Portuguese people
Portuguese people are a Romance ethnic group indigenous to Portugal that share a common Portuguese culture and speak Portuguese. Their predominant religion is Christianity Roman Catholicism, though vast segments of the population the younger generations, have no religious affiliation; the Portuguese people's heritage includes the pre-Celts and Celts. A number of Portuguese descend from converted Jewish and North Africans as a result of the Moorish occupation of the Iberian Peninsula; the Romans, Scandinavians, migratory Germanic tribes like the Suebi, Vandals and Buri who settled in what is today's Portugal The Roman Republic conquered the Iberian Peninsula during the 2nd and 1st centuries B. C. from the extensive maritime empire of Carthage during the series of Punic Wars. As a result of Roman colonization, the majority of local languages stem from the Vulgar Latin. Due to the large historical extent from the 16th century of the Portuguese Empire and the subsequent colonization of territories in Asia and the Americas, as well as historical and recent emigration, Portuguese communities can be found in many diverse regions around the globe, a large Portuguese diaspora exists.
Portuguese people began and led the Age of Exploration which started in 1415 with the conquest of Ceuta and culminated in an empire with territories that are now part of over 50 countries. The Portuguese Empire lasted nearly 600 years, seeing its end when Macau was returned to China in 1999; the discovery of several lands unknown to the Europeans in the Americas, Africa and Oceania, helped pave the way for modern globalization and domination of Western civilization. The Portuguese are a Southwestern European population, with origins predominantly from Southern and Western Europe; the earliest modern humans inhabiting Portugal are believed to have been Paleolithic peoples that may have arrived in the Iberian Peninsula as early as 35,000 to 40,000 years ago. Current interpretation of Y-chromosome and mtDNA data suggests that modern-day Portuguese trace a significant amount of these lineages to the paleolithic peoples who began settling the European continent between the end of the last glaciation around 45,000 years ago.
Northern Iberia is believed to have been a major Ice-age refuge from which Paleolithic humans colonized Europe. Migrations from what is now Northern Iberia during the Paleolithic and Mesolithic, links modern Iberians to the populations of much of Western Europe and the British Isles and Atlantic Europe. Recent books published by geneticists Bryan Sykes, Stephen Oppenheimer and Spencer Wells have emphasized the large Paleolithic and Mesolithic Iberian influence in the modern day Irish and Scottish gene-pool as well as parts of the English. Indeed, Y-chromosome haplogroup R1b is the most common haplogroup in all of the Iberian peninsula and western Europe. Within the R1b haplogroup there are modal haplotypes. One of the best-characterized of these haplotypes is the Atlantic Modal Haplotype; this haplotype reaches the highest frequencies in the British Isles. In Portugal it reckons 65% in the South summing 87% northwards, in some regions 96%; the Neolithic colonization of Europe from Western Asia and the Middle East beginning around 10,000 years ago reached Iberia, as most of the rest of the continent although, according to the demic diffusion model, its impact was most in the southern and eastern regions of the European continent.
Starting in the 3rd millennium BC as well as in the Bronze Age, the first wave of migrations into Iberia of speakers of Indo-European languages occurred. These were followed by others that can be identified as Celts. Urban cultures developed in southeastern Iberia, such as Tartessos, influenced by the Phoenician colonization of coastal Mediterranean Iberia, which shifted to Greek colonization. There is little or no evidence of settlements in Portugal by either Greeks or Phoenicians despite some statements to the contrary; these two processes defined Iberia's, Portugal's, cultural landscape—Continental in the northwest and Mediterranean towards the southeast, as historian José Mattoso describes it. Given the origins from Paleolithic and Neolithic settlers as well as Indo-European migrations, one can say that the Portuguese ethnic origin is a mixture of pre-Roman, pre-Indo-Europeans, pre-Celtics or para-Celts such as the Lusitanians of Lusitania, Celtic peoples such as Calaicians or Gallaeci of Gallaecia, the Celtici and the Cynetes of the Alentejo and the Algarve.
