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Mystery of Agatha Christie’s India Story Finally Solved

September 27, 2025about authors, article, famous personalities, story, storytelling, Uncategorizedagatha christie, ajanta caves, art, books, ceylon, crime-fiction, edmund cork, kamlesh tripathi, karachi, mathew prichard, max mallowan, mystery of agatha christie's india story finally solved, nepal, personal, queen of crime, shravan charity mission, sportsshravancharitymission

14/9/25 MYSTERY OF AGATHA CHRISTIE’S INDIA STORY FINALLY SOLVED

— WHY DIDN’T THEY ASK MATHEW? THERE WAS CONSTANT SPECULATION OVER WHETHER AGATHA CHRISTIE EVER CAME TO INDIA, BUT NEVER ANY PROOF, EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS KNOWN TO BE AN AVID TRAVELLER. NOW, HER GRANDSON TELLS WRITER MANJIRI PRABHU THAT SHE DEFINITELY HAD VISITED – NOT ONCE, BUT TWICE–

Some mysteries need to be actively cracked, but some solve themselves with time.

    There has been constant speculation about Agatha Christie’s India connection. One question has recurred over the years, but has never really been accurately answered: Did Agatha Christie ever visit India? The internet and popular belief will state that she did not. I, too, had often puzzled over how Christie, a world traveller, had never actually been to India. In fact, in a video in 2021, I had even concluded that she hadn’t. Until one cool but sunny Easter day in Wales.
    In March 2024, I met Christie’s grandson, Mathew Prichard, and his lovely wife, Lucy, at their charming home in Wales. Prichard, now in his 80s, had been very close to his grandmother.
    It was a memorable day, but it turned momentous when Mathew showed me Christie’s personal memorabilia — her passports, her first typed and edited manuscripts, rare photos, her camera, and her last portrait painting, which hung on one of the walls of his house.
    When Mathew signed and gifted me a copy of his grandmother’s latest biography, I also realised what a mammoth task he had been entrusted with-to preserve her legacy, and how he had upheld that trust: a proud grandson of the Queen of Crime.
    It was when I mentioned how strange it was that Christie had never visited India that he glanced at me with a twinkle in his blue eyes and said, “Oh, but she did!” I was startled. This was contrary to all that we believed. A few minutes later, as I skimmed through the numerous black-and-white, well-preserved photos, I found some that made my heart race-pictures of Christie with a garland, descending from an Indian Airlines plane. Here, finally, was the missing link to a long-standing puzzle.
    I was on the threshold of solving a real mystery, but I needed to know more. At my request, the archivist Joseph Keogh dug deeper and came up with some fascinating, unpublicised facts. Christie had indeed visited India-not once, but twice. From her passport stamps, he traced her travel itinerary for the two trips.
    Her first trip was in Jan 1960, when she visited Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), then India and Pakistan. From Jan 11 to Feb 2, she travelled to Bombay (now Mumbai), headed to South India’s Madras (now Chennai), did some sightseeing at the Ajanta Caves, and then on to Delhi. Between Feb 2 and 9, she went to Nepal and returned to Patna and Delhi, finally leaving for Karachi on Feb 17.
    Some letters were also found that referenced her trips. It appeared that the 1960 trip was for a lecture tour by her second husband, the archaeologist Max Mallowan.
    The following are extracts from two letters that Christie wrote to Edmund Cork in Cyprus, her literary agent and lifelong friend.
    Jan 11, 1960 | Future plans are, roughly, leave for Madras today – go via southern India to Bombay arriving 17th or 18th–Then some sightseeing near Bombay Agenta Caves (sic) etc and on to Delhi and then to Nepal on Jan 31st for a week — c/o British Embassy would find us there as I’m not sure what the hotel is.
    Jan 20, 1960 | Our plans are a bit different at the moment as accommodation at hotels is very hard to get exactly when one wants it but we shall be in and out of the Ashoka Hotel at Delhi between Jan 28th and Feb 2nd– and then Nepal (c/o British Embassy Kathmandu) 2nd to 9th then in and out of Ashoka again finally leaving it on Feb 17th for Karachi. So forward anything you think I ought to see to the Ashoka at Delhi — but nothing that I needn’t!!
    Another letter was from Christie, then staying at the Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi, to Rosalind, her daughter.
    Feb 16, 1960 | On our arrival here yesterday evening, several archaeologists were waiting with two porters and loads of archaeological material from their … dig. The examination of the same intrigued the Ashoka guests very much.
    Christie’s second trip to India, a year later, seemed to be for leisure. The passport has a Palam, New Delhi stamp (month not specified) in 1961. This time she visited Srinagar in Kashmir and stayed at the Oberoi Palace. This is what she wrote to he daughter Rosalind:
    Oct 30, 1961 | Lake and mountains rather lovely. This is a Hotel rather like at Jaipur — converted Rajah’s Palace — miles and miles of corridors — enormous rooms and we are in a kind of supersuite looking over lake. It’s all terribly dried up by this time of year — one ought really to come in May-June. Now one must be content by rich beds of red salvia and dahlias in the Hotel garden. Temp is about 50 at night. Delicious hot sun to sit in and about 60 in a day. Suits me very well. We made some excursions — to the various Mogul gardens — and to a lake … Which is very beautiful and ringed with snowclad mountains. You can see the mountains now after the rain. We have to leave here and go to the Hotel in the town– but expect that our booking for Nov 2nd to Delhi will be all right.
    From Delhi, she wrote again to Rosalind.
    Here we are in the Ashoka. I’m glad we had a good ten days and in a perfect Hotel for old ladies (very few of them nowadays) where I could sit, in the sun — and look at a view like a Japanese print. Lovely!
    The letters revealed Christie’s bright, chirpy personality and tongue-in-cheek humour, her eagerness to explore India and her appreciation of scenic beauty. She seemed happy to be in India.
    But I pondered why her trips were not well-known. Was it because photographs were a rarity then or because she checked into the hotels in her husband’s name — or perhaps simply because Agatha Christie was a private person?
    Whatever the reason, I was thrilled with my discovery. That sunny day with Mathew, Lucy and Gwynnie, the dog carried an extra fulfilling zing because of this exciting revelation.
    I had always sensed a deep connection to Agatha Christie. But being the chosen one to unravel the mystery of her India trips felt truly special.
PICTURES IN THE ARTICLE

