Garh Palace, Kota

The Garh Palace is a fortified palace located on the outskirts of Kota, Rajasthan. It was the former residence of the Maharaos of the Kingdom of Kota. It is also known by various other names, like City Palace, Kota Garh, and Kota Fort. The Garh Palace is home to a vast heritage collection of canons, paintings, armour, palaces, instruments, attire, manuscripts, murals, and buildings, some of which date back to the 13th century.^[1] The Maharao Madho Singh Museum occupies the ground floor of the palace building.^[2]

History[edit]

According to tradition, the foundations of the palace were first laid in 1264 C.E. by Prince Jait Singh of Bundi State on the spot where he sacrificed the chief of the Bhil tribe Chieftain Koteya (previous ruler of the region) and buried his severed head.^[3]

Architecture[edit]

The fort has main entrance through a huge gate (photo placed) , which connect it to the main road of the Kota city..^[4]

The next gateway is called ‘Hathi Pol’ with 2 elephant structures on the both sides of the gate on the upper part as shown below. Two brass canons Shankar Ban and Gajpat Ban are located in front of the gate giving it a royal look.^[5]

On the upper floors of the fort, there is reception place called ‘Baradarhi’ . On can have Aerial view of the fort . Rao Madho Singh had constructed it.^[6]

Gokaneshwar Mahadev Temple and Badal Mahal is also located within the fort premises.^[7]

The palace also houses Gulab Mahal, Purana Mahal, Arjun Mahal, Hava Mahal, Diwan-e-Aam, Akhada Mahal, Kanvarpadi. The wall paintings depicting floral and faunal diversity, hunting scenes, processions and scenes from the legend of Lord Krishna are common feature on these royal apartments.^[8]^[9]