THE FORT AT DAULATABAD
There are countless forts to be seen acrossIndia. How is this one here in Daulatabad different from the others? Well, basically the forts come into threebroad categories:- Forts representing the seat of power; traders forts andmilitary forts. The Daulatabad fort comes in the third category. What made itunique is this fort’s emphasis on its defense. A paranoia drove its builders tocome up with so many fall back options to make them believe that it cannot be taken in battle oreven by relentless siege. It’s quite amazing really. At every stagethere are two sets of huge defensive walls. Let’s take it that an invading armyuses a battering ram to break through the heavily fortified gate of the firstwall. Well, just about 20 ft separate the first wall from the second. Thesecond wall is just as large as the first. And the entrance to the second isabout another 20 ft to the left or to the right leaving no room for thebattering ram to attack the fortified gate of the second wall. And this series oftwo walls and right angled turns happens more than once. In between the two sets of walls is a hugephallic type of tower, a taunt to the invading army and an observation point tostudy the invading army’s approach. And there are cannons at every strategicpoint. Now let’s assume that somehow, the invader hasbreached both sets of walls, the first in front of the tower and the second onebehind. He is now faced with a moat andthe sides of the hill have been shaved vertically providing an obstacle of a hugevertical hill slope that cannot be breached by ladder or with ropes. There isonly one way across. And that is along a narrow staircase that first goes down20 steps and then climbs up another 20 steps to face a small entrance lettingin only one person at a time. The defense can take the invader apart one at atime. By now you are convinced that this fort cannotbe taken. Still, there is yet another obstacle. Into the hillside a cave hasbeen sculpted with a staircase which is in complete darkness and is full ofbooby traps. And the exit from the staircase, if you escape even these boobytraps is once again admitting only one at a time. The Deccan Sultan can remain safely parkedin a small palace on top of the hill. How can anyone hope to take a fort such asthis in battle? The Deccan Sultans thought they were secure from the Mughalarmies. But they forgot that every fort has its own ‘achilles heel.’ And just asit happened in Troy, here too the Fort was taken without much fuss with somecarrot and some stick. A siege and then some over confidence and treachery onthe part of the defenders did them in. The Fort for all the trouble taken in makingit impregnable was captured. A lesson was learnt and this fort has not been replicatedelsewhere. A ruin remains as a lesson to military strategists and a place ofinterest to a casual visitor who is a spot saturated with caves, sculptures andpaintings. The Daulatabad fort is situate just afew kms away from Aurangabad. The road to Ellora passes by the fort. It makesfor an interesting variation to the day’ssightseeing. Munir Visram
