Having done with the greens, the pinks and the reds, as an afterthought the gods borrowed some glitter from the neighbor and added the diamond mines in Chattisgarh. Go there, the gurgle of the hill mynah, the exquisiteness of the tribal women, the mystery of the stalactite mines and the sheen of the diamond might take your breath away. I don't know about you but I would not mind dying in such a gorgeous patch of earth.

Published in Discover India magazine, September 2004.