An Architect Explores India’s Most Impenetrable Fort: Chitradurga 🇮🇳 — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Chitra is the next stop on the
2. 0:02architectural pilgrim tour.
3. 0:13We are talking fort cut into the
4. 0:14mountain side and built off and from the
5. 0:16mountain side.
6. 0:21We're going to go there today from here.
7. 0:25So we're in the right place. We're at
8. 0:26the right wrong time though. So it comes
9. 0:28at 1:00. It's 25m minute wait. Uh but it
10. 0:30leaves at 1:15.
11. 0:39[music]
12. 0:42We have made it to Chita Duga. You can
13. 0:45just about [music] see the fort up here.
14. 0:59>> [music]
15. 1:02>> Good morning, Blueprinters. So, exciting
16. 1:04day because we're going up to Chit
17. 1:06Chitga Fort. Uh, we're walking there
18. 1:09now. I was going to take a tuk tuk, but
19. 1:10it's actually not that far away from the
20. 1:12center of town. It's about.7 of a mile.
21. 1:19Chip Redra fort was shaped over
22. 1:21centuries. First by the Niakas, a line
23. 1:23of local rulers who built it as a symbol
24. 1:26of independence and defense against
25. 1:27encroaching empires. It was carved
26. 1:30directly from the granite hills. Its
27. 1:33walls blend into the rock itself. It's
28. 1:35less of a fort on land and more of a
29. 1:37fort of the land. So, we've barely
30. 1:40started. We've already been through the
31. 1:42entrance game. We're at a second wall
32. 1:43already. And this one kicks us to the
33. 1:45right. And you can also see how the wall
34. 1:47incorporates the existing boulders from
35. 1:50the site in this space. These
36. 1:53bits of stone behind me were taken from
37. 1:55the very boulders around us. Check this
38. 1:58out.
39. 2:00You can see the edge of this boulder
40. 2:02here. And you can see the serrated edge
41. 2:05bit here. That's where holes were
42. 2:07drilled so people could whack in
43. 2:10effectively
44. 2:12iron wedges. You would split the rock
45. 2:14using the iron wedges. Sometimes you
46. 2:16would put water in as well to help the
47. 2:18break. Sometimes you didn't need it. And
48. 2:20you could use the materials from that
49. 2:22boulder to create the temples and the
50. 2:25walls around us.
51. 2:29How cool is that? So, I've actually just
52. 2:32walked around the front of the building,
53. 2:33spotted some serrations.
54. 2:36These here, if you look carefully, could
55. 2:39be from the initial splitting of the
56. 2:41rock. despite constant sieges.
57. 2:44Remarkably, the fort was never
58. 2:46overthrown. Well, at least not from a
59. 2:48siege. It would be betrayal that would
60. 2:50be the undoing of it. More of that when
61. 2:53we look at the jail later on. One of
62. 2:55those sieges would also be the birth of
63. 2:58a legend. The story of one brave woman
64. 3:01taking out soldiers one by one.
65. 3:06This is Banishikari Temple. It's one of
66. 3:08the first temples you'll come across.
67. 3:09Why Banosikari? because it means power
68. 3:11and resistance that's embedded into the
69. 3:13rock. It's why it's one of the first
70. 3:14temples you'll come across. It makes
71. 3:16perfect sense. Fortunately, getting in
72. 3:18for us is a little easier. The only
73. 3:20battle we have is an uphill walk. You
74. 3:23have to pass through seven concentric
75. 3:25defensive walls before we even begin to
76. 3:27encounter any architecture. This one
77. 3:30seems to throw us to the right again.
78. 3:33So, we're kind of building our way up
79. 3:36and you can feel us gaining height. You
80. 3:38can see the rocks are really embedded in
81. 3:41the water and utilized properly here as
82. 3:43massive elements.
83. 3:46As we progress through, you can really
84. 3:47start to feel the scale of this thing.
85. 3:48It really kind of starts to impose
86. 3:51itself on top of you.
87. 3:58Another incredible gate.
88. 4:03And once we do, we see temples of stone.
89. 4:06Temples carved out of stone. and banks
90. 4:09made of adobes as well as vast water
91. 4:12reservoirs. So, if you can't get in, you
92. 4:15starve people out, right? But this
93. 4:19entire 1,500 acre fortress is actually a
94. 4:22massive rainwater harvesting machine.
95. 4:25They carved over 200 cascading tanks
96. 4:27into the bedrock. When it rains, the
97. 4:30water would hit the highest pond,
98. 4:32overflow through specific channels in
99. 4:35the rock and cascade down to fill the
100. 4:37lower reservoirs, eventually filling the
101. 4:40defensive moes at the bottom. These are
102. 4:42the water tanks below. They're for water
103. 4:44storage. Named as what it says on the
104. 4:46tin. Once the reservoirs were full, this
105. 4:49place could survive for up to 12 years
106. 4:52without needing further rain. As we
107. 4:56climb up, we find one of the most iconic
108. 4:58elements of the fort, the Galai Mantapa
109. 5:02and the ancient Hoala era Shri Hidamwara
110. 5:07temple.