The Romans were an important influence on Portuguese culture. Other minor influences included the Phoenicians/Carthaginians, the Vandals and the Sarmatian Alans, the Visigoths and Suebi; the ruled from 711 until the Reconquista of the Algarve in 1249. In the 9th and 10th centuries small Viking settlements were established in the North coastal regions of Douro and Minho. For the Y-chromosome and MtDNA lineages of the Portuguese and other peoples see this map and this one. Portuguese have maintained a certain degree of ethnic and cultural specific characteristics-ratio with the Basques, since ancient times; the results of the present HLA stu
Dutch Malabar
Dutch Malabar known by the name of its main settlement Cochin, was the title of a commandment of the Dutch East India Company on the Malabar Coast between 1661 and 1795, is part of what is today collectively referred to as Dutch India. Dutch presence in the region started with the capture of Portuguese Quilon, ended with the occupation of Malabar by the British in 1795, they possessed military outposts in 11 locations: Alleppey, Chendamangalam, Ponnani, Cranganore, Cannanore and Quilon. The Kingdom of Cochin was an ally of the Dutch East India Company; the Dutch enlarged the Royal Palace built by the Portuguese at Mattancheri for the King of Cochin, which from on became known as the "Dutch Palace". In 1744, an impressive palace called Bolgatty Palace, was erected on Bolghatty Island for the Dutch Governors; the Dutch contributed a monumental work called Hortus Indicus Malabaricus on the medicinal properties of Malabar plants. In Cochin, the Dutch established an orphanage for poor European children and a leper asylum on Vypin.
Although motivated by the lucrative pepper trade on Malabar, the primary aim for the Dutch in capturing the coast from the Portuguese was to secure Dutch Ceylon from Portuguese invasions. After failed attempts to capture the main Portuguese fort of Goa in 1604 and 1639, the Dutch decided to aim for the secondary Portuguese trading posts on the Malabar Coast. In 1650s the Dutch possessed only the unfortified factories at Cannanore, they took Quilon on 29 December 1658, but it was reconquered by the Portuguese on 14 April 1659. On February 10, 1661 the Dutch commander of Ceylon, Adriaan van der Meyden, came to Malabar with the intention of displacing the Portuguese, at Ayyacotta he had an interview with the Calicut prince, it was agreed that Calicut, the most powerful ruler in Malabar and an enemy of the Portuguese, was to conduct an attack on the Portuguese fort at Cranganore by land backed up by the Dutch Navy. According to the treaty between the two parties, Fort Cranganore was to be made over to Calicut after its successful capture.
Van der Meyden dispersed a Nair detachment sent to stop his advance on the way and appeared before Fort Palliport on February 16 1661. The Portuguese fled by the backwaters. On March 21, Rijckloff Van Goens signed a treaty with the local chief of Paliyam on a ship anchored off the coast. Dutch forces soon attacked the palace of the queen at Mattanceri. Subsequently, the queen was taken as a prisoner. In December 1661, Portuguese Quilon was captured by a Dutch expedition under Rijckloff Van Goens; this is regarded as the beginning of the Dutch presence in Malabar. On January 3, 1662 Van Goens was joined by the Calicut army in a siege of Fort Cranganore in the tropical heat. After a fortnight, the fort surrendered, the Dutch demolished the structure with the exception of the bastion, where they stationed a garrison. A new treaty was now signed between Van der Meyden. Calicut agreed to cede Fort Cranganore and Vypin to the Dutch after the capture of the Portuguese fort at Cochin; the allies moved towards Cochin and marched upon the palace of the Raja on 5 February 1662.
The raja was killed in the subsequent battle along with two of his juniors. The Dutch proceeded to besiege the Portuguese fort. Cochin and the chief of Paliyam provided supplies to the Dutch, who faced heroic Portuguese resistance during the prolonged siege; the Native rulers of Porca and Cembakasseri kept the besieged supplied with provisions. Though disrupted by monsoon rains and the deaths of the ruler of Calicut and important Dutch officers, the garrison capitulated on January 8, 1663; the terms of the capitulation were that all the unmarried Portuguese residents were returned to Europe, all married Portuguese and Mestiços were transferred to Goa. The last governor of Portuguese Cochin was Inácio Sarmento, it was said that about four thousand people were banished and decades of Portuguese supremacy in Malabar came to an end. Fort Cochin now became the primary trading post of the Dutch colony; the alliance between Calicut and the Dutch had no chance of crystallizing into a long lasting friendship.
