SHANTIVAN PARK AND RAJ GHAT
A park on the banks of the Yamuna, a place of pilgrimage housing the funerary monuments of personalities such as Mahatma Gandhi.
This park on the banks of the Yamuna, southeast of the Red Fort, is the most recent place of pilgrimage in Delhi. It shelters indeed the funeral monuments (samadhis) of the great characters of the Indian Republic starting with that of Mahatma Gandhi, father of the Independence. It is here that he was cremated in 1948. It is on a simple black marble plaque, the Raj Ghat, that you will read the last words he pronounced: "Hey ram" (Ho God!) before he was assassinated on January 30, 1948.
Other monuments commemorate Indian political figures. Shantivan, the memorial to Jawaharlal Nehru who died in 1964, is set in a sumptuous landscape. A gray-red monolith honors his daughter, Indira Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1984, while the stele of Rajiv, her son and victim of an assassination attempt in 1991, is recognizable by a stone lotus flower surrounded by 46 small flowers, one for each year of his life.
Inside the park, the big sign is supposed to direct you to these different steles. If, like us, you are going in circles, don't worry: the walk around the lake and in the shady alleys is one of the most delicious pleasures of the capital. Shanti Vana means "the forest of peace", a name that the park lives up to.
Smart tip : Prefer the morning or late afternoon to visit the place. The light is more beautiful, the heat more bearable and the place less crowded.
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