Around Tirupati - Chandragiri

On our ten day Tirupati visit, we visited temples galore, waterfalls, museums, a zoo and even a science centre! The last place we visited was a fort, to round it off, so to speak! I would call the Chandragiri fort more of a palace than a fort, and that too, a rather simple palace, on the whole.

Layout of the Chandragiri Fort

According to Wikipedia, Chandragiri was built by the Yadava Rayas in the 11^th century, and they ruled it for over three centuries. It then came under the control of the Vijayanagara rulers, who moved here when the Golconda attacked their capital at Penukonda. It was annexed by the Golconda sultans in 1646, and finally came under the rule of the kings of Mysore. Around the end of the eighteenth century, the fort was abandoned, and it sunk into oblivion.

Raja Mahal

The main structure here is the Raja Mahal, literally the king’s palace. Compared to some other palaces I have seen, this was quite simple, and is now used as a museum, housing various artifacts found in the fort as well as the surrounding areas. As usual, Samhith and I were drawn towards the various models of temples, forts and museums, which is what I shall always remember. We especially loved the model of the Gudimallam temple and lingam, as well as the model of the entire Chandragiri fort.

The only other structure in this complex is the Rani Mahal, the queen’s palace, which was even simpler than the Raja Mahal, so we just had a look from outside. Apart from this, there are only huge lawns where the crowds come to have a picnic and a too small lake where people go boating. Of course, Samhith wanted to go boating at once, but the lake was so small, that I was afraid we would get dizzy, and stayed away from it!

The fort complex is maintained by the ASI, which has done a pretty good job of popularizing the places it maintains by putting up huge boards, but none of the staff have any information about the places they are (supposedly) popularizing! Neither do any of them have any information, but the ASI book store has books about all kinds of places, except this one or the locations mentioned on the boards! It’s a pity to see the people who are in charge of our historic monuments.

Rani Mahal

More interesting was the drive through the narrow lanes of the erstwhile fort, along the remnants of the outer and inner walls. There are a few temples around, which were once inside the fort, but there is just one where prayers are still conducted, and it was closed. It was fun, though, to listen to our auto driver who acted as our guide and described how traitors were taken up to the peak of the hill and then thrown down from there… that triggered off Samhith’s imagination, which turned out to be not-so-funny after all! There are a few people who trek up the hill… that must be interesting, I felt, but since I am not the trekking kind, it is something I have to wait for someone else to try and write about…so that I can experience it second-hand!

ASI Board about other monuments

Incidentally, the second walking path to Tirumala – the Srivari Mettu – starts near the fort. Again, from what the driver told us, the path was made for the royal family to visit the temple, a kind of private walkway!

Here are some more images of the fort and its surroundings.....

A dilapidated temple..........

One of the gates - the inner wall, with a rickshaw coming through......

The same, by itself... which pic is better????

One of the hills with some structures atop it.....

The source of our driver's stories - it does look like the kind of place people would be pushed from.. don't you think so?

Another structure... there are steps to reach this place! See, there is a person up there!

Another gate - this time the outer wall.

A close-up..

Samhith peeping though the closed temple....

Information:

Chandragiri fort is about 12 Km from Tirupati, from where frequent buses are available.

There is a sound and light show every evening, from 6:30 PM  to 7:15 PM in Telugu and from 7:30 PM to 8:15 PM in English. The charge is Rs. 30 for adults and Rs. 20 for children.

This was something I wanted to attend, but I was informed that the show wouldn’t take place if it rained in the evening. Since it rained almost continuously during my stay, this turned out to be impossible. So there is one more thing for me to look forward to, when I visit Tirupati next!