Place · Rajput hill fort · India
Ranthambore Fort
A plateau fort standing about two hundred metres above the forest floor, approached by a single ramp through seven gates, and the strongest of the Chahamana successor states. Alauddin Khalji besieged it for a year and took it from Hammiradeva in 1301, which opened Rajasthan and, through it, the routes to Gujarat and Malwa.
- Date
- 1301
- Function
- Military & resistance
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 26.018, 76.457
Worth knowing
The fort is now inside a tiger reserve, so a cultural World Heritage component and a national park occupy the same hill under two different departments. Its Ganesha temple still receives wedding invitations by post, addressed to the god, in numbers large enough that the temple employs someone to open them.
Connections (1)
- In the same set asChittorgarh
Ranthambore fell to Alauddin Khalji in 1301 and Chittorgarh in 1303, two years apart, and they were the two strongest Rajput fortresses of the period. The Hill Forts of Rajasthan property inscribed in 2013 puts both in one nomination with Kumbhalgarh, Amber, Jaisalmer and Gagron, on the argument that these are one regional military architecture using terrain rather than geometry.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Ranthambore Fort”. UNESCO World Heritage nomination file for the Hill Forts of Rajasthan (2013); Dasharatha Sharma, Early Chauhān Dynasties (1959).
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