Defence Architecture in Early North Karnataka c19.s2.5

c19.s2.5

The third stage is represented by the fort in Malkhed. The very location (Fig.34) of the fort in the plain area indicates that there was a considerably distinct advancement in war techniques, for the natural protective devices that could be made use of in the earlier two stages represented by the forts in Banavāsi and Bādāmi, would be of not much avail. The later Rāṣṭrakūṭa fort in Malkhēḍ is located in the plain field (Fig. 35). On the other hand, artificial technical devices had to be evolved to meet the developing challanges such as deep wide moats, more bastions, more than one walls, more intricate entrances (Illn. D2) equipped with strong bastions (Fig. D3) at the very entrances. All these are evident in the remnants of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa fort.