Lafagarh
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Lapha (लाफा) is a village and site of an ancient fort called Lafagarh (लाफागढ़) in Pali tahsil of Korba district in Chhattisgarh. It was one of 52 Forts built by Sangram Singh ruler of Gadhamandala.
Origin
Variants
- Lafa/Lapha (लाफा)
- Lafagarh/Laphagarh (लाफागढ़)
- Lanka Bilaspur लांका, जिला बिलासपुर, छत्तीसगढ़, (AS, p.815)
- Chaiturgarh
- Laafaagadh
- Lufa
Jat Gotras Namesake
- Lofa = Lafagarh. Lafagarh is an ancient fort located in Pali tahsil of Korba district in Chhattisgarh.
- Chaitha (Jat clan) = Chaithurgarh = Lafagarh. Lafagarh is an ancient fort located in Pali tahsil of Korba district in Chhattisgarh.
Location
The fort of Lafagarh is located Twelve miles to the north of Pali in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. Chaithurgarh (Lafagarh) is situated around 70 kms away from Korba town. it is 25 km north of Pali Korba.[1]
History
Laphagarh in Archaeological Survey of India Report
[p.219]:Twelve miles to the north of Pali is the great fort of Lapha— the strongest natural fort I have seen this season, and one of the strongest in India. The road lies through Tartuma or Tayetma, the present head-quarters of the Lapha Chief ; beyond this city, the road becomes, after a short distance, exceedingly difficult and utterly impassable to any but foot passengers and cattle; it is in short a mere track over the hills, densely covered with low jangal and moderate-sized timber; the road does not go straight to the fort, but winds round via Bagdara village entering the fort at the north-west end; the last portion of the ascent is utterly impracticable even for all but very lightly laden small cattle, and the last ascent is very
[p.220]: steep, but not long ; the greater part of the ascent is commanded from the fort walls ; passing an outer gate, the real gate of the fort, known as the Jhandi or Dinda gate, is reached ; this gate consists of a square block, having chambers at the sides opening into the central passage, at the two ends of which are the gates ; the chambers are not merely guard-rooms, but serve as temples, also, if not exclusively ; they consist of oblong halls supported on three rows of pillars ; the inmost row being next the back wall consists of pilasters, the others are pillars. The pillars are plain square ones, ornamented only with plain mouldings ; they are elegant, and the mouldings, though plain, are well defined and sharply cut ; the material is a grey sandstone for the most part ; there are now a few fragments of statues and sculptures lying about, which show that Shiva was worshipped here ; the bracket capitals of the pillars are elegant, and support plain architraves, over which are slabs laid flat from the roof ; the roof is quite flat, but is now in disrepair.
The outer gate above mentioned, after passing which this gate is reached, is connected with the main gate by outworks ; these consist simply of walls of no great thickness-; but as the sides of the projecting spur of tableland, at the extremity of which the gate is placed are vertical, there is no possibility of storming the connecting walls ; the outer gate is also double, its outer entrance being at right angles to its inner ; it will thus be seen that the last portion of the ascent runs parallel to the line of fort-walls and below them, and is quite exposed to missiles of every kind ; it is also narrow and is, in fact, cut on the almost vertical side of the hill.
The fort walls are very irregular, following the direction of the edge of the plateau of the hill ; sometimes the wall is built of cut-stone, sometimes of rubble ; I could see no reason for this, but it is to be remarked that, close to the gates, the walls are faced with cut-stone : following the edge of the plateau the walls go on undulating according to the level of the ground they stand on, till they reach a pass between the Lapha hill and another adjacent isolated hill, known as Rani tank ; the pass is a narrow ridge with very steep sides and only 100 feet wide at the narrowest for a length of about 200 feet ; here, at the inner end of the pass, is built the 2nd gate known as the Manka Dai gate ; beyond this gate to the right the walls are continued along the edge of the pass to the other hill, round which it goes
[p.221]:to the left, the walls are also continued along the edge of the pass, hut at a short distance there is a break, and beyond it the walls go on to the other hill as on the right with which it encircles the hill ; the portion of the wall on this or Lapha side of the break doubles sharp round at the break and runs a short way parallel to its former direction down the slope ; to a little bit of what is, perhaps, an artificially led level ground, the portion of wall beyond the break is also continued downwards at its nearer end parallel to the course of the other wall at only 25 or 30 feet distance till it also reaches the little hit of level ground ; here the two meet in a gate, which has now, however, quite disappeared, and whose existence was unknown to the villagers, who, accordingly, were much amused by my apparently objectless examination, till the sill of the defunct gateway was turned up : as will be evident from the description, here too, not only the last portion of the ascent to the outer double gateway, but even part of the passage between it and the upper double gateway, is commanded by the walls of the fort : the lower gateway forms an entrance into the Rani tank plateau directly, and into the Lapha plateau through the inner gate-way ; this last serves thus the double purpose of a separating gate between Rani tank and Lapha, and of a gate to Lapha.
