March 2, 2006 - Madhogarh
Fort Madhogarh
Wow! We arrived just after noon at a really cool old fort called Fort Madhogarh, where we stayed for the night. The fort was situated on the very top of a hill and I could see 360⁰ from the fort.
Upon our arrival at the fort, we met the wife of the owner of the fort. She is very pretty and sweet, probably in her late twenties or early thirties. She told us the history of the fort:
Built by the Kachhawaha Rajputs of Amber-Jaipur, Madhogarh Fort gained historical importance when Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh Ji chose this fort as his headquarters during his campaign against the Marathas. On July 28, 1787, the historic battle between the Rajputs and the Marathas was fought in the plains of Tunga, at a mere distance of about 1 kilometer from Madhogarh Fort in Rajasthan.
The battle commenced at 9 a.m. and continued until about an hour after sunset. The combined Rajput battalion of Jaipur and Jodhpur comprised of about 50,000 soldiers, while the Maratha army was comparatively larger, with about 80,000 soldiers. The Maratha army boasted of a professionally trained battalion under the command of renowned Maratha general, Mahadaji Scindia. Nevertheless, the Maratha army was forced to abandon the battlefield and leave at night. The battle saw casualties numbering in the thousands.
Apparently, when India went from being ruled by the aristocracy to the government, the fort was abandoned because of the high cost of upkeep. For 60 years it was left to ruin. Then, in 2000, the present owners, the fourth generation direct descendents of Thakur Pratap Singh Ji, decided to restore it. They spent the next 4 years renovating the main part of the fort before opening it up in 2004 to select groups for overnight stays.
The fort had many levels and walkways. It was all open to the outdoors and had many turrets and courtyards. It was very easy to get lost there. There were large portions of the fort that were still being restored and were not accessible.
(Click on the images below to view.)
Upon our arrival at the fort, we met the wife of the owner of the fort. She is very pretty and sweet, probably in her late twenties or early thirties. She told us the history of the fort:
Built by the Kachhawaha Rajputs of Amber-Jaipur, Madhogarh Fort gained historical importance when Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh Ji chose this fort as his headquarters during his campaign against the Marathas. On July 28, 1787, the historic battle between the Rajputs and the Marathas was fought in the plains of Tunga, at a mere distance of about 1 kilometer from Madhogarh Fort in Rajasthan.
The battle commenced at 9 a.m. and continued until about an hour after sunset. The combined Rajput battalion of Jaipur and Jodhpur comprised of about 50,000 soldiers, while the Maratha army was comparatively larger, with about 80,000 soldiers. The Maratha army boasted of a professionally trained battalion under the command of renowned Maratha general, Mahadaji Scindia. Nevertheless, the Maratha army was forced to abandon the battlefield and leave at night. The battle saw casualties numbering in the thousands.
Apparently, when India went from being ruled by the aristocracy to the government, the fort was abandoned because of the high cost of upkeep. For 60 years it was left to ruin. Then, in 2000, the present owners, the fourth generation direct descendents of Thakur Pratap Singh Ji, decided to restore it. They spent the next 4 years renovating the main part of the fort before opening it up in 2004 to select groups for overnight stays.
The fort had many levels and walkways. It was all open to the outdoors and had many turrets and courtyards. It was very easy to get lost there. There were large portions of the fort that were still being restored and were not accessible.
(Click on the images below to view.)
As I was sitting on a balcony overlooking a turret, I could see a still-ruined part of the fort and the town of Madhogarh below. There were a bunch of bright green parakeets that kept flying from a nearby tree to perch on the stones of the fort just a few feet from me. There was also a very large, noisy peacock just below me on the fort grounds, as well as several other birds rooting around on the ground. A mother dog and her pup were antagonizing the peacock, who would fly from one part of the grounds to another. Later in the day there were hundreds of pigeons perched on the turret just outside my room, speaking of which…
My room was located at the very back of the fort – at least walking-wise. However, when I peered out of the two [ancient, probably original] leaded-glass windows in the room, I looked right into the fort’s front entrance courtyard and the huge wooden doors. I entered my room through its own set of heavy wooden double doors, complete with all the trappings of fort doors of yore.
