Nothing can match the gore and glory of India’s own Middle Earth and its two mighty forts, Gwalior and Kalinjar, which cradled and nurtured its tumultuous history. This is the land where sharp swords matched rugged forts and ruthless ambition tested death. Peace was an exception to the rule, but when it did occur, chisels replaced swords, giving birth to magnificent rock-carvings, temples, palaces and — just in case things turned nasty again — more forts.

Gwalior was the “key to Indostan”, wrote Sir Warren Hastings in 1780, the capture of which “equaled if not surpassed the importance of the Battle of Plassey”. Ambitious chieftains, kings and emperors before him shared this sentiment. And so it was that a mighty fort passed from one dynasty to another. 

The first to capture it were the Huns (515 AD). Then came the princes of Kannauj (6th century), followed by the Kachhwahas (10th to 12th century), after which the Pratiharas wrested it from them in 1129 AD. Barely 67 years later, Qutubuddin Aibak took the fort in 1196. Then, like a yo-yo, it passed back and forth between the former rulers and invaders. With the advent of the 19th century, it turned into a ping-pong match between the British and the Scindias.