Day 260 of Indian places making you smile – The second longest wall in the world -Kumbhalgarh
It was a last minute confirmation. I was not even supposed to be going to Rajasthan. And then I joined the party that was doing the long road trip. And we decided to stay back an extra night at this previously unheard place called Kumbhalgarh.
And what a surprise was in store for us! We drove up to the fort in the winding road and from afar our first sight of the Fort left us spell- bound! Miles and miles of the boundary wall was visible all along the Aravalli Mountain ranges…it was the second largest wall in the world stretching around 36 kms with a broad passageway above that would allow four horses to trot side by side together!
Once we entered the massive entrance we saw a lot of temples to our right. We decided to go to the left to visit the Fort complex instead.
There is an interesting legend about how the construction of the Kumbhalgarh Fort began. Every time a wall would be put up in the daytime, it would fall down by itself in the night. It was decided to offer a human sacrifice to rectify this. One Saint agreed to volunteer himself for this divine offering. Early next morning he started climbing the Kumbalgarh hill. The first place where he stopped became the place for the main gate of the fort. The second place where he stopped became the place where his head was cut off as part of the divine sacrifice. There is a small shrine in his memory at this place. The miraculous story continues. The headless body still continued to walk up the mountain. The place where the headless body fell down became the third spot for another shrine in his memory and from where the construction of the fort started. In fact this amazingly beautiful 15th century Fort was built using local manual labour working round the clock, and was finished within a record of just 15 years!
This was one of the best well maintained fort that I had seen in India. As we climbed up the steps, we were pleasantly soaking in the view of the landscape below us. This fort is situated in the middle of the Mewar and the Marwar regions. On one side we saw hilly area, and the other side was flat plains.
Our guide told us many more stories of the fights for power among the ruling Kings. In fact the hefty 8 foot tall Maharana Kumbh was killed by his own greedy son, to usurp the throne. The descendants of his other son was none other than the clan of Maharana Udai Singhji who took refuge within these strong precincts when he had to flee from Mughal attack at Chittor!
We were extremely fortunate to get to climb up the towers and stand in the very same room where the super brave Maharana Pratap Singhji was born. As I closed my eyes to soak up the high energy of the place, my heart was filled with a sense of pride to belong to a great country like India which gave birth to so many great people!
The Kumbha fort has its share of living quarters, kitchens and stables, some of which are closed for restoration. Then we went via the Pagdi pol gate which literally means the turbaned gate. I just had to tie my scarf up like a turban/crown and pretend that I was a visiting queen. Yes the next fort called the Badal fort was constructed years later in the nineteenth century for visiting dignitaries. We saw the Queens chambers with the meshed glass windows and the Kings chambers with the open windows overlooking a fantastastic view of the surrounding landscape.
But what made us stop in our tracks was the view from the peak of the fort, on the terrace against the backdrop of the setting sun! The blowing winds, the orange tinted landscape, the open skies…we just had to lie on the floor like kids to marvel at the place that we found ourselves in. There were hardly any other tourists and we wondered why such an amazing fort like Kumbalgarh did not feature in the must-visit list of many tourists!
We walked back down to the main entrance of the fort. There were more than 360 temples within the fort complex, of which only a few have idols that are presently worshipped, most of them are closed to the public. I was impressed by a young girl who let me in to touch the idol at the Lakshmi Narayan temple. There are 108 pillars at the Vedic temple which used to reverberate with continuous chanting in the ancient times. And as I sat beside the huge Linga at the Shiva temple, I just had to stay in there for long to soak in the high positive vibrational energy of the place.
The finale of our visit to Kumbalgarh was the sound and light show, where we relived the historical stories hidden behind these very walls…thank you God for this last minute extra night stay at this historical place.
And what a place we stayed at! Another special thanks to my friend who treated us to this timeshare property. We were given service like royalty, felt no less than kings and queens ourselves. The men actually made tea for us ladies in our rooms, (one husband made tea for his wife for the 3rd time in 30 years!), the buffet dinner and breakfast spread was amazing, and the swanky cottages were a chance to pamper ourselves. I woke up before dawn to explore the beautiful property from all angles and ran for my life when I was almost chased by a giant monkey!
The rays of the rising sun against the backdrop of the hills is a sight that will be etched in my memory for years! The view from the open restaurants, the infinity pool, the yoga lawn, the open theatre, the spa, the local artefact section-,I just had to experience every corner of this five start hospitality. Special thanks to the generosity of my friend who organized all this out of the blue. Like I said earlier…we must have done something good and because we are truly worth it.
Do visit Kumbhalgarh once and return with memories of a lifetime!
So which Indian place made you smile today?
Please share your experience of Indian places that made you smile
Recent Comments