111. 5:09Something super cool about this
112. 5:10architecture. What they've actually done
113. 5:12is they've carved in the stone a board
114. 5:16game. You'll see this here.
115. 5:20It's actually a board game and you would
116. 5:23play using shells or seed. You can see
117. 5:28there's another one just here.
118. 5:32Surrounding hill and the towns below and
119. 5:36above.
120. 5:38Wow, look at this. This is crazy.
121. 5:41The intricately carved pavilions that
122. 5:43stand precariously up off the rock like
123. 5:46a Jenga stack. It looks as though
124. 5:48they're moments from toppling, but they
125. 5:50have stood here for hundreds of years.
126. 5:58Got a green roof and it beautifully
127. 6:00blends in with the environment behind
128. 6:02it. How cool is that?
129. 6:05And from here you are able to see the
130. 6:08Tipadada Cola.
131. 6:10This is only accessible for the absolute
132. 6:13bravest pilgrims. Top tip. Take your
133. 6:15shoes off to grip the rock and only
134. 6:19attempt this climb if you are genuinely
135. 6:22comfortable risking your life for a
136. 6:25view. We weave right past the ancient
137. 6:29Muru Gar Matha before you hit the shrimp
138. 6:33pig sideshwara temple.
139. 6:41This perfectly proves the genius of
140. 6:43these builders.
141. 6:45This is absolutely crazy. This temple
142. 6:48has literally been carved under and into
143. 6:51into the rock here. It's absolutely
144. 6:54beautiful.
145. 7:00Speaking of digging into the landscape,
146. 7:03if you head over to the bank, which is
147. 7:05actually a mint called a tanic sale, you
148. 7:08are able to find thick adobe walls
149. 7:10complete with a vault, or perhaps more
150. 7:13accurately a hole in the floor. This 2.4
151. 7:184 m deep hole is the old coin storage
152. 7:22and it's effectively
153. 7:25where
154. 7:27treasure was hidden and stored away.
155. 7:30It's now just a little
156. 7:33hole in the wall
157. 7:35with the forth around it. But this whole
158. 7:37area is effectively the mint. You can
159. 7:39see the stone plintth here and above the
160. 7:41stone plinth are adobe walls, mud walls
161. 7:44that have been built on top of the
162. 7:46plinth. And the stone plinth was
163. 7:48basically to keep the base dry. So the
164. 7:50walls had resistance against rain. And
165. 7:52then they actually built channels on top
166. 7:55of them to shed the water. But you could
167. 7:58still see it surviving here today. It's
168. 8:00struggling a little bit in some places.
169. 8:02But it's very dense. Earth was cheap to
170. 8:05build with and it was readily available
171. 8:07much like the stone in this area
172. 8:09actually. So you end up with this really
173. 8:11beautiful layering of the hard stone
174. 8:15plints with the the the adobe
175. 8:19walls on top. You see how thick these
176. 8:22walls are and they had to be thick as
177. 8:23well because you need the the math to
178. 8:26get the height. If you head west a
179. 8:29little more, you are able to find a hole
180. 8:32where a legend was born. The legendary
181. 8:36Onake Obava.
182. 8:38In 1779,
183. 8:41soldiers from Haider Ali's army would
184. 8:44come through this very gap. Seeing what
185. 8:47was occurring, Aba grabbed not a weapon,
186. 8:50but a large wooden pestle, a kitchen
187. 8:54utensil. And then she [music] used this
188. 8:56kitchen utensil to kill several soldiers
189. 9:00who crawled through this space, [music]
190. 9:02turning this fort and her story into a
191. 9:04legend. Not only did she kill several
192. 9:07soldiers, she even sacrificed [music]
193. 9:09herself to try and help protect the fort
194. 9:11for as long as possible before further
195. 9:14[music] backup could arise. Remarkably,
196. 9:17the fort fell because of an inside job.
197. 9:20The last ruler, Madaky Nayaka, was
198. 9:23betrayed by his [music] own officers who
199. 9:26defected to Haider Alley along with his
200. 9:29brothers-in-law. They opened the gates
201. 9:32from the inside.
202. 9:34Once Haider Ali and his son Tippu Sultan
203. 9:37took over, they actually kept using
204. 9:39[music] it. The fort was modernized and
205. 9:42the artillery upgraded. And to feed that
206. 9:45[music] artillery, the cannons, they
207. 9:47built massive quadruple grinding mills
208. 9:50to crush salt peter into gunpowder.
209. 9:53These are the grinding stones. This is
210. 9:55where gunpowder would have been ground
211. 9:57up. How do they work? You can see there
212. 9:58are four stones. And these stones are on
213. 10:01the compass points. There's a pivot
214. 10:03stone right in the middle, the square
215. 10:05one. That would have an arm up, which
216. 10:07would have a horizontal beam into here
217. 10:10where you would fix an extra cog. The
218. 10:14cog would turn. It would turn the wheel.
219. 10:16You would feed grain into the top here.