The Manka Dai inner double gate faces north, and in plan is similar to the gate described before, but the statues here are in better preservation ; there is a fine statue of Manka or Manya Devi let into the wall in a niche, and the gate is altogether in better preservation ; the outer double gate below has no name, and no remains exist except a few fragments now buried in a shapeless tumulus.
The next gate is known as the Hukra gate ; it is near the south end of the hill on the east side ; here, as in the two previous entrances, there are two gates, each double ; the lower gate is larger than usual, and is ornamented with statues, one of which is of Lakshmi ; the pillars are fine ones, and form colonnades on either side, the passage between which, of course, was the passage into the fort ; this passage appears from the instance in this gate to have been also roofed over as well as the colonnades ; the roof slabs are large and broad ; (some of them could not have been less than 15 feet square by about 10 inches deep) ; passing through this outer gate, the road goes up parallel to and below the line of fort-walls,and is cut out of the side of the hill, itself very steep.
[p.222]: and is commanded the whole of the way between the two gates and for a long distance beyond the outer gate ; the sides of the hill which the road in descending skirts are almost vertical, and utterly impossible to climb except where growing trees lend a helping hand up ; the road beyond the outer gate, outwards, is cut in the side of the rock ; it never was wide, and is now reduced in places to a mere bridge of not 6 inches in width, whilst in places there is absolutely a yawning chasm.
The upper gate is very fine, and superior to the other two ; it is now in ruins ; it was like the others a double gate-way, with colonnaded halls on either side of the central passage between the entrances ; the outer door is flanked by statues, and the walls on either side have been formed into niches for the reception of statues : there are three of these on each side, but on the left-hand side on entering, two of the niches only are now occupied by statues ; one of these is a six-armed female seated on a lotus, holding in the only existing , hand a dish ; the other is a three-headed and six-armed female ; a fragment of Ganesha lies below ; there are other fragments with the tiger as vahan on the pedestal ; the doorway itself is 5 feet wide, and was once provided with doors working on pivots, opening inwards and closed by a beam working into holes in the jambs behind the door ; inside on either side were deep recesses or chambers now destroyed : then comes the inner doorway of the double gate ; on the fort face of the inner wall in which this doorway is, are 3 niches on each side as on the outer face, and similarly occupied or intended to have been occupied with statues ; these last are now partly broken, and partly buried beneath the ruins. One was an elephant or pig-faced female, holding a noose in the only existing hand, the other five having been broken short off ; another six-armed female holds a sword in the existing hand ; she has the elephant for a symbol on her pedestal ; there are numerous fragments besides, among which is a Ganesha and a Hanuman ; the last, however, from its coarse execution, is evidently of a later age.
The three gates lead, the first two down to Bagdara village, the last down to Surka village; there is no gate due south facing Tartuma.
The hill rises with steep slopes all round from the bottom to within a few feet of the tableland which then rises up with vertical rock faces, often above 50 feet in height, and very where perfectly vertical ; there are a few points where
[p.223]:a cleft or fissure in the vertical wall of rock is filled with clay in which a few trees have taken root, but these are few and far between. I only remarked two such spots, and at one of them I descended, hut the descent was only possible with the aid of the growing trees. From Tartuma or Bagdara, or indeed from anywhere, the fort presents an appearance of being surrounded by gigantic walls of masonry, the wall of rock, at a distance, looking precisely like artificial masonry ; ascent, except at the gates, which are jealously guarded, is simply impossible, except spikes he driven into the wall of rock to serve as ladders ; the hill is not commanded within ordinary effective range of guns by any adjacent hills.
