Bhongir...The brooding fort

We, a group of colleagues and friends planned a trip to Warangal on 12th January 2008, and for this trip we checked all the minute details of the things that we may require. When the entire Hyderabad was sleeping to wake up for a lazy Saturday morning, we all (about 9 people) started for Warangal at 6:00 AM in the hired cab.

Though Bhongir fort was not a part of our agenda, but I do not know why we just decided to stop at this fort and check it out. I was very happy, as this fort has something alluring, which has fascinated me so much that time again and again I love to visit place.

Bhongir…the brooding 10th century fort at the height of 500 feet from ground level, spreads over an area of 40 acres and is about 51 Kms from Hyderabad. The western Chalukya ruler named Tribhuvanamalla Vikramaditya, built this fort on the top of a hillock at Bhuvangiri (now called as Bhongir). As someone aptly says… Forts made of rock never crumble away, and Bhongir happens to be a small rock fort perched on a massive dome of granite and was considered practically impregnable by invading armies. This 10th century fort has quite a history attached to it. The fort has been through Chalukiya, Kakatiyas, and then the Bahmani Sultans relinquish this fort. Qutab Shahi used this fort as prison for pretenders though it is an interesting fact that the British never paid attention to this fort, and finally by 18th century this fort was long forgotten. While climbing the steep hillock, we found that the fort’s unique egg-shaped construction, two entry points, one of which was used by us to enter the fort, and another one on the other side. The entry that we had used was close to the main road itself. While climbing through the rumbling fort, we noticed some in scriptures detailing the past life. We even noticed that the sculpture of the fort, was found different in many places, we could see the Chalukya, Kakityas, and even some places some stray sculpture.

From time to time we took a break during the trek up the hill and took our time to enjoy the nature at its best. The silence that broke with bird song, rising sun gave us a glimpse of nature that we city dwellers miss it quite often. During the climb, at some places we saw few steps embedded in the hilly terrain, but at most of the places these steps have eroded, or should we say that these steps were lost over the passage of time.

Once we reached the top, we found that the fort had a vast underground chamber, trap doors, an armory, stables, ponds, wells etc., and is surrounded by moats. These moats were used as reservoirs and if one looks around carefully, one can find that the rock has gashes, and these were used to channelize the rainwater to these moats. A brilliant idea to harvest the rainwater!!

In all we found two cannons lying around the fort, and each one of them was strategically placed. When we were at the top, we realized that this fort was built in a very strategic location and the huge rock itself made a well fortified fort.

Though the mansion was completely ruined, but the massive two stairways were still strong. While using the staircase, we found them to be amply narrow as well as steep to climb up to reach the terrace of the mansion. Immediate next to the ruined mansion we found some wireless antennas, probably belonging to the radar department of the state government. We spent sometime at the top, had some snacks. The view from the top was simply breathtaking….. can’t explain in language unless one visits.

After spending sometime, we started to climb down the hill. Once we were all down, we had breakfast and got back to our cab to move on with our trip to Warangal, leaving behind Bhongir fort, looming like grey, menacing and silent fort over the line of trains and traffic snaking past …

More about our Warangal trip in the “Trip to Warangal…. Abode of Kakatiyas….”