Chittaurgarh, India Summary

Of all the former Rajput capitals, CHITTAURGARH (or Chittor), 115km northeast of Udaipur, was the strongest bastion of Hindu resistance against the Muslim invaders. No less than three mass suicides ( johars) were committed over the centuries by the female inhabitants of its fort, whose husbands watched their wives, sisters and mothers burn alive before smearing ash from the sacred funeral pyres over their bodies and riding to their deaths on the battlefield below. An air of desolation still hangs over the honey-coloured ramparts, temples, towers and palaces of the old citadel, which sprawls over a rocky plateau high above the Mewar Valley. Though less imposing than Jodhpur’s Meherangarh fort, the ruins evoke more vividly than any other in Rajasthan the zeal of medieval Rajput chivalry.