Manjarabad Fort: the subcontinent's only indigenous star/bastion fort.
A fort that is truly unique.

*A Thread*

The fort was constructed under the Tipu Sultan, the Sultan of Mysore. He took a keen interest in new military technologies. Not only would he adopt weapons and tactics from the Europeans but would innovate new ones like his famous rockets which would be adopted by the British.

Part of his interest in new technologies led to the first local star fort to be constructed. In 1792 he would lay the foundation for Manjarabad fort which sat on a hill overlooking the important road between Mangalore and Kodagu.

The fort was designed by French architects who were strong allies of Mysore as opposed to the British.

Born in Italy, bastion or star forts had a number of features which made them more suitable to warfare that was dominated by cannons compared to traditional designs. For one the walls were lower but thicker and thus could sustain bombardment.

The particular shapes of the bastions which had sharp corners meant that maximum area could be under your line of fire irrespective of your position on the walls.

These characteristics were supplemented by numerous lines of earthworks and moats so cannons could not be deployed close to the fort.
This made bastion forts extremely formidable.

At the same time Manjarabad had some very prominent Indian characteristics.
This is mainly the heavily decorated gate with flower like design as well as a cross shaped step-well for storing water.
Both of these are unique to Indian forts.

Tipu Sultan named the fort Manjarabad fort from the word "manju"which means fog in the local Kannada language. The fort gives a great view of the surrounding area and you can see as far as the Arabian sea from the fort.

Manjarabad Fort is the only star fort in the subcontinent to be constructed by a local ruler.