हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Trinetra Ganesh Temple, Ranthambore Fort

A Ganesh temple high inside Ranthambore fort, where Ganesh has a third eye and sits with Riddhi, Siddhi and his sons Shubh and Labh. Letters and wedding cards from all over India are posted to him here.

Built: Inside Ranthambore fort; the temple tradition ties its founding to Rao Hammir Dev Chauhan at the end of the 13th centuryWhere: Rajasthan (Sawai Madhopur district)Deity: Shri Ganesh with three eyes, with his whole family26.02° N, 76.45° E
  1. 1299 (fort tradition)
  2. 1301
Photo: Jpmeena · CC BY-SA 3.0

01Hammir’s dream

The fort’s tradition tells it this way. In 1299 the armies of Alauddin Khalji lay around Ranthambore, and the stores of grain inside were running low. Rao Hammir Dev, a devotee of Ganesh, saw him in a dream promising that the trouble would pass; next morning an image of Ganesh with three eyes was found on a wall of the fort, and soon the siege was raised. Hammir built the shrine. The respite did not last, and Ranthambore fell in 1301 with Hammir dying in battle, but the Ganesh he set up has been worshipped ever since.

02Ganesh’s post

Families across Rajasthan and beyond send the first invitation of a wedding to Trinetra Ganesh, addressed simply to Shri Ganesh ji, Ranthambore Durg, Sawai Madhopur, and the postman carries the sacks up the fort road. The priests read the cards out before the deity. On Ganesh Chaturthi in Bhadrapada lakhs climb through the old gates for the fair. The walk passes the fort’s tanks, palaces and ruined temples, inside what is now a tiger reserve.

The life of this place

  1. 1299 (fort tradition)During Alauddin Khalji’s siege, Hammir Dev sets up the Trinetra Ganesh shrine.
  2. 1301Ranthambore falls and Hammir Dev dies fighting.
Visiting

The temple is a climb inside Ranthambore fort, about 13 km from Sawai Madhopur station; the road through the park opens at dawn.

Nearby

Ranthambore FortRuined
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Ranthambore Fort

The hill-fort in the forest where Hammiradeva Chauhan refused to hand over Alauddin Khalji’s rebels and held out for a year before falling in 1301. Its Trinetra Ganesh temple draws more pilgrims today than the tigers below draw tourists.

Kaila Devi Temple, KarauliStanding
The Mughal era and the resistance

Kaila Devi Temple, Karauli

The hill temple of Kaila Devi on the Kalisil stream in the Trikuta hills, kuldevi of the Yaduvanshi house of Karauli. Its Chaitra fair is one of the largest in eastern Rajasthan.

Taragarh Fort, BundiStanding
Sultanates, Vijayanagara and the kingdoms that stood

Taragarh Fort, Bundi

The star fort of the Hada Chauhans on the ridge above Bundi, raised in 1354. Below it the palace of the Bundi rajas spills down the hill, its walls painted with the Bundi school of murals.

Raniji ki Baori, BundiStanding
The Mughal era and the resistance

Raniji ki Baori, Bundi

The queen’s stepwell of Bundi, built in 1699 by Rani Nathavati of the Hada house, some 46 metres deep, with carved gateways and images of Vishnu’s avatars on its walls.