Chittorgarh is a city famous for its hill fort. It is situated about 60KM from Udaipur. We travelled by a cab through national highway. It takes around 1 and half hour to reach Chittorgarh. To go up on the hill there is a good road. It is allowed to travel inside the fort by car. At the entrance of the fort, we hired a guide charging only 50 INR. The guides ask for 50 to 450 INR, and it all depends on your bargaining skills. There is only one time ticket to see the whole fort.
The fort contains many ancient monuments telling the stories of the kings of the Mevad. First we visited Mira Mandir built in the memory of the Krishna’s one of the great lovers Mirabai. Then we visited Vijaystambh built by Maharana Kumbha to commemorate his victory over the Muslim rulers of Malwa and Gujarat in 1440. It is a huge nine storey tower, and through the inside staircase we reached to the top. All the inner walls of the tower are carved with sculptures of Gods, Goddesses, dancing idols, etc. From the top floor of the Tower, we had an awesome view of the whole fort.
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| Chittorgarh city |
The fort contains many ancient monuments telling the stories of the kings of the Mevad. First we visited Mira Mandir built in the memory of the Krishna’s one of the great lovers Mirabai. Then we visited Vijaystambh built by Maharana Kumbha to commemorate his victory over the Muslim rulers of Malwa and Gujarat in 1440. It is a huge nine storey tower, and through the inside staircase we reached to the top. All the inner walls of the tower are carved with sculptures of Gods, Goddesses, dancing idols, etc. From the top floor of the Tower, we had an awesome view of the whole fort.
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| Meera Mandir, Chittorgarh |
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| Vijay Stambh, Chittorgarh |
After Vijaystambh, we went ahead to see Rani Padmini palace centred in a big pond and Rana Kumbha palace. The queen Padmini was very beautiful and the mughal emperor Alauddin Khilji attacked on this fort to get her. Alauddin Khilji won the fight but he could not get her because she did Jauhar (an act of self immolation by leaping into a large fire). We also saw this Jauhar kund. Including Alauddin Khilji, this fort is attacked three times. We saw the debris of the carved walls, gates, pillars, idols, etc. at many places in the fort.
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| Padmini Palace, Chittorgarh |
Then we visited Gaumukh kund. There is a continuous flow of water from the idol of cow’s face.
There is one more tower called, Kirti Stambh is dedicated to Rishabha, the first Tirthankara of Jainism. It was built by a merchant and is decorated with figures from the Jain pantheon. The main entrance gate of the fort is called Ram Pol. Actually there are 7 different gates to this fort, but this one is huge, and if we see the view here, it is marvellous. We could see small farms, gardens, lakes and villages from this point of the hill fort.
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| Kirti Stambha, Chittorgarh |
At last the guide brought us to visit a local shop of handicrafts. If you don’t want to buy anything from here, I would suggest you not to go inside or leave as soon as possible. The salesmen here are much trained to sell the products like handmade saris, blankets, shawls, bed sheets, etc.
It took around 4 hours to visit the whole fort. It was really a nice visit to the Chittorgarh. From the lowland of the hill, the fort walls look like they are still guarding the pride and spirit of the great Rajput kings.
I would rate the monuments in Chittorgarh starting with best being first as:
- Vijaystambh
- Rani Padmini palace
- Rana Kumbha palace
- Ram pol(The main gate)
- Gaumukh kund
- Kirtistambh
- Mira Temple
