Indian Forts through History

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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Airavat »

Rajasthan government selling forts

The properties to be auctioned were nazool, which means they were taken over by the state from their former owners after India became independent in 1947. Often princes and maharajahs, with their own territories absorbed into the new nation and faced with massive maintenance bills, had no option but to cede ownership of their palaces and forts to the new nation's government.

Gaj Singh, the maharajah of Jodhpur, is hoping to get back the vast citadel of Jalore which was given to the state for maintenance on the death of his father and then passed on to the Rajasthan state archaeological department.

VP Singh, a Rajasthani politician and hotelier whose father, the raja of Badnore, sold the huge Badnore fort to the government for less than £300 in 1960 is also looking to reclaim the family seat. "It should be the descendants of the owners who take them back. It took my family 500 years to build the fort. The government abandoned it. If it isn't the heirs who take these places back, how can you call it 'heritage'?" he said yesterday.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Airavat »

GAGRAUN FORT

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Located in the Hadoti region (Bundi-Kota-Jhalawar) of Rajasthan near the Madhya Pradesh border, the Gagruan Fort is built on the confluence of the Ahu and Kali Sindh rivers. Surrounded on three sides by water, and protected on the fourth by a moat, it is a jala durg (water fort).....while the impenetrable forest which surrounded Gagraun in the past also made it a vana durg. The Kali Sindh river originates in the Vindhya mountains and flows north through the thickly wooded gorges of the Malwa plateau and eventually flows into the Chambal river.

The place is ancient and derives its old name Gargasashtar, from either Gargacharya the purohit of Sri Krishna who lived here, or from the ancient astronomer Garga. The main defences of the fort were built by the Khichi Chauhan clan of Rajputs. Located on one of the main routes connecting the Gangetic plains to the Gujarat coast, the fort was attacked in the 14th century by Alauddin Khilji, but did not fall. Raja Jet Singh was then ruling.....his descendant Achaldas was besieged by Sultan Hoshang Shah of Malwa around 1428 and for the first time Gagruan was occupied by Muslims.

However, this period also saw the rise of the powerful Rajput kingdom of Mewar and Gagraun became a battleground between Mewar and Malwa. Achaldas' son Palhan Singh Chauhan took Mewar aid to liberate Gagraun. In the 16th century Sultan Mahmud Khilji again captured the fort and renamed it Mustafabad. But the sultan suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Maharana Sanga in 1519, after which the Malwa sultanate was dismembered, and Gagraun remained in Rajput hands. Mewar's influence waned after the Battle of Khanua in 1527 against Babur, followed immediately by the Battle of Chittor in 1533 against the Sultan of Gujarat.

Gagraun changed hands frequently until it was finally occupied by Akbar and became a sarkar (district) of the province of Malwa. It remained in Mughal hands till 1715 when it was transferred to Rao Bhim Singh of Kotah, and once again became a part of Rajasthan. Zalim Singh Jhala, a general in the Kotah army and later the Dewan of the state, established the state of Jhalawar and constructed much of the more modern defences of Gagraun.

The fort is home to the endangered Hiraman parrot species.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by ramana »

X-post...
jamwal wrote:What's the right thread to post pictures of Orcha ? I've uploaded a few of the fort and Jahangir palace
http://www.panoramio.com/user/5642490
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Hari Sud »

Airavat

I would love to see some information on Kangra Fort in Himachal Prdesh.

From the road you can see a Devi temple on the top most point with in the fort. Is it still functioning? There is a Kangra Devi temple in the city center. Which one is Kangra Devi when referred to by the priests. Is it the hilltop one or in the city one.

Thanks
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Airavat »

Kangra Devi temple is the one in the city. The fort is very ancient and had a life-size murti of a Jain Tirthankar. They've now built the Kangra Museum outside the fort where it has been moved. The main construction of the fort that survives today dates from the time of the Turk invasions, when Kangra was repeatedly attacked. But the fort did not fall to either the Ghaznavid Sultans of Lahore or to any of the Sultans of Delhi. Coins of the Katoch Rajput rulers of Kangra are available, showing their independence. The Mughal attempts to capture the fort are described here: Battles for Kangra.

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A 19th century Lithograph of Kangra fort.....looks really impressive. The massive 1905 earthquake in the Kangra valley reduced the fort to its present less impressive size......much of the top portion was turned to rubble and bastions came crashing down.

PS: the temple in the town is of Vajreshwari Devi while the one inside the fort is of Ambika Devi. Temples of Kangra
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Airavat »

KALINJAR FORT

Located in the Banda district of UP, but in the hilly region of Bundelkhand abutting the River Yamuna in the south, the name of this fort "Kalinjara" occurs in the Mahabharat and in the Shiva-Purana. It is here that Bhagwan Shiva drank poison, getting the name Neelkanth, and destroyed (jaran) the barrier of time (kaal), giving the place its name. The fort has many ancient temples and sculptures, including the Neelkantha Mahadeo, Kala-Bhairava, Kali, Vankhandeshwar Mahadev, Hanuman, Ganesh, Chandika etc. For this reason the Giri Durg (hill fort) of Kalinjara is also called Deva Durg......Kalinjar is simultaneously the name of the fort, the name of the hill on which it is built, and the name of the town at its base.

