Journey

Forts of the south & Deccan

Stops (21)

1. Warangal Fort · 12th–14th century

   The Kakatiya capital, with a granite inner citadel, a mud rampart circuit of several kilometres and four free-standing ceremonial gateways that still stand in open ground. It was annexed by Delhi in 1323 and the city inside the walls was deliberately dismantled, which is why the gateways lead nowhere. The gateways lead nowhere, which is the monument to that dismantling.

2. Daulatabad · 1187 onward

   Devagiri, renamed Daulatabad, a conical granite hill scarped smooth on all sides with a moat cut into the rock and a single spiral tunnel as the only approach, designed so that attackers in it could be trapped and smoked. Muhammad bin Tughlaq moved Delhi's population here in 1327 and moved it back.

3. Bidar · 1430 onward

   The Bahmani capital's fort, a triple-walled enclosure on the plateau edge with a cut-rock moat, thirty-seven bastions and gun-ports built for artillery earlier than almost anywhere in India. Mahmud Gawan's madrasa and the bidri metal craft are both inside the same walls. Mahmud Gawan's Persian-plan madrasa and the bidri metal craft are both inside the same walls, and the fort's gun-ports were cut for cannon earlier than almost anywhere else in India.

4. Golconda · 1518 onward

   A Kakatiya mud fort rebuilt in granite by the Qutb Shahis on a hill above what became Hyderabad, with concentric walls, eighty-seven bastions and an acoustic system that carries a hand-clap from the outer gate to the citadel. Aurangzeb took it in 1687 by bribing an officer to open a postern.

5. Bijapur (Vijayapura) · 1490 onward

   The Adil Shahi capital, ten kilometres of wall around a city with the Gol Gumbaz, the Ibrahim Rauza and the Malik-e-Maidan — a bronze siege gun of fifty-five tonnes taken as a trophy from Ahmednagar. Aurangzeb besieged it for fifteen months before it fell in 1686. Aurangzeb besieged it for fifteen months before it fell in 1686, and the Gol Gumbaz's dome is among the largest ever raised in masonry.

6. Ahmadnagar Fort · 1490

   The Nizam Shahi capital's fort, a star-shaped plan with a wet ditch built in 1490 and among the earliest of that form anywhere in India. It was annexed by Shah Jahan in 1636, Aurangzeb died outside it in 1707, and Nehru wrote The Discovery of India while imprisoned inside it.

7. Penukoṇḍa · 1565–1592

   Penukonda, the hill fort the Aravidu court withdrew to with the treasury after Talikota, two hundred kilometres south-east of Hampi. It is what Vijayanagara became: a capital chosen for defensibility rather than display, with the great temple building already behind it. It is what Vijayanagara became after Talikota: a capital chosen for defensibility rather than display, with the great temple-building programme already behind it and the treasury carried in by cart.

8. Chandragiri Fort · 1592–1646

   Chandragiri in the hills below Tirupati, the last Vijayanagara capital, from which Venkata II and his successors issued grants the Nayakas increasingly ignored. The 1639 grant of Madraspatnam to Francis Day was issued from here, so Fort St George stands on a Vijayanagara title. Fort St George therefore stands on a title issued from a fort the empire had shrunk into.

9. Gingee Fort · Nayaka, Bijapuri, Maratha, Mughal, French, British

   Three fortified hills joined by walls in the Tamil country, held by the Gingee Nayakas, then Bijapur, then Shivaji's brother Venkoji from 1677, then the Mughals after a siege of years in 1698, then the French and the British. It changed hands more often than any other fort in the south.

10. Chitradurga Fort · 16th–18th century

    Chitradurga, seven concentric walls of dressed granite blocks laid without mortar among natural boulder outcrops, so that the fortification and the geology are hard to tell apart. The Nayakas of Chitradurga held it until Haidar Ali took it in 1779 after two failed attempts. The Nayakas of Chitradurga held it until Haidar Ali took it in 1779, after two failed attempts.

11. Bangalore Fort, Bengaluru · 1537 · 1761 · 1791

    Kempegowda's mud fort at Bengaluru, rebuilt in stone by Haidar Ali from 1761 with an oval bastioned circuit, and stormed by Cornwallis in March 1791 at the Delhi gate, where the breach is still shown. Two bastions and one gateway survive inside the modern city. Two bastions and one gateway survive inside the modern city, and the breach is still shown.

