Place · Mauryan-era hill fort · India
Junagadh Uparkot
Also known as Junagadh, Uparkot, Uparkot (Mauryan hill fort), Junagadh accession, Junagadh accession crisis 1947
The Uparkot ('upper fort') on Girnar hill at Junagadh in Gujarat — a Mauryan-era fortress continuously reused by the Western Kshatrapas (1st-4th century CE), the Chaulukyas (10-13 century), the Vaghelas, and the Gujarat Sultans. Chandragupta Maurya's governor Pushyagupta built the first fort c.319 BCE; Mahakshatrapa Rudradaman's 150 CE Junagadh Rock Inscription (which rebuilt the Sudarshana lake dam) is the earliest long Sanskrit inscription in India. The fort contains the 3rd-century BCE Buddhist caves cut by Mauryan monks (Baba Pyare caves, Khapra Kodia caves, Uparkot caves), the Adi Chadi Vav stepwell, the Navghan Kuvo well (165 metres deep), the Nilam-Chauhan Jama Masjid, and two massive 15-century Gujarat Sultan cannons. ASI protection since 1917.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 21.522, 70.465
Worth knowing
Local tradition attributes the Uparkot's founding to the Yadavas who came west with Krishna after leaving Mathura, which would put it at the end of the migration the Puranas describe. The excavated levels begin in the Mauryan period, which is still old enough to make it one of the oldest continuously held citadels anywhere, with Buddhist caves, Kshatrapa, Chudasama and sultanate work inside one circuit. In 1947 its ruler acceded to Pakistan; an Indian intervention and a plebiscite brought Junagadh into India.
Connections (5)
- AnalogueHyderabad
Junagadh and Hyderabad are the same problem mirrored: in both a Muslim ruler governed a mostly Hindu population, and in both the ruler's choice was overridden. Junagadh acceded to Pakistan with no land connection to it and was answered with a blockade and a plebiscite; Hyderabad, the largest state and landlocked inside India, declared independence and was answered with five days of army action. The principle India argued in both cases — that the population decides — is the one it declined to apply in Kashmir.
- CampaignVallabhbhai Patel
Junagadh's nawab acceded to Pakistan in August 1947 although his state was overwhelmingly Hindu and had no land connection to it. Patel answered with an economic blockade and a provisional government formed at Rajkot under Samaldas Gandhi; the nawab flew to Karachi taking his dogs, the dewan invited India in, and a plebiscite the following February returned over ninety-nine per cent for India. The argument used there is the one India declined to apply in Kashmir.
- Site adjacencyGirnār rock inscriptions (Junāgaḍh)
The edict rock stands on the road from Junagadh town to Girnar, and the Uparkot citadel above the town is the fortification the whole sequence of rulers who inscribed it held. Local tradition attributes the Uparkot's founding to the Yadavas who came west with Krishna, and it carries Mauryan-period Buddhist caves, Kshatrapa, Chudasama and Gujarat sultanate work in the same walls.
- Mythic displacement toDvārakā / Dvārāvatī
The tradition that the Uparkot was founded by Krishna's clan after the Yadavas left Mathura for Dvaraka puts the fort at the end of the same migration the Puranas describe, a hundred kilometres down the Saurashtra coast from Dvaraka itself. The claim is legendary and the fort's excavated levels begin in the Mauryan period, which is still old enough to make it one of the oldest continuously held citadels anywhere.
- Site adjacencyGir National Park
The Gir forest lies south of Junagadh, and it is the Nawab of Junagadh who closed it to shooting around 1900 when perhaps a dozen Asiatic lions were left alive anywhere. The 2025 census counted about eight hundred and ninety. A princely state's hunting ban is the reason the animal on the national emblem still exists outside a zoo.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Junagadh”. V.P. Menon, The Story of the Integration of the Indian States (1956); Ministry of States records.
Open Junagadh Uparkot in the repository →