Place · Eastern Ganga fort · India
Barabati Fort
The 1200 CE Barabati Fort at Cuttack, Odisha, built by Eastern Ganga king Anangabhima Deva III on the Mahanadi delta — the 102-acre square fort with nine-storey central palace (now ruined to its moat and gate) that anchored Odia royal power through the Ganga, Suryavamshi Gajapati, Afghan, Mughal and Maratha periods. The Barabati changed hands eight times between 1200 and 1803: Afghan Sultan Kalapahar sacked it in 1568, Mughal governor Muqarram Khan took it in 1592, the Marathas held it 1751-1803, and the British captured it in October 1803. The surviving nine-level foundation walls, the Barabati Stadium (constructed on the fort grounds in 1958), and the ASI-protected ruins preserve the site. The fort's annual Baliyatra festival in November is one of Odisha's largest.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 20.480, 85.870
Connections (2)
- Shrine within cityCuttack
Cuttack is the city and Barabati the citadel inside it, and both changed hands through the Ganga, Gajapati, Afghan, Mughal, Maratha and British periods without the capital moving. The Jobra revetment that keeps the Mahanadi off the island dates to the eleventh century and is still functioning, which is a longer continuous life than the fort's walls managed.
- Site withinCuttack
Barabati Fort is the fourteenth-century citadel inside the modern city of Cuttack, built by the Eastern Ganga ruler Anangabhima Deva III as the capital of Odisha and continuously inhabited through the Suryavamsha Gajapati, Afghan, Mughal, Maratha and British periods. The city of Cuttack grew around it as the royal and administrative seat of Odisha from the twelfth century until the British shifted the headquarters to Bhubaneswar in 1949. Cuttack's silver filigree, applique, Qadam-i-Rasul and Balu Bazar neighbourhoods belong to the same urban fabric as the fort.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Barabati fort”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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