I shared my room with LouAnn, who was very ill with stomach cramps that morning. Our room was quite interesting; bizarre, actually. To get to it, one must take a winding walk through the fort – up staircases, down staircases, via long halls, across an empty shallow pool, through arches, past turrets and balconies. When you don’t think you can go any further, there was my room. Once inside, the walls were old plaster with a scalloped design and the floors were large slabs of marble, old and worn. The furniture looked to be original, but the room was clean. There were a couple old leaded-glass windows, which I’m sure were original to the fort. Thank goodness we had these because the only other light in the room came from a small wall sconce, that I swear couldn’t have been any brighter than 25 watts. (The other light fixtures in the room did not work.) The bathroom, located in a turret right off the bedroom, was octagonally shaped. There were two small windows in the bathroom, which were completely covered in goldish leaded glass and basically let in no light at all, which was awful because the ceiling light fixture put out the light of a birthday candle. Not to mention, but the water in the bathroom sink and shower was a cold trickle. I believe it must have been the oldest room in the whole fort! Mind you, I’m not complaining because I love adventure, and staying in this room was definitely an adventure.
(Click on the images below view.)
My room was located at the very back of the fort – at least walking-wise. However, when I peered out of the two [ancient, probably original] leaded-glass windows in the room, I looked right into the fort’s front entrance courtyard and the huge wooden doors. I entered my room through its own set of heavy wooden double doors, complete with all the trappings of fort doors of yore.
I shared my room with LouAnn, who was very ill with stomach cramps that morning. Our room was quite interesting; bizarre, actually. To get to it, one must take a winding walk through the fort – up staircases, down staircases, via long halls, across an empty shallow pool, through arches, past turrets and balconies. When you don’t think you can go any further, there was my room. Once inside, the walls were old plaster with a scalloped design and the floors were large slabs of marble, old and worn. The furniture looked to be original, but the room was clean. There were a couple old leaded-glass windows, which I’m sure were original to the fort. Thank goodness we had these because the only other light in the room came from a small wall sconce, that I swear couldn’t have been any brighter than 25 watts. (The other light fixtures in the room did not work.) The bathroom, located in a turret right off the bedroom, was octagonally shaped. There were two small windows in the bathroom, which were completely covered in goldish leaded glass and basically let in no light at all, which was awful because the ceiling light fixture put out the light of a birthday candle. Not to mention, but the water in the bathroom sink and shower was a cold trickle. I believe it must have been the oldest room in the whole fort! Mind you, I’m not complaining because I love adventure, and staying in this room was definitely an adventure.
(Click on the images below view.)
LouAnn and I went exploring around the fort grounds and met Brawny, the resident dog (who also kept us awake at night with his barking). LouAnn and I walked halfway down a hill on the side of the fort and up another hill to discover some fort ruins, which we investigated. I looked down from the fort ruins and saw some kids from a school waving and shouting at me.
After a couple hours of exploring the grounds of the fort, LouAnn and I returned to our room and discovered that something had chewed a hole through my tote bag, which I had left laying on my bed, and had started eating my stash of cookies. In an effort to save the rest of them, I used dental floss to tie what was left of my cookies to the light hanging from the ceiling, which left the cookies dangling in the air. My tote bag, which I had bought at Auroville two weeks earlier, was left with a nice little hole in the bottom corner!
Walking Through Madhogarh
The town of Madhogarh as seen from the fort.
After lunch at the fort, my fellow travelers and I took a walking tour of the town below. We started off at the primary school, where the entire student body was sitting outside waiting for us. Once we arrived, they stood and sang a couple of songs for us. Then we taught them “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” Afterwards, the students were dismissed for the day, and a huge group of them swarmed me. They were touching, pulling and grabbing me, and I couldn’t get away. It was pretty scary since none of the school's teachers were around and the rest of my traveling companions were already way down the road and had no idea what was going on. I kept shouting after my friends, but they could not hear me, though I felt like I was yelling at the top of my lungs. I finally was able to get away from the students after screaming at them in a really mean voice!
