Chitradurga - Hidden Treasure
Chitradurga - Hidden Treasure
It was December last week and it was a holiday time. Schools and Offices were closed and we as family were wondering where to visit.
We didn’t want to visit the far areas, spend time waiting at the busy airport lounges and drive to the airport. We felt, It will be too much of a hustle knowing everyone would be traveling during this period.
Then, we thought of a short road-trip and stay at a place for 2 nights. I contacted my brother in law and made a program that both mine and his family can visit to place called Shimoga (5 Hours drive from Bangalore)
Well, I heard a lot about this place especially because of the ‘Jog Falls’ is near to this place though this post is not for ‘Shimoga’. I will write another blog on that experience.
It was our last day at Shimoga and we were sitting at the breakfast table and were wondering if there's any place on the way between Shimoga and Bangalore. I went to the Hotel reception and checked.
They told me two or three places, out of that one place was called Chitradurga Fort. The hotel reception person said, that if you like to visit the historic or a heritage place.
The first thought in our mind was ‘No’, I would not be interested to see the old fort though we googled and found it was detour of extra 7 Kilometres only. All of us thought of dropping an Idea. Well, why to go extra 7 kilometres also.
No one was interested except my brother in law ‘Sudeep’, He already googled and found about Chitradurga Fort’s History. He convinced us to visit the place and spend some time over there and leave early from the place.
Sudeep loves to drive and his point was, that it will be sort of a break for him to stop at Chitradurga. We will see the place, eat something and then head towards Bangalore.
So, We all went to Chitradurga with no hopes and no interest on this place. Well, we have never heard of it and no one ever talked about this fort.
It took us less than 2 hours from Shimoga to Chitradurga and we reached the place. Now, the question was to either give the priority to ‘Lunch’ first or enter the fort.
I asked the ticket counter that how much time it would take to visit the fort and she mentioned 3 hours. I repeated back - 3 Hours and then she said, it depends upon you, if you would like to return back in 30 mins, then you can come back. We took the tickets as we realised that there is a small food shop inside the fort also. The ticket cost was quite low - Rs. 25/- for adults and Rs. 10/- for Kids.
As we entered into the fort, we found few inscriptions on fort and one such inscription was a Cobra snake picture. We wondered why cobra’s picture is drawn on entrance of the fort, though no one was there to help clear our curiosity.
We moved further. The fort walls were built with the height around 40 to 60 feet and strong granite stones structure.
We could find the inscriptions written on walls. Sadly, no one was there to answer our questions. The fort is maintained by ASI - Archaeological Survey of India and their were direction boards all over that did lead us further.
We happened to meet Mr. Chandrasekhar, who introduced himself as a Guide and he is at Chitradurga fort from past 14 Years.
He was god sent to us as we wanted someone to come over who could help answer our questions.
He charged Rs. 400/- though I tried to negotiate, considering I was born and brought up in Delhi and feel it’s my right to negotiate though negotiations didn’t work. He showed us the standard rate-list and we agreed to pay and hired him.
Chandrasekhar asked where are we coming from and we told him that we did drive from Shimoga though we are from Bangalore.
He mentioned this fort is 200 kilometre (3 hours drive) from Bangalore and it’s located at the southern part of Karnataka.
He continued, did you see the cobra picture at the fort entrance and wondered why it’s drawn there. We all nodded our head. Well, that’s why we hired you to get the answer to this question.
It’s like he read our mind, when he asked this question.
He said this fort has seven entrances and this entrance is in a ‘ZigZag Wavy’ like the snake’s movement. Then, the next question asked by my 9 years old son ‘Shaurya’, that why entrance is made in a wavy format. Very Good question, Chandrasekhar was delighted to hear the question, This time was son read his mind.
Chandrasekhar continued, The reason why the entrance is designed and made like this was to stop the enemy to enter the fort. The way is built in such a way was to confuse the enemy, so they can’t come with the big armoury, weapons and elephants at the war time.
This was an ‘Aha’ moment for us, just by realising the kind of planning the people did to stop the enemy into the fort. The fort is reported to be in 1500 acre area and it's the 2nd largest fort in India, UNESCO Heritage site built in stages between 11th and 13th century.
It was interesting to hear the amazing stories especially the planning and design thinking used by the people. We need to learn the ‘planning’ and ‘strategic thinking’ used at this old heritage site. Few examples, if I shared, that our guide told us include
Each wall has a gate with ascending access through winding narrow corridors which would make it difficult to use elephants for attacking the fort or to use "battering rams" to break down the gates.
Rainwater-harvesting structures were built in a cascade development, which ensured large storage of water in interconnected reservoirs. It is said that the fort precincts never faced any water shortage. If there is no rains for 12 continuous years, then also there will be no water shortage because of the reservoirs.
There are multiple such ‘design thinking’ elements, you would find at each piece of this built-up of 1300 acres hidden fort straddle between hills. You would find the rocks are in the shape of animals, plants and other pictures and that is the reason, why this fort name is Chitradurga (Picturesque) Fort.
The Fort straddles several hills and a peak overlooking a flat valley lies in the midst of a valley formed by the Vedavati River.
We initially thought to come out of this fort in 30 minutes and ended up spent more than 3 hours, as we were loving the stories shared by our guide Mr. Chandrasekhar.
The Amazing legend links the hills surrounding the fort to the epic Mahabharata. It is said that a man-eating giant named Hidimbasura lived on the Chitradurga hill and had terrorised everyone around, When the Pandavas came with their mother Kunti in the course of their exile, Bhima had a duel with Hidimba. Hidimba was slain by Bhima and peace returned to the area.
You would hear the stories of Mughals, Nayakas, Britishers and we had an amazing time. We wanted to know more about these stories and excitedly rush to the reception to buy a ‘book’ or any details so we can get more about this picturesque fort.
Sadly, not a single flyer was available about the fort. I felt very sad when I heard that nothing, not even a single flyer was available on fort, forget about the book.
No wonder, No one knows about this treasure and that’s why I am calling this a hidden treasure. I immediately opened the e-commerce sites, if I can order any book on Chitradurga, except one Kannada book, not a single book was written.
Seeing this Chitradurga, my interest of visiting these hidden treasures increased. I have always been a person who loved ‘Nature’ and ‘City’ Tours. Now, I feel visit the ‘Heritage’ and ‘Pilgrimage’ sites as there are so untold fascinated stories and rich history.
I opened the archaeological survey of India (ASI) website and found 133 such heritage sites only in Karnataka and I had no clue about the places. I feel, there are so many people like me who are interested to know a lot about these hidden treasures.
I urge everyone to write and share posts of these heritage sites and encourage people to visit these beautiful monuments and always do hire a guide, so guide can share the untold stories.
In some monuments, you will not even find the ‘Guide’ though It’s important to learn about the place and share it with friends and family. Write Blogs, Click Pictures and share, else our future generation will never no our country’s rich heritage.
If you liked this blog, then I would encourage you to share this post with your family and friends.
Rajat Jain
Author of a Book ‘Floating Happiness’ - Secrets of Joy of Living