The Zamorin of Calicut had sought Dutch cooperation so that he might once more recover his hold on the Cochin Raja. Hence his stipulation for the cession of Vypin and reduction of the Cochin Raja to the position of a Calicut tributary in the treaty of 1662, but the Dutch, having established themselves in Cochin and Calicut, asked them to fulfill their treaty obligations. It was in these circumstances, Calicut welcomed the British and allowed them to establish a factory at Calicut in 1664; the Dutch authorities in Amsterdam were alarmed and wrote to their officers in India to "spare no pains" to secure the expulsion of the British from Calicut. The Dutch attacked Cranganore; the Dutch at once summoned their allies, Thekkumkur, Paravur and Mangatt. Calicut forces, including Moplahs and supported by a Portuguese named Pacheco, were at first successful. After a year of desultory fighting the Calicut forces withdrew, the Dutch destroyed the Fort Round and built a bastion near Cranganore. In 1669, Dutch Malabar became a separate commandment of the Dutch East India Company.
In 1670, the Zamorin of Calicut ruler was persuaded by his prince to go to Cranganore to encourage the Nairs. But, the Dutch m
India
India known as the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh largest country by area and with more than 1.3 billion people, it is the second most populous country as well as the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, while its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia; the Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE. In the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, Buddhism and Jainism arose. Early political consolidations took place under the Gupta empires. In the medieval era, Zoroastrianism and Islam arrived, Sikhism emerged, all adding to the region's diverse culture.
Much of the north fell to the Delhi Sultanate. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal Empire. In the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, in the mid-19th under British Crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance and led to India's independence in 1947. In 2017, the Indian economy was the world's sixth largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the fastest-growing major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption and inadequate public healthcare. A nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the second largest standing army in the world and ranks fifth in military expenditure among nations. India is a federal republic governed under a parliamentary system and consists of 29 states and 7 union territories.
A pluralistic and multi-ethnic society, it is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindush, equivalent to the Sanskrit word Sindhu, the historical local appellation for the Indus River; the ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as "The people of the Indus". The geographical term Bharat, recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations, it is a modernisation of the historical name Bharatavarsha, which traditionally referred to the Indian subcontinent and gained increasing currency from the mid-19th century as a native name for India. Hindustan is a Middle Persian name for India, it was introduced into India by the Mughals and used since then. Its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety; the name may refer to either the northern part of India or the entire country.
The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to about 30,000 years ago. Nearly contemporaneous human rock art sites have been found in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, including at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh. After 6500 BCE, evidence for domestication of food crops and animals, construction of permanent structures, storage of agricultural surplus, appeared in Mehrgarh and other sites in what is now Balochistan; these developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation, the first urban culture in South Asia, which flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in what is now Pakistan and western India. Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and Kalibangan, relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilization engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade. During the period 2000–500 BCE, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic cultures to the Iron Age ones; the Vedas, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism, were composed during this period, historians have analysed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain.
Most historians consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west. The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labeling their occupations impure, arose during this period. On the Deccan Plateau, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation. In South India, a progression to sedentary life is indicated by the large number of megalithic monuments dating from this period, as well as by nearby traces of agriculture, irrigation tanks, craft traditions. In the late Vedic period, around the 6th century BCE, the small states and chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the north-western regions had consolidated into 16 major oligarchies and monarchies that were known as the mahajanapadas; the emerging urbanisation gave rise to non-Vedic religious movements, two of which became independent religions. Jainism came into prominence during the life of Mahavira.
Buddhism, based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, attracted followers from all social classes excepting the middle
Gingee Fort
Gingee Fort or Senji Fort in Tamil Nadu, India is one of the surviving forts in Tamil Nadu, India. It lies in Villupuram District, 160 kilometres from the state capital, is close to the Union Territory of Puducherry; the fort is so fortified, that Shivaji, the Maratha king, ranked it as the "most impregnable fortress in India" and it was called the "Troy of the East" by the British. The nearest town with a railway station is Tindivanam and the nearest airport is Chennai, located 150 kilometres away; the site of a small fort built by the kings of konar dynasty and maintained by Chola dynasty in 9th century AD, it was modified by the Vijayanagar empire in the 13th century to elevate it to the status of an unbreachable citadel to protect the small town of Gingee. It was the headquarters of the Gingee Nayaks, during the Nayak domination in northern Tamil Nadu; the fort was built as a strategic place of fending off any invading armies. As per one account, the fort was built during the 15–16th century by the Nayaks of Gingee, the lieutenants of the Vijayanagara Empire and who became independent kings.