The main construction of the fort is credited to the Chandela Rajput rulers of Jejakbhukti (the ancient name of Bundelkhand) who resisted the Ghaznavid invaders. In 1182 they were defeated by Prithviraj Chauhan of Ajmer and abandoning their seat of Mahoba, made the more secure Kalinjara their new capital. The hill of Kalinjar is an isolated outcrop of the Vindhya Mountains, separated from the main range by a chasm. It is 244 meters high and forms a plateau which is nearly 8 km in circuit; the escarpment of the hill is perpendicular and forms a natural defence. Kalinjar has many springs and rock-cut tanks for an assured water supply; it commands the approaches into Bundelkhand from the Gangetic plains.

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The Chandela power was already three centuries old when the Delhi sultanate was established in the 13th century. Kalinjar was part of the long line of strong forts stretching from Jaisalmer in the far west, through to Ranthambhor, Chittor, and Gwalior, and beyond to Bandhavgarh in the east, all of which thwarted the power of the sultanate. Like these other forts Kalinjar was never taken by assault and its rulers only came to terms on the failure of the water supply after a lengthy blockade. The Chandelas survived the break-up of the Delhi sultanate but they were in headlong decline when confronted by the Mughal invader Humayun in 1531. Although he too failed to capture the fort, Humayun vaingloriously took the title of "Ghazi" merely on the payment of money by its besieged ruler.

A new Delhi sultanate was established by the Afghan Sher Shah, who expelled Humayun from India, and he too besieged Kalinjar Fort in 1554 using artillery. A shell fired from one of the guns rebounded from Kalinjar's strong walls, smashed into the other shells and sparked off the gunpowder carelessly placed in the trenches by the Muslims. Sher Shah was burnt to death, but the artillery ultimately prevailed, Kalinjar was taken by assault, its defenders died fighting and the long reign of the Chandelas finally came to an end.

When the Mughals captured the fort in 1570, a vigorous new power had risen in the form of the Bundela Rajputs who gave their name to the region. They had numerous forts like Orchha, Datia, Panna, Talbehat, Charkhari, Ajaigarh, etc to defy the Mughals. Kalinjar therefore became a district headquarters (sarkar) in the Mughal province (subah) of Allahabad. The Mughal records mention an iron mine near the fort, a profusion of ebony tress and fruits in the forests, and herds of wild elephants. The town of Kalinjar has some mosques built in this period, and was also encircled by ramparts with three gates - Kamta Dwar, Panna Dwar and Rewa Dwar.

The Bundelas though were a constant thorn in the Mughal side and several expeditions were ordered against them by both Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. Chhatrasal Bundela led the resistance against the Mughals in eastern Bundelkhand, while the Bundelas of western Bundelkhand rose up when an attempt was made to demolish the temple of Orchha in 1671. Chhatrasal's mini-empire was divided among his sons into the states of Panna and Banda; succession dispute in both invited the Marathas, and into this political jumble came the British. Kalinjar Fort was held by the Brahman minister of Panna state, Khemraj Chaube, before its surrender to the British who also made Banda a district of UP.

The British maintained a garrison in Kalinjar Fort and built an infantry lines and officers quarter inside the fort, and the kotwali in the town below. They record that a large number of custard-apple trees grew on the hill-top, which had a good pasture area of 165 acres given out on annual lease.....but the wild elephant herds disappeared from the neighboring forests due to their conversion into agricultural land.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by jamwal »

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Orchha Fort


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Jahangir Palace




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Airavat jee, can you please write something about this fort/palace in Orchha, Madhya Pradesh ?
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Airavat »

"Orchha" literally means hidden. It is a jala durg built on an island of the Betwa River, in the forested and hilly region of Bundelkhand. Orchha was the most prominent and oldest of the Bundela kingdoms, and the others were its offshoots. The main construction was under Raja Bir Singh Deo, who rose to prominence by murdering Mughal emperor Akbar's favorite minister, and his son Jehangir's enemy, Abul Fazl. When Jehangir became emperor in 1605, Bir Singh accumulated wealth and power by subjugating neighboring states. He built the Jehangir Mahal in Orchha as well as the important fort of Jhansi. Bir Singh also rebuilt the historic Sri Krishna Janmasthan in the Mughal city of Mathura, which had been demolished in the 15th century by the fanatical Sikandar Lodi. The Bundela spared no expense on this temple which stood for more than 50 years before it too was demolished by the fanatical Aurangzeb.

