Why everyone wanted this rock
A natural fortress: the plateau rises sheer from the plain of eastern Mewar, and the walls simply follow the cliff edge all the way round.
On the great roads: Chittor watched the routes between the Gangetic plain, Gujarat and Malwa. Whoever held it held the trade and the armies that passed below.
- Height
- About 180 metres above the plains
- Area
- About 280 hectares inside the walls
- Gates
- Seven, from Padan Pol to Ram Pol
- Water
- Dozens of tanks and wells on the plateau
- From Udaipur
- About two hours by road
- Water was the secret: tanks cut into the rock caught the monsoon rain. With water and grain, a garrison could hold out for months.
- A capital, not a barracks: Chittor was the seat of Mewar's rulers for centuries, with palaces, markets and thousands of people living on the plateau.
- A symbol as much as a fort: to the Delhi sultans and later the Mughals, taking Chittor meant humbling the proudest house in Rajputana.
- What breached it: in every siege the water held. It was mines, guns and the slow wearing down of the walls that ended them.
Before the sieges
The tradition: people in Chittor say the Pandava hero Bhim raised the first fort, and they show a tank his strength is said to have opened.
An early fort: tradition also credits a ruler of the Mori clan with a fort here in the seventh century.
- Bappa Rawal: by Mewar's own account, this founder of the Guhil line took Chittor in the eighth century. He is a figure of tradition as much as record.
- A Jain merchant's tower: the Kirti Stambha, the tower of fame, dates from the twelfth century and is credited in inscriptions to Jija, a Jain merchant.
- The Guhil rulers: by 1300 the rock was held by Rawal Ratan Singh of the Guhil line, the king who would face the first great siege.
- Read the whole arc: our Chittorgarh guide and short history of Rajasthan place the fort in the wider story.
The first siege, 1303
A campaign of conquest: Alauddin had taken Ranthambore from Hammir Dev Chauhan in 1301. Chittor commanded the road to Gujarat and Malwa, which he also wanted.
A long siege: the army sat below the fort from early in 1303 until late summer. The defenders held out for about eight months.
- Besieger
- Alauddin Khalji, Sultan of Delhi
- Defender
- Rawal Ratan Singh
- Lasted
- About eight months
- Eyewitness
- The court poet Amir Khusrau
- After
- Renamed Khizrabad, for the sultan's son
- The fall: by the end of August 1303 the fort was taken. The sultan's poet Amir Khusrau, who was there, describes the capture.
- What Khusrau does not say: he names no queen and tells no story of a mirror or palanquins. Those details come much later.
- A new name: Alauddin gave the fort to his young son Khizr Khan and renamed it Khizrabad. The name did not last.
- Mewar returns: within a generation the fort was retaken by Rana Hammir of the Sisodia branch, and his descendants ruled Mewar from then on.
- What tradition adds: Mewar remembers the first jauhar of Chittor in this siege. That memory is where the legend of Padmini lives.
Where Padmini fits in the story
The legend in one line: a queen of great beauty, a sultan who desired her, a glimpse of her reflection, warriors hidden in palanquins, and the women of Chittor choosing fire over capture.
First written down: in the poem Padmavat by the Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi, in 1540, more than two centuries after the siege.
- What historians say: the siege of 1303 is history. Padmini, the mirror and the palanquins are not found in any source of the sultan's own time.
- What Mewar says: she is revered as a real queen, and many families speak of her as an ancestor's contemporary. Both views are sincerely held.
- Her place on the fort: guides show a pale palace beside a tank as the place of the reflection. The present building is largely a nineteenth-century reconstruction.
- The full story: our journal piece on the story of Padmini tells the legend and its versions side by side. This page stays with the fort.
Two centuries of recovery
The Sisodias take charge: from the fourteenth century the Sisodia branch of the Guhil line ruled Mewar from this rock.
Rana Kumbha: the scholar-king of the fifteenth century built forts across Mewar, including Kumbhalgarh, and much of Chittor's present architecture.
- The tower of victory: Kumbha raised the nine-storey Vijay Stambha after defeating Mahmud Khalji, Sultan of Malwa, in 1440. It rises about 37 metres.
