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The fort
The fort rises about 122 m above the plains of Jodhpur
Mehrangarh stands on a hilltop in Jodhpur, rising about 122 m above the surrounding plains. It was begun around 1459 by Rao Jodha of the Rathore clan, though most of what stands is from the 17th century.
“...a palace that might have been built by Titans and colored by the morning sun.”
Rudyard Kipling
The name
The name of the fort means fort of the sun
The name comes from the Sanskrit Mihir, the sun, and garh, fort. The fort was first named Mihirgarh, a reference to the Rathore clan's mythical descent from the sun god Surya.
The curse
A hermit asked to leave the hill cursed the fort to lack water
Rao Jodha asked a hermit, Cheeria Nathji, to leave the hill. Karni Mata asked him to go, and he left, but cursed the citadel to suffer a scarcity of water. Rao Jodha appeased him with a house and a temple in the fort.
The gates
Cannonball scars from the army of Jaipur are still on the second gate
The fort has seven gates. Jai Pol was built by Maharaja Man Singh in 1806 to mark his victories over the Jaipur and Bikaner armies. Imprints of cannonballs fired by the attacking armies of Jaipur can still be seen on the second gate.
sevengates, with Jai Pol as the main entrance
The museum
The museum holds howdahs, palanquins, weapons and turbans
The museum houses palanquins, howdahs, royal cradles, miniatures, musical instruments, costumes and furniture. The Turban Gallery records the many types of turbans once prevalent in Rajasthan, each community having had its own.
Day 4, morning
Next is Jaswant Thada.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Mehrangarh, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.