The fort passed to the Marathas under the leadership of Shivaji in 1677 AD, Bijapur sultans, the Moghuls, Carnatic Nawabs and the British in 1761. The fort is associated with Raja Tej Singh, who unsuccessfully revolted against the Nawab of Arcot and lost his life in a battle; the Gingee Fort complex is on three hillocks: Krishnagiri to the north, Rajagiri to the west and Chandrayandurg to the southeast. The three hills together constitute a fort complex, each having a separate and self-contained citadel; the fort walls are 13 km and the three hills are connected by walls enclosing an area of 11 square kilometres. It was protected by a 80 feet wide moat; the complex has a seven-storeyed Kalyana Mahal, prison cells, a temple dedicated to its presiding Hindu goddess called Chenjiamman. The fortifications contain a sacred pond known as Aanaikulam. On the top of the hillock, there are minor fortifications; the fort, in modern times, is administered by the Archaeological Survey of India. The fort is one of the prominent tourist destinations in Villupuram district.
The Bijapur Nawabs who held the fort from about 1660 to 1677 AD called it Badshabad, while the Marathas who succeeded them called it Chandry or Chindy. The Mughals, on their capture of the fort in 1698 A. D. named it Nusratgadh in honour of Nawab Zulfiqar Khan Nusrat Jung, the commander-in-chief of the besieging army. The English and the French called it Gingee or Jinji; the early Madras records of the English give the spelling Chengey. As per Tamil legend, the tragic tale of Raja Tej Singh, popularly known in Tamil as Thesingu Raasan, is associated with the fort; the true life story of Tej Singh and his general, Mehboob Khan, who were friends, has inspired many poems, street plays, countless other stories. He was the son of Swarup Singh and revolted against the Nawab of Arcot, was defeated and killed in the war that followed. Though Gingee became a part of the Nawab's territory in 1714, the young and courageous Tej Singh became a legend and his life and brave but tragic end were eulogised in various ballads.
The main source for the first two hundred years of the history of the place is the "Complete History of the Carnatic Kings" among the Mackenzie manuscripts. According to historian Narayan, a small village called Melacerri, located 3 mi away from Gingee is called "Old Gingee" has traces of fortifications from about 1200 AD; the earliest mention of the hill fort of Gingee is found in an Inscription of Vikrama Chola dated in his 10th Year and a Kadava feudatory calls himself the Lord of Senjiyar of the strong embattled fort. Gingee came starting from the Cholas; the site of a small fort built by the Chola dynasty during the 9th century AD, Gingee Fort was modified by Kurumbar while fighting the Cholas and again by the Vijayanagar empire during the 13th century. As per one account, the fort was built during the 15–16th century by the Gingee Nayaks, the lietunants of the Vijayanagara Empire and who became independent kings; the fort was built at a strategic place to fend off any invading armies. It was further strengthened by the Marathas under the leadership of Shivaji in 1677 AD.
He recaptured it from the Bijapur sultans who had taken control of the fort from the Marathas. In 1691, it was besieged by Mghal generals Zul Fikar Khan, Asad Khan & Kam Baksha but was defended by Santaji Ghorpade. During Aurangzeb's campaign in the Deccan, Shivaji's second son who had assumed the throne, Chhatrapati Rajaram, escaped to Ginjee and continued the fight with Moghuls from Ginjee; the fort was the seat of the Maratha Empire for a few months. The Moghuls could not capture the fort for seven years in spite of laying siege; the fort was captured in 1698, but not before Chhatrapati Rajaram escaped. It was passed on to the Carnatic Nawabs who lost it to the French in 1750 before the British took control in 1761 despite losing it to Hyder Ali for a brief period. Raja Desingh ruled Gingee during the 18th century; the Gingee Fort complex is on three hillocks: Krishnagiri to the north, Rajagiri to the west and Chandrayandurg to the southeast. The three hills together constitute a fort complex, yet each hill contains a separate and self-contained citadel.
Connecting them — forming an enormous triangle, a mile from north to south, punctuated by bastions and gateways giving access to the protected zon
Kerala
Kerala, locally known as Keralam, is a state on the southwestern, Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions. Spread over 38,863 km2, Kerala is the twenty-second largest Indian state by area, it is bordered by Karnataka to the north and northeast, Tamil Nadu to the east and south, the Lakshadweep Sea and Arabian Sea to the west. With 33,387,677 inhabitants as per the 2011 Census, Kerala is the thirteenth-largest Indian state by population, it is divided into 14 districts with the capital being Thiruvananthapuram. Malayalam is the most spoken language and is the official language of the state; the Chera Dynasty was the first prominent kingdom based in Kerala. The Ay kingdom in the deep south and the Ezhimala kingdom in the north formed the other kingdoms in the early years of the Common Era; the region had been a prominent spice exporter since 3000 BCE. The region's prominence in trade was noted in the works of Pliny as well as the Periplus around 100 CE.