- Meera Bai: the poet-saint came to Chittor in 1516 as the bride of Bhoj Raj, son of Rana Sanga. Her songs to Krishna are still sung in the temple linked with her name.
- Rana Sanga: he led a great Rajput coalition against Babur and was defeated at Khanwa in 1527. Mewar never quite recovered its strength.
- A weakened court: after Sanga's death, young rulers and quarrelling nobles left Chittor open to its next enemy.
The second siege, 1535
A young king: Chittor was ruled by Vikramaditya, one of Rana Sanga's sons, an unpopular ruler with quarrelling nobles.
Gujarat's sultan: Bahadur Shah, then at the height of his power, laid siege with a large army and artillery.
- Besieger
- Bahadur Shah, Sultan of Gujarat
- Ruler
- Rana Vikramaditya, a son of Rana Sanga
- Queen mother
- Rani Karnavati, widow of Rana Sanga
- Remembered for
- The second jauhar of Chittor
- Rani Karnavati: the widow of Rana Sanga took a leading part in the defence. Mewar remembers her as the queen who led the second jauhar.
- The rakhi story: a famous tale says she sent a rakhi, the thread of sisterhood, to the Mughal emperor Humayun to ask for help. Historians doubt the details, and it is still told at Raksha Bandhan.
- The child prince: the infant Udai Singh was sent away to safety before the fort fell. He would later found Udaipur.
- A short occupation: Bahadur Shah took the fort but soon withdrew to face Humayun, and Mewar regained Chittor.
- The usurper and the nurse: in the troubled years after, a usurper named Banbir seized power. By tradition the nurse Panna Dhai saved Udai Singh by putting her own son in his place.
The third siege, 1567 to 1568
Mewar refuses: while Amer and other Rajput houses had allied with Akbar, Mewar under Udai Singh II would not submit.
The king withdraws: Udai Singh left for the hills and handed the defence to two commanders, Jaimal Rathore and the young Patta Sisodia.
- Besieger
- The Mughal emperor Akbar
- Began
- October 1567
- Fell
- February 1568
- Commanders
- Jaimal Rathore and Patta Sisodia
- After
- Mewar's court settled in Udaipur
- Mines and guns: the Mughal army dug mines and built covered approaches up to the walls, and blew breaches in them.
- Jaimal's death: in February 1568 Jaimal was killed by a musket shot while repairing a breach at night. The fort fell soon after.
- The last fire and charge: tradition records the third jauhar of Chittor, and the men rode out in saffron for the saka.
- A terrible cost: Mughal sources record the killing of a great many of the people sheltering inside the fort after it fell.
- An emperor's tribute: Akbar is recorded to have set up statues of Jaimal and Patta on stone elephants at a gate of his fort at Agra.
After the fall: a capital lost for good
The new capital: Udai Singh had already begun Udaipur beside Lake Pichola in 1559. After 1568 it became Mewar's capital for good.
Pratap's fight: his son, Maharana Pratap, spent his life trying to win back what was lost. Our piece on Maharana Pratap and Haldighati tells his story.
- A vow of mourning: tradition says Pratap gave up gold plates and soft beds until Chittor was regained. Some Mewari families still keep small customs in memory of it.
- The peace of 1615: Pratap's son Amar Singh I made peace with Jahangir. Chittor was returned, but by tradition on condition that it was not refortified.
- A ruin with a pulse: the plateau slowly emptied, but its temples kept their worshippers, and pilgrims never stopped coming.
- Protected today: in 2013 UNESCO inscribed Chittorgarh as one of the six Hill Forts of Rajasthan. Our journal on Rajasthan's UNESCO forts compares them.
Speaking of jauhar and saka with care
Jauhar: when a besieged fort could no longer hold, the chronicles say the women and children chose death by fire rather than capture.
Saka: the men then put on saffron, opened the gates and rode out to fight to the end.
- Chittor's three: Mewar remembers a jauhar in each siege. The first is tied to Padmini by legend, the second to Rani Karnavati, the third to the fall of 1568.
- Grief and pride together: Rajasthanis speak of these events with reverence. Our guides tell them as acts of desperation in war, not as glory.
