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Narnala Fort orNarnalaQila Sarkar, also known asShahnoor Fort, is a hill fortress in theSatpura Range ofVidarbh,Maharashtra,India, named after theRajputSolankiChaulukya Ruler, Raja Narnal Singh, also known as Narnal Singh Swami. It was renamed as "Shahnoor" by Islamic rulers but again acquired, rebuilt and got its name "Narnala" by ruler Rao Rana Narnal Singh Solanki, who migrated fromPatan inGujarat.[1]
Briefly, the fort was first established in around 10th century A.D. byGavli Kings and major fortifications were made by Narnal Singh Swami and some by Rao Rana Narnal Singh Solanki, like the Mahakali Gate. It was then taken over by other Islamic rulers. In the mid 15th century, it was occupied and rebuilt by theMughals, becoming one ofBerar Subah's thirteensarkar. The fort was captured and fortified byGond kings during the 16th century. Later, in the late 17th century, it was underMaratha Empire, controlled byBhonsle ofNagpur Kingdom and their reliable regent andSardar, earlier the ruler of Narnala, theSolanki RajputQiledar family of Rao Rana mentioned above.
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The fort was occupied by several Indian dynasties at various times in history —
2)Rajgond ofDevgarh-Nagpur (around 1400 CE)
3) ASomvanshi KshatriyaChaulukya Rajput ruler Narnal Singh Swami
4)Bahmani Sultanate (1422–1436)
5)Farooqui dynasty (1437)
6)Fathullah Imad-ul-Mulk (1490)
7) Rao Rana Narnal Singh Solanki
8) Burhan Imad Shah, Imad Shahi Dynasty (1572)
10)Mughals (1597–98)
11)Maratha Empire (1701–1803), Raje Parsoji Bhosale's regent & descendant of the Rao Rana, later known as theThakurRajputQiledar and their descendants, until 1803.
Raja Narnal Singh or Narnal Singh Swami was a scion ofChalukya ruler, on whose name the fort is named. The fort was ruled by several rulers and qiledars after him thus making a lot of changes in the originalRajput style. After him, his descendant from the north & descendant of the ruling family ofRao Raja ofRajasthan came to this fort.
Kunwar Rao Narnal Singh, earned the title 'RaoRana" becoming "Rana" of the Mahurgad & special rights of the Narnala fort, from Imadshahi Dynasty ruler, son ofFathullah Imad-ul-Mulk, ruler ofBerar Sultanate aKannada Hindu, converted to Islam. Along with Mahurgarh, he was granted Bhawargarh fromRana of Bijagad. His younger brother got special rights of the Narnala fort, by Rajgond of Deogarh, later continued by son ofFathullah Imad-ul-Mulk.After fall of Imad Shahi Dynasty, the Rana left Mahurgarh, because of disagreement with the later rulers, the Mughal, declining Mughal sovereignty thus lost the land and fort rights in a small battle toMughal subhedars. After this the Rana joined Gonds of Devgarh, and his descendants fought against Mughals alongsideRani Durgawati, and were granted the titleThakurRao of Narnala Sarkar, by the Gond ruler ofDeogarh.After the fall of Gonds, they were invited to join Marathas by Raja BahadurBhonsle of Nagpur who discovered this family to be of great valour and experienced in Narnala and surrounding forts. Thakurrao Harisingh Rana joinedBhonsle and servedMaratha Empire, after knowing that the Bhonsles are descendants from Maharanas of Mewar.
Raghoji I Bhonsle, granted him title "Qiladar" of Narnala,Gawilgad & 8 other forts of Melghat, along with theZamindarPatilki rights of 13 villages andDeshmukh of 21 villages in Malkapurpargana in thesarkar of Narnala. Even after being promoted to titleDeshmukh, most of the family members carry the surnamePatil or Sarpatil/Ranapatil, as this title has different respect amongst people of Maharashtra & due to respect of the trust shown by theRaghoji I Bhonsle, theBhonsle Raja ofNagpur Kingdom.
A younger brother of the thenQiledar Thakurrao Rana (Sarpatil-Deshmukh), shifted his capital to from Malkapur toNadgaon, dividing the family in two parts. There are 8 houses of the family for till now. The title holderZamindars of which are as follows:
1) The elder branch of family is Malkapur branch of theZamindars, carrying the titular rights ofDeshmukhVatandar Thakur Rao Rana, and held the office of Pargana officer of Taluka. But after the Khalsa of the watan (land) rights and the pargana officer's responsibilities of his grandfather, the elder descendant,Sriman Rana Thakur Onkarsingh ji with the suggestion from HHRana ofBarwani and assistance from Rana of Pratapur, permanently shifted toTalode,Khandesh in the late 19th century.
