GingeeFort
Gingee Fort in Tamilnadu
Gingee Fort also known as Chenji or Jinji in Tamil Nadu, India. Gingee fort is more popular for its temples than forts. It lies in Villupuram District,160 kilometres (99 mi) from the state capital, Chennai, and is close to the Union Territory of Pondicherry. So well fortified was this place that Shivaji ranked it as the "most impregnable fortress in India" and it was called the "Troy of the East" by the British.
History of Gingee fort
Originally the site of Gingee Fort was a tiny fort built by the Chola dynasty in 9th century
AD. Later it ws enhanced by Vijayanagar empire in the 13th century to
elevate it to the status of an unbreachable citadel to protect the small town of
Gingee.
It was also the head quarters of the Gingee Nayaks, during the Nayaka
domination in Tamil Nadu. The fort was built as a strategic place of fending off
any invading armies. The fort was further strengthened by the Marathas under the
leadership of Shivaji in 1677 AD, who recaptured it from the Bijapur sultans who
had originally taken control of the fort from the Marathas.
During Aurangzeb's
campaign in the Deccan, Shivaji's second son who had assumed the
throne,Chhatrapati Rajaram escaped to Ginjee in the distant South and continued
the fight with Moghuls from Ginjee. The Moghuls could not capture the fort for
seven years in spite of laying siege. The fort was finally captured in 1698, but
not before Chhatrapati Rajaram escaped. It was later passed on to the Carnatic
Nawabs who lost it to the French in 1750 before the British finally took control
in 1761 despite losing it to Hyder Ali for a brief period. Raja Desinghu ruled
Chenji an he was one of the famous kings to be known when it came to Chenji. He
also worshipped Singavaram Sri Ranganatha Temple located in between Chenji and
Melmalayanur. The temple is full of rock sculptures.The Bijapur Nawabs who held
the fort from about 1660-77 AD called it Badshabad, while the Marathas who
succeeded them called it Chandry or Chindy. The Mughals, on their capture of the
fort in 1698 A.D. named it Nasrat Gaddah in honour of Nawab Zulfiquar Khan
Nasrat Jang, the commander-in-chief of the besieging army. Later, the English
and the French called it Gingee or Jinji. The early Madras records of the
English give the spelling Chingee or Chengey.The chief source for the first two
hundred years of the history of the place is the "Complete History of the
Carnatic Kings" among the Mackenzie manuscripts. One Narayan, who claimed to be
a descendant of the Ananda Kon Clan of Gingee, compiled it, after a consultation
with numerous authorities, both Hindu and Muhammadan. According to Narayan,
Gingee became a fortified place only about 1200 AD. Ananda Kon of the shepherd
community, accidentally found a treasure in one of the cavities of the Western
hill while grazing his sheep. Making himself the head of a small band of
warriors, he defeated the petty rulers of the neighbouring villages and built a
small fortress on Kamalagiri, which he renamed Anandagiri after himself.The Kon
dynasty ruled Gingee from 1190 to 1330 AD, and was succeeded by the chief of a
neighbouring place called Kobilingan, who belonged to the kurumba caste and
ascended the throne of Gingee. He was a feudatory of the powerful Cholas. This
way Gingee came into the hands of various ruling dynasties of South India,
starting from the Cholas.
Architecture
The fort consists of three hills, connected by walls enclosing an area of 7 square kilometres (2.7 sq mi). It was built at a height of 800 feet (240 m), and protected by a 80 feet (24 m) wide moat. It had an eight-storeyed Kalyana Mahal (marriage hall), granaries, prison cells, a military gymnasium and a temple dedicated to its presiding Hindu goddess called Chenjiamman. The fortifications contain a sacred pond known as Aanaikulam. The walls of the fort are a mixture of the natural hilly terrain comprising the Krishnagiri, Chakkilidrug and Rajagiri hills, while the gaps were sealed with the main wall that measures 20 metres (66 ft) in thickness. It was thus an impressive sight where the defender could seal himself indefinitely.
Gingee Fort
Bus Facilities:Tamil Nadu
flaunts an excellent road network and the services of private and government
buses link Tamil Nadu with the various neighboring destinations. The states of
Karnataka, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh are connected with Tamil Nadu through
State Express Transport Corporation. Besides, national and state highways make
traveling to Tamil Nadu quite convenient from the key metropolises like New
Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai.
Train Facilities:Tamil Nadu is easily accessible by railways and the two important railway stations of the state are Chennai Central and Egmore Station. Broad gauge lines serve the two stations and Chennai Central is well connected with the other cities of India such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Cochin, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Lucknow, and Guwahati. The trains from the Egmore station serve the various nearby destinations of the state on meter gauge Air Facilities:Chennai is international airport. The airport serves the domestic as well as international airlines. From here you can get air connections to the destinations within the state of Tamil Nadu also such as Trichy, Madurai, Salem and Coimbatore. Tourists can also travel by air from the various international destinations such as Sri Lanka, Dubai, Germany, Jakarta, Malaysia, England, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore |