LetsGoSightseeing
★★★★4.0Wrote on 12 Dec 2023
Ancient Fortress, Monastery & Temple Complex
Located off the Shivpuri – Jhansi Road is the Survaya ki Garhi. It is an ancient fortress which housed a Hindu monastery in the olden days. We visited on a Monday morning; the ruins were empty of crowds then. After parking our car, we entered via a circuitous route through stone walls. This was followed by a path in between two gardens and having a board that talked about the Garhi. The monastery & the temples were built first. The monastery also had an ‘overall auspiciousness’ temple on its roof. The fortress was built later, in the 11th-12th century, presumably to protect the monastery & the temples. As per the inscriptions, the monastery was linked to the Shaiva sect. it was originally a two – storeyed building though the upper storey now survives only partially. The Scindias renovated it when they ruled over these parts. The whole premises are built out of stone. While there is no ticket, you do have to make entries into a register. The temples are three in number. Though all of them have lost their ‘shikhar’ now, they are still sights to behold. The most prominent one was the Shiva Temple. This ancient Temple is lovely with its carvings worth seeing. In front of it, broken pieces that were excavated, but which could not be put together, are displayed on the ground, giving the viewer a sense of what architecture existed then. To the right of the Shiva Temple are a stepwell & an elevated platform. Bougainvillea plants, with their gay flowers, completed the picture perfectness of the Garhi. We then explored the monastery, climbing also onto its first floor. The stairs are narrow & steep; so, caution has to be exercised. The first floor gave a stupefying view of the premises. The ground floor had small, dark rooms around a sunlit courtyard. The Survaya ki Garhi does need proper roads leading up to it. A cleanliness drive is required too as the penultimate areas are splashed with cow dung. Even though it’s maintained by the ASI, it can be really puckered up to attract more sightseers, like having guides or more inscriptions.
