The Jaigargh fort is similar to the Amer fort in its architecture. It offers a fabulous view of the Pink City, Jaipur. This famous monument was built in the 18th century. The fort is located in the Amer City which was ruled by the Kachawahas from the early 10th century. This fort is also known as “Fort of the Victory” which was constructed by Sawai Jai Singh II and Mirza Raja Jai Singh in the year 1726. This fort is located at a height of about 500 feet on the top of the hill named as ‘Cheel Ka Teela’ or Hill of Eagles and its is situated approximately at a distance of 15km away from Jaipur city. The fort was built to safeguard Amber and a three kilometer fortification wall surrounds the Jai Garh Fort. Jaigarh Fort held the treasures of the royal family of the Maharaja of Jaipur, in the form of massive gold bullion.
The walls of the fort are built by red sandstones and this covers a range of 3 kms in length and one kilometer in width. ‘Jivana Cannon’ is one of the greatest cannon on wheels in this fort and also it covers a huge palace complex. The fort also includes the Laxmi Vilas, Lalit Mandir, Aram Mandir and the Vilas Mandir. The fort has a famous garden which must be visited by tourists if they are coming to see this fort. The fort also has an armory and a museum. The museum in the fort has a various collection of weapons, antiquity coins, photographs, and the articles of royal rulers. One can surely go into the back days of the Kings on seeing this type of collection in the museum. Tourists can also see the Royal chairs in the museum and some sort of instruments also which are now placed in the Shubhat Niwas of the meeting Hall of Warriors. This museum is known for its architectural magnificence. To harvest water, this fort has three water tanks and out of these three, the largest one has the capacity of storing 60, 00,000 gallons of water.
Museum has a large collection of items which are pertaining to the fort. The Armoury's treasures include a 50-kg cannonball, various swords, muskets, war bugles, armour, shields, gun, bullock-cart, wheel, and camel-mounted. Sawai Bhawani Singh and Major General Man Singh II photographs are also placed in this museum who are the Jaipur's maharajas, both once were the senior military officers in the Indian Army. The museum also contains the palace guards, royal processions and the Jaipur State Cavalry. There is an interesting photograph of many rulers, chiefs and Princes of India at the Conference in Delhi and a map of Jaigarh Fort, leather and oil containers made of metal and the round playing cards of the 18th century.
Jaigarh fort also has some of the open halls in it out of which one is the Shubhat Niwas which is also known as the Meeting Hall of Warriors. This contains sedan chairs and drums in it.
The way to reach the Jaigarh Fort is through a steep winding path. From the Fort, the view of city can be enjoyed. Nearly two hours are enough to explore the museum completely.
Gardens, palaces, old water harvesting system, reservoirs, armory, gun foundry, museum, and temples of this fort are just amazing. A steep road goes up to the main gate of the fort and this gate is known as the Dungar Darwaza, the view from this darwaza is stupendous.
Jaigarh Fort was the centre for the canon foundry and a storage place for the war equipments during the Mughal rule. In the year 1658, wars broke out in the Mughal dynasty and the canon outpost at that time was protected by Dara Shikoh at the Jaigarh Fort. He protected it till he was defeated by his brother Aurangzeb. Then, the Fort was under the rule of Jai Singh IIand he molded great ‘Jaivana Cannon', along with using the devices and the foundries inside the fort.
Jan Ban is the key attraction of this fort which is renowned cannon. The Jan Ban is made during the rule of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II between the years 1699-1743. It has 11 inches of diameter, its 20 feet in height and 2 inches long barrel which weighs 50 tons. The designs of flower petals, an elephant, and peacocks and a couple of ducks are engraved on the front, tilt, centre and posterior of the barrel, respectively. Bajrang Ban was built in the year 1691 A.D. is one more famous cannon. It is kept in the foundry of Jaigarh and beautiful ducks are engraved on it. Thirty two oxen were required to drive it to the war area as it was too heavy.
Shri Ram Hari Har Temple is also one of the famous temple in the fort of Jai Garh which has two big idols of Lord Shri Ram and Hari-Har. The idol of Lord Shri Ram has four faces which depict the various formsof Lord Vishnu which are Lion, Boar, Tortoise and Fish. The temple was built in the year 1225 A.D. under the rule of Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II. The fort also has the Lalit Mandir in it, plus the Laxmi Villas which separate the dining rooms for the royal men and women. ‘Jivana Cannon’ is one of the greatest cannon on wheels in this fort and also it covers a huge palace complex. Jivana was built in the year 1720 and its barrel alone can weighs close to 50 tons. Diwa Burj which has the seven-storied watchtower is also one of the attractions of this fort and we can see the excellent view of the Jaipur city and the fort.