Day Eight - Junagarh Fort, Bikaner

Inside the fort. The Queen and her attendants could look out through the latticed windows but no-one could see them except for the King

An example of the stunning ceiling decoration inside Junagarh Fort

Spikes high on the doors of the fort to repel elephants

Hands representing all the women who died to avoid being captured

This place almost overwhelmed me with its beauty. The paintings on ceilings and walls, mosaic tiles, gold patterns and mirrors - enough surface decoration to inspire an artist for a life time!!  (The next post will show more.)

While we were in India a controversial film about this fort was causing furious rioting. The film appears to depict the Queen who lived here, Padmavati, a beautiful lady revered by Hindus for hundreds of years, in a way that displeased the locals. 

The film was based on a poem, 'Padmaavat' which was written 200 years after the alleged events took place. 

Historically the King had to leave his Queen to fight to defend his realm and was killed. To avoid being captured by the enemy approaching the fort, Padmavati and all her attendant females, burned themselves to death.

 Some Hindus believed that the film implied that this did not happen until after the enemy had taken the Queen. So you can see why there were calls for the film to be banned. However a compromise was reached where the film's title has been changed from Padmavati to Padmaavat ie the name of the poem it is based on.