Kans Kila

October 11, 2013

The Old Fort of Mathura - Kans Quila

Picture#1: Old Fort of Mathura (archive picture)

City view in 1882:
City of Mathura was stretched for about 2.5 Km on right side of river Yamuna. From left side of Yamuna Minarets of Jama Masjid at Chowk bazar and campanile of English church were seen. Northern side Kans Killa was prominent object.

“The city stretched for about a mile and a half along the right bank of the Yamuna and from the opposite side has a very striking and picturesque appearance, which was owing not a little to the broken character of the ground on which it is built. Were it not for this peculiarity of site, the almost total absence of towers and sires would be felt as a great drawback, for all the large modern temples had no Shikharas, as are usually seen similar edifices, but were simple cloistered quadrangles of uniform height. The only exceptions were the lofty minarets of the Jama Masjid on the one side, and the campanile of the English church seen through the trees in the distance below. Looking up the stream, the most prominent object is the old fort, or rather its massive sub-structure, for that is all that now remains, called by the people Kans-ka-kila.”

Picture#2: Chowk Bazar Masjid, Mathura (archive picture)

Sawai Raja Jay Sinh:

Looking up the stream of Yamuna, the most prominent object is the old fort, or rather its massive sub-structure, for that is all that now remains, called by the people Kans-ka-kila. Whatever its legendary antiquity, it was rebuilt in historical times by Raja Man Singh of Jaipur, the chief of the Hindu prices at Akbar's court. At a later period it was the occasional residence of Man Sinh's still more famous successor on the throne of Amber, the great astronomer Sawai Jay Singh, who commenced his long reign of 44 years in 1699 AD.

Till the day of his death he was engaged in almost constant warfare, but is less known to posterity by his military success, brilliant though they were, than by his enlightened civil administration and still more exceptional literary achievements. At the outset he made a false move; for in the war of succession that ensured upon the death of Aurangzeb, he attached himself to Prince Bedar Bakht and fought by his side in the fatal battle of Dholpur. One of the first acts of Shah Alam, on his consequent elevation to the throne, was to sequester the principality of Amber. An Imperial Governor was sent to take possession, but Jay Sinh drove him out sword in hand, and then formed a league with Ajit Sinh of Marwar for mutual protection. From that day forward he was prominently concerned in all the troubles and warfare of that anarchies period, but never again on the losing side. In 1721, he was appointed Governor of the Province of Agra and later of Malwa; but he gradually loosened his connection with the Court of Delhi, from a conviction that the dissolution of the Muhammadan empire was inevitable, and concluded terms with the Mahrathas. At his accession, Amber consisted only of the three paraganas of Amber, Deosa and Barasao, as the Shaikhawats had made themselves independent and the western tracts had been attached to Ajmer. He not only recovered all that his ancestors had lost but further extended his frontiers by the reduction of the Bargujars of Deoti and Rajaur and made his State worthy to be called the dominions of a Raja - a title which he was the first of his line to assume. The new capital, which he founded, he called after his own name Jaypur, and it is still to the present day the only native city in India built upon a regular plan; the only one also, it must unfortunately be added, in which the street architecture is absolutely bad and systematically false and pretentious; through it is the fashion for Anglo-Indians to admire it. He is said to have been assisted in the execution of his design by an architect from Bengal (Mirza Ismail Khan).

Picture#3: Sawai Maansingh built Observatory in Mathura

Picture#4: Sawai Maansingh built Observatory in Mathura [Hall built by Raja Maansingh, later turned into school]

Picture#5: Raja Maansingh hall - Side view

Picture#6: Raja Maansingh Hall - Inner view

Picture#7: Old Fort - Current view

Picture#8: Raja Maansingh Observatory & Hall - Top view

Picture#9: Raja Maansingh Hall - Lower Floor was destroyed and closed

Picture#10: Raja Maansingh Hall - Side View

Picture#11: Wooden carved piece used of Raja Maansingh Hall

Picture#12: British Era - Part of Hockey stick and Stamp

Mathura Old Fort, Kans-ka-Kila:

Mathura fort (rather better known as Kans ka kila) was re-built by Raja Man Singh of Jaipur. It was occasional residence of Raja Man Singh. But Raja Sawai Jay Sinh has constructed observatory at this fort. In consequence of his profound knowledge of astronomy, Sawai Jay Sinh was entrusted by Muhammad Shah with the reformation of the calendar; to ensure that amount of accuracy which he considered the small instruments in ordinary use must always fail to command, he constructed observatories with instruments of his own, invention on a gigantic scale. One of these was on the top on the Mathura Fort, the others at Delhi, Jaipur, Ujjain and Banaras. His success was so signal that he was able to detect errors in the table of De la Hire, which had been communicated to him by the King of Portugal. His own tables were completed in 1728 and are those still used by native astronomers. he died in 1743. His voluminous correspondenece is said by Tod still to exist and his acts to be recorded in an miscellaneous diary entitled Kalpadruma and a collection of anecdotes called the Eksau Nau Gun Jay Sinh Ka.

Picture#13: Old fort of Mathura - Archive picture

(See the ship size)

What happen to this fort:

The whole of the Mathura observatory has now disappeared. A little before the 1857 first independence war the buildings were sold to the great government contractor, Joti Prasad, who destroyed them for the sake of the materials. Certainly, they had ceased to be any practical use. But they were if interest, both in the history of science and as a memorial of one of the most remarkable men in the long line of Indian sovereigns and their inconsiderate demolition is a matter of regret. The old hall of audience, which is outside the actual fort, is a handsome and substantial building divided into three aisles by ranges of red sandstone pillars. Soon after the 1857 first independence war it was converted into a school and, in order to render it as unsightly as such Government building ordinarily are, the front arches were all clocked up with a mud wall which concealed every trace of them. Quite by an accident I discovered their existence and after opening then out again, filled in their heads with iron bars set in a wooden frame and the lower part with a slight masonry wall, thus presenting all the architectural effect without any sacrifice of convenience.