Place · twin Chero hill forts · India
Palamu Forts
The old and new Palamu forts above the Auranga river in Latehar district were the stronghold of the Chero kingdom under Medini Rai (ruled c. 1662-1674), the Oraon-Chero ruler who extended his writ from Palamu over Rohtas, Hazaribagh and parts of Gaya and defied the Mughal subahdar of Patna until Daud Khan Qureshi stormed the forts on behalf of Aurangzeb in 1660. The new fort on the opposite ridge was built by Medini Rai's son Pratap Rai; it carries a Nagari inscription with his name on the entrance archway. The forts fell to the British in 1770 after the Chero chief Chitrajit Rai resisted the East India Company's expansion into Chotanagpur.
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Patron dynasty
- Chero / Mughal
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 24.033, 84.100
Connections (1)
- Site withinBetla National Park
The old and new Palamu forts stand on opposite ridges above the Auranga river inside what is now Betla National Park, part of the Palamu Tiger Reserve declared under Project Tiger in 1973. The park's boundary was drawn to include both forts, which belonged to the Chero kingdom of Medini Rai and his son Pratap Rai in the seventeenth century. The forts were taken by the Mughal subahdar of Patna Daud Khan Qureshi in 1660 and by the British in 1770; their stone, teak and sal timbers were used across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for colonial public works at Daltonganj and Latehar.
Sources
Standard reference.
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