The Jaigarh Fort is a majestic stronghold built by Sawan Jai Singh II. This almost-intact fort is surrounded by huge battlements and is connected to the Amer Fort (also called 'Amber' Fort), with subterranean passages.
Originally built to protect the Amer Fort and the palace within the complex, the Jaigarh Fort is architecturally similar to the Amer Fort, and offers a panoramic view of the city of Jaipur. The fort houses the world's largest cannon on wheels, a majestic palace complex and the assembly hall of the warriors known as 'Shubhat Niwas' along with a museum and an armory. Apart from the intricate architecture of the fort, the fort was also renowned for a huge treasure that was believed to be buried under the fort. It is now said that the government of Rajasthan seized the treasure when it was discovered in the 1970s. The Jaigarh Fort was built to secure Jaipur City and the Amer fort from warlords and rivals.
The fort is built with thick walls of red sandstone and is spread over a vast range of 3 kilometers in length, with a width of one kilometer. The fort houses the world's greatest cannon on wheels known as the 'Jaivana Cannon' and a huge palace complex. This includes the Laxmi Vilas, Lalit Mandir, Aram Mandir and the Vilas Mandir. The fort has a well-tended garden which can be viewed by tourists even today along with an armory and a museum.
Important Battles
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The Jaigarh fort was never conquered in battle, and was also the strongest of the three forts in Jaipur. During the Mughal dynasty, the fort bore witness to an ambush by Aurangzeb who defeated and killed his own brother who was the overseer of the cannon outpost in the fort. Apart from that, the fort never witnessed any major resistance, and only test-fired the world's largest cannon, once!
Jaigarh Fort is situated on the promontory called the Cheel ka Teela (Hill of Eagles) of the Aravalli range; it overlooks the Amer Fort and the Maota Lake, near Amer in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. The fort, rugged and similar in structural design to the Amer Fort, is also known as Victory Fort. It has a length of 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) along the north–south direction and a width of 1 kilometre (0.62 mi). The fort features a cannon named "Jaivana", which was manufactured in the fort precincts and was then the world's largest cannon on wheels.
The palace complex has a Laxmi Vilas, Lalit Mandir, Vilas Mandir and Aram Mandir located , an armoury and a museum.
Jaigarh Fort and Amer Fort are connected by subterranean passages and considered as one complex. From below Amer Fort and Palace rises above the highway, splayed on a hillock in leisurely multilayered splendour. Jaigarh Fort is far away, yet it looks severe and forbidding atop a hill. It’s hard to believe that the expanse of land between the two is riddled with underground passages.
Images of dark, damp walls, imagine a deliciously whimsical passage with sharp bends and turns, widening then narrowing to a crawl. Tunnels came to symbolise a desperate human act—an attempt to escape, to hoodwink oppressors.
The 18th-century tunnel is brightly lit and spanking clean. The rock walls are smoothened with plaster and the interiors are roomy and cheerful, almost festive. The administration has spruced it up, even added a touch of drama: Light fixtures resemble old-fashioned fire torches, or mashaals. Gravel does not crunch underfoot—the tunnel has uniform proportions, neat stairs, and a stone-paved floor. It runs fairly straight too. Whuch as a passage meant to whisk away royals in case of an attack would have to be, well, regal. Given the countless tales of subversion, plotting and royal intrigue, this undercover channel must have been used often.
Geography
Left View
The Jaigarh Fort, located on one of the peaks of the Aravalli range of hills is built about 400 m above the Amer Fort. It provides an excellent view of Aravalli hills and the Amer Fort down below.
Right View
The fort is 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away from Jaipur city. It stands on a short diversion from the Jaipur-Delhi Highway, which leads to the Jaivana cannon at the Dungar Darwaza ('Darwaza' means "gate"), the same road leads to another important fort called the Nahargarh Fort. It can also be approached from the Amer Fort over a short climb along a steep hill track, arriving at the Awami Gate near the fort museum.
Amer was known in the ancient and medieval period as Dhundhar (meaning attributed to a sacrificial mount in the western frontiers). What is known in the present day as Jaigarh Fort, which was actually the main defensive structure rather than the palace. The two structures are interconnected by a series of encompassing fortifications and ruled by the Kachwahas from the 10th century onwards. The history of Amer and Jaigarh is indelibly linked to these rulers, as they founded their empire at Amer.
