Our Heritage Fort of Tamilnadu
we have heard of names like Red fort, Ginjee Fort, Fort st. George etc....
Do you know the meaning of word' Fort'?
In the past kings built huge buildings as living places as well as for the purpose of protection. There were some buildings for trade purposes as well as storehouses of necessary articles. these buildings served also us places of administration. such buildings came to be known as 'Forts'. There are different kinds of forts namely Rock forts,brick forts and granite forts. Forts have high walls which could prevent the easy entry of enemies.
For further protection moats were built around the fort and crocodile were bred there.This was a further method of safety.
In Tamilnadu we have some wonderful forts. we shall learn about four of them here.
1. Ginjee Fort.
Ginjee fort is the ancient among the forts. You can see it in the Thindivanam - Thiruvannamalai route.
It has existed even before 6 AD. its history is very long. It has been ruled by jains ,Pallvas, cholas, Deccan Nawabs , maratas,Arcot Nawabs,Europeans etc till India achieved independence. But we will just think of some important and interesting aspects.
After the fall of the deccan nawabs at the end of 17th century , Marathas under chatrabathy shivaji wrested Ginjee from them. He asked his brother shambaji,to rule it. The most famous person associated with this fort was Desingh Raja.The moughal general Zulfighar khan captured Ginjee fort after a tough fight with the maratas. It was handed over to swaroop singh the head of the army.
After swaroop singh 's death , his son desingh raja came to the throne. He hated to be a slave to the mughal rulers and refused to pay the tax to the nawab. So ar took place. At the end of the war desingh raja killed him self to avoid being taken us prisoner of the conquerors.
In 1750 AD , french people came to India for the purpose of trade and commerce, attacked ginjee,captured it and controlled it about 10 years. During this period the french annexed vandavasi and pondichery.
Then the Britishers attack the french army and won. they got ginjee under their control.
Hyder ali,the general of Mysore, became the king in 1761 AD. he did not like the British rule and waged war many times. so the Britishers made a peace treaty with him. When warren hasting became the governor general of British India, hyder ali blamed the Britishers of going against the treaty and waged war.
But he was defeated. The southern part gradually felt into the hands of the British. In course of the time Britishers used Chennai fort for the transport facility and the french made pondichery of the capital
and ruled.
The ginjee fort gradually declined due to neglect. Today ginjee fort placed as the historic monument.