It takes only half a day to visit main places of Kumbalgarh Fort but if you really want to claim that you have explored it, that demands more time and willingness to walk around to see some of the most stunning temples inside the huge boundary of Kumbalgarh Fort. This is one of the most things that happen with me that I feel like staying back for more time and walk a lot. Usually you go inside the fort from a main gate and the check out some of the temples and main fort. All of that is nearby and hence, it's easier to explore this part in half or day or a day. When you are in this cluster of temples around the main fort, you see numerous temples at distance.
There is a huge cluster of Jain temples at a distance and a few others spread across the huge piece of land inside the fort. Not only temples, we also observed a dam kind of structure at a distance. After seeing all that from the top of Badal Palace inside the fort, I felt like walking down to those hills and have a closer look at these old structures. I am sure Travellingcamera will also love to click photographs of these temples/structures which are not so common on internet. Let's see if I do that in future, but wanted to share this with viewers of our blog. I know many of you are hard-core travellers who are always keen on finding opportunities to explore things beyond touristy places and Kumbalgarh Fort offers that.
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Above photograph shows the cluster of Jain Temple on right top part and a water dam kind of structure on left-bottom of the photograph. We missed our binoculars at Kumbalgarh fort. So if you are planning a visit to Kumbalgarh Fort, do carry your binoculars to see these structures with better details.
Related Blogpost - Neelkanth Mahadev Temple inside KumbalGarh Fort, Rajasthan - One of the few active temples inside Second Longest Wall of the World
From the top of the fort, you see various temples spread over the mountains around the main fort of Kumbalgarh. Above photograph shows one such temple. In total, there are 364 temples inside the great wall of Kumbalgarh Fort. 300 out of those temples are Jain temples. We didn't go there, but I would love to walk around the fort for 2 days at least to explore other temples which may demand reasonable amount of hike but I am sure Travellingcamera will love it.
When we were on top of Zanana mahal inside Badal Mahal, Travellingcamera noticed the temple you see in above photograph. Badal Mahal inside Kumbalgarh Fort is divided into the Mardana and Zanana areas, like most of the other palaces of Mewar, and apparently both the King and the Queen used to dispense justice in their respective areas. The palace also has jails to hold the criminals. Ironically, these are also the living quarters of the King and the Queen and were once adorned by beautiful wall paintings. The Zenana part also has the shrine of Bhiru baba, the ascetic who as per the local legend willingly sacrificed himself so that the fort walls could stay up and invincible.
Related Blogpost - Vedi Temple inside KumbalGarh Fort, Rajasthan - 3 Storey Octagonal structure standing strong on 36 pillars around world's second largest wall
You are allowed to go up till top of the Zanana Mahal and it offers great panoramic views of the fort. While doing so, you can also see a few of the temples at distance. This was the time, when I was missing my binoculars. We recommend carrying a pair of binoculars when you visit Kumbalgarh Fort in Rajasthan.
While we will be talking about Kumbhalgarh in greater details, this post is dedicated to the Kumbhalgarh fort, a massive invincible structure that has withstood several sieges, conspiracies, and most importantly, the test of time. As you move closer to the fort, its bulbous watch towers confirm the stories that you have heard so far - that it was impossible to scale these walls and get past these gates, making the kingdom within practically impenetrable.
Before this, I had seen Chittorgarh, another massive fortress in Mewar region of Rajasthan and I had absolutely loved it. However, while Chittorgarh fort only survives in ruins today, Kumbhalgarh fort is mostly intact owing to a recent restoration in the 19th century by Maharana Fateh Singh. Both the fortresses are beautiful in their own rights.
Built in the 15th century, the Kumbhalgarh fort is located about 85kms from Udaipur in the relatively lush hills of Rajasamand District of Mewar. As a result the weather is relatively cooler here even in summers. However the best time to visit is winter - from October to February - mostly because it can get very uncomfortable to climb up to the palace in summer months.
The fort walls look quite beautiful when evening lights are on, especially because the fort is surrounded by wilderness and protected forest area. So when you plan your trip to the fort, make sure you stay for a few minutes after the sunset to witness this lighting.
The ticket is Rs 35 per person inclusive of cameras. If you are driving up to the fort, you will need to pay additional Rs 40 for parking. However, unless you reach really really early, you may not find parking close to the main entrance and may need to walk considerable distance. You may want to drop your passengers close to the entrance and come back and park your car.
