The fortress
Chittor occupies a long, narrow plateau rising about 180 metres above the plain, some five kilometres from north to south. Its sides are steep cliffs, and the walls run along their edge. The approach climbs a series of gates on the western side. The plateau held palaces, temples, tanks, houses and markets: a city as much as a fort.
Local tradition connects the fort with a Mauryan or Mori ruler named Chitrangada, from whom its name, Chitrakuta, is said to come. The Guhila rulers of Mewar held it from the early medieval period, and it became their capital.
The sieges
Three sieges dominate the fort's history, and each ended with the fall of Chittor and, according to tradition, the self-immolation of the women of the fort, jauhar, while the men rode out to die.
In 1303 Alauddin Khalji took Chittor after a siege of several months, and named it Khizrabad after his son. Later Rajput and Sufi literature tied this siege to the story of Padmini, a queen whom the sultan desired; the earliest version is the Awadhi poem Padmavat of Malik Muhammad Jayasi, written in 1540. The historicity of Padmini is disputed, and the contemporary accounts of the siege do not mention her. The Guhilas' Sisodia branch recovered the fort within a few decades.
In 1535 Bahadur Shah of Gujarat besieged and took Chittor during the minority of Rana Vikramaditya. The queen mother Karnavati is remembered as having led the jauhar. Mewar regained the fort soon afterwards.
In 1567 Akbar besieged Chittor, held by the commanders Jaimal and Patta on behalf of Udai Singh, who had withdrawn to the hills. The fort fell in February 1568, and Akbar ordered the killing of a large part of the garrison and the people who had taken refuge there. Udai Singh had already begun a new capital at Udaipur in 1559, and after 1568 Chittor was never again the seat of Mewar.
The monuments
The Vijay Stambh, the tower of victory, was built by Rana Kumbha to commemorate his victory over Mahmud Khalji of Malwa in 1440. It rises nine storeys and is covered with sculpture of Hindu deities, with inscriptions giving the genealogy of the dynasty. The older and smaller Kirti Stambh, the tower of fame, is a Jain monument of about the twelfth century, dedicated to Adinatha. The plateau also holds Kumbha's palace, the Padmini palace beside a pool, the Kalika Mata temple, which began as a temple of the sun, and the Kumbhashyama temple, associated in tradition with the poet-saint Mirabai.
Afterwards
The peace of 1615 between Rana Amar Singh and Jahangir returned Chittor to Mewar on condition that it not be refortified, and when repairs were begun later, Shah Jahan had them pulled down. It has remained a symbol of Rajput resistance in Rajasthan's ballads and in modern popular culture, often in ways that go well beyond the historical record. It was listed by UNESCO in 2013.
Further reading
- Talbot, Cynthia. Precolonial India in Practice. Oxford University Press, 2001
- Jackson, Peter. The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History. Cambridge University Press, 1999
- Asher, Catherine B. India Before Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2006
See also
- Sisodia dynasty of Mewar — The Sisodias ruled Mewar from 1326 until 1949, the senior house among the Rajput dynasties, and the one that held out longest against Mughal authority.
- Siege of Chittorgarh (1303) — The Siege of Chittorgarh of 1303 was Alauddin Khilji's successful campaign against the Guhila rulers of Mewar, resulting in the fall of Chittorgarh Fort and, in later legend, the mass self-immolation associated with Rani Padmini.
- Siege of Chittorgarh (1567-68) — The siege of Chittorgarh (October 1567 to February 1568) was the Mughal emperor Akbar's roughly four-month siege and capture of the Rajput fortress-capital of Mewar, ending in the deaths of its two commanders, a mass jauhar, and the killing of much of the fort's population.
- Rana Sanga — Rana Sanga (Sangram Singh, r. 1508–1527), Sisodia ruler of Mewar, was the leading Rajput power in northern India in the early sixteenth century until his defeat by Babur at the Battle of Khanwa in 1527.
- Khalji dynasty — The Khalji dynasty was a Turko-Afghan ruling house that governed the Delhi Sultanate from 1290 to 1320, ending Mamluk (Slave dynasty) rule and expanding Delhi's power further into the Deccan and south India than any predecessor.
- Gujarat Sultanate — The Gujarat Sultanate ruled the western seaboard from 1407 to 1573, founded Ahmedabad, and developed a stone architecture that fused Jain and Hindu craft traditions with Islamic form.
- Akbar — Akbar, born Jalal-ud-din Muhammad, was the third Mughal emperor, who ruled from 1556 to 1605, expanded the empire across most of the Indian subcontinent, and restructured its administration and religious policy.
This entry was last revised on 12 November 2026.