The fort is highly fortified with thick walls of red sandstone and is spread over a layout plan with a length of 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) and a width of 1 kilometre (0.62 mi); it has an impressive square garden (50 metres (160 ft) square) within it. Ramparts in each corner are sloping and provide access to the upper level structures. The palaces have court rooms and halls with screened windows. A central watch tower on a raised ground provides excellent vistas of the surrounding landscape.
Aram Bagh
The Aram Mandir and the garden within its courtyard, on the northern side of the fort complex, has a triple arched entrance "The Awani Darwaza" which was refurbished in recent times to get fine views of the Sagar Lake (an artificial lake); water from this lake used to be transported to the fort in pouches loaded on elephant backs and also by humans carrying water pots.
The triple arch gateway with fortification walls above it is painted red and yellow. It is oriented in an east–west direction and faces west.
The architectural features are of Rajput style with cyclopean walls built with dressed stone and plastered with lime mortar.
There are two temples within the fort precincts, one is the Ram Harihar temple of the 10th century and the other one is the Kal Bhairav temple of 12th-century vintage.
The Mysterious water tank at Jaigarh Fort
The water supply facilities in the fort was met by creating water harvesting structures in the vicinity in the Aravalli catchment and conveying water through a canal on the west side of the fort over a 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) distance (seen at site) to be stored in three underground tanks below the central courtyard. The largest tank had a capacity of 6 million gallons of water.
The Mysterious water tank at Jaigarh Fort
Please note the use of the adjective – Mysterious. At the first glimpse, this huge water tank seems quite ordinary. Ok – so it was huge, it has a rainwater harvesting facility, could store up to 6 million gallons of water, had three levels, but then, so what? I chose this particular adjective – Mysterious, for the story associated with it. This story is one of the main reasons why this fort was not opened to the public until a few years back.
It is rumored that the Kachwaha dynasty used it to store its treasures! They say that there were chambers below the tank where the loot from a successful siege by Maharaja Man Singh was hidden. There were completely false rumors, that a treasure belonging to the Kachwaha rulers of Amer had been stacked in the fort precincts (including the water tanks), that led to a totally unsuccessful search.
The steps leading to the underground levels of the tank at Jaigarh Fort
The rumor was so strong that in 1977, during the emergency declared by the Former Prime Minister of India – Indira Gandhi during 1975–1977, a raid was organized to find it. The Maharani at that time – Gayatri Devi had objected to it. However, the same were overruled by her arch rival Indira Gandhi and in fact, army troops were sent to the fort to recover the treasure. After days of search (some say 3 months), nothing was found and the search was called off. During the retreat of the troops, for three days, the Delhi – Jaipur Highway was closed.
Some say that there were military trucks plying between the fort and the PM’s residence in Delhi and a question was raised on whether the same carried the treasure straight to the PM’s house. However, there is no answer to that. Whether there was a treasure, or none or was it recovered – no one knows. The story of the water tank remains an unsolved mystery.
There was also a Parliament Question on this issue where a question was posed whether a "Search for treasure carried out from 10th June 1976 till November 1976 by the Income Tax Authorities at Jaigarh Fort on the Jaipur Delhi Road was closed to ordinary traffic for one or two days so as to make way for military trucks carrying treasures to the residence of the then Prime Minister, Smt. Indira Gandhi?".
However, the search carried out for treasures by an Army unit at Jaigarh Fort, after a three-month search had found no treasures. It was then conjectured that Sawai Jai Singh probably used the treasure to build the city of Jaipur.
Laxmi Vilas
Once you are done with the water tank, you can head straight to the small palace area. The first thing that you encounter is a huge parade ground called Subhat Niwas. This is where the army used to gather. Here you can view these huge War drums.
Laxmi Vilas at Jaigarh Fort, Jaipur
From here, you move further to the royal drawing-room of the King or the Laxmi Vilas. The pleasant wall paintings and the nice flooring make it obvious that this was an area for important meetings and relaxation. You cannot really enter any of the rooms, but from the outside, they do seem royal enough.
Lalit Mandir
This was the summer palace of the King at Jaigarh Fort. Though it has one higher floor, you can only browse through the ground floor. They say that the royal bedrooms were on the higher floor.
On the ground floor, there is a small theatre area which served as a royal entertainment area for music and drama. This is where you are now treated to a puppet show. You can even buy some of these puppets as a memorabilia.
