Khammam Fort is situated in the city of Khammam, Telangana, India. It is said that the fort has been built by the Kakatiya rulers in 950 AD. This fort is built to protect the citadel during the war or from other dynasties, including Qutub Shah and Asaf Jahi’s. However, the fort was situated in the heart of the City of Khammam.
According to the legends, elder people say that gold coins were used in the construction of this fort and were unearthed from their farm near Khammam, and after receiving the news then the Kakatiya king ordered them to build a fort on the hill in Khammam which is known as the second capital of the Kaktiya dynasty. This fort is built to protect the second capital from attacks and war from the enemy of the kingdom.
This Fort has spread over an area of 4 sq. miles in the City of Khammam on top of a massive granite Hill. It is surrounded by a huge rock wall approximately between 40 and 80 feet (13-25 Meters) in height and 15-20 feet (4.5 to 6 Meters) in width. Also, there are some steps to reach the fort but it was broken by the armies at the time of war that time but a few times ago it was renovated by the archaeological department.
The main entrance is 30 feet tall and is called the Killa Darwaza. It has 2 cannons on either side of the entrance and the fort has 10 large gates. Each gate has cannons mounted on them with a water pot made of rocks. The east gate or the second entrance is large enough and is popularly called the Raathi Darwaza which means stone entrance in Urdu or Potha Darwaza. And all other gates are smaller than the main entrance and could have been built to avoid large armies to enter the fort in case of an attack.
Furthermore, the fort is said to have a secret tunnel to the Warangal Fort with many entrances in different locations at the fort. One of the entrances is 10 feet in diameter and the steps or stairs to enter the tunnel are been closed due to damage over the years. People say that these tunnels were used as secret gates to escape from enemy attacks.
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Khammam Fort History:
The construction of the making fort was started on the Hilltop of the city. Even a 100-acre massive lake was constructed during this period to fulfill the need for water in the city is called the Lakaram lake, it is named after lakshma Reddy who built this lake.
This fort was under the Kakatiya kings for a very long period meanwhile almost 300 years. But later then fall under the hands of the Padmanayaka Dynasty for a brief period and after that ruled by different independent rulers such as the Nandavani, Kalluru, and Gudluru kings.
The founder of the Qutb Shahi dynasty Sultan Quli Qutb Mulk ruled the sultanate of Golconda from 1518 to the 1687 year and the fort was under him in the year 153 AD after defeating the Shitab Khan. Hence, the fort was continuous under the Qutb Shahis dynasty until the 17th century and then it passed it over to the hands of the Asaf Jahi Dynasty. Although the Khammam fort was mainly under the Kakatiya dynasty and later then it slowly became an independent territory within the kingdom.
Shitab khan, who was the army commander of the Humayun shah of the Bahmani sultanate declared Khammam as his jagir means a piece of land along with Rachakonda and Warangal in the year 1503, and ruled this fort city in 1503 A.D to 1512 A.D. then, a war happened with King Sri Krishnadevaraya and Shitab khan joined the king Pratap Rudra, who was the king of Orissa but they lost the battle.
However, it continues to pass who come over one dynasty to another. The Khammam fort now fell into the hands of the new king in 1515 AD. Later on, four Qutb shahi ruled over this land Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah (1580–1612), Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah (1612–1626), Abdullah Qutb Shah (1626–1672), and Abul Hasan Qutb Shah (1672–1689) popularly known as Tana Shah. After that, the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb took over this fort in the year 1687 A.D and went into the hands of the Asaf Jahi rulers.
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