CHITTORGARH
Chittorgarh was the ancient
capital of the Sisodia Rajputs of Mewar. Perhaps the most
thrilling of India’s history is the of Mewar in which the
quintessence of Rajput pride and valour finds expression. It
was here that the flower of Rajput chivalry blossomed and
men and women repeatedly gave up their lives preferring
death to dishonor and surrender. The ruins of the great
monuments at Chittor speak eloquently of the many grim and
glorious deeds of heroism and sacrifice which have become
almost a myth.
Chittorgarh is 631 km. (392 miles) from Delhi via Jaipur and
Ajmer on the Western Railway and 447 km. (278 miles) from
Khandwa on the Central Railway. It is 111 km. (69 miles) by
rail from Udaipur. It is also connected by road with Udaipur
(115 km. or 72 miles), Ajmer (188 km. or 117 miles) and
Indore (302 km. or 188 miles).
Tradition ascribes the foundation of the fort of Chittor to
Chitrang, the chief of the Mori Rajputs who ruled the place
about the 7th century. He called it Chitrakot and a tank
named after him is still to be found in the southern part of
the fort. Bapa Rawal, the real founder of Mewar, ousted the
Mori prince Man Singh from Chittor and established himself
there in 734. Chittor remained the capital of the Sisodias
till 1567, when Rana Udai Singh founded the city of
Udaipur. Among the many princes and rulers who sat on the
throne of Chittor, the names of Maharana Kumbha, Maharana
Sangram Singh and Maharana Pratap are famous for their
matchless courage, bravery and patriotism in the cause of
the honour und independence of Mewar.
The first sack of Chittorgarh took place in 1303 when Ala-ud-Din
Khilji, the emperor of Delhi, at attacked the fort to gain
possession of Padmini, the fair queen of Rawal Ratan Singh.
By a clever ruse, the Rajputs, led by their two brave
leaders, Gora and Badal, rescued the Rana who had been
captured by Ala-ud-Din, and resisted the invaders. But,
after a long siege, the fortress fell and the defenders,
fighting valiantly, sacrificed their lives in accordance
with Rajput tradition. This was preceded by the rite of
Jauhar. In this rite Raiput women flung themselves into the
flames before their men set out to make the supreme
sacrifice for their motherland.
Ala-ud-Din left the city
in charge of Maldeo, the chief of Jalore, from whom it was
taken back by Rana Hamir, one of the wisest and most gallant
of the princes of Mewar. Under Rana Kumbha, a great general
and builder, Chittor regained her supremacy and glory. He
strengthened the defences of the country by building a chain
of forts, the chief among which was Kumbhalgarh. He defeated
the Muslim kings of Malwa and Gujarat and to commemorate his
victory over them, erected the Jai Stambha or Tower of
Victory. A great lover of art and literature, he translated
the Geet Govind of Jaidev and built many beautiful temples.
Maharana Sangram Singh, better known as Rana Sanga, was the
hero of Rajput national revival and during his reign, Mewar
reached the summit of its prosperity. The intrepid warrior
was the victorious hero of no less than eighteen pitched
battle before he fought against Babur, the first Mughul
emperor of India. His valour and overpowering strength at
first struck Babur’s army with terror and panic, but
ultimately the Rajputs were defeated at the battle of Khanua
on March 16, 1527. The Rana was wounded and died
broken-hearted two years later.
There was another siege of Chittor in 1534 in the reign of
Vikramaditya, by Bahadur Shah, the Sultan of Gujarat. In
spite of valiant resistance, in which the queen-mother
Jawahir Bai herself headed a sally, the valiant Rajputs, who
were outnumbered, lost. But before the fort fell, Rajput
ladies, led by Rani Karnavati, the widow of Rana Sanga,
performed jauhar in which many thousands perished in flames.