By the time of his son Jujhar Singh, the accumulation of so much wealth and power by the Bundela Rajputs was an eyesore to the new emperor Shah Jahan and in 1635 a huge army poured into Orchha to destroy Jujhar Singh. The outnumbered Bundela foot musketeers fought a retreating defence by shooting from under cover of the trees, but Orchha was captured and it's defenders escaped to Dhamuni in the south. Dhamuni also fell, as did Jhansi, while Jhujhar and his eldest son were murdered by the Gond tribals who sent their heads to the Mughals. Those women and children of his family who had not managed to stab themselves to avoid captivity, were reduced to slavery and forcibly converted to Islam.

A new Raja was installed at Orchha and after the retreat of the Mughals, resistance flared up all over again in the shape of Champat Rai of Mahoba and his famous son Chhatrasal. The new Mughal emperor Aurangzeb began openly demolishing Hindu temples in 1669. In 1670 Fidai Khan, the governor of Gwalior attempted to demolish the temple of Orchha but was defeated by the Bundela Rajputs. This act multiplied the recruits in the army of Chhatrasal who ultimately gained lordship over the whole of Bundelkhand. Towards the end of his life Chhatrasal was compelled to take the aid of Peshwa Baji Rao against the Mughal subahdar of Allahabad, and in return ceded one third of his lands to them. In 1742 Orchha state lost the fort and district of Jhansi to the Marathas. During British rule the rulers of Orchha shifted their capital to Tikamgarh in the north.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by arrjunkumarr »

The excuse - or was it a valid reason given by Shah Jahan to justify the attack on Orchha was that Juhjar Singh had violated imperial orders by launching an expedition against the Gonds. This was borne out later when the king met his end at the hands of the Gonds.

Another small fact that maybe Airavat could confirm - Durgawati of Gondwana was believed to be the daughter of the former ruler of Kalinjar Fort.

Another snippet - Dhamoni Fort (called Dhamuni in the text here) still stands. And a description of it written in 1838 by Capt. Sleeman is exactly true even today.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Airavat »

arrjunkumarr wrote:The excuse - or was it a valid reason given by Shah Jahan to justify the attack on Orchha was that Juhjar Singh had violated imperial orders by launching an expedition against the Gonds. This was borne out later when the king met his end at the hands of the Gonds.
There were two separate campaigns against Jujhar Singh. The first was in 1628 when Jujhar left Agra after he discovered that Shah Jahan was going to call him to account for all the territorial and monetary gains made by his father Bir Singh, under the careless Jehangir. After some fighting Jujhar agreed to submit and send his son Vikramjit to serve in the Mughal wars of the south.

The second one was in 1635 described above. Even here Shah Jahan merely asked for a share of the loot gained by Jujhar from the Gonds! There was no attempt made to restore that Gond principality. Indeed, the Gonds actually had to pay a steep price for their service to the Mughals. Their main kingdom of Chanda was invaded and forced to pay tribute to the Mughals.

No Hindu kingdom could be allowed to gain too much territory or wealth because it would then become a threat to the Mughals. This was the reason why Aurangzeb first invaded and captured the Kingdom of Jodhpur in 1679, before imposing jaziya on the Hindu population.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Airavat »

GWALIOR FORT

An ancient site with the original name Gopadri, some of the oldest architectural remains in the fort date from the time of the Kachhapaghata clan of Rajputs who reigned here from the 10th to the 12th centuries. The famous Sasbahu temple was built by them and it contains an inscription of the Kachhapaghatas stating that their ancestor Yajradaman defeated a ruler of Gadhinagara (Kanauj), and conquered the fort of Gopadri (Gwalior).

Attacked several times by the Turk invaders, the fort fell after a long siege to Sultan Iltutmish in 1231, but only after the defenders died fighting and their family members sacrificed their lives in the jauhar kund to prevent enslavement and conversion to Islam. The Delhi Sultanate held the fort through the 13th and 14th centuries but there is nothing in the fort from this period, which leads to the conclusion that the main construction of the present fort of Gwalior was under its next rulers: the Tomar Rajputs.

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Photo from SHUNYA

Veer Singh Tomar, a Rajput chieftain in the neighborhood captured Gwalior Fort in 1394 and his descendants held it through the 15th century. Dungar Singh was a noted Tomar ruler who commanded a large army and built the Ganesh Pol. The main construction of the fort and its palaces was under Man Singh Tomar, and the Man Singh palace built in the Hindu architectural style became the model for Akbar's palaces in Agra and Fatehpr Sikri. Gwalior Fort is built on a hill of sandstone and towers 100 meters from the plain. The outer wall of the fort is almost 2 miles in length and the walls of the fort crown the perpendicular escarpment of the hill.

The power of the Delhi sultanate was revived by the Lodis; Man Singh repulsed the attack of Sikandar Lodi in 1505. Ibrahim Lodi finally captured the fort after Man Singh's death; granting the fief of Shamsabad to his son Vikramaditya, who died in the Battle of Panipat against Babur in 1526. The descendants of the Gwalior Tomars allied with the Rajput kingdom of Mewar and fought alongside Maharana Pratap in the Battle of Haldighati.

