Kumbhalgarh is an invincible fortress situated on the top of Aravali Hills in middle of Kumbalgarh wildlife sanctuary. The very fact that Kumbhalgarh fort has the second longest wall in the world was enough to make me take a trip here. The outer walls of this massive fort stretch to 36 kilometers.
We had two things in mind while visiting Kumbalgarh. One was the fort and other the wildlife sanctuary. We reached Kumbalgarh around noon, after checking into the hotel we explored the villages around Kumbalgarh. Later in the afternoon we headed to the fort and got our first glimpse of “The Great wall of India”.
The current fort was built by Rana Kumbha in 15th century, although the fort history dates back to 6th century but there is no recorded evidence until Alauddin Khilji’s invasion in 1303.
Kumbalgarh is the birth place of “Maharana Udai Singh I” and the great Rajput warrior “Maharana Pratap” who lived in Jungle, fought the Mughals through guerrilla warfare. He is the only ruler of India who did not give into the Mughal rule, and for that he is the most celebrated ruler.
We visited few of the temples within the fort premises. It is said that more than 350 temples exist, about 300 worshipped by Jains and rest by Hindus. Some of the notable temples we visited were Neel Kanth Mahadeva, Ganesha and Parsva Natha.
Even the cooking areas were built in such a way that vegitarian and non vegetarian food were cooked in separate areas and smell doesn’t get inside the buildings. Laal maans(goat meat) is one delicacy well known in this part of the country from olden times. It’s a must try when you are here.
After visiting the fort we came down near the Mahadeva temple for the sound and light show. During winters, it gets really cold after sunset, keep your warmers handy.
While building the fort Rana Kumbha faced lot of difficulties and a holy man suggested that a pure hearted human has to sacrifice himself to overcome these problems. Since no one came forward, holy man decided to sacrifice himself. The whole of this story has been narrated in sound and light show. There is also a temple built where his body finally landed.
Another true story that happened in the Chittor fort is of a brave maid Panna Dai who made her son lay down at Udai singh(II)’s bed to save the Infant King Udai singh(II). When a conspiracy happened to kill him to get the Throne, she sacrificed his Son instead. After this incident Udhai Singh was brought here to Kumbhalgarh and lived secretly. Following link has this story in detail, if you are interested kindly read through it
Next morning we decided to explore the Kumbalgarh wildlife sanctuary. Have heard from a lot of people that it’s a beautiful place but sighting wildlife it’s little difficult because of the dense landscape.
We reached the forest check post around 5.30 am. Once our driver and guide arrived we started with the Safari. The jungle as expected was very beautiful with lot of fort structure present. Although mammal sightings were little less, saw lot of birds. Crested serpent eagle, Indian scopes owl, parakeets, grey jungle fowl, partridges and many more. As we drove next to the Kumbalgarh fort fringes and heard alarm call of Sambhar deer. But soon the sound vanished, our driver stopped the vehicle at a forest chowki inside the sanctuary area and got us some tea. We walked for a few minutes and did some birding.
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