In the 15th century, the spice trade attracted Portuguese traders to Kerala, paved the way for European colonisation of India. At the time of Indian independence movement in the early 20th century, there were two major princely states in Kerala-Travancore State and the Kingdom of Cochin, they united to form the state of Thiru-Kochi in 1949. The Malabar region, in the northern part of Kerala had been a part of the Madras province of British India, which became a part of the Madras State post-independence. After the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, the modern-day state of Kerala was formed by merging the Malabar district of Madras State, the state of Thiru-Kochi, the taluk of Kasaragod in South Canara, a part of Madras State; the economy of Kerala is the 12th-largest state economy in India with ₹7.73 lakh crore in gross domestic product and a per capita GDP of ₹163,000. Kerala has the lowest positive population growth rate in India, 3.44%. The state has witnessed significant emigration to Arab states of the Persian Gulf during the Gulf Boom of the 1970s and early 1980s, its economy depends on remittances from a large Malayali expatriate community.
Hinduism is practised by more than half of the population, followed by Christianity. The culture is a synthesis of Aryan, Dravidian and European cultures, developed over millennia, under influences from other parts of India and abroad; the production of pepper and natural rubber contributes to the total national output. In the agricultural sector, tea, coffee and spices are important; the state's coastline extends for 595 kilometres, around 1.1 million people in the state are dependent on the fishery industry which contributes 3% to the state's income. The state has the highest media exposure in India with newspapers publishing in nine languages English and Malayalam. Kerala is one of the prominent tourist destinations of India, with backwaters, hill stations, Ayurvedic tourism and tropical greenery as its major attractions; the name Kerala has an uncertain etymology. One popular theory derives Kerala from alam; the word Kerala is first recorded as Keralaputra in a 3rd-century BCE rock inscription left by the Maurya emperor Ashoka, one of his edicts pertaining to welfare.
The inscription refers to the local ruler as Keralaputra. This contradicts the theory that Kera is from "coconut tree". At that time, one of three states in the region was called Cheralam in Classical Tamil: Chera and Kera are variants of the same word; the word Cheral refers to the oldest known dynasty of Kerala kings and is derived from the Proto-Tamil-Malayalam word for "lake". The earliest Sanskrit text to mention Kerala is the Aitareya Aranyaka of the Rigveda. Kerala is mentioned in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the two Hindu epics; the Skanda Purana mentions the ecclesiastical office of the Thachudaya Kaimal, referred to as Manikkam Keralar, synonymous with the deity of the Koodalmanikyam temple. Keralam may stem from the Classical Tamil chera alam; the Greco-Roman trade map. According to Tamil classic Purananuru, Chera king Senkuttuvan conquered the lands between Kanyakumari and the Himalayas. Lacking worthy enemies, he besieged the sea by throwing his spear into it. According to the 17th century Malayalam work Keralolpathi, the lands of Kerala were recovered from the sea by the axe-wielding warrior sage Parasurama, the sixth avatar of Vishnu.
Parasurama threw his axe across the sea, the water receded as far as it reached. According to legend, this new area of land extended from Gokarna to Kanyakumari; the land which rose from sea was filled with unsuitable for habitation. Out of respect and all snakes were appo
Chitradurga Fort
Chitradurga Fort or as the British called it Chitaldoorg, is a fortification that straddles several hills and a peak overlooking a flat valley in the Chitradurga District, India. The fort's name Chitrakaldurga, which means'picturesque fort' in Kannada, is the namesake of the town Chitradurga and its administrative district; the fort was built in stages between the 11th and 13th centuries by the dynastic rulers of the region including the Chalukyas and Hoysalas the Nayakas of Chitradurga of the Vijayanagar Empire. The Nayakas of Chitradurga, or Palegar Nayakas, were most responsible for the expansion of the fort between the 15th and 18th centuries; the fort was taken over for a short while by Hyder Ali at Chitradurga in 1779. The fort was captured by the British forces twenty years when they defeated his son Tipu Sultan; the fort is built in a series of seven concentric fortification walls with various passages, a citadel, warehouses for grains and oil, water reservoirs and ancient temples. There are one huge temple in the lower fort.