Agatha Christie descended from an Indian Airlines plane during one or two visits to India.
Agatha Christie autographs copies of her books.
Mathew Prichard (also in the photo right), who has settled the India question once and for all, with his grandmother Agatha Christie.
Pages from Christie’s passport, showing (top) arrival at Palam, and (above) a Patna Police stamp that says ‘To Kathmandu’

    TOMORROW IS THE 135TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY OF ‘QUEEN OF CRIME’
    BORN | SEPTEMBER 15, 1890
    DIED | JANUARY 12, 1976
   – SHE WROTE THE WORLD’S LONGEST-RUNNING PLAY. THE MOUSETRAP, PERFORMED CONTINUOUSLY IN LONDON’S WEST END SINCE 1952, EXCEPT FOR A BREAK DURING COVID (2020-2021)
    – MARRIED TWICE, DIVORCED HER FIRST HUSBAND, ARCHIBALD CHRISTIE, IN 1928, AND MARRIED ARCHAEOLOGIST MAX MALLOWAN IN 1930
    – FOLLOWING THE BREAKDOWN OF HER FIRST MARRIAGE IN 1926, SHE MADE HEADLINES BY GOING MISSING FOR 11 DAYS. SHE WAS LOCATED AT A HOTEL 296 KM FROM HER HOME, REGISTERED AS MRS TRESSA NEELE, HER HUSBAND’S LOVER’S SURNAME.
    BOOKS: 66 DETECTIVE NOVELS, 14 SHORT STORIES
    FAMOUS CHARACTERS: HERCULE POIROT, MISS MARPLE
    The author is an award-winning writer of mystery novels
    [Extracts and photographs used with permission from Mathew Prichard and the Christie Archive Trust. Special thanks to Lucy Prichard and Joseph Keogh of the Christie Archive Trust]

Posted by Kamlesh Tripathi

Author, Poet, & Columnist

https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

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KABIR: BRIDGING FAITHS THROUGH VERSE

May 26, 2025article, author profile, famous personalities, POETRY, Uncategorized1440, Allah, attar, benares, Brahman, dohe, guru, hafiz, Hindu, history, jalaluddin rumi, jhansi, Kabir Das, kamlesh tripathi, muslim, PERSIAN, poetry, ram, ramananda, ramanuja, religion, sadi, shravancharitymission, spiritual, spirituality, sufi, takki, vaishnavite, varanasi, vedantistshravancharitymission

Imagine a wandering poet in 15th-century India, reciting verses that touched both kings and commoners. That was Kabir Das, a weaver who spun not just threads, but words that would echo through centuries. His dohe (two-line verses) weren’t just poetry. They were life lessons presented in everyday parlance, cutting across the noise of religious divisions and social barriers. Even today, his razor-sharp wisdom hits home, whether you’re puzzling over life’s essential questions or just trying to be a better person.

Kabir is one of the most fascinating personalities in the history of Indian mysticism. Born in or near Benares to Muslim parents, likely around the year 1440, he became a disciple of the renowned Hindu ascetic Ramananda early in life. Ramananda had brought to North India the religious revival that Ramanuja, the great twelfth-century reformer of Brahmanism, initiated in the South.

At a time when the great Persian mystical poets like Attar, Sadi, Jalaluddin Rumi, and Hafiz were exercising a powerful influence on India’s religious thought process, Kabir dreamt of reconciling the intense and personal Muslim mysticism with the traditional theology of Brahmanism. Kabir was a significant religious reformer and the founder of a sect to which millions of north Indian Hindus still belong.

A hater of religious exclusivism, his wonderful dohe (self-contained rhyming couplets) survive to convey the spontaneous expressions of his vision and love for all religions. It is impossible to tell if Kabir was a Brahman, Sufi, Vedantist, or Vaishnavite. He is, as he says himself, “at once the child of Allah and of Ram.”

