Qualla: Hari Parbat Fort

Hari Parbat Fort: Introduction

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Oniongas, Public domain. Stonemasonry was foreign to Kashmir when Akbar decided to build here. The region's builders worked in wood -- intricately carved, earthquake-resistant timber was the architectural language of the valley. So when the Mughal emperor ordered a fortress atop Hari Parbat hill in Srinagar, he imported two hundred stonemasons from outside Kashmir to do it. The gray limestone walls they raised became Nagar Nagar, a walled city that served as the center of Mughal administration in the valley. That was the late 16th century. In the centuries since, Afghans, Sikhs, Dogras, and the Indian state have each claimed this hilltop, building over and within what came before. The fort that stands today, locally called Koh-e-Maran, is less a single building than a geological record of power in Kashmir.

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Image: Oniongas | Public domain

Hari Parbat Fort: The Garden That Three Emperors Loved

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mike Prince from Bangalore, India, CC BY 2.0. Akbar did not just build fortifications on Hari Parbat -- he planted a garden. It holds a singular distinction: it is the only palace-garden mentioned in the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, the memoirs of Akbar's son and successor Jahangir. When Jahangir visited Srinagar in 1620, he ordered r...

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Image: Mike Prince from Bangalore, India | CC BY 2.0

Hari Parbat Fort: An Afghan Governor's Ambition

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Indrajit Das, CC BY-SA 4.0. Of Akbar's walled city, only the rampart and two gateways survived into the Afghan period: the Sangeen Darwaza and the Kathi Darwaza. Within these Mughal walls, Atta Mohammad Khan -- the longest-serving governor of Kashmir under the Durrani Empire -- built a new fortification bet...

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Image: Indrajit Das | CC BY-SA 4.0

Hari Parbat Fort: Siege and Surrender

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Indrajit Das, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Sikh Empire took the fort next, and then the British reshaped ownership once more. The 1846 Treaty of Lahore, which ended the First Anglo-Sikh War, included a provision that several Sikh holdings -- Hari Parbat among them -- would be ceded to Gulab Singh, the Dogra ruler who ...

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Image: Indrajit Das | CC BY-SA 4.0

Hari Parbat Fort: A Hilltop Still Claimed

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CuriousZil, CC BY-SA 4.0. Today Hari Parbat Fort is maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India, though as of 2021 it was occupied by the Central Reserve Police Force. The hill rises prominently above Srinagar's old city, visible from Dal Lake and the surrounding neighborhoods. In 2021, the Indian fl...

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Image: CuriousZil | CC BY-SA 4.0