meharangarh fort , jodhpur

MEHRANGARH FORT

Mehrangarh Fort stands a hundred feet in splendour on a perpendicular cliff, four hundred feet above the sky line of Jodhpur. Burnished red sand stone, imposing, invincible and yet with a strange haunting beauty that beckons . Much has been written about the Citadel of the Sun, for truly, it is one of the most impressive in all Rajasthan. So colossal are its proportions that Rudyard Kipling called it “ the work of giants”. Today, it is acknowledged as the finest living example of a Hindu fortress.

Crowning a perpendicular cliff, the fort was founded by Rao Jodha in 1459 A.D., when he shifted his capital from Mandore. Standing sentinel to the city below, it overlook the rugged and rocky terrain and houses a palace intricately adorned with long carved panels and latticed windows exquisitely wrought from red sandstone. Carved panels and porches, elaborately adorned windows and walls of Moti Mahal (Pearl Palace), Phool Mahal, Sheesh mahal, Sileh Khana and Daulat Khana, seem to make the medieval splendour come alive. A collection of palanquins, hawdas, royal cradles, miniature paintings of various schools, folk music, instruments, costumes, furniture and an impressive armoury.

Jodha’s fortress was 'Chao Burja' – a fort with four Bastions. The extremities of the original fortress fall within the limit of the second gate today. Of Jodha’s time itself, very little remains, the fort expanded beyond his outer gates within fifty years of his death but the spot where this gate stood is known as “ Rao Jodhaji Ka Falsa” ( Jodha’s outer limit of the boundary). In its Janampatri the fort is named Chintamani, after the Mythological gem worn by lord Ram which supposedly frees the owner of all worldly worry. Chintamani gave way to Mordhwaj, the flag of the peocock, presumably because the forts outer parameter suggests the fan like tail of a dancing peacock, It is at some point after this that the name Mehrangarh began to appear in chronicles and poems. “Mehr” is a Rajasthani word for the sun and it is not at all unlikely that the Suryavanshi Rathores would name their first citadel in their mythological ancestor’s honour.

Timing : Opening Time 9:00 AM Closing Time 5:00 PM Tel : 0141-2375578

Monument Fee(Indian)  : 35  Monument Fee(Foreign)  : N/A  Monument Fee(Child)  : N/A