Mandu (Dhar district)

Mandu, in present-day Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh, is one of central India’s most important medieval hill capitals. Perched on a high basalt plateau above the Narmada valley, it has natural cliffs and ravines that made it a nearly impregnable fort city. A settlement existed here by at least the 10th–11th century under the Paramaras of Malwa, but Mandu rose to real prominence in the 15th century when the Malwa Sultans made it their capital.

Dilawar Khan and his successor Hoshang Shah strengthened the fortifications and built mosques, palaces and reservoirs; Hoshang Shah’s marble tomb and the great Jama Masjid belong to this phase. In the early 16th century, later rulers such as Ghiyas-ud-din Khalji added pleasure palaces, pavilions and gardens, turning Mandu into a refined courtly centre famous for music, poetry and architecture.

Mandu’s control passed repeatedly between the Malwa Sultans, the rulers of Gujarat and finally the Mughals, with Babur and later Akbar integrating it into the Mughal Empire. As power shifted to plains cities, Mandu slowly declined, its palaces and tanks falling into romantic ruin. In the 18th–19th centuries it came under Maratha (Holkar) and then British influence, and in modern times it has been conserved as a major heritage destination, also remembered for the legendary love story of Baz Bahadur and Rani Roopmati.