The Imprisoning FortressArticle
Crafted in GwaliorArticle
Urdu Poetry in GwaliorArticle
Invisible ArchitecturesArticle
Gwalior’s Musical HeritageArticle
Gwalior
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The fort in Gwalior, built atop a plateau, dominates the skyline, no matter where one stands in the city. The urban landscape seems to have grown outwards from it, making it the centre of Gwalior. The image of the Man Mandir — a fifteenth-century palace built by Man Singh Tomar — is arguably the…
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The history of commemorative architecture in the Indian subcontinent is a journey from the sacred to the sovereign. While funerary practices varied across cultures, the transition from simple burial to "celebratory remembrance" found its early known monumental expression in the Stupa. Originally…
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In most books on the history of Hindi Sahitya (literature), Vishnudas and his compositions are given negligible space. Similarly, underdiscussed is the language he employed for writing his epic stories: the word ‘Gvaliyari’ appears infrequently. George Abraham Grierson, in many volumes of…
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Nestled below the fort, standing amidst one of the oldest areas in the city of Gwalior is the tomb of Muhammad Ghaus (1500–1562). The sacred and archaeological site is around a kilometre away from Kila Gate (literally, the gate to the fort). Reaching there is supposed to be easy: it is afterall…
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On the crafts map of India, Gwalior is not prominent. Amidst the sheer diversity of craft practices in the region of Madhya Pradesh — Chanderi and Maheshwar saris, Bagh prints, Bhopal’s Zari or Zardozi work — Gwalior is not considered a centre of crafts. Whether this is a result of poor marketing…
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The history of Gwalior’s music is famous, but what is less recognised is the Urdu poetry that continues to find a home in the city. More recent history has witnessed figures such as Jan Nisar and Javed Akhtar, both born in Gwalior, who are widely known for their works as lyricists and writers in…
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Gwalior is not only made up of its fort and palaces, but also of its smaller, less visible geographies — its lanes and neighbourhoods that continue to shape everyday life in the city. These spaces, often overlooked in formal histories, offer a different way of reading the city: through its people,…
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When we turn to the history of a city such as Gwalior, narratives tend to coalesce around its monumental architecture — its fort, palaces, and temples — structures that articulate the authority and aspirations of ruling elites. This emphasis produces what may be described as a vertical…
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Gwalior is known as the “land of music.” Even the children of Gwalior are reputed to wail melodiously. Over the years, the city, a vibrant and innovative hub of musical history, gave rise to a variety of styles, many of which have found worldwide recognition. Therefore, it is not surprising that…
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When one thinks of India’s narrow-lane railways or tram-like tracks winding through marketplaces and grazing past fields, the mind almost instinctively travels to Calcutta (now Kolkata) or perhaps the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. The Calcutta trams rattling through Chowringhee and across Maidan…
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