Under the Mughals, Gwalior was a sarkar in the subah of Agra, and one of the royal mints where Mughal coins were struck. Gwalior was also used a state prison for enemies and rebels. With the decline of the Mughal empire in the 18th century the fort changed hands several times until it was captured from the Jat Rana of Gohad by the Maratha general Mahadji Scindia in 1765. During the first Anglo-Maratha War the tide turned against the Marathas when Captain Popham stormed the Gwalior fort (August 1780) and General Camac defeated Mahadji Sindhia at Sipri (February 1781). It was perhaps the first time in history that Gwalior had been taken, not after a lengthy siege, but by assault. Mahadji Sindhia allied with the British and under his descendants Gwalior became the capital of their princely state.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by tsarkar »

Why couldnt the Marathas, Rajputs & Jats and Sikhs not join their forces? While Baji Rao 1 was able to ally with Chatrasal, and the Marathas to some extent with Suraj Mal Jat, yet there was too much conflict between Rajputs and Marathas.

Why wasnt this fighting channelized towards the frontier? Both Marathas and Rajputs under Mughal rule had fought at NWFP. Shivaji was called to Agra to fight at Kabul & Kandahar against the Persians.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Virupaksha »

Simply because each of them rose, were conquered, subjugated, rebelled at completely different times.

Marathas rose in 1700s more than 300-400 years after the yadava kingdom. Sikhs were militarily powerful only from around 1790-1850. By the times, marathas came up rajputs were co-opted into the mughal system by Akbar and were waning. By the time Sikhs came up under Ranjit Singh around 1810s, marathas were defeated in 1810 wars. It took 40 years for them to attempt to rise again during 1857. But sikhs were defeated by that time and were serving under english.

India maintained itself not by having a centralised system like the persians/egyptians where if the king/pharoah was killed, everything was over. It was maintained because it was a decentralised system where each part had to be individually defeated but by the time one moved on the next part, the previously defeated part rose again.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Airavat »

This book gives a comprehensive account of the military history of Gwalior and neighboring forts:

Forts and Fortresses of Gwalior and its Hinterland: Brigadier BD Misra
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GWALIOR FORT DURING THE 1857 REVOLT

The infantry of the Bengal army had in its ranks a great majority of Oudh sepoys; while men of the same class formed the Gwalior Contingent, maintained by Native States under the terms of treaties with the British Government. A small percentage of Muhammadans of Hindustan was also to be found in the Bengal Native Infantry, while they supplied the greater part of the Cavalry of that Presidency. It will thus be understood that in both arms there was a dangerous preponderance of one class, facilitating and extending combination on the part of the disaffected.

After the war of 1843, Lord Ellenborough had restored Gwalior to Sindhia. He disbanded the Maharaja's Army, and in its place raised a subsidiary force, known as the Gwalior Contingent under British Officers, while a Resident was placed at the Court of Sindhia. The Maharaja, then a minor, grew up a staunch adherent of British rule, and on the outbreak of the Mutiny loyally adopted the cause of the Suzerain Power, and, on the request of the Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Provinces, sent troops to his assistance at Agra and Aligarh. Gwalior was within 70 miles of Agra; the Contingent was composed of 2 regiments of cavalry, 4 field batteries, a small siege train, and 7 infantry battalions, a total of 8,318 men under Brigadier Ramsay.

On the 23rd May the first overt act of mutiny in the Gwalior Contingent was committed at Hathras by 100 men of the 1st Cavalry who, raising the war-cry of Islam, went off to Delhi. The news of the Jhansi massacre stirred the capital of Sindhia to its inmost depths. All believed that the foundations of the British Empire in India were crumbling into dust. On the morning of the 14th June the Mess House at Morar and a bungalow were burnt down; but nothing further occurred until night, when, between the hours of 9 and 11 the sky was reddened by the blaze of all the bungalows in cantonments, and amid cries that the Europeans were down upon the sepoys, the troops of the Contingent shot down as many Christians as they could find. On hearing of the outbreak Major Macpherson got into a carriage, with a lady of his family and an officer who had escaped, and proceeded to join Sindhia, escorted by some Muhammadans and forty Mahratta horsemen.

At Gwalior Sindhia maintained a difficult struggle with the mutineers. They had demanded that he should give them money and carriage and lead them to Agra; and they had threatened to plunder his city and his treasury if he refused to comply with their wishes. His own troops being of the same leaven, he had to rely mainly on the resources of his own skill and ingenuity to control the mutineers, and to prevent them from marching either to Agra or Delhi. By turns he bribed and cajoled them. He gave them a donation of three months' pay and promised to take them into his service. He sent his emissaries among them and sowed dissension between Hindus and Muhammadans. He bribed many of their officers and priests. The artillery officers being mostly natives of Gwalior, he acted on them through their village interests. He summoned his feudal aristocracy to the capital, and they placed a levy of 11,000 men at his disposal. He ordered the removal of wheels of all carts and sent them on elephants and camels to distant jungles, and swept the Chambal of its boats.

