Madhogarh Fort is a fort located on top of Madhogarh Hill in the Aravalli mountain range, near

Madhogarh Madhogarh is a town and a nagar panchayat in Jalaun district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Madhogarh is famous for ghee. List of villages in Madhogarh # Abdullapur Kanar # Aheta # Ajitapur # Akbarpura # Alampura # Amkheda # Andhai ...

village, in the

Mahendragarh district Mahendragarh district is one of the 22 districts of Haryana state in northern India. The district occupies an area of 1,899 km² and has a population of 922,088 (2021census). District have 3 Sub-divisions : Narnaul, Mahendragarh and Kanina ...

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...

state in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is located from

Mahendragarh Mahendragarh is a city and a municipal committee in Mahendragarh district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is from Gurgaon and comes under National Capital Region (India). Etymology Earlier named ''kanaud'', in early 1860s it was renamed ...

, reachable via Satnali Chowk or via Mahendragarh- Satnali- Loharu road. In the Madhogarh village, there are several old

haveli A ''haveli'' is a traditional townhouse, mansion, manor house, in the Indian subcontinent, usually one with historical and architectural significance, and located in a town or city. The word ''haveli'' is derived from Arabic ''hawali'', mean ...

s of interest to tourists, built in the vernacular Hindu architecture in the style of Shekhawato havelis.

History

Madhogarh founded by

Madho Singh I Madho Singh I (December 1728 – March 5, 1768) was ruler of the state of Jaipur in the present-day Indian state of Rajasthan.D.K. Taknet, Razia Grover, Nandita Bhardwaj, 2016Jaipur: Gem of India He was the younger son of Jai Singh II and bec ...

in the first half of the 18th century, when he placed the area under the control of Balwant Singh. The fort is named after

; "Madhogarh" literally means "the fort of Madho". Around 1755, this area passed from the Rajputs to the

Maratha Empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian confederation that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of Shi ...

under Maharaja

Khande Rao Holkar Shrimant Sardar Khande Rao Holkar Subedar Bahadur (1798 - 22 February 1807), belonging to the Holkar dynasty of the Marathas was the Maharaja of Indore (r. 1799 - 1806). He was born in Poona in 1798, as posthumous son of Malhar Rao II Holkar ...

of Indore when he attacked the independent Mughal chieftain Ismail Beg, Ismail Beg escaped to Madhogarh and established a post near Madhogarh fort.

attacked Madhogargh fort and captured it on 16 February 1792. Ismail Beg escaped and attacked Kanud when the ruling wife of already deceased Nawab Najaf Quli Khan had died. Khande Rao Holkar then attacked Kanud and captured Ismail Beg, imprisoned him at

Agra Fort The Agra Fort is a historical fort in the city of Agra in India also known as the Red Fort. Rebuilt by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1565 and completed in 1573, it served as the main residence of the rulers of the Mughal Dynasty until 1638, when t ...

and put him to death in 1794. Maratha Maharaj

Mahadaji Shinde Mahadaji Shinde (b. 23 December 1730 – 12 February 1794), later known as Mahadji Scindia or Madhava Rao Sindhia, was a Maratha statesman and ruler of Ujjain in Central India. He was the fifth and the youngest son of Ranoji Rao Scindia, the f ...

(Scindia) of

Gwalior Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the s ...

had conquered Rania, Fatehabad and

Sirsa Sirsa is a city and a municipal council in Sirsa district in the westernmost region of the Indian state of Haryana, bordering Punjab and Rajasthan. It is located in Thar desert. It is located 250 kilometres north-west of New Delhi and 260 kilome ...

from Bhatti Rajput Muslims. Haryana came under

. Mahad Ji divided Haryana in four territories: Delhi (Mughal emperor

Shah Alam II Shah Alam II (; 25 June 1728 – 19 November 1806), also known by his birth name Ali Gohar (or Ali Gauhar), was the seventeenth Mughal Emperor and the son of Alamgir II. Shah Alam II became the emperor of a crumbling Mughal empire. His powe ...