Within the plateau of the Lapha hill rises up a smaller hill, on which, however, are no remains, nor is it separated from the great fort and formed into a citadel by any enclosing walls ; this hill is the highest for a long distance round, and a survey station now crowns its summit ; the portion known as Rani Tank rises higher than the plateau of the Lapha hill, but is lower than the top of the hill within it. The hill Rani Tank is even stronger than Lapha hill naturally, as its walls of rock are higher ; the strongest parts of the fort are the south and south-west sides, where there rise up two tiers of vertical rocky walls shaped fantastically into towers and from a distance conveying the impression of artificial works.
The artificial walls themselves are very weak, and appear intended merely as cover for troops, the real ramparts being the natural rock walls ; it is said that during the mutiny some of the rebels took possession of the unguarded fort and began putting it into a state of defence, and a few miserable embrasures for cannon are to be seen rudely formed near the Manka Dai gate, but tradition does not say what finally became of them. I have a strong suspicion they were starved out of the place.
The sides and top of the hill are covered with jangal interspersed with moderate-sized timber; the plateau itself is pretty open, being mostly covered with tall grass.
Close to the Singh Dwar is a temple; the temple is built of cut-stone set without cement, remarkably plain, but not ugly ; it is small, and is built in the style of the temples at Wyragarh, that is with a mahamandapa open all round to within a couple of feet of the floor ; it is, however, very large, being supported by five rows of pillars, the back row being pilasters, and one row, the front row, being dwarf
[p.224]: pillars : there are five pillars in each row ; the temple has the ardha mandapa, the mandapa, the mahamandapa, and the sanctum, the antarala, if it can be said to exist, being squashed up into non-existence between the overgrown mahamandapa and the sanctum ; the sanctum is an usual square, and enshrines a statue of Durga slaying the buffalo demon. Ganesha occupies the centre of the entrance architrave ; the temple faces east ; the pillars and indeed everything here is perfectly plain ; the external mouldings are bold, but peculiar and quite plain ; the material is a coarse-grained soft sandstone, easily rubbed into a white powder; the sanctum has a roof of intersecting squares, surmounted externally by the usual tower roof ; the temple stands on a raised platform and the entrance is reached by steps in front.
Close to the temple is a tank, rather shallow and much choked with grass and weeds ; it is named the Pat Talao.
The temple is looked after in a negligent sort of way by the Lapha Chief, who once a year pays it a visit at or just after Shiva Ratri ; when I left Lapha he was being expected, and a hut had been put up near the temple for his accommodation.
The plateau of the hill is not inhabited; the only accessible villages are Bagdara and, by descending to the west as I did down the face of the cliff, Jamira; Surka village is far off to the east and is separated from the fort by minor hills.
Chaiturgarh or Lafagarh
Chaiturgarh or Lafagarh is a fort about 51 km from Katghora tehsil, Korba district, Chhattisgarh, India, on the Korba–Bilaspur road. It is an Archaeological Survey of India protected monument. Chaiturgarh is one of the 36 forts of Chhattisgarh. Chaithurgarh is situated around 70 km from Korba and 21 km from Pali town.
A Descriptive List of Inscriptions in the Central Provinces and Berar – dated in Kalchuri Era 933 (1181-82 CE) gives a long genealogical list of the Kalchuri kings. It mentions that there was a king in the family of the Haihaya who has eighteen sons. One of them was Kalinga whose son Kamala ruled over Tummana. Kamala was succeeded by Ratnaraja I and later by Prithvideva I. Mughal emperor Akbar captured the fort in 1571 and Mughals ruled until 1628 CE.[2] Chaiturgarh was constructed by Raja Prithvideva I.[3][4]
लाफा, बिलासपुर
लाफा (AS, p.815) मध्य प्रदेश (वर्तमान छत्तीसगढ़) के कोरबा ज़िले का ऐतिहासिक स्थान है। गढ़मंडल नरेश राजा संग्राम सिंह (मृत्यु 1541 ई.) के 52 गढ़ों में से एक यहाँ स्थित था। संग्राम सिंह के पुत्र दलपतशाह से वीरांगना रानी दुर्गावती का विवाह हुआ था। [5]
External links
References
- ↑ https://korba.gov.in/en/tourism/places-of-interest/
- ↑ Cultural Profile of South Kōśala
- ↑ "Kharod inscription of Ratnadeva III".
- ↑ Chauley, G. C. (2004). Monumental Heritage of Orissa. Book India Pub. Co. p. 114. ISBN 978-81-85638-19-5.
- ↑ Aitihasik Sthanavali by Vijayendra Kumar Mathur, p.815