On the 31st July, however, the 23rd Native Infantry, a wing of the 1st Cavalry, 600 of Holkar's troops, and 1,000 ghazis, with 7 guns, from Indore and Mhow, entered Gwalior, and the embers of rebellion were rekindled in the Morar Cantonments. All along their line of march these miscreants had plundered villages, dishonoured women, destroyed the telegraph wires and posts, and burnt the staging bungalows and post offices; and their mutinous brethren at Gwalior saw them gorged with plunder. The mutineers set up a pretender whom they called a prince of the Imperial House of Delhi, and honoured him with a salute of 22 guns. Sindhia was required to do homage to this phantom; but he replied evasively that his predecessors had so often been deceived that he would wait until the King of Delhi should himself honour Gwalior with his presence.

BATTLE FOR GWALIOR June 1858

Sir Hugh Rose's column bivouacked on the left bank of the river Morar. The enemy retained possession of the hills to the left of the pass and canal. To protect the battery and position, the rebels had concentrated a numerous force of all arms on the ridge, as well as a large body of cavalry in rear of it. About a mile and a half further back, and about the same distance from the left of the road, was stationed in a gorge of the hills a large body of the hostile infantry with guns. They guarded a road which branched off from the ford southwards through the hills to Gwalior. The enemy by occupying positions of the ridge so far from and unsupported by Gwalior had exposed himself to be cut off. The impediment to such an operation was the canal, impracticable for cavalry and infantry; on this obstacle the enemy probably relied for protection. Sir Hugh directed the Madras Sappers and Miners to make a bridge across the canal, some way to the left rear of his position.

Soon afterwards a large body of troops was seen debouching from Gwalior; and fresh guns were ascending the heights to reinforce the battery on the ridge, which was good news as the more guns the rebels brought up to the heights the more were likely to be taken next morning. Brigadier Smith, crossing the canal steadily, ascended the heights. The enemy, taken in flank, retired rapidly from the attack of the British left towards the battery. The skirmishers of the 86th, with their usual ardour, pressed the rebel infantry so hard that they did not make a stand even under their guns, but retreated across the entrenchment in the rear of which they were in position. The gallant skirmishers gave them no time to rally in the battery, but dashing with a cheer at the parapet, crossed it, and took the guns which defended the ridge, three excellent English 9-pounders. The 86th, leaving a party with the captured guns, passed on after the enemy's cavalry and infantry, who fled, part towards Gwalior, part to the hills to the south. The 10th Bombay Infantry under Lieutenant Roome crossed the pass and the canal, and passing by the haystacks, which were now one burning mass, and moving up in support of the 95th and in protection of the right, found himself exposed to a fire of artillery and musketry from the heights on the enemy's extreme left. Advancing with half his regiment in skirmishing order and half in support, he cleared the two nearest heights of the rebel infantry, and gallantly took two brass field guns and three mortars which were in a plain at the foot of the second height.

The British troops were now in possession of the highest range of heights of Gwalior, and the city could be seen lying below. To the right was the handsome palace of the Phul Bagh with its gardens, and the old city, surmounted by the fort, remarkable for its ancient architecture, with lines of extensive fortifications round the high and precipitous rock of Gwalior. To the left lay the Lashkar or new city, with its spacious houses half hidden by trees. The slopes descended gradually towards Gwalior; the lowest one commanding the grand parade of the Lashkar, which was almost out of fire of the fort and afforded an entrance into the city.

The General felt convinced that he could take Gwalior before sunset. He determined to make a general advance against all the positions which the enemy occupied for the defence of Gwalior, extending from beyond the palace of the Phul Bagh on their right, to the extensive barracks on the left of the grand parade of the Lashkar, and then take the Lashkar by assault. For this purpose he ordered the 3rd Troop, Bombay Horse Artillery, with a advance on the grand squadron of the 8th Hussars, to follow the road parade, which led out of the pass, and advance, covering his extreme right, parallel with the troops attacking Gwalior.

Lieutenant-Colonel Owen, with the 1st Bombay Lancers, had been moved to the heights to cover the captured guns; the rapidity and dexterity with which they got over difficult ground was a credit to the regiment. The General now ordered them to ascend the heights to the rear, get into the road which led through the hills to the south, and occupy the entrance to it, which led to the grand parade, for the purpose of assisting in the attack of that important point and the Lashkar. The hilly and difficult nature of the ground, particularly the deep canal which the guns had to traverse prevented their arrival. The rebels immediately brought a battery of two 18-pounders in front of the grand parade to bear on the hamlet, and firing from a great elevation sent round shot into it in rapid succession and with accurate aim.

