KAMLAHGARH - STRONGEST HILL FORT OF HIMALAYAS

The second most important fort in the hills after the Kangra Fort and with a defence rate even better than Nagarkot. Failed expeditions of Maharaja Sansar Chand and Adina Beg are notable mentions. Even Sikhs under Ventura couldn't capture it easily, coz the men guarding it were equally unflagging as the gradient, expanse and the walls.

The remnants of windows inside the fort built in 1625.

Kamlah town was founded in AD 1625 when Raja Hari Sen was ruling the state of Mandi. His son Suraj Sen ascended the throne in 1637 and strongly fortified Kamlah. 

Raja Suraj Sen pics from RobDeanArt

A posthumous portrait of Raja Suraj Sen of Mandi. He is credited for building the Kamlahgarh Fort which is now crumbling. 

Grand uncle of Raja Sidh Sen. His 18 sons all died in his lifetime and in despair he assigned the kingdom to Rai Madhav, an idol of Krishna. The image is still there in Mandi. This was also the time when the supremacy of Vaishnavism over Shaivism was being established in the hills.

 

Kaliya Mardan painting frm Bhagwat Puran, Mandi, mid-17th Century. Attributed to Early Master at court of Mandi (1635-1660) reigns of Raja Hari Sen & his son Raja Suraj Sen.

Kamlahgarh fort is 45 km from Sarkaghat and to reach the top, 4,500 feet above MSL, one has to climb about a 1,000 stairs. It became famous for its strength all over the hills. The fort is built upon the hill called Sikandar Dhar. There is a proverb on the expanse of Sikandar Dhar: “Sikandar Dhar-na aar na paar” means Sikandar Dhar has immeasurable span. It has earned its name from Sikandar Lodhi (1489-1517) who attacked Mandi in the times of Raja Dilawar Sen (1472-1499) and established his camp here. Dr Vidya Chand Thakur, etymologist, names a village called Sikandar in this range where the main camp of Sikandar Lodhi was established.

Kamlahgarh fort remained a repository of all the wealth of Mandi state from the reign of Suraj Sen (1637) to that of Ishwari Sen (1824).During the reign of Shamsher Sen (1727-1750), who was of weak intellect and had fallen into bad habits, an Afghan, Nawab Adina Beg, who was the Governor of Jalandhar, made an entry into Guler in 1745-46, intending to invade Mandi but soon retired on finding that Kamlahgarh was too strong to be stormed. Such was the strength of this fort. Raja Sansar Chand of Kangra during the rule of Raja Ishwar Sen (1788-1826) tried to capture Kamlahgarh and won over two generals, Murli and Manaku, looking after the safety of Kamlahgarh. Due to the loyalty of a soldier Bhagu, he could not conquer it. Hutchison and Ph Vogel write in the ‘History of the Punjab Hill States’: “Kamlahgarh alone was saved from falling into Sansar Chand’s hands, though he made various efforts to obtain possession of it.”

During the reign of Raja Balbir Sen (1839-1851), Prince Nau-Nihal Singh, grandson of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and son of Raja Kharag Singh of Lahore along with his Italian General Jean-Baptiste Ventura made numerous attempts to capture Kamlah fort and could do it with great difficulty in 1840. The Sikhs then ruled over Mandi through Shaikh Ghulam Muhai-ud-din, declared in charge of the state of Mandi. Raja Balbir Sen was arrested. He was released from the jail in May 1841 and before the war could end, he boldly attacked the Sikh garrisons and captured all the forts except Kamlahgarh, which did not surrender till the war was over. On March 9, 1846, a treaty was signed between the British and the Sikhs and the fort once again came under the state of Mandi. The total area of this fort is 101 bighas. A display board here is erected by the Language and Culture Department giving the history of the fort but, I believe, no officer of the department had ever come here after installing the board because the words have now washed away. It is unreadable and requires a fresh do.

It also perturbed to find marble stones replacing the age-old stones. Why can’t we preserve the age of the monuments? Built in 1625, marble at several places is disturbing; the rain shelter and the temple of Baba Kamlah Siddh are also being given a present- day look. Why can’t we, inside the fort, live in the age in which it was founded? The small windows made of stone takes us back to the era when it was built, but the marbles and white tiles give a shock of the modern era. Where are the conservationists?

There is a temple of Baba Kamlah Siddh on the top where is posted a young Pujari by the government who narrates the same story about the Baba given in the District Gazetteer of Mandi published in 1920. “A shepherd of the neighbourhood was grazing his flocks when he sat down beneath a tree on the summit of the hill now crowned by the fort. As he sat, he idly chipped the tree with his axe and to his astonishment milk gushed forth from the incisions he made. The milk fell on a spot a few feet from the tree and as it touched the ground a lingum rose there from. This was the idol of a Siddh, and speaking in the voice of the saint, it bade the peasant hasten to the Raja and tell him that if he built his citadel close to the lingum he would conquer the territory around. So then shepherd hurried to the Raja, who, believing his tale, at once laid the foundation of the fort, venerating as its guardian spirit the Siddh to whom he owed the choice of site.” The Pujari told us that Baba Kamlahiya and Baba Balaknath, who sat at Shahtalayi, had come to Himachal from Jammu almost the same time.