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Gwalior Fort

Gwalior Fort

heritage site · Madhya Pradesh

Gwalior Fort is a hill fort in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, built on a plateau rising about 342 feet, enclosing roughly 3 square kilometers.

State
Madhya Pradesh
Type
Heritage Site

Gwalior Fort is a hill fort in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, built on a plateau rising about 342 feet, enclosing roughly 3 square kilometers. It houses the 15th-century Man Singh Palace (Man Mandir), decorated with turquoise, green and yellow glazed tile work.

Gwalior Fort is known for

Man Singh Palace glazed tileworkTomar dynasty citadelMughal state prisonGuru Hargobind's imprisonmentScindia dynasty stronghold

A short history

Accounts date the fort's origins to the 6th-8th centuries, with the fortification circuit around the plateau completed around 773 CE. Mahmud of Ghazni besieged the fort in 1022, and Bahauddin Tughril captured it after a prolonged siege in 1196. The Tomar dynasty took control from 1398; its ruler Man Singh Tomar (r. 1486-1516) built the Man Mandir palace. Mughal emperor Babur captured the fort in 1526, reportedly calling it the "pearl amongst the fortresses of Hind." Akbar recaptured it in 1558 and used it as a state prison; Sikh Guru Hargobind was imprisoned here around 1609-1612. The Scindia dynasty controlled it from 1755, with British interludes, until the fort was restored to the Scindias in 1886. The Chaturbhuj temple inside the fort contains an early inscriptional reference to the numeral zero. [Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwalior_Fort; Source: whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6730]

Why Gwalior Fort matters

Described by Mughal emperor Babur as the "pearl amongst the fortresses of Hind," Gwalior Fort is regarded as one of India's most important hill forts, reflecting continuous history from the Tomars through the Mughals, Marathas and British.

When to go

October to March

Why visit

A sheer-walled hill fort with Tomar, Mughal, and Maratha history layered into it, anchored by the ornately glazed-tile Man Singh Palace.

How to reach

Gwalior is well-connected by rail via Gwalior Railway Station and has its own airport; the fort sits atop the Gopachal rocky outcrop within the city.

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