Among these temples the oldest and most interesting is the Hidimbeshwara temple. The masjid was an addition during Hyder Ali's rule; the fort's many interconnecting tanks were used to harvest rainwater, the fort was said to never suffer from a water shortage. Chitradurga is formed of two words in the Kannada language: ‘chitra’ means “picture” and ‘durga’ means “fort” and is tagged with the English word ‘fort’ to form the name “Chitradurga Fort”, it is locally known as “Kallina Kote” or Stone Fortress, formed of two Kannada words ‘Kallina’: “Stone” and Kote:“Fort”. Other names used in Kannada are ‘Ukkina Kote”: “Steel Fort” and ‘Yelusuttina Kote’: “Seven Circles Fort”. Chitradurga Fort lies in the midst of a valley formed by the Vedavati River; the Tungabhadra River flows to the northwest of the fort. Seven hills constitute the Chinmuladri range; the seven circles of the fort enclose these hills. Features of massive rock hills and scenic valleys, huge towering boulders are seen in the fort precincts.
The hills on which major part of the fort and the city rest belong to the oldest rock of granitic formation in the country. The highest hill peak of the area is located at Jogi Matti, 5 kilometres to the south of Chitradurga; the highest elevation of the hills at the fort is 976 metres. The area covered by the fort is reported to be 1,500 acres; the fort is located 120 km from the UNESCO World Heritage Site and 200 km from Bangalore. Chitradurga railway line is connected to main line at ChikkajajurBangalore/Mysore – Arasikere broad gauge railway line. A number of inscriptions of the Chalukyas, the Hoysalas and the Vijayanagar kings have been found in and around the fort; these inscriptions trace the history of the fort to the 3rd Millennium B. C. Ashokan period rock edicts found near Brahmagiri link Chitradurga to the Mauryan Empire during the reign of the royal dynasties of Rashtrakutas and Hoysalas. However, the area where the fort now exists achieved prominence only under the dynastic rule of the Nayakas of Chitradurga or "Paleygars" as a feudatory of the Vijayanagar Empire.
Between 1500 AD and 1800 AD, Chitradurga Fort witnessed a turbulent history starting with the Vijayanagar Empire. Vijayanagar rulers brought the Nayakas, the traditional local chieftains of the area, under their control as their feudatory, until their dynastic reign ended in 1565 A. D. Thereafter, the Nayakas of Chitradurga took independent control of the region and their clan ruled for more than 200 years until the last of their rulers, Madakari Nayaka V, was defeated by Hyder Ali of Mysore Kingdom, in 1779. During all these years, Chitradurga Fort was central to the reign of the Nayakas. Timmana Nayaka or Thimmappa Nayaka, a chieftain from Matti during the rule of Saluva Narasimha, was the first ruler in the hierarchy of the Nayakas of Chitradurga, he was a chieftain under the Vijayanagar Empire but was soon elevated to the rank of Governor of Chitradurga by the Vijayanagar ruler in recognition of his excellent military service to the empire. He controlled areas of the Chitradurga District including Davangere and Harihar in the present Davangere District.
His rule lasted for a brief period and ended with his incarceration and death as a prisoner of the Vijaynagar Empire. His son Obana Nayaka or Madakari Nayaka succeeded him. Followed by a series of hierarchical or other adopted forms of successions of the same clan. Bharamappa Nayaka, who ruled from 1689 until 1722, is regarded as the greatest of the Nayaka rulers famed for building forts, palaces and temples, including several gateways and bastions, he fought several battles against the Mughals. Madakari Nayaka V was the final ruler of the clan from 1758 to 1779, it was during his reign that the city of Chitradurga and the fort were besieged by the troops of Hyder Ali. Madakari Nayaka used the fort for defense during three battles against Hyder Ali. at times allying himself with Hyder Ali of Mysore Kingdom and at others with the Marathas. Hyder Ali attacked the Chitradurga Fort the first time in 1760, the second time in 1770 and the third time in 1779 when he defeated Madakari Nayaka. Nayaka was killed.
