Gwalior Fort is located on top of a solitary rocky hill at Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. The fort has been controlled by a number of different rulers in its history.

The present-day fort consists of a defensive structure and two main palaces, Gujari Mahal and Man Mandir, built by Man Singh Tomar in the end of the 14 century. The Gujari Mahal palace was built for Queen Mrignayani. It is now an archaeological museum. The second oldest record of “zero” in the world was found in a small temple, which is located on the way to the top. The inscription is around 1500 years old.

The exact period of Gwalior Fort’s construction is not certain. According to a local legend, the fort was built by a local king named Suraj Sen in 3 AD. The inscriptions and monuments found within the fort campus indicate that it may have existed as early as the beginning of the 6th century. The fort definitely existed by the 10th century, when it is first mentioned in the historical records.


Main entrance & Man Mandir, Gwalior Fort (Album of Miscellaneous views in India, by Deen Dayal, 1882 AD)

The fort has been controlled by a number of different rulers in its history.

The Kachchhapaghatas controlled the fort in the 10th century AD, as feudatories of the Chandelas (dynasty famous for their Khajuraho temples)

The Ghurid general Qutb al-Din Aibak, who later became a ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, captured the fort in 1196 AD after a long siege. The Delhi Sultanate lost the fort for a short period before it was recaptured by Iltumish in 1232 AD.

In 1398 AD, the fort came under the control of the Tomars. The most distinguished of the Tomar rulers was Maan Singh, who commissioned several monuments within the fort. The Delhi Sultan Sikander Lodi tried to capture the fort in 1505 AD but was unsuccessful. Another attack, by his son Ibrahim Lodi in 1516, resulted in Maan Singh's death. The Tomars ultimately surrendered the fort to the Delhi Sultanate after a year-long siege.

Only a decade later, the Mughal emperor Babur captured the fort from the Delhi Sultanate. The Mughals lost the fort to Sher Shah Suri in 1542 AD. Consequently, the fort was used by Hemu, the Hindu general as his base for his many campaigns, but Babur's grandson Akbar recaptured it in 1558 AD.

After the death of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, the Rana chieftains of Gohad held the Gwalior Fort. The Maratha general Mahadaji Shinde captured the fort from the Gohad Rana Chhatar Singh, but soon lost it to the British East India Company in 1780 AD. In 1780, the British governor Warren Hastings restored the fort to the Ranas of Gohad. The Marathas recaptured the fort four years later, and this time the British did not intervene because the Ranas of Gohad had become hostile to them. Daulat Rao Sindhia lost the fort to the British during the Second Anglo-Maratha War.

There were frequent changes in the control of the fort between the Scindias and the British between 1808 and 1844. In January 1844, after the battle of Maharajpur, the fort was occupied by the Gwalior State of the Maratha Scindia family, as protectorate of the British government. The British took control of the fort in June 1858.

By 1886, the British were in complete control of India, and the fort no longer had any strategic importance to them. Therefore, they handed over the fort to the Scindia family. The Scindias continued to rule Gwalior until the independence of India in 1947, and built several monuments including the Jai Vilas Mahal.

The fort and its premises house many historic monuments including palaces, temples and water tanks. The fort covers an area of 3 square kilometres and rises 11 m in height. Its rampart is built around the edge of the hill, connected by six bastions or towers. There are two gates to the fort; one on the northeast side with a long access ramp – Elephant gate (Hathi Pul) and the other on the southwest is the Badalgarh Gate.

Gwalior Fort map (image from page 254 of “A handbook for travellers in India, Burma, and Ceylon“, 1911)