2) The younger branch of family isNadgaon branch ofZamindars, carried the titleVatandar,Rao andPatil. Later, the descendants earned various titles in pre-independence period likeRao Sahib,Diwan Bahadur,Rao Bahadur etc. Most honoured and notable person of this family is Smt.Pratibha Patil, the ex- President of India, also the daughter of the Rao Patil of Nadgaon.
It consists of three small forts: Jafarabad fort on the east, Narnala in the centre and Teliagarh to the west. The lake within the centre of the complex is said to possess healing properties and according to legend contained thephilosopher's stone, though no stone was found when the lake dried up in the drought andIndian famine of 1899-1900.
Occupied since at least theKhalji dynasty, the fort is well known for theMuslimsaintBurhanuddin, "Bagh Sawar Wali", and it is said that many white tigers were seen with him at that time. Adil Beg or Atraf Beg carved many Arabic inscriptions into the fort and the Kadak Bijli cannon. It is also the birthplace of the MughalAurangzeb's great-grandson.
The fort is located in theAkot Taluka ofAkola district, Berar at coordinates of 21°14'38"N 77°01'40"E. The closest city isAkot, which is 18 km away. It is at the southernmost tip of theSatpura Hills at an elevation of 932 meters above sea level.[1] Currently the fort falls within theMelghat Tiger Reserve.Climate of Narnala fort is classified asHumid subtropical as perKöppen-Geiger climate classification with mild to cool winters (November to March), wet Monsoon season (June to October) and hot long summer (March to June). Temperature ranges from 0 °C to 23 °C in winter, 17 °C to 42 °C in summer and 15 °C to 27 °C in Monsoon.
The exact date of construction is not known. The first fortifications, according to local legend, were made by Narendrapal or Narnal Singh Swami, a descendant of theSomvanshi KshatriyaPandavas and at the time Emperor ofHastinapur, a branch fromSomvanshi KshatriyaChalukya ruler ofAyodhya, whose descendant "Rao Rana Narnal Singh", later in early 16th century ruled Narnala for some years.[citation needed] It likely predates 1400 CE asFirishta -the Persian historian- records that 9th Badshah Shahab-ud-dinAhmad Shah I Wali (1422 CE to 1436 CE) during construction of theGawilgarh fort, made repairs to Narnala fort when he camped atAchalpur (Ellichpur) from 1425 to 1428. This would mean that the Narnala fort was constructed beforeBahmani rule.[2]
In 1437, whenNashir Khan the subhedar ofKhandesh invadedBerar, the governor of the province (also called Khan-i-Jahan), remained loyal to his master, Ala-ud-din Ahmad Shah II (son of Ahmad Shah I Wali) and retreated to Narnala. He was besieged by disaffected nobles and Nashir Khan, but managed to break through the besieging force with help of Khalaf Hasan Basri who was sent by Ala-ud-din Ahmed Shah II. Nasir Khan was defeated.[3]
In 1487, Narnala along withGawilgarh came under the control of Fathullah Imad-ul-Mulk, the founder ofImad Shahi dynasty at Ellichpur (orAchalpur). He appointed some regents to rule different parts and forts of the empire, for e.g. Rao Rana Narnal Singh Solanki as Governor of Narnala and sometimes Gawilgad.[4]
In 1572,Burhan Imad Shah (also of the Imad Shahi dynasty) was confined in Narnala by his minister Tufal Khan. This gave Murtaza Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar a pretext to lay siege to the fortress. He captured both king and minister, subsequently putting them to death. Thus the fort passed into the hands of the Ahmednagar kings. In 1597–98, the fort was captured by Akbar's officers, Saiyid Yusuf Khan Mashhad and Shaikh Abul Fazl, and renamed Shanur. from the officer who held it for the Sultan of Ahmadnagar.[5] DuringAkbar's rule, Narnala was one of the Sarkars of Berar Subah (seeBerar Subah).
Sardar Beg Mirza and Qader Beg Mirza, hereditary descendants of the Mughal dynasty in the 18th century, stayed nearArgaon because Shah Beg Subedar ofBerar held the fort.
Narnala was captured by Parsoji Bhosale in 1701 CE and he appointed the Raorana Family descendants the Thakurraos as the governor of Narnala and the surrounding forts and Narnala remained with theMarathas till it was taken over by the British in 1803 CE.