Nayaka's gamble of playing with both Hyder Ali and the Marathas was not successful. Subsequent to his death the treasury at the fort is said to have yielded a rich bounty, it was during one such war that the heroics of Onake Obavva, the wife of a soldier guarding t
Golkonda
Golkonda known as Golconda, Gol konda, or Golla konda, is a citadel and fort in Southern India and was the capital of the medieval sultanate of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, is situated 11 km west of Hyderabad. It is a tehsil of Hyderabad district, India; the region is known for the mines that have produced some of the world's most famous gems, including the Koh-i-Noor, the Hope Diamond, Nassak Diamond and the Noor-ul-Ain. Golkonda was known as Mankal. Golkonda Fort was first built by the Kakatiyas as part of their western defenses along the lines of the Kondapalli Fort; the city and the fortress were built on a granite hill, 120 meters high, surrounded by massive battlements. The fort was strengthened by Rani Rudrama Devi and her successor Prataparudra; the fort came under the control of the Musunuri Nayaks, who defeated the Tughlaqi army occupying Warangal. It was ceded by the Musunuri Kapaya Bhupathi to the Bahmani Sultanate as part of a treaty in 1364. Under the Bahmani Sultanate, Golkonda rose to prominence.
Sultan Quli Qutb-ul-Mulk, sent as a governor of Telangana, established it as the seat of his government around 1501. Bahmani rule weakened during this period, Sultan Quli formally became independent in 1538, establishing the Qutb Shahi dynasty based in Golkonda. Over a period of 62 years, the mud fort was expanded by the first three Qutb Shahi sultans into the present structure, a massive fortification of granite extending around 5 km in circumference, it remained the capital of the Qutb Shahi dynasty until 1590 when the capital was shifted to Hyderabad. The Qutb Shahis expanded the fort; the fort fell into ruin in 1687, after an eight-month-long siege led to its fall at the hands of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. The Golkonda Fort used to have a vault where the famous Koh-i-Noor and Hope diamonds were once stored along with other diamonds. Golkonda is renowned for the diamonds found on the south-east at Kollur Mine near Kollur, Guntur district and Atkur in Krishna district and cut in the city during the Kakatiya reign.
At that time, India had the only known diamond mines in the world. Golkonda's mines yielded many diamonds. Golkonda was the market city of the diamond trade, gems sold there came from a number of mines; the fortress-city within the walls was famous for diamond trade. However, Europeans believed. Magnificent diamonds were taken from the mines in the region surrounding Golkonda, including the Daria-i-Noor or "Sea of Light", at 185 carats, the largest and finest diamond of the crown jewels of Iran, its name has come to be associated with great wealth. Gemologists use this classification to denote a diamond with a complete lack of nitrogen. Many famed diamonds are believed to have been excavated from the mines of Golkonda, such as: Daria-i-Noor Noor-ul-Ain Koh-i-Noor Hope Diamond Princie Diamond Regent Diamond Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond By the 1880s, "Golkonda" was being used generically by English speakers to refer to any rich mine, to any source of great wealth. During the Renaissance and the early modern eras, the name "Golkonda" acquired a legendary aura and became synonymous for vast wealth.
The mines brought riches to the Qutb Shahis of Hyderabad State, who ruled Golkonda up to 1687 to the Nizam of Hyderabad, who ruled after the independence from the Mughal Empire in 1724 until 1948, when the Indian integration of Hyderabad occurred. The Golkonda fort is listed as an archaeological treasure on the official "List of Monuments" prepared by the Archaeological Survey of India under The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act. Golkonda consists of four distinct forts with a 10 km long outer wall with 87 semicircular bastions, eight gateways, four drawbridges, with a number of royal apartments and halls, mosques, stables, etc. inside. The lowest of these is the outermost enclosure into which we enter by the "Fateh Darwaza" studded with giant iron spikes near the south-eastern corner. An acoustic effect can be experienced at Fateh Darwazaan, characteristic of the engineering marvels at Golkonda. A hand clap at a certain point below the dome at the entrance reverberates and can be heard at the'Bala Hisar' pavilion, the highest point a kilometer away.
This worked. The whole of the Golkonda Fort complex and its surrounding spreads across 11 km of total area and discovering its every nook is an arduous task. A visit to the fort reveals the architectural beauty in many of the pavilions, gates and domes. Divided into four district forts, the architectural valour still gleams in each of the apartments, temples and stables; the graceful gardens of the fort may have lost their fragrance, for which they were known 400 years ago, yet a walk in these former gardens should be in your schedule when exploring the past glories of Golkonda Fort. Bala Hissar Gate is the main entrance to the fort located on the eastern side, it has a pointed arch bordered by rows of scroll work. The spandrels have yalis and decorated roundels; the area above the door has peacocks with ornate tails flanking an ornamental arched niche. The granite block lintel below has sculpted yalis flanking a disc; the design of peacocks and lions is t
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