Recreated dining room at Jaigarh Fort
You will also, find some recreated scenes of how the dining and kitchen areas looked back then. There are separate ones for men and women. You cannot unfortunately, walk through these rooms and have to make do by viewing them through the holes of a grill and glass windows.
Vilas Mandir
This is the Zenana or the ladies area with lattice windows and jharokas. I have to say, this was literally – the coolest area of the fort. There was so much wind blowing through these windows that made the passages and the halls here so pleasant. Through these windows, you could see the entire Amer Fort. Though this area was not as well lit as the the rest of the fort, the place was just unusually beautiful. I guess, it was the artistic presence of the lattice windows.
Canon Foundry (Armoury)
During the reign of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, Jaigarh Fort, which is located 150 miles south-west of Delhi, became one of the world's most efficient cannon foundries mainly due to the abundance of iron ore mines in the vicinity of the fort. The cannon foundry Jaigarh Fort had a massive wind tunnel that sucked air from the high mountains into its furnace creating temperatures as high as 2400 °F, the heated air would melt the metal.
The molten metal would fill a reservoir chamber and pass into a cannon mold in the casting pit. Most of those cannons were massive, mostly 16 ft long and had to be prepared within a single day. The Rajput also built a large ingenious mechanical device that had a precision gear system driven by four pairs of oxen, the device was used for hollowing out the cannon barrels. When the Mughal war of succession broke out in 1658 Dara Shikoh secured the cannon outpost of Jaigarh Fort until he was defeated and executed by his younger brother Aurangzeb. Later, however, the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah appointed Jai Singh II as the official Mughal Qiladar of Jaigarh Fort according to a Firman, ultimately Jai Singh II is known to have molded the great Jaivana Cannon by utilizing the important foundry and devices inside Jaigarh Fort.
The armoury chamber here has a wide display of swords, shields, guns, muskets and also a 50 kilograms (110 lb) cannonball. Pictures on display are old photographs of Jaipur's Maharajas namely, Sawai Bhawani Singh and Major General Man Singh II who served in the Indian Army as senior officers.
Museum
The museum is located to the left of the Awami Gate; it has exhibits of photographs of the Royalty of Jaipur, stamps and many artefacts, which include a circular pack of cards. A spittoon of 15th century vintage and also hand drawn plan of the palaces are seen in the museum.
World Largest Canon On Wheel Jaivana Cannon
Jaigarh Fort was a centre of artillery production for the Rajputs. It is now home to the Jaivana – at the time of its manufacture in 1720, it was the world's largest cannon on wheels of the Early Modern Era.
Cannon
The foundry where it was manufactured is also located here. A plaque at the entrance to the enclosure where the Jaivan Cannon is displayed gives relevant information on the history of the Cannon, its size and use. This cannon was never used in any battle as the Rajput rulers of Amer had friendly relations with the Mughals. This testifies to well-preserved features of fort.
The cannon was fired only once with a charge of 100 kilograms (220 lb) of gunpowder and when fired covered a distance of about 35 kilometers (22 mi).
The barrel has a floral design. On the tip of the barrel an Elephant is placed and in the center, a pair of the peacock is carved. A pair of ducks also carved which decorates the barrel. Jai Singh used Jaivana cannon only once, as a test fire in 1720. Jaigarh Fort was a center of weaponry invention for the Rajputs. Jaivana cannon was not at all used by Rajput leader because of their friendly relations with Mughals.
Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh manufactured Jaivana during the supremacy. The barrel is 20.19 foot (6.15 metre) in length and 50 tons of weight. The diameter of Jaivana is 11 inches (280 mm). To protect the cannon tin shed built.
The barrel has decorations carved on it which depict trees, an elephant scroll and a pair of birds (ducks). It is mounted on wheels and has the mechanism of two back wheels mounted on roller pin bearings, to turn it 360° and fire in any direction. A tin shed was built to protect the cannon against weather. The cannon had a range of 22 miles and used 50 kilograms (110 lb) balls. You cannot miss it if you arrive in Jaipur. It is the must visit the site of Jaipur. The cannon is a major attraction which can fire and strike up to 35 km.
Jaigarh fort, is the soul of Jaipur Kingdom. It catches the awesome view of the city from the top of of this Fort.
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