It is also said that the Shahnoor fort was modified/re-built by the Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi because he was a follower of Bagh-Sawar Wali Burhanuddin, maintained thereafter by Imad Shahi dynasty and after thisAkbar invaded Berar and the fort came under theMughals. Mughals recreated the Narnala Fort withMughal architecture and built a mosque at the fort. By his qiledar, Shah Dulha Rehman Ghazi of Ellichpur (now Achalpur) was maternal cousin of Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi and maternal grandson of Sultan Nasiruddin. He defeated Raja Awilla. Through the route of Shahnoor Fort he stayed here threefold night and prayed.
Ahmad Shah Bahmani got the fort repaired in around 1425, when he constructedGavilgad with a view to obstructing the invaders from the north frontier of his kingdom. Nearly all the present buildings seem to be of Islamic origin as the later Islamic rulers modified them. The fort passed on toFathullah Imad-ul-Mulk when he became an independent ruler by 1490, as he was the Subhedar of Berar under the Bahmanis.Gavilgad was also passed on to him. Later, Burhan Imad Shah was imprisoned on this fort by one of his Amirs Tufalkhan who crowned himself. In the battle that was fought between Tufalkhan and Murtaza Nizam Shah in 1572, Tufalkhan was defeated and had to flee and took asylum with Muhammad Shah of Khandesh. On being threatened by Murtaza Nizam Shah of dire consequences if the asylum was continued, Muhammad Shah of Khandesh, refused to give refuge to Tufalkhan who was forced to return to Narnala fort and stay there. The fort was invested by the army of Murtaza. The fort surrendered and Tufalkhan and also Burhan Imad Shah were imprisoned along with 40 others. They were confined in the fort of Lohagad where they died while in captivity. Some historians say that all of them were poisoned under the orders of Murtaza Nizam Shah. After the battle that was fought between the armies of the Ahmadnagar kingdom and the Emperor Akbar on 26 January 1597, in which the armies of the Adilshahi Emperor who along with the Kutub Shah of Golconda was an ally of Nizamshah emerged successful. The fort can now ho ascended by a motorable road. About halfway up it crosses first one and then another piece of level ground, each thickly sprinkled with Islamic tombs.
The path passes two other strong gateways and one slighter one before entering the heart of the fort, and climbs meanwhile to the uppermost glials. Between the last two gateways are the domed tombs of Bagh Savar Wali and Gaz Badshah Wali, the former not only rode a tiger in his life but the old Gazetteer slates "even now a tiny white tiger may be seen at night going to and from his tomb." Passing the last gateway one comes almost at once before the Ambar Bangala, the kacheri of former days.After his expedition across the Gangetic plains in 1017, of Al-Biruni to compose his Tarikh Al-Hind in order to understand the Indians and their beliefs.
The fort covers an area of 362 acres (1.46 km2). The major features and architecture were done by Hindu rulers, mainly theSolanki Rajput Qiledars and the rulers ofGondwana, i.e., theRaj Gond, but modified by Islamic rulers into Islamic style by the time. It has 360 watchtowers, six large and twenty-one small gates. The large gates are called the Delhi Darwaza, the Sirpur Darwaza, the Akot Darwaza, and the Shahnoor Darwaza. The innermost of the three gate-ways is the Mahakali gate named by Qiledar family as Goddess Mahakali is their family deity. It is built of white sandstone and is highly ornate. It is decorated with conventional lotus flowers, a rich cornice, and later flourished with Arabic inscriptions, and flanked by projecting balconies with panels of stone lattice-work displaying considerable variety of design. It is considered an example of Sultanate style of architecture.[6] An inscription records the fact that the gate was built in the reign of Shahab-ud-din Mahmud Shah (Bahmani) by Fathullah Imad-ul-Mulk in 1486. A short verse from the Quran is also inscribed. The fort still display " Ashtakamal" eight petals Lotus which was the symbol of Narnal Singh'sSolanki dynasty Goddess Khimaj orMahalaxmi. These lotuses are visible on the mosques and many other places. Hence it is evident that Islamic rulers made changes in Narnal Singh's original architectural construction and converted the place inMughal/Islamic form. It was impossible for any ruler to rebuild the entire fort considering the geographical location of the fort.
It has anaqueduct and drains to catch rainwater. Along with 19 tanks, four of which are full throughout the year, this ensured a plentiful water supply to the fort residents.
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nasir khan narnala.