Kabir’s life is steeped in contradictory legends, none of which can be verified. Some originate from Hindu sources, while others come from Muslim traditions. They depict him as either a Sufi or a Brahmin saint. Nonetheless, his name serves as definitive proof of his Muslim heritage. A credible story portrays him as the biological or adopted child of a Muslim weaver from Benares, where the chief events of his life transpired.

The syncretic tendencies of the Bhakti religion had reached their full potential in the fifteenth century. The Sufis and Brahmins often had disagreements. Kabir, who was born with religious passion, saw in Ramananda his destined teacher. But he knew the chances were slight that a Hindu guru would accept a Muslim as his disciple. Nevertheless, he hid on the steps of the River Ganges, where Ramananda used to frequent to bathe. The guru, while coming down the steps to the water, trod upon his body unexpectedly, and exclaimed in amazement, “Ram! Ram!” … the name of the incarnation that he worshipped. Kabir then announced that he had received the mantra of initiation from Ramananda’s lips and was, by it, admitted to his discipleship. This led to protests by orthodox Brahmins and Muslims. They both were equally annoyed by this contempt, but Kabir persisted with his claim. It appears Ramananda accepted him. Though Muslim legends speak of the famous Sufi Pir, Takki of Jhansi, as Kabir’s guru in his later life, the Hindu saint is the only human teacher to whom, in his dohe, he acknowledges indebtedness.

Kabir, for years, remained the disciple of Ramananda. He participated in the theological debates which his guru held with the Mullahs and Brahmins of the day. He may or may not have submitted to the traditional education of the Hindu or the Sufi ruminative. And he never adopted the life of the professional ascetic. He remained grounded as a householder and weaver.

Kabir can certainly be considered a unifier, especially in the context of religious and spiritual thought processes in medieval India. His fearless critique of both Hinduism and Islam, as well as his rejection of empty ritualism and dogma, was par excellence. It places him among the most important voices of syncretic spirituality in the Indian subcontinent.

He was certainly an isthmus between Hindu and Muslim traditions. Kabir was born at a time (15^th century India) when religious tensions between Hindus and Muslims were rampant. Despite this, his poetry flourished from both traditions. He used Hindu concepts like Rama and Karma. He invoked Sufi Islamic ideas such as Allah, soul-union with the divine, and the murshid (spiritual guide). But he was critical of both Brahmanical orthodoxy and Muslim clergy, often mocking the meaningless rituals of both groups. His criticism had an oblique humour which blunted the ill feeling, if any, like the verse below:

“Mo ko kahan dhunro bande/Main toh tere paas mein/Naa main deval naa main masjid/Naa kaabe kailaas mein/Naa mein koune kriya karam mein/Nahi yog vairaag mein/Khoji ho to turate mila-ihe pal bhar ki talaas mein/Kahyen Kabir suno bhaai saadho sab swason ki swans mein.” (O Servant, where are you seeking Me? I am beside you. I am neither in a temple nor a mosque; I am neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash: Neither am I in rites and ceremonies, nor in Yoga and renunciation. If you are a true seeker, you shall at once see Me: You shall meet Me in a moment of time. Kabir says, “O Sadhu! God is the breath of all breath.”)

Kabir’s mysticism was Bhakti in form, but Sufi in essence. He focused on the inner connection with God, a theme shared by both traditions. He believed in the emphasis of inner experience over rituals. He emphasised personal devotion (Bhakti) over temple rituals. Like Sufi mystics, he stressed on love, surrender, and the heart’s experience of the Divine.

Kabir wrote in vernacular Hindi (a mix of Awadhi, Braj, and Bhojpuri), not in Sanskrit or Persian. For example, “Guru Govind dono khade, kaake laagu pai/Balihaari guru aapne, Jin Govind diyo batay. (When Guru and God both are standing before you, whom will you bow to first? I am indebted to the Guru, who has shown me the path to God, hence, I will bow to him first.)

This made his teachings accessible to ordinary people across caste and religious boundaries, uniting them through shared human concerns such as life, death, love, hypocrisy, suffering, and salvation. Kabir is revered among communities such as Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs. Several of Kabir’s verses are included in the Guru Granth Sahib. The Kabir Panthis is a sect that still follows his teachings and promotes interfaith harmony.

Kabir can be seen as a harmoniser. Not because he merged religions into one, but because he rose above sectarian identities and pointed toward a universal spiritual truth that transcended dogmas. His fearless voice called for a unity of hearts, not of institutions. He remains a timeless symbol of spiritual integrity, courage and harmony.

Kabir’s dohas (couplets) and poems are a key part of his fearless critique of religious dogma. He did not spare either Hinduism or Islam in pointing out hypocrisy, meaningless rituals, or spiritual arrogance.

Kabir wasn’t against religion per se, but against the ritualistic, dogmatic, and divisive practices that religions had become associated with. His criticism was not destructive—it was reformative, calling people back to the core spiritual experience, love of God, and inner transformation.

Written by author & columnist Kamlesh Tripathi