Great Wall of India - puzzle and history lesson

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The whole world knows about the Great Wall of China. But few people know that the Great Indian Wall still exists. Yielding to the Chinese in length, it is much more powerful and surprising in architecture.

In the very heart of India, in the historical center of Madhya Pradesh, there is a mysterious structure known as the Kumbalgarh Fort, or the Great Indian Wall. Over the centuries of its existence, this fort wall has become a detective novel, puzzle and history lesson, left to descendants by unknown forerunners.

The Kumbalgarh fort wall is located in Rajasthan. Rana Kumbha built it in the 15th century under the direction of the famous architect Mandan. It increased until the 19th century. There was a border around the fort that outwardly resembles the Great Wall of China. This is where the name comes from.

The view from the fortress is magnificent and attracts many tourists. People come here not only from India, but also from all over the world to spend a weekend here and learn more about the history of India.

The wall is located 82 km northwest of Udaipur. It can be visited at any time.

In places it is flat, like an arrow, in other areas it can suddenly break off, forming incredible kinks and zigzags, reminiscent of either an accordion accordion or impassable paths of tropical forests.

Its many ramifications are as unique as human destinies. Some sections of this structure go up to almost five meters in height, others seem to be just a neat chain of stones.

History buffs call it the Great Wall of India. Relying on the data of their research, archaeologists believe that the length of the structure is more than 80 kilometers. But this fact has not yet been proven, since many sections of the wall are still hidden deep underground. When finally excavated, it will be the second largest fortification, second only to the Great Wall of China.

For local residents, it is simply diwaal - a "wall" that has always been somewhere nearby, in the backyards, beyond the distant outskirts of their villages and beyond their historical memory.

Nobody knows for sure by whom and when it was built. No chronicle information has survived. Some residents tell the story of the kings who fought with other kings and the plague that devastated the once flourishing land.

In this beautiful tale, powerful rulers built the wall in three days and three nights. For generations who were born and died under the bright Indian stars, the wall was just a border halfway between Bhopal and Jabalper, a stone barrier that stretched from the tiny town of Gorakpura Deori to the city of Chokigar.

The stone ridge was laid in the valley of the Vindhya River - through teak forests, the possession of thin-bodied langur monkeys, and wheat fields. At one point, the wall is crossed by a dam built 20 years ago.

Wherever the wall passes, researchers are faced with unexpected finds. Ruins of long-abandoned dwellings, ruins of magnificent temples, fragments of statues, deep wells, ponds with sandy shores, steps with drawings in the form of snakes. Researchers say that this is the tip of the iceberg, just one light touch of the immense mystery.

The mystery of the Great Wall of India attracts people of various professions. One such research team consists of the pharmacist Rajiv Chobei, the archaeologist Narayan Vyasa, and the amateur historian Vinod Tiwari. The 57-year-old pharmacist heard about the wall in the mid-80s.

Now he recalls with a smile his first serious hobby for archeology: many hours of motorcycle rides with a sidecar to get to the ruins, sandwiches with jam for himself and friends who explored the wall.

Four years ago, a hermit who lived in Gorakhpur came to his pharmacy for medicine. In a conversation with a buyer, Chobei mentioned a wall, and the guest said that one end of the structure was in the jungle, not far from his home. As it turned out, the hermit is also interested in this topic.

Today, 58-year-old Sukdev Maharaj leads enthusiasts on night excursions to the wall. There, in the dense jungle, hidden in teak leaves, there is an unnamed temple with the relics of unknown ministers. Travelers take off their shoes at the doorway and enter the temple barefoot to show their respect.

Archaeologist Narayan Vyas has been retired for 10 years and devotes all his free time to exploring the wall. Unfortunately, it was not possible to find any seals or inscriptions on it, in order to thus relate its construction to a certain period. However, Narayan admits, the structure itself provides some clues.

The wall is made of large stones of approximately the same size, laid very tightly to each other without mortar - like Lego pieces. This means that the construction of the wall was very competently designed. Real masters of their craft were engaged in it. All steps of the structure are built on the same "inner" side.

The sections that have been best preserved are flat areas from above, very convenient for people to walk on them, looking around the area. In some areas, drainage holes and niches are provided for armed warriors to hide in.

“It looks like a military fortification,” says Raghavendra Khare, 45, who joined the enthusiast team last year. "But what could be guarded in a dense forest, where there are no people or buildings?"

Suddenly a guess came: after all, this area was not always a forest! Vyas concluded that the temple and the wall can be dated back to the 10-11th centuries, when the country was ruled by military clans. “This could be the border of the Kingdom of Parmar,” says the researcher.

He refers to the reign of the Rajput dynasty, which ruled the central and western lands from the 9th to the 13th century. Probably, the wall separated their possessions from the territory of the Kalachuri clan, whose capital was the city of Jabalpur, located 150 kilometers from Parmar. “They fought a lot among themselves,” says Vyas.

Another key to determining the origin of the wall could be the architecture of the buildings, the ruins of which are located along its perimeter.

“The kings of Parmara erected structures with rows of small spiers that still rise among the ruins,” continues Vyas. "A spacious rectangular area with sacred relics in the corners is a kind of mirror repetition of the main temple of Omkareshvara, located in the south of the state."

However, there were scientists who accepted the archaeologist's hypothesis with hostility. In particular, this is the historian Rahman Ali, who has been traveling here since 1975. “These structures are not from the Parmar era,” he says. - There is a tendency, incomprehensible to me, to attribute all ancient buildings to this particular era.

But I argue that the dynasty fell into decay in the 12th century, and at that time they no longer needed to build such a massive and time-consuming wall. The stone barricades could have been erected by the British much later, in the 17th century. Be that as it may, for Ali it remains a mystery why someone would need to build such a solid structure, and then hastily abandon it.

Unfortunately, over time, some of the artifacts were stolen. Khare recalls that next to the wall they found a statue of some goddess riding a lion. The thieves also took away the statue of Shiva. All that remains of her is a single photograph. In this regard, some of the artifacts were transported last year to a safe guarded place - for further study.

The wall could become one of the country's main tourist attractions, but officials are in no hurry to finance a large-scale project, especially since part of the structure is located in a dense forest. Therefore, research is carried out only at the expense of enthusiasts, thanks to whom the world learned about the existence of this mysterious stone structure.