With a few school children still tagging along, I joined the rest of my group as we walked further into the tiny village of Madhogarh. The village streets were all dirt and very dusty. We visited several small establishments, including a tiny workshop where we watched a woman weaving on a large hand-operated loom, though I don't know what, exactly, she was making. We then visited a a gem polishing “factory” where 8 older girls (18 – 20 years old) spent 7½ hours a day squatting while polishing raw semi-precious stones on archaic wheels. We also stopped by a pottery-making workshop where we watched a man make water jugs from clay. Debbie even tried her hand at it. I really didn’t pay too much attention because I was having fun with 3 local girls (2 were sisters) and a little boy. Lastly, we stopped by a tiny shop where a man was making bangle bracelets, which every Indian women seemed to wear.
As we continued walking through town, children would come from nowhere to follow us. They all wanted a “photo, please.” (I think this was the only English they knew!) I had so many children tagging after me that I felt like the Pied Piper. For some reason, the kids came right to me; all of my traveling companions said it was because I was the only mother in the group and I gave off “motherly love.” I did love them (except when they were grabbing at me!), and I loved interacting with them.
Chai
Old man at the tea stall in Madhogarh town.
Our last stop in the village was a roadside chai stall where over a dozen local men – many of them quite old and dressed in traditional Rajasthani clothing – were sitting and drinking tea. All of our group ordered chai (except me because I was too hot to drink hot tea) and we sat among the locals. The delicious chai was served in little clay cups, which are used only once. After being used, a person is free to do with the cup whatever he likes... most often throw it away because it starts to disintegrate once the hot beverage is poured into it! Regardless of whether I drank the tea or not, it is always fun to watch the chai wallah make the tea. To stand out from the rest, many chai wallahs develop their own style of preparation and presentation of their chai. Often it is the performance that sells the chai. Many chai wallahs let the chai boil up until the instant before it is going to spill over the side, then with great dexterity, swirls the pot an inch over the flame, suspending it in an almost-boiling-over state before removing it from the heat, then repeats the whole thing over. The chai wallah then blends the chai by pouring it back and forth between the pot and cup at two arm-lengths apart. It's an amazing thing to watch.
Chandra made me take some photographs of the chai wallah while he was making the tea, which he (Chandra) told me to send to Intrepid Travel for the photo contest; he said I would win! Well, we’ll see!! [My photos of the man making the chai turned out terrible, so I did not enter them into the photo contest. I did, however, get some good shots of the old men at the chai stall.)
(Click on the images below to view.)
Chandra made me take some photographs of the chai wallah while he was making the tea, which he (Chandra) told me to send to Intrepid Travel for the photo contest; he said I would win! Well, we’ll see!! [My photos of the man making the chai turned out terrible, so I did not enter them into the photo contest. I did, however, get some good shots of the old men at the chai stall.)
(Click on the images below to view.)
To see a chai wallah in action, click on the video below.
That night my fellow travelers and I got dressed up: the gals (except LouAnn, who didn’t participate; I think she was still not feeling well) in saris (the owner’s wife brought her own saris for us to dress in, and then she personally dressed each of us individually) and the guys in turbans, dhotis (a long loincloth worn by Hindu men) and some kind of maharaja shirts. We all then went into the fort’s main courtyard where we had dinner and partied. There were live Indian musicians and we all danced. Many photo ops!
(Click on the images below to view.)
(Click on the images below to view.)
Back in my room there was only one light working in the room and one in the bathroom. Each gave off only a pale golden light, so it was very difficult to see anything. I tried to go to bed, but Brawny was barking up a storm and he started all the other dogs down in town barking as well. The barking finally stopped and I drifted off to sleep. It was a fitful night, though, as the bed was very uncomfortable.
NEXT: JAIPUR, INDIA