Bandhavgarh Fort: Of Tigers & Kings

Say ‘Bandhavgarh’ and tigers immediately come to mind but the king of the jungle is not the only star of the forest in the nature reserve here. Dominating a 560-acre plateau on a hilltop deep in the heart of the Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya Pradesh is a fort that goes back almost 2,000 years.

Although the seat of many dynasties, the fort was most famously the capital of the Baghel Kings of the Princely state of Rewa. The Baghel dynasty, which ruled from Bandhavgarh Fort between the 13th and 17th CE before they shifted their capital to Rewa, once owned the forest around the fort and used it as their private hunting ground. They handed it over to the state government in 1968.