The enemy were firing with much vivacity but little effect from the batteries on the right, and the captured guns were answering them. Large bodies of infantry and cavalry were marching out of Gwalior by all its issues, and moving towards the British, but not in order or with resolution as if to attack, or take up a position of defence. Sir Hugh Rose directed Brigadier Smith, with No. 3 Troop, Bombay Horse Artillery, and a squadron of the 14th Light Dragoons, to be ready to attack the enemy's positions at the Phul Bagh and beyond it. He had placed the 9-pounder in position, opposite the two 18-pounders, and ditected it to fire with shrapnel at the enemy who were attempting to load their pieces. The shrapnel burst just over jbhe 18-pounders into about twenty pieces, killed and disabled some of the gunners, and put the rest to flight; at the same time part of the hostile cavalry and infantry on the grand parade began to retire. As he did not know whether the enemy might not, as at Jhansi, defend the streets and houses, he directed Colonel Raines to form four companies of his regiment for street-fighting, and to leave the remainder in reserve on the grand parade.

STORMING OF GWALIOR FORT

The officer commanding Old Gwalior reported that the enemy still held the fort, and had fired upon him from it, and as it was now night, the General gave directions for its close investment. The fortress of Gwalior stands upon a vast rock about four miles in length, but narrow and of unequal breadth and nearly flat on the top. The sides are so steep as to appear almost perpendicular in every part; for where not so, the rock has been scarped away and the height above the plain below is from 200 to 300 feet. The rampart conforms to the edge of the precipice all round, and the only entrance to it is by steps running up the side of the rock, defended on the side next the city by a wall and bastion, and further guarded by seven stone gateways, at certain distances from each other. The area within is full of noble buildings, reservoirs of water, wells, and cultivated land; so that it is really a little district in itself.

Lieutenant Rose, 25th Bombay Infantry, joined Lieutenant Waller, and a party of the 25th under his orders, with some of Sindhia's, police, burst open the main gateway of the fort, and surprising the other gates before the garrison, a party of fanatical Musalman artillerymen, could shut them, reached an archway on which the rebels brought a gun to bear. Lieutenant Rose and his party got through the archway unscathed by the fire of the gun and then engaged in a desperate hand-to-hand conflict with the rebels, who defended the narrow street leading into the fort. But the determined gallantry of Lieutenant Rose and of the soldiers of the 25th, aided by Lieutenant Waller, who climbed with a few of his men on to the roof of a house and shot the gunners, carried all before it, and they took the fort and killed every man in it.

This gallant capture of the fort of Gwalior may be compared with the first capture of the fortress by the British in 1780. In that year a small force under Major W. Popham, despatched by Warren Hastings in aid of the Rana of Gohad, the former owner of Gwalior crossed the Jumna in February. After some minor operations Major Popham arrived before Gwalior with four battalions of sepoys and a few guns early in August. The sepoys, who wore woollen shoes, placed wooden ladders against the scarped rook, and thus ascended the first part of it. The second wall, 30 feet in height, was then climbed by Captain Bruce and twenty sepoys by means of a rope ladder, who, when the garrison was alarmed, held their own until the arrival of the main body. Of the twelve hundred men forming the garrison many were killed including Bapoji, the Governor, and the rest fled, the assailants losing only twenty wounded, and at sunrise the British flag floated from the rock of Gwalior.

The Revolt in Central India, 1857-59
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Re: Indian Forts through History

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Re: Indian Forts through History

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Plan of Gaur Fort in Bengal - Creighton's map of 1801

The ruins of the fortified city of Gaur are located on the India-Bangladesh border in the Malda district of Bengal. Previously known as Lakshmanavati or Lakhnauti, the city was an ancient capital of Bengal, a seat of the Budddhist Pala dynasty from the 8th century and later the Hindu Sena dynasty from the 12th century. The Hindu kings were overcome by the Delhi Sultanate in the early 13th century and Gaur became the capital of the Sultans of Bengal, and together with neighbouring Pandua a centre of provincial Islamic culture until its abandonment in the late 16th century. Gaur's decline began when it was sacked in 1539 by the Afghan ruler of Delhi, Sher Shah Suri, and the Kirrani sultans who were his successors in the region shifted the capital to Tanda. The Ganga and Mahananda rivers between which Gaur was located changed course away from the city and it was finally forsaken.

Henry Creighton, an indigo planter living near Gaur in the late 18th century described the city, including a sketch of the place and superb drawings of its monuments. He found the ruins of the city extending up to ten miles in length and one and half mile in breadth, lying between the Ganges and the Mahananda. The city had two big paved roads, parallel to the river, in the north-south direction, crisscrossed by smaller lanes and canals, some of which still exist. Construction of the fort was with mud and burnt bricks.

On the eastern side of the city are the lakes of Jhatiah and Bhatiah and other lakes. Within Gaur Fort was a tank called Peasbari — the water whereof was noxious, whoever drank it became attacked with bowl-diseases and died. It is said that in past times, criminals were imprisoned in that tank, and by drinking the water of it they immediately died. And Emperor Akbar, taking pity, put a stop to this form of punishment. The Qadam-Rasul, a square, one-domed building in the enclosure of the fort, was erected by Sultan Nasrat Shah, while Sultan Firuz Shah built the Firoz Minar with a height of about 50 cubits, and its circumference about 5 cubits.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

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jambudvipa wrote:Atriji,excellent write up on Chandragiri.Will defiantely visit it sometime.Could you add some photos if possible?
From here...

