The sad history of Chittorgarh Fort

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Another taxi hire took us to the amazing fort complex - all 700 acres of it - at Chittorgarh, two and a half hours from Udaipur. There are a few people living within the fort walls but the main city sits below the plateau upon which the fort is perched. It was built in the 8th century and has had a very sad history. Three times when the fort was under attack it's soldiers chose death before dishonor. Despite it's enormous size, as it is not built atop a mountain as most forts in Rajasthan are, it was obviously vulnerable to attack. It was finally left to go to ruin in 1568. The first war was fought over a woman, when the King of Delhi decided to capture the beautiful wife of the Rajput of Chittor's aunt. He was a guest of the Rhaj of Chittorgarh when he saw this woman's reflection in the lake and decided he wanted her. His request was refused so he decided to invade to claim her. The Rajput soldiers donned saffron robes and charged their enemy, despite being totally overwhelmed in numbers. They left their families to dose up on opium and jump onto funeral pyres. This happened another two times, the 2nd time 13,000 women jumped into boiling oil poured into the wells and 32,000 saffron dressed soldiers walked into the enemy. The last time the women and children blew themselves up, again the men walked towards the enemy. Interestingly the towers built by the Rajputs were never destroyed by the Islamic invaders because the Rajput's had carved Allah's name into the side of them. Today there are still 130 temples on the site, many of them still active worshiping areas. There are two very impressive carved towers within the walls, one 22 metres high and the other 37 metres high (or 9 stories high). Both are beautifully carved, both inside and out. Most of the land within the fort walls is overgrown and covered in stone ruins.
From the top of the walls you can an amazing view of the surrounding countryside. It is in this area that opium is legally grown under very strict conditions for medicinal purposes. We didn't see any plants as they are only noticeable when they flower in January. After lunch we continued our trip to Bundi. We spent some time in the very tiny village of Bassi where we were the tourist attraction. It was like being back in China again as we were surrounded by the local people, who were as interested in us as we were in them. Many of the women were wearing very heavy gold jewelery - most had large nose rings which are attached to their ears, for extra support, with gold chains. They didn't want their photos taken which is fine. Fascinating! It was a very dirty busy little place and seemed to be totally overrun with very hairy pigs snuffling in all the rubbish piles. It was in this area that we started seeing dozens of groups of pilgrims walking the roads carrying red and white flags on poles. Our driver told us they were walking to a very large religious festival near Jaisalmer, over 250 kilmometres away. We passed bright canvas tents strung with flags - these were the rest stops for the pilgrims where they were fed and could sleep free of charge. It was amazing to see as they were all only wearing plastic shoes - I can't imagine too many Aussies with that sort of dedication and even less who would be prepared to walk that distance in rubber thongs. Another very interesting day in Rajasthan ended with our arrival late afternoon in the small town of Bundi.

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Comments

[Digvijay]

real thing in india
sir, i am from rajasthan,india. i respect your visit to india and we will be welcoming all the people who are coming to india. don't want to write a long thing but the real thing is totaly different as what you think. ok it was sad but why??? i think in real you also dont know as you don't have this kind of thing in your country and back to your home no one is ready to die for their husband or for their family. why the people coming to india because this is totaly different from others and that's why every one love to say it !NCRED!BLE !ND!A DO THINK ABOUT THIS