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NỘTYARATNÁKOŠA
: € 28
- As to Chittodgadh, he strengthenied it's defences and builc sevën Polas or Pratolis (gates) named Rāma, Hanumān, Bhairava, Lakşmi; Câmunţā; Tārā; and Rājapolas. He constructed a road over which carriages could easily go upto the fort. Before his time there was only a foot-path (Sarda, p. 138). Kumbhā seems to have attached great importance to this road because the reference to Chitod in his pras'astis of N.R.K. pertains to its building. The road going up the ascent to the fort is compared to a 'path leading up to heaven', and therefore Chitod which is an earthly paradise is truly made so by it (S'rimate - Chitrakūta. Bhauma Svargatā-Yathārthikaraña-cārutarapathena).1
After conquering Abu from thie Parmārs, he built there also a fortress in V. S. 1509, A. D. 1452-53. It has beconie famous as Achalgadh. On the descent from Achalgadh to Delvādā there are four statues an equestrian statue of Kumbhā, cwo of two other Mahārāņās and the fourth, bigger than these, of the Purohita or family priest of Kumbhā (p. 123).
Chitod is famous for its two magnificent towers : one the Tower of glory-Kirtistambha and the other Tower of Victory-Jayastambha. This Jayastambha is also popularly known as Kirtistambha. The first, formerly known as 'S'ri-Allaţa's and locally known as Kaitan Rāņi's was erected by Jija - a Bagherwal Mahajan of the Jain community and dedicated to the first Jain Tirthapkara Ādinātha. Most probably it belongs to the 12th century A.D.2
The second Jayastambha was erected by Mahārāṇā Kumbha tó celebrate his victory over Sultan Mahmud Khilji I of Mandu (Malwa) in A. D. 1438. The Tower was completed, according to the Pras s'asti. of the Jayastambha, on Māgha Suda ioth Puşya Nakşatra V. S.
ISOS. A. D. 1449. An inscription in the perforated window in the ... second storey of the Tower shows that the second storey was compi leted in V. S. 1499, "A. D. 1442-43 (Sarda p. 139). Thus it took : about six years to build from the third to the topmost ninth storey.
So it may be reasonably guessed that the first two stories might have taken about two to three years and so the foundation of the Tower must have been laid in about 1439-40 A. D. This means that Mahārāṇā, Kumbhā, after a year or so of his victory, started building his Jaya-Stambha, may be even earlier, in the first flush of his great victory.
The remarks of Sir Wolseley Haig (Chapter lyx of the Cambridge History of India, Vol. III (P. 361) ) on Kumbhā's Tower of Victory require to be considered here. Estimating the achievements
1 Pp. 107, 229 In some references we have tanvikarana-meaning-'a road making it
easy to reach the earthly paradise - Citrakūta. ...." 2 Fergusson's History of Indian and Eastern Architecture - Vol. II, p. 118; acc also Percy Brown's Indian Architectura Vol.1; 2nd Edn. pp. 149-50.
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