, his family and areas surrounding Delhi), Panipat (Karnal, Sonepat, Kurukshetra and Ambala), Hisar (Hisar, Sirsa, Fatehabad, parts of Rohtak), Ahirwal (Gurugram, Rewari, Narnaul, Mahendragarh) and Mewat.

Daulat Rao Scindia Shrimant Daulat Rao Shinde (also Sindhia; 1779 – 21 March 1827) was the Maharaja (ruler) of Gwalior state in central India from 1794 until his death in 1827. His reign coincided with struggles for supremacy within the Maratha Empire, and war ...

ceded Haryana on 30 December 1803 under the

Treaty of Surji-Anjangaon The Treaty of Surji-Anjangaon was signed on 30 December 1803 between the British and Daulat Rao Sindhia, chief of the Maratha Confederacy at Anjangaon town located in Maharashtra. On 30 December 1803, the Sindhia signed the Treaty of Surji-Anj ...

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

Company rule in India Company rule in India (sometimes, Company ''Raj'', from hi, rāj, lit=rule) refers to the rule of the British East India Company on the Indian subcontinent. This is variously taken to have commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when ...

. It is very important from the point of view of tourism, it would be better to go here during the time of rain and winter, it is also called "Mini Musuri" of local area during foggy session. According to the information received from the bujurg people, this fort was built in 16-17 AD and Swai Madho Singh built it for take rest between Jaipur and Delhi, and the village was named Madhogadh in his name. At that time, Madhogarh trade point between Delhi and Jaipur was strong. There are still many havelis of Baniyas (Business men) built below the hill. In which the film also shooted titled "Jalpari".

Architecture

The fort is one of only a few hill forts in

. The architecture is of

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

origin. From the perspective of defence, it is hard to access fort and stairs were formed by cutting the rocks in the hills.Sohan Singh Khattar and Reena Kar, 2021
Know Your State Haryana
Arihant Publications, pp 308. It has two portions: an upper section on top of the hill, with a ruined main structure, and a smaller section just below the top of the hill. The fort is surrounded by a high and thick wall around the hill with several

bastions A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...

. Below the sections of the fort, there is a water tank that still stands. The upper complex has a few chambers that appear to be connected to the water tank.

Conservation and further development

The

Government of Haryana The Government of Haryana, also known as the State Government of Haryana, or locally as the State Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Haryana and its 22 districts. It consists of an executive, ceremonially led ...

plans to develop an integrated tourist resort incorporating the Madhogarh fort.Haryana govt to give a boost to tourism
/ref> Both Mahendragarh fort and Madhogarh fort are being restored along the lines of

Pinjore Gardens Yadavindra Gardens, also known as Pinjore Gardens, is a historic 17th century garden located in Pinjore city of Panchkula district in the Indian state of Haryana. Panchkula city is nearby it. It is an example of the Mughal gardens architectu ...

to develop them as the international tourist destination as part of Rewari-Narnaul-Mahendragarh-Madhogarh tourist circuit, and of the INR 100 crore an initial amount of INR 30 crore was already released for the Madhogarh fort in fy2018-19.No dearth of fund to develop tourism
UNI India, 8 Dec 2018.

In popular culture

Owing to its picturesque location, several movies including ''

Kaun Kitne Paani Mein ''Kaun Kitney Paani Mein '' () is an Indian drama film released on 28 August 2015 directed by Nila Madhab Panda starring Saurabh Shukla, Kunal Kapoor, Radhika Apte and Gulshan Grover in lead roles. The film is a satire on various social issues ...

'' and '' Jalpari: The Desert Mermaid'' were shot here, as was

Aditya Narayan Aditya Narayan (born 6 August 1987) is an Indian people, Indian singer, host and actor. He is the son of singer Udit Narayan. He is known for hosting Indian Idol and participating in Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 9. Personal life Narayan w ...

's popular Haryanvi song "git pit git pit".

References

{{Forts of Haryana Forts in Haryana Mahendragarh district Archaeological sites in Haryana Rebuilt buildings and structures in India Tourist attractions in Haryana

History

Architecture

Conservation and further development

In popular culture

See also

References