220. 10:19And the grain would pass through and go
221. 10:21into one of the collector tanks below
222. 10:23that you can see here. These stones were
223. 10:26either animal powered or human powered.
224. 10:30Now, I want to do a quick caveat because
225. 10:32some people say these are actually
226. 10:33flower mills. And I must admit when I
227. 10:35first looked at them, I thought they
228. 10:36were flower mills as well. But evidence
229. 10:39suggests that a French engineer helped
230. 10:41actually create the gunpowder mills or
231. 10:44the gunpowder mills as we call them at
232. 10:46the moment. But perhaps it's something
233. 10:48of both. Maybe there was a conversion
234. 10:50phase in there somewhere where they went
235. 10:52from flour mills to gunpowder mills. So,
236. 10:55it's one that I personally can't confirm
237. 10:57and actually suggest one way or the
238. 10:59other is correct, but we'll keep our eye
239. 11:02on it. And if you know better, then
240. 11:03perhaps put something in the comments
241. 11:04for everybody, please. If you want to
242. 11:06say goodbye to every other tourist in
243. 11:08India, then we head across to the jail.
244. 11:11Along the way, you can come face to face
245. 11:13with a solitary nandle, silently
246. 11:16watching over the city below. From
247. 11:20there, you cross through a landscape
248. 11:21that feels straight out of the game of
249. 11:23throne set to get to what must be one of
250. 11:26the most beautiful isolated prisons in
251. 11:29the world. This place is an
252. 11:30architectural [music]
253. 11:31explorer's delight. The sun's dropping
254. 11:33behind us. You see the [music] main rock
255. 11:36here and we're about to go up here.
256. 11:53Yep. Entirely blown away by this place.
257. 11:57I officially
258. 11:59think I'm in love with Karnataka because
259. 12:02this has been one of the most delightful
260. 12:06stop offs. I've had so many delightful
261. 12:08stopoffs. It's hard to even know where
262. 12:10to begin. And to think most people just
263. 12:13get the bus from Mysore to Hampy or from
264. 12:16Goa to Hampy and miss all this in the
265. 12:18middle. Do not miss this. This is
266. 12:22insane.
267. 12:24There are some super interesting lessons
268. 12:25to be taken from this for especially
269. 12:27about how we integrate architecture into
270. 12:29the environment around us. I mean this
271. 12:31place could literally survive for 12
272. 12:33years without the need of further
273. 12:34rainfall just fueling and hydrating the
274. 12:37people. That's pretty remarkable if you
275. 12:39think about it. Okay, so backpackers
276. 12:41blueprint rating time. Now it's
277. 12:42important to say this is purely an
278. 12:44architectural exercise on my own
279. 12:47opinion. So, please nobody take offense
280. 12:49to it. And better still, if you disagree
281. 12:51with me, let me know what you would rate
282. 12:54things as in the comments and why. The
283. 12:56architecture here is super interesting,
284. 12:58but it's not beautiful in the way that
285. 12:59we've seen at Helbidu and Balur just in
286. 13:02our previous episode. And for that
287. 13:04reason, we're giving it a solid seven.
288. 13:06The craftsmanship is super interesting.
289. 13:08Again, we're not at that microscopic
290. 13:10detail of HBD and belur. But we have
291. 13:12some interesting architecture of
292. 13:14defensive strategies [music] and again
293. 13:16that integration into the granite. So
294. 13:17for that reason, we're going for a
295. 13:19seven. Interior. Again, there's not a
296. 13:22lot left. So it's a hard one to judge.
297. 13:25So it's got to be low. So we're going
298. 13:26for a four in that area. Unfortunately,
299. 13:29that's just a commentary on what's left
300. 13:31rather than the actual brilliance of it.
301. 13:33[music] Impact. Now, this one is
302. 13:35actually quite important because the
303. 13:37story of Anak Abava is kind of a legacy
304. 13:40that the fort holds and it's something
305. 13:42that holds a lot of local pride. So, for
306. 13:44that reason, we're putting that highly
307. 13:46at an [music] 8 out of 10. And finally,
308. 13:49we come on to experience. And this I
309. 13:51actually really enjoyed. It felt like
310. 13:53I'd stepped off [music] the tourist
311. 13:54trail. You know, most people go from My
312. 13:56to Hampy and don't stop in the middle
313. 13:57here. I'm really pleased I did. There
314. 13:59were moments where I just felt like I
315. 14:01had India [music] to myself. And to be
316. 14:03honest with you, this site is actually
317. 14:04extremely beautiful. The views are
318. 14:06beautiful and it's a really really great
319. 14:08archaeological site to explore. So, I'm
320. 14:10giving that a solid eight. Let me know
321. 14:12if you agree and what you would rate
322. 14:15this place as and if you're going to add
323. 14:16it to the list now you've seen it in the
324. 14:18YouTube channel. [music]
325. 14:20That's all from this week. Next time we
326. 14:21are going up to Hampy. This one is going
327. 14:24to be big. So, make sure to subscribe
328. 14:26and I will see you up the road in Hampy.