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The citadel of the Chandragiri Fortress

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The Execution point (Vadha-Stambha)

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The rare sculpture of Krishna doing Taandava (as told by guide).. The photography is prohibited inside Raajamahala (Royal Palace), so this is an illegal photo. :twisted: Could not resist, although the quality of photo is poor due urgency of capturing it while no one watches.

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The Palace of Krishnadevaraya and later Vijaynagar rulers

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The Fountain in front of royal palace.

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Pushkarini in front of Royal Palace

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The Bastions of the citadel. This is the inner level of fortifications

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The Shikhara of Royal Palace

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The queen's palace as seen from king's palace

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Gopuram of Raajarajeshwara temple
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Re: Indian Forts through History

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Palakkad Fort

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in 1766 Haider Ali refurbished and strengthened this medieval fort with some help from the French. It was meant to be a strategic location that facilitated communication between Coimbatore and the West Coast. In 1790, the British recaptured it and, thereafter, it must have slowly fallen into disuse. And, strangely enough it has always been referred to as the Tipu Sultan Fort.

The history that is available is rather sketchy. The fort has seen some fierce battles, especially between the Zamorin and Haider Ali, and later the British. When Haider Ali set about restoring the fort, he is said to have used granite from the nearby Jain Medu. The area still exists in the municipality of Palakkad, and was once home to a community of Jains. Today, the area is only occasionally visited by a few Jains. They come there to pray at an ancient Devi temple (some say it is over 2,000 years old) that still stands there. Many attempts have been made to restore the temple which is in a shambles, but for a long time it was believed that every time someone tried, they would hit a hurdle. But, a man next door tells us that steps are underway to clean and restore the temple.

An old well stands next to the temple and amidst the wild undergrowth are beheaded statues of tirthankaras, and remnants of carved granite. There are inscriptions on the walls. The story is that two brothers came to this region to trade in diamonds. One of them dreamt that he should bring the Devi from his village in present-day Karnataka and install her in a temple here. So he did. And she is still worshipped there.
The story of a forgotten fort
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Pranay »

http://flonnet.com/stories/20111202282410200.htm

The forts of Maharashtra...
THERE is perhaps no historical monument that exudes a sense of history as much as a fort does. This can be attributed to the brute force of its architecture and the stories and myths that surround it and even the plain bloodlust it was witness to.

The history of the region that is now Maharashtra was unceasingly violent for centuries. This explains why the region has the maximum number of forts in India. A passage between the north and the south, the volcanic Deccan plateau was a constant witness to violent conquests and defeats. The topography of the land was also ideal for building defences in the form of forts that were impregnable. And 350 or so of them were built.

Today the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) is doing its best to encourage people to visit the forts by providing all facilities and branding them as family holiday destinations. The majestic hill forts in the State include the ones at Daulatabad, Ahmednagar, Shivneri, Rajgad, Raigad, Pratapgad and Panhala.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Pranay »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFA4GteZ ... re=related

The Maratha Fort - Rajgad/Raigad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP3sDFy3 ... re=related

Raigad,Pratapgad,Panhala,Rajgad,Purandar,Sinhagad,Ramshej,Shivneri,Janjira,Sindudurg,Vijaydurg,Kulab,Arnala,Khanderi,Salher,Daulatabad,Lohgad,Pandavgad,Sajjang­ad,Ajinkyatara, and many more


An Audio/Visual treat... enjoy.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Ankit Desai »

Maharashtra forts

First slide is a political figure. Ignore that if you want and enjoy rest !

-Ankit
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Re: Indian Forts through History

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Bhatinda Fort

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathinda

Bathinda (many institutions, though inadvertently, use its old, but now wrong, spellings as Bhatinda) (Punjabi: ਬਠਿੰਡਾ), named after the Bhati Rajput kings, is one of the oldest cities in Punjab, India and the current administrative headquarters of Bathinda District. It is situated in north-western India in the Malwa (Punjab) Region, 225 km west of the capital city of Chandigarh. Bathinda is nicknamed the city of Lakes and was once known as Tabar-e-Hind(or Tabarhindh),[1] meaning the Gateway to India. The first empress of India, Razia Sultan was imprisoned in the Qila Mubarak fort in Bathinda.


