Some people visit Chittaurgarh as a day-trip from Udaipur, but this is not recom­mended as you then spend half the day on the road. It's best to base yourself in a resort in the countryside and then visit the fort,  the villages,  woodlands and temples nearby. From the city, you can drive up to the fort yourself or hire an auto in the main market.

Many battles were fought in and around this strategic bastion. The town faced three sieges, and each time, the women and children committed jauhar, or mass suicide, in the face of defeat. Today, the uphill road to the fort passes through various gateways, some with recognisably Gujarati elements. The tour begins with Rana Kumbha's Palace, one of the fort's most evocative sections and a model of Rajput architecture. Kumbha didn't estab­lish the complex, but during his long rule (1433-68), he renovated and added to it considerably. Just inside the entrance, you can see where he sat to watch the sun rise and pray to Surya, to the tunes of musicians seated in the chhatri opposite.

Memories of a queen Within   the   Zenana   Mahal   of   the Kumbha Palace, the upper floors were knocked out by invaders - the better to view the lovely ceiling dome today. You can even pop into theTani's toilet; with lively authenticity, it still smells like a loo. Around these chambers are an endless array of ruined maidservants' quarters, with stairways leading up to nowhere. Outside, there are faint traces of pink and blue paint on the walls and, when the sky is pure blue, you can imagine how stun­ning this place must have been. A guide can point out the stairway to the long underground passage, no longer acces­sible, through which Padmini and her ladies passed down to the bathing tank, Gaumukh Kund, and where eventually, under duress, Chittaur's first jauhar also took place. It was in 1303 that the Delhi Sultan Allauddin Khalji decided he must have Chittaur and cut off the fort's food supply for six months. Rawal Ratan Singh I of Mewar would not surrender. Legend has it that Allauddin offered to vanish if he were allowed a glimpse of Padmini, the Rana's queen and to keep the peace, Ratan Singh agreed. Afterwards, the Rana escorted Allauddin back to the gate, whereupon the former was captured and told that he would be released only if Padmini were to be handed over. No one was more appalled by this thought than Padmini, who craftily replied that she would only give herself up if the sultan sent 700 palkis for her 700 maids first. She filled these with Rajput soldiers disguised as women - no sooner had they reached the sultan's camp than they leapt out and freed Ratan Singh. Thereafter, the still courteous Rana had a phalanx of armed 'footmen' help Allauddin find his way back to Delhi.
Frustrated, the sultan regrouped, returned, killed 30,000 men who rushed out to face death and stormed the fort. Padmini and the women built a massive pyre and burned themselves and their children to death. This sack-and-suicide is known as Chittaur's first saka. Allauddin's army, says historian John Keay, "marvel­led that principalities so agriculturally disadvantaged and forts so poorly endowed with treasure should occasion such passionate resistance".

Wander on to see where Mirabai spent much of her life as the widow of the young Sisodia prince Bhoj Raj. Little of this atmospheric building remains, but two green parrots greeted us from the dome and the view of the city of Chittaur,, all periwinkle-blue houses with teal-green doors, is worth checking out. The Diwan-i-Aam (the Hall of Public Audience) is essentially a tree-dappled lawn, at the end of which stands the Rana Sangha's elephant chamber.
The fort's Jain population comprised accountants and bankers who worked for the Ranas, and they left their mark architecturally. Across the road from Rana Kumbha's palace is a 15th century Jain temple, Shanti Nath, built by the Rana's accountant. It now represents an aston­ishing duality - a neat square, elabo­rately carved on all sides, capped with a simple Islamic dome. Nearby, in the 19th century Fateh Prakash Palace, a muse­um houses weapons, sculptures, artefacts and some folk art.
Timings 10 am-4.30 pm

Continuing south, the 15th century Kumbhashyam Temple keeps the Mirabai Temple company. The queen is famed for having thrown herself into a romantic devotion to Krishna after her marriage and soon became a young widow, after which - because she recommenced singing too soon and declined to stay in purdah - her brother-in-law tried repeatedly and creatively to poison her. This is a memorial temple, not an actual haunt of Mirabai's.
Beyond the next patch of custard-apple trees is the tower you can see from afar, the Vijay Stambh. Built by Rana Kumbha to celebrate his 1437 routing of the Sultan of Malwa (Mandu), it rises nine storeys and is covered head to toe with Hindu deities. In a nod to secularism, Allah's name is inscribed in Arabic on the third and eighth storeys, but that didn't stop later Muslim invaders from taking shots at this amazing structure. If you can cut through the monkeys chasing each other around the base, flash your fort ticket to climb to the top.
South of the tower is the site of the second great saka, in 1534, this one owed to Bahadur Shah of Gujarat. Among the patchwork of Hindu, Jain and quasi-Muslim shrines is the enormous crema­tion ground where 13,000 women and their children embraced the flames after their men had ridden out to death's door.

On the road to Padmini's Palace, you'll pass the Kalika Mata Temple, dedicated to Surya in the 8th century CE,  but spruced up and rededicated in the 14th. Padmini's own portion of the palace, the Zenana Mahal (opposite the main building, known popularly as the 'Gents Palace'), was buijt in the middle of a lotus pond, the better to keep her cool in the summer.  It is said that this is where Allauddin had his glimpse of her - standing perhaps in the jharokha of the Gents Palace guest room, he watched her appear in a mirror across the water. But most historians  say that this was a condition the Rajputs would have never agreed to.

Make your way to this vantage point in the main building, however, as the view of the floating mahal and the rugged land beyond is quite something.In 1567, when it was clear that Mewar would not join the Mughal army as Amber had done, Akbar attacked. This would be Chittaur's third and final saka. Under the command of the young Jaimal and Phatta, 8,000 men gallantly defended the Rajputs and gallantly lost. The Mughal Emperor killed about 30,000 more men, the ladies immolated them-selves and this time the silence was permanent. Udai Singh established a new Mewar capital (called Udaipur) and his son Maharana Pratap kept the Sisodia flame alive.