Manauli Fort, also known as Quila Manuali, is a fortress (''

qila Qila ({{langx, ar, قلعة), alternatively transliterated as Kilā, is an Arabic word meaning a fort or castle. The term is also used in various Indo-Iranian languages. Qila often occurs in place-names. India ;Forts * Aligarh Qila * Rohtas Qila ...

'') located in the middle of the Manauli hamlet in

Mohali district Mohali district, officially known as Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar district or SAS Nagar district, is one of the twenty three districts of Punjab, a state in north-west India. It was formed in April 2006''SAS Nagar to become a district'': Retrie ...

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

, India. It is from Mohali city and Chandigarh and nearly 4 km away from International Chandigarh Airport Road Mohali. Manauli is a small hamlet with a population of 3,919 and 693 households ( 2011 Census). As per land record area of the village is (s.no. 85). The fort is above the village habitation level. The fortress was formerly owned by the descendants of Sardar Kapoor Singh of the

Singhpuria Misl Singhpuria Misl, also known as the Faizulpuria Misl, was founded by the Sikh warrior Nawab Kapur Singh, who was born in 1697 and later became a prominent Dal Khalsa (Sikh Army), Dal Khalsa leader. The misl took its original name from a villa ...

but is now controlled by the Government of Punjab. The fort is currently not easily accessible and there is a lack of awareness of its existence.

History

As per local lore, the fort was constructed by the

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of pre ...

, which would mean it is around 300–400-years-old. One source states the fortress dates back to the 18th century. However, Verma (2023) dates the fort earlier to the 17th century and claims it was built by a Mughal ruler. The Mughal-era forts of the Chandigarh region date to the late 17th–18th centuries. The local Sikhs of the area were being persecuted by the Mughal administrators of the region, thus a battle was fought here between the

forces In physics, a force is an influence that can cause an object to change its velocity unless counterbalanced by other forces. In mechanics, force makes ideas like 'pushing' or 'pulling' mathematically precise. Because the magnitude and directi ...

Banda Singh Bahadur Banda Singh Bahadur, born Lachman Dev (27 October 1670 – 9 June 1716), was a Sikh warrior and a Jathedar, general of the Khalsa Fauj, Khalsa Army. At age 15, he left home to become an Sannyasa, ascetic, and was given the name Madho Das Baira ...

and the

, with the Sikhs being victorious in the engagement. This conflict resulted in the first Sikh-rule and Sikh conquest of the fort, with the former battle being renamed ''Shaheed Bagh'' ("garden of martyrs"), in-honour of the Sikh warriors martyred there. In the aftermath of the battle, the Sikh soldiers who participated in the conflict were awarded swathes of land and their associated villages in the conquered territories as ''

jagir A jagir (), ( Hindustani: जागीर/جاگیر, ''Jāgīr''), ( Marathi: जहागीर, ''Jahāgīrá'') also spelled as jageer, was a type of feudal land grant in the Indian subcontinent at the foundation of its Jagirdar ( Zamindar ...

'' (estate). A Sikh warrior named Sardar Kapoor Singh was given control over the fortress and its adjacent land as a result. Kapoor Singh was later awarded the title of ''

Nawab Nawab is a royal title indicating a ruler, often of a South Asian state, in many ways comparable to the Western title of Prince. The relationship of a Nawab to the Emperor of India has been compared to that of the Kingdom of Saxony, Kings of ...

'' by the Mughals. According to Verma (2023), the Singhpuria Misl of the

Sikh Confederacy The Sikh Confederacy was a confederation of twelve sovereign Sikh states (each known as a Misl, derived from the Arabic word مِثْل meaning 'equal'; sometimes spelt as Misal) which rose during the 18th century in the Punjab region in the n ...

, led by Kapur Singh, conquered the fort from the Mughals between 1746–1756. However, Dhillon (2013) claims the fort was conquered by the Singhpuria Misl as late as 1793. As per Lepel H. Griffin's ''Chiefs and Families of Note in'' ''Punjab'', after Kapur Singh the family who headed the jagir and owned the fortress was headed by Khushal Singh, then Budh Singh, then Gopal Singh, then Jai Singh, and then Avtar Singh. Umrao Singh (b. 1896) was a minor when the mantle of leadership passed onto him as the legal heir, thus the estate was controlled by court management until 1921. After the independence of India in 1947, the jagirdari system officially came to an end but the next titular head of the estate, Sita Inder Singh receives the same jagir amount from the Ropar administration, equivalent to the amount prior to independence. Sita Inder Singh resided in Delhi in 2001 and sold much land in Manuali but retained control of the fort. Sita Inder Singh expressed interest in renovating the fortress and turning it a heritage site. The fortress had remained in the control of the descendants of Sardar Kapoor Singh over at-least seven-generations, however they do not know how the fortress came to be possessed by their ancestors. Later-on, the ownership of the fort was bestowed to the Government of Punjab, India and tourism related to the fort has increased recently.

