The life and work of Sir Jagadis C. Bose / by Patrick Geddes.

  • Geddes, Patrick, Sir, 1854-1932.
Date:
1920
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The life and work of Sir Jagadis C. Bose / by Patrick Geddes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    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. Ajmere 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.