12. Srirangapatna / Srirangapattana · Wodeyar, Mysorean, Company

    The Kaveri island fort, doubled and re-bastioned for artillery by French engineers in Haidar Ali's and Tipu Sultan's service, with the river as its ditch. Wellesley's assault on 4 May 1799 went in at the north-west breach, Tipu was killed in it, and the fort was largely dismantled afterwards. The fort was largely dismantled afterwards, and the Daria Daulat Bagh with its Pollilur mural stands outside the walls.

13. Manjarabad Star Fort, Sakleshpur · 1792

    Manjarabad in the Bisle ghat, a Tipu Sultan fort on a strict eight-pointed star plan with a European bastioned trace, built to command the pass down to Mangalore. It is the clearest single example in India of a Vauban-derived plan built by an Indian ruler for his own purposes. It is the clearest example in India of a Vauban-derived plan built by an Indian ruler for his own purposes.

14. Palakkad Tipu Fort · 1766

    Palakkad, rebuilt by Haidar Ali in laterite with a wet ditch and a square bastioned plan, to hold the gap in the Ghats that is the only easy road between the Tamil country and Malabar. It anchored Mysore's hold on Kerala, and the Company took it in 1790. It anchored Mysore's hold on Kerala, and the Company took it in 1790.

15. Bekal Fort, Kasaragod · 17th century

    Bekal on the Kasaragod coast, an Ikkeri Nayaka sea fort of laterite with an observation tower and gun-slits cut at three levels for musket, matchlock and cannon. Haidar Ali took it in 1763 and it became a Mysorean naval base, then Company property after 1799. Haidar Ali took it in 1763 and made it a Mysorean naval base; it became Company property after 1799.

16. Vellore Fort · 1566 onward

    Vellore, a Vijayanagara-period fort with a wet moat and a Jalakanteshwara temple inside the walls, held afterwards by Bijapur, the Marathas, the Mughals, the Carnatic Nawabs and the Company. The last Vijayanagara emperor was interred here, and the sepoy mutiny of July 1806 broke out inside it. The sepoy mutiny of July 1806, half a century before 1857, broke out inside these walls.

17. Panhala Fort · Bahmani, Adil Shahi, Maratha, Company

    Panhala, the largest fort in the Deccan by circuit, with three vast granaries, a Bahmani gateway and the sally-port Shivaji escaped through in 1660 while Baji Prabhu Deshpande held the Pavan Khind pass behind him. It later became a Company hill station. The sally-port Shivaji escaped through in 1660 while Baji Prabhu Deshpande held the Pavan Khind pass behind him is still there, and the fort later became a Company hill station.

18. Sindhudurg · 1664–1667

    Sindhudurg, built by Shivaji on a rock off Malvan with the wall following the outcrop so that no straight run of it can be enfiladed, and an entrance invisible from the sea. It is the clearest statement that the Maratha state intended to be a naval power rather than only a hill one.

19. Vijaydurg · Shivaji and the Angres

    Vijaydurg, the oldest of the Maratha sea forts, rebuilt with a triple wall and an underwater rock barrier laid across its approach to break the keels of ships that did not know the channel. Kanhoji Angre and his successors ran the Maratha navy from it for forty years. Kanhoji Angre and his successors ran the Maratha navy from it for forty years, levying their own passes on European shipping.

20. Murud-Janjira · Siddi, 17th–20th century

    Murud-Janjira, a fort filling an island in a Konkan bay, held by Siddi rulers of Abyssinian descent who kept it against the Marathas, the Mughals, the Portuguese and the English alike and never lost it. Shivaji and Sambhaji both failed to take it, which is why the western coast is not a Maratha monopoly.

21. Kodagu (Coorg) · Haleri 1600–1834

    Madikeri in Kodagu, the Haleri rajas' seat in a high forested block of the Ghats between Mysore and Malabar, with a laterite fort rebuilt in stone by Tipu Sultan and then by the Kodava rajas. Its Kodava population held land as armed clans and were recruited in numbers into the colonial army.

Sources

• Wikipedia