Architecture

The architecture of the fort has been described as being a blend of

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

and

Mughal Mughal or Moghul may refer to: Related to the Mughal Empire * Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries * Mughal dynasty * Mughal emperors * Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia * Mughal architecture * Mug ...

-styles. The main gateway, known locally as the ''Hathi Khana'', of the fort is located on the western-side. The fort, consisting of three-stories, was constructed out of

bricks A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building u ...

(specifically Sirhindi bricks) and

mortar Mortar may refer to: * Mortar (weapon), an indirect-fire infantry weapon * Mortar (masonry), a material used to fill the gaps between blocks and bind them together * Mortar and pestle, a tool pair used to crush or grind * Mortar, Bihar, a village i ...

and once was situated at an elevated level around 20 ft. higher from the rest of the surrounding locality, which allowed for greater defensive capabilities. The four corners of the fort are marked by round-towers that are 30–35 ft. in height with pointed barriers at the top of the towers. The walls of the fort contain

embrasures An embrasure (or crenel or crenelle; sometimes called gunhole in the domain of gunpowder-era architecture) is the opening in a battlement between two raised solid portions ( merlons). Alternatively, an embrasure can be a space hollowed out ...

. The fort contains a separate quarters for women. There are ruins of a maseet (mosque) on the opposite side of the main gateway in the western portion of the fortress. The fort is surrounded by grasslands and the surrounding settlement.

Current status

The fort was formerly impenetrable but years of neglect have relegated it to a crumbling state. It is endangered by lack of official documentation, poor conservation efforts, encroachment, vandalism, and de-structuralization. The decline of the condition of the fort is attributed to weather and vegetation. Plants, such as banyan, palm and neem trees, have been growing without opposition in the fort's confines, causing damage due to their roots creating cracks in the foundation. Algal growth on the structure has led to further deterioration. The overgrowth has led to the fort being inaccessible in many parts due to unchecked tall grass. A tower of the fort is leaning due to the damage and there are broken tiles and fallen bricks. There is also a dried-up, broken fountain within the fort. The fortress is also being used as a waste dumping ground. The south-east corner of the fort is used as a ''

mazaar A Sufi shrine or dargah ( ''dargâh'' or ''dargah'', Turkish: ''dergâh'', Hindustani: ''dargāh'' दरगाह درگاہ, ''dôrgah'') is a shrine or tomb built over the grave of a revered religious figure, often a Sufi saint or dervis ...

'' by the locals, with candles being lit there on Thursdays. Locals often take bricks and other material from the fort's structure to repurpose them for their own needs, which endangers the future integrity of the fortress further. The fort was not protected by the Archeological Department or any other government institution until 2001, when it was declared a "protected monument". In 2009, the fortress came under the control of the Directorate of Cultural Affairs Archaeology and Archives Museum Punjab. The government authorities managing the fortress have been criticised for not doing enough to preserve the structure. Government authorities claim to have spent 1 crore rupees on maintaining the fortress but defend their actions by claiming there is a lack of needed funds. Furthermore, they claim to have repaired the walkway located within the fort and to have assigned a dedicated caretaker of the fortress. A renovation of the fort was carried-out in 2016. According to heritage material conservator Namita Jaspal, the archaeological department gives out renovation contracts to private contractors who use poor material to repair the site. There are fears expressed that the fortress is facing eventual collapse.

Gallery

File:Manauli Fort,district SAS Nagar Mohali, Punjab 01.JPG, Manauli Fort, Mohali district, Punjab File:Manauli Fort,district SAS Nagar Mohali, Punjab 02.JPG, Inner view of Manauli Fort File:Manauli Fort,district SAS Nagar Mohali, Punjab 03.JPG, Complete view of the Manauli Fort complex File:Manauli Fort,district SAS Nagar Mohali, Punjab 04.JPG, Growth of palm trees in Manauli Fort

References

External links