- At the memorials: keep your voice low, do not climb on the chhatris, and let local families pray undisturbed. Many Indian visitors come here as pilgrims.
- The honest note: guides point to more than one site linked with the fires. What matters is the silence, not the exact spot.
Walking the three sieges on the plateau
The seven gates
- What you see: a zigzag road up through Padan Pol, Bhairon Pol, Hanuman Pol, Ganesh Pol, Jorla Pol, Laxman Pol and Ram Pol.
- The siege link: small memorials between the gates honour defenders of 1568. Stop the car and walk the last stretch.
Rana Kumbha's palace
- What you see: the largest palace ruin on the plateau, with courtyards, stables and the remains of the women's quarters.
- The siege link: tradition places Panna Dhai's sacrifice here, in the years after the second siege.
Vijay Stambha and the Samadhishvar temple
- What you see: Kumbha's tower of victory and, beside it, an older Shiva temple with a great three-faced image.
- The siege link: an open ground nearby is linked by tradition with the jauhar of the fort's women.
Gaumukh
- What you see: a spring-fed tank below a cliff, where water flows from a carved cow's mouth.
- The siege link: this was the fort's most reliable water, the reason sieges lasted months rather than weeks.
Padmini's palace
- What you see: a pale pavilion beside a large tank, with a smaller pavilion standing in the water.
- The siege link: the legend of 1303. Come in the late afternoon when the water is still.
The Kirti Stambha
- What you see: the slender Jain tower of fame, older than all three sieges.
- Why end here: it survived every one of them, and few visitors linger. It is the quietest place to sit and take the day in.
How to visit Chittor well
See it twice: arrive in the late afternoon for the tower and Padmini's palace, sleep nearby, and return at opening time for the palaces while the plateau is empty.
Stay close: Castle Bijaipur, a sixteenth-century castle in the countryside, is our favourite base. The Chittorgarh hotels guide has more.
- Best months
- October to March
- Allow
- A full day, or two half days
- Getting round
- By car between sights, on foot at each
- Dress
- Covered shoulders, shoes off at temples
- Stay
- One night nearby, if you can
- Hire a guide who knows both versions: the stories make the ruins. Ours tell the legend and the record, and can tell you which is which.
- Pace the heat: the plateau has little shade. Rest through the middle of the day.
- The light and sound show: the evening show tells the sieges with real drama. We confirm the timing and language on the day and translate.
- Plan the day: our Chittorgarh itinerary and Chittorgarh in a day set out the timings, and the best time to visit explains the seasons.
What most visitors miss
The two Ratan Singhs: a ruined palace in the north belongs to Rana Ratan Singh II of the early sixteenth century, not the Rawal Ratan Singh of 1303. Guides sometimes mix them up.
The view from the west wall: at sunset you see the plain where each army camped. It makes eight months of siege easy to imagine.
- The breaches: ask your guide where the walls were mined in 1568. Seeing the ground makes the Mughal chronicles feel very close.
- The handprints: on some gates and memorials you may see handprints linked with women who died in the fires. We point them out with care and never celebrate them.
- The Meera temple at dusk: after a day of sieges, the songs of Meera Bai are a gentle counterweight. Devotees often sing here in the evening.
- The red thread: local families still tie thread and leave flowers at the warriors' chhatris. Watch, but do not touch the offerings.
- The size of it: most visitors never see the southern end of the plateau. Ask your driver to go to the far wall, and you will understand why Chittor held out for so long.
Who will love it, and where it leads
History lovers: three sieges on one rock, with the record and the legend side by side, give you more to argue about than any museum.
Families with older children: the gates, the towers and the warriors of the ballads hold their attention. Save the darker stories for when they ask.
- Travellers of Indian descent: many tell us Chittor is the most emotional day of their trip, because these names were in their schoolbooks.
- Who might skip it: if you have only a few days and want lakes and palaces, stay in Udaipur and read this piece instead.
- Where it leads: our Mewar lakes and temples journey links Udaipur, Chittor, Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur, and our piece on the Mewar royal family follows the house after 1568.