History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c74.s7: § 9. Fort of Jinji described.
History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c74.s7
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§ 9. Fort of Jinji described.
v5.c74.s7.1
The rock-fortress of Jinji from its almost central position dominates the vast Karnatak plain from Arcot southwards to Trichinopoly, and from the Eastern Ghats to the Bay of Bengal. It consists not of one fort, but of three fortified hillocks connected together by strong lines of circumvallation, and forming a rough triangle nearly three miles in circumference.
v5.c74.s7.2
"These hills are steep, rocky and covered with such enormous boulders that they are almost unclimbable. Each of the three is fortified on all sides with line above line of stone walls, flanked with bastions, filled with embrasures for guns, loopholed for musketry and pierced only by narrow and strong gateways; and from each to the next, connected with these defences, runs a great stone-faced rampart nearly 60 feet thick with a ditch over 80 feet wide outside it. The triangular space thus enclosed (which is about three miles round) forms the lower fort, and the three hills are the citadels. Up each of the three citadels leads, from the lower fort, a steep flight of steps of hewn granite built on and among the great boulders with which the sides of the hills are strewn."
v5.c74.s7.3
The strongest and highest of the peaks is the western one, called *Rajgiri* (or Great Mountain in Orme's plan), its top standing 800 feet above the plain below and 400 feet in an almost sheer ascent above the rest of the ridge......The only path to Rajgiri, "a steep and narrow way, leads from the lower fort below, from the south-west, through gates in three lines of loopholed walls built one above another on the ridge across the road, and at length scales a mass of rock the top of which is nearly level with the summit of the citadel. But at this point, on the north side of the bluff, a great natural chasm, some 24 feet wide and 50 feet deep, separates this mass of rock from the topmost terrace of Rajgiri. This chasm, the former owners (agents of the Vijaynagar empire) had artificially lengthened and widened, and they had made the only entrance to the citadel pass across a narrow wooded bridge thrown over it, the further end of the bridge leading to a stone gate commanded by more embrasures and loopholes. Orme says that this point could be held by ten men against ten thousand." [S. Arcot Dist. Gazetteer, i. 347-348; also Manual, 413].
v5.c74.s7.4
The northernmost of the three hills is *Krishnagiri* ("English Mountain" in Orme's plan), and the southern one is *Chandrayandurg* ("St. George's Mountain" in Orme). The last is of much lower elevation.
v5.c74.s7.5
The gates are three: one in the northern wall, now called the Vellore or Arcot gate, but known in the 17th century as the ‘gate towards Trinomali’; a second in the eastern face, now called the Pondicherry gate, which was the principal entrance into the fort in the 17th century; and due west of this second gate, right across the lower enclosure, stands a small postern gate (in the wall connecting Chandrayan with Rajgiri), called by the Indians *Shaitan-dari* (or *Port du Diable* in French, as in Orme's plan).
v5.c74.s7.6
About half a mile south of Rajgiri is a fourth hill now called *Chakkili-durg* (and *Chamar-tikri* by Bhimsen), the summit of which is strongly fortified. But it is not connected with Jinji. [S. Arcot Manual, 418.]