Not many years later, the fort
of Chittor was sacked for the third and last time by Akbar
in 1567. The brave followers of Udai Singh, notably Jaimal
of Bednor and Patta of Kelwa, offered stubborn opposition to
the imperial forces for four months till Jaimal was killed
by a musket shot fired by Akbar himself. Patta also died
later. Javhar was performed and the Rajputs fought
desperately till they perished to a man. The heroic defense
of the fort by Jaimal and Patta so greatly impressed Akbar
that he erected two noble statues of them on elephants which
were placed on either side of the main gate of his palace at
Agra.
After the death of Udai Singh, Mewar found a great leader
and patriot in his son, the illustrious Maharana Pratap, who
offered uncompromising resistance to Akbar, the Great Mughul.
With very meager resources, without a capital and a big
army, he opposed the organised might of Akbar who was then
“immeasurably the richest monarch on the face of the earth.”
In 1576, Pratap met the imperial forces at the historic pass
of Haldighati, the Thermopylae of Mewar, where a furious
battle was fought. He escaped with his faithful horse,
Chaitak, to the hills. Undaunted by adversity, he carried on
a ceaseless struggle from his mountain hide-out and before
his death in 1597, he was able to recover most of his
strongholds, except Chittor. “Had Mewar,” observes Tod,
“possessed her Thucydides or her Xenophon, neither the ware
of the Peloponnesus nor the retreat of the ‘the thousand’
would have yielded more diversified incidents for the
historic muse than the deeds of this brilliant reign.”
The Fort of Chittorgarh
The fort of Chittor
crowns a rocky hill which stands 152 m. (500 ft.) above the
surrounding plains. It extends three-and-a-half miles from
north to south and has a breadth of half a mile, diminidhing
towards the southern extremity. The fort covers an area of
279 hectares (690 acres) and is surrounded by a strong
crenellated wall which follows the contours of the
precipitous edge of the tableland. Its base, with a
circumference of about 13 km. (8 miles), is fringed with
woods, while the summit is covered with extensive ruins
comprising temples, towers, places and tanks dating from the
9th to the 17th centuries.
The fort is ascended by a steep spiral road. This mile-long
road winds up from the town at the foot of the hill on the
west side. At seven strategic points on the road are
imposing pols or gateways containing rooms for the guards.
Immediately outside Padal Pol, the first gateway leading
from the town, is the memorial platform where Bagh Singh,
the great grandson of Maharana Mikul, was Killed during the
sack of Chittor by Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat in 1535.
The two chhatris between Bhairon Pol and Hanuman Pol–the
second and the third gates-mark the spot where Jaimal and
his kinsman Kalla heroically gave up their lives during the
thirs siege. A chhatri near the main gate, commemorates the
place where the 16-years-old Patta fought the enemy and
fell. The main gate, called Ram Pol, is an imposing entrance
built of large, finely dressed stones embellished with
decorative designs. Facing it is a fine hall for the guard,
with richly sculptured pillars. It commands not only the
entrance from the rear but also the approach at the head of
the path. Outside the gate are some inscriptions dated 1482
and 1641.
The principal monuments in the
fort are the two towers, one called Kirti Stambhu or the
Tower of Fame, and the other Jaya Stambha or the Tower of
Victory. The Kirti Stambha, near the eastern rampart of the
fort, is the older of the two. An elegant structure, it was
built by a Jain merchant named Jija in the twelfth century,
although an inscription of 895 is said to have been found
near its base. It is dedicated to Adinath, the first of the
twenty-four Jain Tirthankaras. Twenty-three metres (75 ft.)
in height and 9m. (30 ft.) in diameter at the base and 4 m.
(15 ft.) at the top, the tower consists of five storeys with
a narrow winding staircase in the interior. From the base to
the summit, the tower is covered with sculptured ornamental
designs and nude figures of the Tirthankaras which
distinguish it as a monument of the Digambar sect of the
Jains. The Jain temple, close to the tower, is built mostly
of fragments of older buildings and is covered with figures
of gods and goddesses and floral designs.
