Dark Knight's Sikh Link

Did you know there are sync-links to Sikhs in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises?
One of the major locations in The Dark Knight Rises, please recall, was the prison fort where three of the characters in the story were held: Mehrangarh Fort. The fort appears to have direct links to the Sikhs. The fort is one of the largest in the world.

The fort has seven gates, which include Jayapol (meaning "victory"), built by Maharaja Man Singh to commemorate his victories over Jaipur and Bikaner armies. Fattehpol (also meaning "victory") gate was built by Maharaja Ajit Singh to mark the defeat of the Mughals. The palm imprints upon these still attract much attention even today.

Singh from Sanskrit sinha for lion, is an essential component of the name for a Sikh male. Every Sikh male name must end with "Singh." Historically, this was so ordained by Guru Gobind Singh on the Baisakhi day, 30 March 1699, when he inaugurated the Khalsa, introducing a new form of initiatory rites, khande di pahul.

Mehrangarh Fort, is located in Jodhpur city in Rajasthan state, and is one of the largest forts in India. It is literally, the Fort of the Sun, Mehrangarh [etymology: Mihir (Sanskrit) -sun or Sun-deity; garh (Sanskrit)-fort; i.e."Sun-fort"]. According to Rajasthani language pronunciation conventions, "Mihirgarh" has changed to "Mehrangarh." The Sun-deity has been the chief deity of the Rathore dynasty. Some very odd stories are associated with the fort at this Dark Knight filming location.

The foundation of the fort was laid on 12 May 1459 by Rao Jodha (1438–1488) on a rocky hill 5.6 miles (9 km) to the south of Mandore. This hill was known as Bhaurcheeria, the mountain of birds.

According to legend, to build the fort Jodha had to displace the hill's sole human occupant, a hermit called Cheeria Nathji, the lord of birds. Upset at being forced to move Cheeria Nathji cursed Rao Jodha with "Jodha! May your citadel ever suffer a scarcity of water!"

Despite building a house and a temple in the fort very near the cave the hermit had used, even today the area is plagued by a drought every 3 to 4 years. Jodha then took an extreme measure to insure that the new site had a chance of success; he buried a man named Raja Ram Meghwal alive in the foundations. Raja Ram Meghwal was promised that in return his family would be looked after by the Rathores.

To this day his descendants still live in Raj Bagh, in Raja Ram Meghwal's Garden, an estate bequeathed them by Jodha.

A human stampede occurred on 30 September 2008, at the Chamunda Devi temple inside of the Mehrangarh Fort, in which 249 people were killed and more than 400 injured.

Filming of the last installment of the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, began on May 6, 2011, at Mehrangarh Fort.

According to IMDb, here are the Sikh personnel working on The Dark Knight Rises, for the Second Unit, India ~
Krishan Pratap Singh, assistant director: India (who is also involved with Zero Dark Thirty, to be released on 19 December 2012, USA, about Navy SEAL Team 6 tracking down wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden),
Vans Pradeep Singh Rathore, location manager: India,
Chandradeep Singh Rathore, director's assistant: India, and
Dileep Singh Rathore, line producer: India.
For more on the August 5, 2012, Oak Creek, Wisconsin shooting at a Sikh Temple, which left seven dead, please see here.

In the first film of the Dark Knight trilogy, in Batman Begins, there is a scene with Katie Holmes in the foreground, in which a random Sikh shows up in the background.

Read more here, as well as many other great posts about the Aurora shooting.

[link to copycateffect.blogspot.se]

Last Edited by CHEVEYO on 08/05/2012 11:34 PM