A star-shaped wonder

Tipu Sultan is as famous for the forts he built as he is for standing up against the British. His father Hyder Ali, and then Tipu Sultan himself, renovated so many forts and built some more that historians quip that in (former) Mysore state almost every hillock has a fort! At a time when the French and British were competing with each other for a larger share of India, Tipu Sultan allied himself with the French. As Tipu Sultan wanted to secure the highway from the port city of Mangalore to the natural resource rich Coorg, he took help from the French to build a fort along the lines of the design developed by the French military engineer, Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, who pioneered the star-shaped design for forts.

Unconventional style

There are about a dozen forts in India influenced by the European style of fortification. But the fort at Manjarabad, completed in 1792, is probably the only remaining example of this kind of defence architecture. The star-shaped fort was developed when cannons came to dominate the battlefield. Warfare using cannons required the fort walls to be short, broad and sturdy unlike the tall, thin walls required for traditional warfare using bows and arrows, spears and swords. The star-shaped fort was first seen in the mid-15th century in Italy.

It is no surprise that Tipu Sultan, who was known for embracing new innovations and unconventional methods, decided to build a fort along this unique European style. Built atop a hill, the Manjarabad Fort is the shape of an eight-pointed star when seen from above. The arrow-head shaped bastions give the fort its star shape. This shape of the bastion enables a panoramic view of the battlefield and also provides no dead zones unlike circular or rectangular bastions. A dead zone is the space between two bastions where the enemy is relatively safe from being attacked by those inside the fort.

As we can’t get an aerial view, the shape of the fort has been carved on the entrance arch for us to fully appreciate the architecture. Tipu Sultan used granite stones and lime mortar for the outer walls while he used burnt bricks for the inside walls and structures. The walls of the fort slope outwards and this is another feature of French defence architecture. If the attacking enemy got too close to the fort, cannon balls, stones or balls of fire could manually be thrown down via the sloped walls.

Located just 10 km from Sakaleshpura on the Bangalore-Mangalore Highway,Manjarabad Fort is unknown to most tourists. A steep muddy pathway and then a flight of stairs lead to a wide passage, between granite walls, which ends at an ornate-arched main entrance of the fort. A narrow pathway then leads to another gateway which opens out into the area enclosed by the fort walls. There is a well in the middle of the courtyard which has steps from four sides.

There are two subterranean cellars that were built to store gunpowder to keep them cool even in summer. Unbelievably, the temperature in these cellars is at least five degrees less than the temperature outside! There are also a few rooms along the walls to house goods, horses and soldiers. The locals tell tales of a tunnel leading from the fort to Srirangapatna, which was the capital of Tipu Sultan. The fort was taken by the British after Tipu’s defeat and they supposedly closed the tunnel. There is no evidence today of an entrance to the tunnel or the tunnel itself.

Perfect location

The location of the fort is such that Tipu could control the access to Mangalore and Coorg. Locals say that if the skies are clear, one can even see the Arabian Sea from the bastions of this fort. Sadly, there is no credible information put up by the authority in-charge.

There are no records of the fort playing an important role in any battle. India’s only intact star-shaped fort is at the mercy of the elements and careless tourists, who have left evidence of their insensitivity by carving their names on the walls and using the sentry boxes and cellars as restrooms.

Not only is the Manjarabad Fort a shining example of defence architecture but it is a great place to catch views of the Western Ghats. One can climb up to the pointed end of the arrowhead-shaped bastions to sit and look out at the surrounding scenery. The place is so poetic that the mist enclosing the fort in the mornings or during the monsoons must have inspired Tipu Sultan to name the fort Manjarabad (in Kannada, manju means mist).

Monsoons are a good time to visit so that you can experience the thick mist. Winters are a good time if you want to explore the fort. Summers are the best time to catch views of the surrounding mountains and probably even the Arabian Sea!