The Jaya Stambha was erected by Rana Kumbha between
1458-1468, to commemorate his victory over Mahmud Khilji of
Malwa in 1440. The basement is 14 m. (47 ft.) square and 3
m. (10 ft.) high. The tower itself has nine storeys
connected by a staircase. The two upper storeys are porn and
more ornamental than those below. The tower is 9 m. (30 ft.)
wide at the base, and 37 m. (122 ft.) in height. Sculptures
of Hindu divinities cover the entire surface, but this
mass of decoration has been kept so subdued that it does not
interfere with the outline of the tower.
The palace is named after Rana
Kumbha. Mostly in ruins, it is a simple and attractive
building typical of Rajput civil architecture. It is entered
through the Badi Pol and Tripolia. Among the numerous
structures within its enclosure are the elephant shed, the
hall of audience, the balcony for offering prayers to the
Sun, the heir apparent’s palace and the Siva temple. Recent
excavations have revealed the existence of huge underground
cellars with vaulted roofs, over which the palace is built.
It is believed that the first jauhar was performed in one of
these subterranean chambers.
The palace of Rani padmini is
a large building overlooking a tank, in the middle of which
is another pavilion, said to be Padmini’s island-retreat.
Ala-ud-Din Khilji is said to have beheld the fair
queen in a mirror in this palace. The palace of Rawal Ratan
Singh, husband of Padmini, and the houses of Patta and
Jaimal are almost in ruins.
There are several temples amid the extensive ruins of the
fort and these are notable both from the architectural and
historical points of view. Srinagar Chauri is a small,
lavishly carved Jain temple, dedicated to Shantinath, the
sixteenth Jain Tirthankar. An inscription dated 1448
ascribes its construction to Velka, the son of the treasurer
of Rana Kumbha. The graceful carvings on its outer walls
consisting of gods, goddesses, animals and dancing figures
make it one the most attractive monuments. In the Siva
temple of Jantashankar, the carved figures are intact in the
ceiling of the corbelled dome. Its outer walls are also
decorated with sculptures. The group of Jain temples known
as Sat-Bees-Deora of “27 shrines’ are profusely sculptures
and adorned with images. The temple of Samiddheshware
Mahadeva was built by Raja Bhoj of Malwa and later repaired
by Rana Mokal in 1428. Its walls are adorned with sculptures
in the classical style. Of the three inscriptions in the
temple, the oldest is dates 1150 and refers to Kumarpal, the
Chalukya king of Gujarat, who visited Chittor after his
victory over Arnoraj, the Chauhan ruler of Ajmer. Originally
dedicated to the Sun-god, the temple of Kali is one of the
oldest in the fort and dates back to the 8th century. Though
mutilated by vandalism and the ravages of time, some
exquisite carvings and sculptures still exist on the walls
of its pradakshinapath and mandap.
To the north of the Jaya
Stambha rises the temple of Kumbha Shyam dedicated to Varah,
the boar incarnation of Vishnu. It was built by Rana Kumbha
in 1448. In front of the temple is a large image of Garuda–the
mythical bird–under a canopy supported on pillars. Near it
stands a bigger and more famous temple associated with Mira
Bai, the celebrated devotee and saint-poetess of Indai.
Built in the Indo-Aryan style of temple architecture, it has
a soaring shitkhar which is solid and unbroken in outline.
The mandap is covered with a pyramidal roof placed
diagonally and rises in steps. Its special feature, however,
is a colonnaded procession path (pradakshinapath) around the
sanctum (garbhagriha) with small pavilions at the four
corners. Near it stands a smaller temple associated with
Mira Bai. It consists of a sanctum and an open pavilion and
its facade has lovely sculptures.
Mira Bai was the daughter of Rao Ratan Singh of Merta. She
was married to Kunwar Bhoj Raj, the eldest son and
heir-apparent of the renowned Maharana Sangram Singh of
Chittor. Ever since her childhood, Mira had been a great
devotee of Lord Krishna, but when she became a widow, after
seven years of her marriage, all her intense love and
devotion was poured out for her deity. The devotional songs
and lyrics of Mira Bai are sung even today and are extremely
popular. |
