Chittorgarh Travel Guide: India’s Greatest Fort | Palace Tours

Chittorgarh sits in the southern hills of Rajasthan, roughly 115 kilometres northeast of Udaipur and about 300 kilometres southwest of Jaipur, where the plains of Mewar begin to buckle into rock. The town itself is modest and workaday, strung along the Berach river, but it exists in the shadow of something enormous: a 180-metre plateau crowned by Chittorgarh Fort, the largest fort in India by area. Its walls run for some 13 kilometres around roughly 700 acres of palaces, temples, towers, reservoirs and open scrub. You do not walk the fort so much as drive through it, stopping as you go.

For more than eight centuries this was the capital of Mewar and the seat of the Sisodia Rajputs, and no place in Rajasthan carries a heavier history. Chittorgarh was besieged three times — by Alauddin Khilji in 1303, by Bahadur Shah of Gujarat in 1535, and by the Mughal emperor Akbar in 1567 — and each siege ended in catastrophe rather than surrender. After the last of them, Maharana Udai Singh II abandoned the rock and founded Udaipur in the lakes to the southwest. The fort was never really reoccupied, which is precisely why it survives as it does: a ruined city rather than a restored one, inscribed by UNESCO as part of the Hill Forts of Rajasthan. It is one of the great set-pieces of Palace Tours’ Rajasthan journeys, and a highlight of the Palace on Wheels route between Ranthambore and Udaipur.

What to see in Chittorgarh

• Vijay Stambh (Tower of Victory) — The fort’s signature monument, a 37-metre, nine-storey tower raised by Rana Kumbha in the 1440s to mark his victory over the Sultan of Malwa. Every surface is carved with Hindu deities and inscriptions, and a narrow internal stair climbs to a viewing gallery over the plateau.
• Kirti Stambh (Tower of Fame) — Older and slimmer, this 22-metre twelfth-century tower is a Jain monument dedicated to Adinath, the first Tirthankara, its faces covered in figures from the Jain pantheon. It stands in a quieter corner of the fort and is often missed.
• Rana Kumbha Palace — The oldest surviving structure on the rock, now a roofless shell of arches, stables and vaulted cellars. Tradition places the jauhar of 1303 in these underground chambers, and the poet-saint Meera Bai is said to have lived here.
• Padmini’s Palace — A white pavilion set in a water tank on the southern side of the fort, tied to the legend of Rani Padmini, whom Alauddin Khilji is said to have glimpsed only as a reflection in a mirror. The setting is serene; the story behind it is anything but.
• Meera Temple and Kumbha Shyam Temple — A pair of Indo-Aryan style shrines standing together. The smaller is dedicated to Meera Bai, the sixteenth-century mystic and Krishna devotee whose songs are still sung across northern India; the larger is a fine example of Rana Kumbha’s temple building.
• Kalika Mata Temple — Built in the eighth century as a sun temple and rededicated to the goddess Kali several hundred years later. The reused Surya carvings on the outer walls are worth looking for.
• Gaumukh Reservoir — A spring-fed tank at the cliff edge, fed through a carved cow’s-mouth spout that gives it its name. Pilgrims treat the water as sacred, and the terrace beside it gives the best long view down over the plains.
• Fateh Prakash Palace Museum — The nineteenth-century palace of Maharana Fateh Singh now holds a government museum of sculpture, weapons and Mewar-school painting — a useful half hour for context before or after the ruins.
• The seven gates — The steep approach road climbs through seven successive pols, among them Padan Pol, Bhairon Pol and Ram Pol. Memorial chhatris beside the lower gates mark where Rajput commanders fell defending them.

What to eat in Chittorgarh

Chittorgarh eats like the rest of Mewar: robustly, and with an eye to a dry landscape. The dish to try first is dal baati churma — hard wheat balls baked in embers, cracked open and drowned in ghee, served with spiced lentils and a sweet crumble of coarse wheat and jaggery. Alongside it you will find gatte ki sabzi (gram-flour dumplings in a yoghurt gravy), papad ki sabzi, and ker sangri, a tart preparation of desert berries and beans that keeps for weeks without refrigeration. Meat eaters should ask for laal maas, a fiery mutton curry built on Mathania chillies, or its mild, white-gravy cousin safed maas. Bajra (pearl millet) rotis with garlic chutney and a bowl of buttermilk are the everyday version of all this.

Street food is best in the bazaars below the fort in the early evening. Look for pyaaz kachori and mirchi vada fried to order, and finish with something sweet: mawa kachori stuffed with thickened milk and soaked in syrup, ghevar, a honeycomb-textured disc of fried batter, or plain hot jalebi with rabri. Saffron-scented milk and endless small glasses of masala chai fill the gaps.

Shopping and crafts

The Chittorgarh district is a genuine craft centre, not just a souvenir stop. The village of Akola, a short drive from town, is known for dabu — a mud-resist block printing technique that produces deep indigo and madder cottons quite unlike the brighter prints of eastern Rajasthan. Bazaar stalls also carry bandhani tie-dye, embroidered leather jootis, brassware and lacquer bangles. Nearby Pratapgarh is the home of thewa, an unusual craft in which pierced gold sheet is fused onto coloured glass to make pendants and boxes; genuine pieces are signed by the artisan family and priced accordingly.

Best time to visit

October to March is the season, with November through February the most comfortable — warm, clear days and cool evenings that make the long walk between fort monuments pleasant rather than punishing. The monsoon, roughly July to September, turns the plateau green and the reservoirs full, and is atmospheric if you do not mind showers. April to June is genuinely hot, often above 40°C, with very little shade on the rock. The fort also hosts the annual Jauhar Mela each spring, when Rajput families gather in memory of the sieges.

Good to know

• The fort is far too large to walk end to end. Hire a car or auto-rickshaw for the circuit, and budget three to four hours to do it properly.
• There is a single entry ticket for the fort complex, with a separate charge at the museum. Carry small notes and a photo ID.
• Late afternoon is the best light — the sandstone warms up and the view from Gaumukh over the plains is at its clearest.
• Wear proper shoes. Surfaces are uneven, and the stairs inside Vijay Stambh are steep, narrow and unlit in places.
• Chittorgarh sits on the main Delhi–Mumbai railway line and is easy to reach by train; the nearest airport is Udaipur, about two hours by road.