Ginnorgarh (or Ginnaurgarh, Hindi गिन्नोर्गढ़) is a fort in Raisen District,

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

. Located in the Ratapani Tiger Reserve on a rocky summit rising to 700m, Ginnorgarh has two natural water bodies and a fortified enclosure with the remains of several palaces, gatehouses and cisterns. Ginnorgarh Fort

Ginnorgarh was occupied late in the Paramara period, as testified by architectural fragments incorporated into the current structures, but the location first rose to prominence under the Gond rulers. The palace may have been constructed by Nizam Shah, a powerful Gond warlord. The building is one of the gems of Indian palace architecture, close in style to the Kharbuja Mahal at

Dhar Dhar is a city located in Dhar district of the Malwa region in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. The city is the administrative headquarters of the Dhar district. Before Indian independence from Great Britain, it was the capital of the Dhar ...

fort. After Nizam Shah was poisoned by his nephew, the chief of Chainpur Bari, his widow

Rani Kamlapati Dost Mohammad Khan (c. 1657–1728) was the founder of Bhopal State in central India. He founded the modern city of Bhopal, the capital of the modern day Madhya Pradesh state. An Afghan from Tirah, Dost Mohammad Khan joined the Mughal Army at ...

and her son took refuge in the fort. The queen sought protection from

Dost Muhammad Khan Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai (Pashto/; 23 December 1792 – 8 June 1863), nicknamed the Amir-i Kabir, was the founder of the Barakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers of Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War. With the decline of ...

who became the de facto ruler of the state. With Kamalapati's death in 1723, her son Nawal Shah took charge of the fort.

then organised an expedition to Ginnorgarh from

Bhopal Bhopal (; ISO 15919, ISO: Bhōpāl, ) is the capital (political), capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes,'' due to ...

and was able to take the fort by stealth. The presence of the rulers of

at Ginnorgarh is testified by later buildings and an inscription in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

on one of the gatehouses dated 1725–26. By the early twentieth century, C. E. Luard recorded that the buildings were falling into ruin.C. E. Luard, ''Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency W. Western States (Malwa) Gazetteer'' (Bombay, 1908). Despite being a protected monument under the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Madhya Pradesh, the structures continue to decline and have been vandalised. Ginnaurgarh palace dome

References

{{coord, 22.8410, 77.5338, type:landmark_region:IN, display=title Tourist attractions in Raisen district History of Madhya Pradesh Forts in Madhya Pradesh