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The boat shaped, Bhatinda Fort is located in Bathinda District of Punjab, India. Bhatti Rao had taken the initiative to build this 39 mt fort with 38 Burujas. It is almost 1800 years old. After looted by Mohammad Ghazni, Maharaj Ala Singh of Patiala captured the fort in 1754. After Patiala ruler Maharaja Karam Singh, it was renamed as Gobindgarh.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

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Gobindgarh Fort, Amritsar

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The fort occupied a unique place in the Indian military history. Built in 1760, it was called Bhangian Da Kila (Bhangis was one of the twelve Sikh misles). According to historians, during 1808, the fort was known as the fort of Gujjar Singh Bhangi. Later it was re-built by Maharaja Ranjit Singh with the help of Jodh Singh. The legendary Maharaja strengthened the fortification of the fort in order to keep his treasures and treaties in safety. The specially constructed Toshakhana, in the centre of the fort, also stored large amount of grains and provisions for the 12,000-strong army.
The fort was constructed with brick and lime with numerous army bastions and iron gates with 25 cannons on the ramparts, now replaced with modern weaponry.
The fort was constructed on a square pattern with a parameter of 1500 sq mt with two strong gates, four large bastions and well-defined rampart.
The majestic entrance has been named Nalwa Gate, after the great Sikh warrior. The other end of the gate is known as Keelar Gate and it is rumoured that in its close proximity existed an escape tunnel, connecting to Lahore tunnel. However, the army authorities said that they had not been able to locate any such tunnel so far.
The British Army had added Darbar Hall, Hawa Mehal and Phansi Ghar (hanging place) to the fort after the annexation of Punjab. After Partition, the fort provided a temporary shelter to a large number of refugees from Pakistan. In October 1948, the fort was handed over to the Indian Army.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Sanku »

Ankit Desai wrote: First slide is a political figure. Ignore that if you want
Umm in the given context, he is the photographer of the beautiful pictures that follow, why ignore? That would be rather sad wont it?
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by ramana »

Folks, Osprey has a book "Indian Castles 1206-1526- rise and fall of Delhi Sultanate" A very good description of many forts and castles in North India of that period.

Its available at Bookfi and other sources.

The castles of that period look just like those in Europe from Robin Hood, Walter Scott stories but much bigger.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by vic »

I have this feeling that Indian forts may be way older than we think. These forts are massive and seem work of centuries rather than decades. Look at Old fort of Delhi, historians say that it is Rajput fort but local folklore dates it to Mahabharata.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Vicki »

Gobindgarh Fort, Amritsar. I haven't seen much about the police presence in the 1940's at Gobindgarh Fort, Amritsar. My grandfather was a Police Commissioner at the fort, and he and his family lived there. I have several photo's, that include my father and his brother as small boys sitting in front of the barracks building, and Grandpa walking with Viceroy Wavell in the grounds, and one of Grandpa and Granny sitting with Wavell in the grounds. Taken in 1943 I think.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by shravanp »

vic wrote:I have this feeling that Indian forts may be way older than we think. These forts are massive and seem work of centuries rather than decades. Look at Old fort of Delhi, historians say that it is Rajput fort but local folklore dates it to Mahabharata.

Same with Allahabad fort. Locals mention it being originally built by Samrat Ashok.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by ramana »

Osprey has a book on Indian Castles Rise and fall of Delhi Sultanate 1206-1526 by Konstantin Nossov and Brian Delf

lots of details

Downloads at usual places
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by ramana »

I have been in contact with Twitter person Brig Gerard.
He says there are 35 types of artillery in the Marathas.

I would like to get the descriptions and sketches from old books if possible.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by ramana »

A few books on Indian Artillery.
Reason why I am studying these is the first that we looked got reduced only with the advent of artillery.


Indian Artillery from Plassey to 1857

Book written by a retired Brig R.C. Butalia.

However not one picture! :(
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by ramana »

Zamburak or camel mounted swivel gun.

Introduced by Humayun to India.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamburak
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Lalmohan »

vic wrote:I have this feeling that Indian forts may be way older than we think. These forts are massive and seem work of centuries rather than decades. Look at Old fort of Delhi, historians say that it is Rajput fort but local folklore dates it to Mahabharata.
very likely - in most places, geography determines military imperatives. so any natural strong point will have been used successively by new waves of humans, only more grandly as technology improves/changes. often you will find layer upon layer going back to even the iron age or sometimes even the stone age
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Mort Walker »

^^^Yes. Agra Fort was used by the British, but built up by the Mughals in the 18th century. Prior to that it was a Rajput fort at least 1000 years back.
We still need to have a comprehensive list of Indian forts in each state for this thread as a sticky. We can then have members who visit such places and photograph them to put them in this thread or a permanent thread here.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by ramana »

On Twitter there was a link about Gooty fort built in 6th century. Bhongir fort is very, very old.
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by Lalmohan »

the study of geography is essential to anyone who wants to understand (military) history
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Re: Indian Forts through History

Post by gashish »

ramana wrote:On Twitter there was a link about Gooty fort built in 6th century. Bhongir fort is very, very old.
Drove past Bhongir fort few times on Hyd- Warangal highway.

It is a sight to behold - built on huge monolithic rock in 10th century by Western Chalukyas (ruled areas from Narmada in North to Tungabhadra in south during its peak)

This part of the region (around Kalyani) was power and cultural center (Kannada lit, origins of present day Marathi in northern parts of empire) of Indian peninsula during this time.

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