We came up to Amber Palace from a lower terrace, motorcycles parked below, the honey sandstone filling the ridge: stacked balconies against a cloudless sky, battlements climbing the next hill through dry scrub. Inside, a grooved grey ramp dropped to red-and-grey paving at the Shila Devi shrine—silver doors in a white marble arch, a pigeon on the cornice, a board that the mandir closed from 12:30 to 4:00, and another…