As soon as you enter the fort, you will find guides who you can hire. The charges they quote are Rs. 850 for the group. A few feet away you will also find a couple of little children who also offer their services as the guides. These children belong to the seven families who still reside within the walls of the fort. You can hire them for Rs 300 per group. However, since they aren't registered guides, they will not be able to enter the Palace, so they will leave you at the gate after showing you the temples and the watch tower. Also these children will run through a script that they have memorised, but won't be able to answer any questions that you may have about the history of the place and So you should make a judgement call based on what you prefer.
These guides give you standard tour of the key places around the main fort. You can ask some of these guides to explore distant temples. If you do a full day deal, they may be helpful in planning your hikes/walks well. I haven't done it so can't say with full confidence if that model will work. Personally I would rather look at the map and go around as per my wish and freedom.
The Kumbhalgarh Fort was designed by the famous 15th-century architect, Mandan, and commissioned by Rana Kumbha. It is built at about 3600 ft above the sea level and is surrounded by a 36-km long wall, which is the longest in India and second longest in the world, after the Great Wall of China.
When you first enter the Kumbhalgarh complex, chances are that your guide will first take you toward the right to visit the Temples - Neelkanth Mahadev Temple, Devi Temple, and Ganesh Temple.
These are all beautiful structures and out of all these temples, pooja is still performed in the Neelkanth Mahadev temple.
From the Devi Temple and Ganesh Temple Complex, you can climb up to the wall of the fort. You can then walk all the way to the ramp leading up to the Kumbha Palace. You realize the sheer size of the structure once you make it up to the wall, and what a mammoth task it must have been to build this fortress using mostly rocks. The wall is indeed wide enough to allow 6 (if not 8, as legend claims) full-grown Mewari horses to walk abreast. From the wall, you can also take in the surrounding wilderness and the Kumbhalgarh town.
As you head up to the first gate, you gain a deeper understanding of the defense mechanisms in place. Not only did the fortress have the watchtowers and walls meant a big advantage against the enemy that would strike from below, the gates themselves were quite strong. They were narrow, so that not too many elephants/people could enter at once. They were practically unmanageable by human hands. And they had large, sharp iron nails jutting out so that elephants too could not be used to break through.
In total, there are 3 such gates that you need to cross and after that you reach the baodi and the birth place of Maharana Pratap. When we visited Kumbhalgarh, this structure was closed temporarily, so we headed up to Badal Mahal, which is a two-storied structure that offering the best view of the surroundings. However, it is very scary to walk up to the tallest part and look down. Not only is the structure really tall, the boundary and railings do not give you any confidence in their sturdiness. Since we had little children with us, we headed down immediately.
The next structure we explored was the Kumbh Mahal. Of all the structures in the complex, I found this to be the most beautiful with paths leading into courtyards and then to other courtyards. It was like a maze and very easy to lose your way in it all. But this is how I like forts - with a bit of mystery and something that leaves a lot up to your imagination.
It takes some time to explore these structures, so don't hurry through them. Climb the climbable stairs and read the inscriptions. But be safe as the boundaries are quite feeble. Also, remember to wear comfortable walking shoes, because you will be walking quite a bit.
There are plenty of other structures within the fort walls that you can spend time exploring. We could only look at these from a distance, but if time allows, you can walk about and explore temples and other historical structures. You can easily spend one entire day or two here, if not more.
Overall, the Kumbhalgarh Fort was a great experience for us. If you are a history buff or like mysterious old places, you should definitely explore this fort. You will carry these memories for years to come.
By now, you must have figured that Kumbalgarh fort has a lot of things to explore which may be far from main Palace/Fort. Especially those beautiful temples which you see from Badal Palace or Kumbha palace inside Kumbalgarh fort of Rajasthan. If you want to explore those temples and beautiful hilly terrains around the Fort walls, you can easily spend 2 days. 1 day should also be enough if you want to explore the cluster of Jain temples along with key places near main fort. The only thing is that you would need to start early, pack some stuff for lunch with you and come back after light & sound show at Kumbalgarh Fort.
If you want to explore it well and don't want to hurry, 2 to 3 days are enough to see some of these distant structures. In future, I would like to do so and I also know a great place to stay in Kumbalgarh now. So next time, probably I will go to Kumbalgarh for few days and stay at Dera Kumbalgarh. And the only thing I would do is walk inside the fort to explore those beautiful temples. If not all 360 temples, I would at least aim to visit & see 50 of them or probably 100.
If you have done any hiking inside Kumbalgarh Fort, please drop more details and suggestions through comments section below.
If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -
1. Manage your waste well and don’t litter Use dustbins.
2. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.
3. Avoid bottle waters in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem.
4. Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.
5. Don't play loud blaring music in forests of jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite.
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