Defence Architecture in Early North Karnataka c14.s1.2

c14.s1.2

Why the provision of battlements is not found in the extant forts of early India, is to be investigated. Of course, most of the early forts of India, are in ruins, so much so that,it may not be possible to trace,if there were any battlements at the top. Fortunately, in Karnāṭaka, we do have sculptural representation of forts with battlements, in Hero-stones placed now in Tārakēśhwara temple at Hāngal (Illns. J2 & J3) and Someshwar temple at Laxmēshwara (Illn. J4). The former has got an inscription of circa of 12th century. So far, we have not come across any Indo-Islamic forts of such an early date. The later Muslim rulers must have taken over the Indian tradition that became common in the construction of their forts. We find rather suddenly, therefore, the beginning of the occurrence of the battlements in the Indo-Islamic forts.