Bandhavgarh Fort - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Bandhavgarh Fort is situated in Bandhavgarh in Umaria

Umaria

Umaria is a town in umaria district of the Shahdol Division of Madhya Pradesh state of central India.-History:umaria is located to the North East of Madhya Pradesh. Mathematically the coordinates of the District extend from 23o38' to 24o20' North and 80o28' to 82o12' East. It has geographical...

district of Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. It is located on the Bandhavgarh hill, rising 811 meters above sea level at the centre of the Bandhavgarh National Park

Bandhavgarh National Park

Bandhavgarh National Park is one of the popular national parks in India located in the Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh. Bandhavgarh was declared a national park in 1968 with an area of 105 km². The buffer is spread over the forest divisions of Umaria and Katni and totals 437 km²...

. It is a surrounded by a large number of smaller hills separated by gently sloping valleys. These valleys end in small, swampy meadows, locally known as 'bohera'. The fort is also home to many of the endangered species of Vulture in India

Origin

Regional stories says that Bandhavgarh fort was constructed by ruler of Gond Empire. Gond kings of Pandro cast are the original builders of this fort said by the local villagers and still there are some relatives of gond king live somewhere near this fort.gond king have construct 12 "talab" ponds .there are only few ponds left . this fort have same construction architecture like other gond kings fort

from Bandhavgarh Fort's hill "vanganga" river was originated in "gondi" language "van"="goutr" means"surname", "ganga"="dhara"means =stream
that means "pandro" the surname of gond king was originate from "vanganga" .

No records are available to show when Bandhavgarh fort was constructed. It is thought, however, to be some 2000 years old, and there are references to it in the ancient books, the "Narad-Panch Ratra" and the "Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

Purana". The Bandhavgarh fort derives its name from the most prominent hillock of the area, which is said to be given by Lord Rama to his brother Lakshmana

Lakshmana

Lakshmana was the brother and close companion of Rama, and himself a hero in the famous epic Ramayana...

to keep a watch on Lanka

Lanka

Sri Lanka is the name given in Hindu mythology to the island fortress capital of the legendary king Ravana in the great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata...

. Hence the name Bandhavgarh (bandhav = brother, garh = fort).
There are a couple of statues depicting the avatars ( reincarnation) of Vishnu - like one of the Fish and another of the Turtle . There are a couple of ponds on the hill e.g Rani ( Queen) Talab ( Pond).
There is a view point on the hill named as Suicide point form which if one is lucky one can see the vultures in flight.
One the way back from the fort one can see the gigantic idol of Vishnu who is lying down, it is also known as Seshsaiyan.

History

from Bandhavgarh Fort's hill "vanganga" river was originated in "gondi" language "van"="goutr" means"surname", "ganga"="dhara"means =stream
that means "pandro" the surname of gond king was originate from "vanganga" that means "gond" king was the first ruler of Bandhavgarh Fort

Various dynasties have ruled the fort: for example, The Mauryans from 3rd century BC, Vakataka

Vakataka

The Vākāṭakas were a royal Indian dynasty that originated from the Deccan in the mid-third century CE. Their kingdom is believed to have extended from the southern edges of Malwa and Gujarat in the north to the Tungabhadra River in the south as well as from the Arabian Sea in the western to the...

rulers from 3rd century to 5th century the Sengar

Sengar

Sengar are a clan of Rajputs. One of the 36 clan Rajput Kshatriya, they are mainly found in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh states of India.- Origin :...

s from 5th century and the Kalachuri

Kalachuri

Kalachuri Empire is this the name used by two kingdoms who had a succession of dynasties from the 10th-12th centuries, one ruling over areas in Central India and were called Chedi or Haihaya and the other southern Kalachuri who ruled over parts of Karnataka...

s from 10th century. In the 13th century, the Baghels took over, ruling from Bandhavgarh until 1617, when Maharaja Vikramaditya Singh moved his capital to Rewa

Rewa, India

Rewa is formerly the capital of the princely state of Rewa and former state of Vindhya Pradesh in central India. It is an important city in the North Eastern part of Madhya Pradesh state of India bordering Allahabad, Mirzapur and Banda Districts of Uttar Pradesh and Satna and Sidhi Districts of...

. The last inhabitants deserted the fort in 1935.

Origin

History

See also