About The City

     The district is steeped in history and has a very rich and tradition past.

Chunar Fort

     According to Purans; the oldest name of chunar was charanadri, as Lord Vishnu had taken his first step In his Vaman incarnation in the dynasty of the great King Bali in Satyug.It is also told that a very pooverful man had traveled from Himlaya to Kanyakumari in the age of Dwapar and who is said to have rested here;his foot impression on a rock became today’s chunar . The third oone says that Bharihari,the ruler of Ujjain who came here for penance built a kingdom here later.The firth story sheds light on arock statue built by King Sahdeo who named the place as Nainagarh.

     However, chunar was highlighted after the visit og Mughal ruler Babar followed by Shershah Suri, Humayun, Akbar, Aurangjeb and finally the Britishers.

     Basically, the fort of chunar was established by Maharaja Vikramaditya, King of Ujjain to commemorate the stay of his brother KinKing Bhartihari, who had taken his Samadhi here.

      As per Alha-khand in 1029 AD king Sahdeo made this fort his capital and established a statue of Naina Yogini in a cave of Vindhya hills and put the name as Naina Garh. He built a stone umbrella based on 52 pillars in the memory of the victory over 52 other kings. He had a brave daughter who got married with Alha the then king of Mahoba,whose marriage place still preserved with the name of Sonva Mandap.Besides this some other stories are also some other stories are also related with the fort as Magna-Deogarh,Ratandeo’s Burj {tower} and king Patthargarh as well.It got much importance due to the stay of founder of Mughal dynasty, Babar in 1525 AD. Later on Shershah Suri obtained the position of the fort by marrying the wife of Taj Khan Sarang-Khani;the governor of Ibrahim Lodi. In 1531AD the second King of Mughals Humayun Launched an unsuccessful effirt ti capture this fort. In 1574 AD Akbar captured this fort and since that time it was in the Mughal reign upto 1772 AD.Once emperor Jahangir appointed one Iftikar Khan as Nazim and in the reign of Aurangjeb one of his governors Mirza Bairam built a mosque Burj.

      In 1772 AD this fort was captured by East India Company, who established a depot of artillery and ammunition in it. Later, It was taken by Maharaja chetsingh of Banares temporarily and after him in 1781 AD warren Hestings retired for safty to chunar where a force was collected by Major Phophan which expelled Chet Singh. Hestings liked the situation and climate and his residence still stands as atestimony to this at chunar.

Sakteshgarh fort

     This fort was bbuilt by Sakat Singh to control the Koles in the reign of Mughal emperor Akbar.

     This stronghold is situated at the mouth of the gorge by which the Jirgo river debouches from the hills. It consist of a small plain, rectangular building of stone with flanking towers at the corners and encloses a two storied building decorated with glass mosaic, known as Sheesh Mahal. Around the fort there is a small and legendary sanctuary. The fort is situated 35 km south of chunar.

Bijaigarh Fort

     It’s the same magical fort mentioned in Babu Devki Nandan Khatri’s famous novel “Chandrakanta”, on which a tele-serial was made. Situated 22 km south-east of Robertsganj, the fort was built in the Mauryan period and its last independent Indian ruler was Raja Chet Singh.

      After that the Britishers cap tured the fort. A paragon of the secular culture, It also houses the tomb of Baba Miran Shah, that is chock-o-bloc with devotees from all communities, during the annual Urs in April.