Malout Fort

Malot Fort stands on a hilltop in the Shivalik foothills of Hoshiarpur district, about 10 km east of Hariana. The village of Malot lies below it, and the fort is a further 2 km up the hill. Little is left. When the surveyor Charles Rodgers recorded it in 1891 he called it a complete ruin, with only a few buildings or parts of buildings standing. The approach is still hard as we will see. Rodgers says it was built in the reign of the Lodhi sultan Bahlol Lodhi (1451-89) by Tatar Khan Yusuf Khel, one of his Afghan nobles. Many websites date it to 1485 and credit Bahlol Lodhi himself, but the older record names Tatar Khan. The fort’s moment in history came in January 1526. Daulat Khan Lodhi, the governor of the Punjab who had invited Babur into India and then fallen out with him, took shelter here with his son Ghazi Khan as Babur marched on Delhi. Babur crossed the Beas near Kahnuwan and made for the foot of the valley. On 5 January Daulat Khan surrendered and was brought before him and rebuked, while Ghazi Khan escaped into the hills. Babur then went down the Jaswan valley, took other forts including Kotla, and crossed the Sutlej near Rupar. In April he defeated Ibrahim Lodhi at Panipat. Babur’s own memoir describes Ghazi Khan’s private book-room. He found many books of learned contents, though fewer valuable ones than he had expected, and he gave some of the best to his sons Humayun and Kamran. Online posts claim it was “Asia’s largest library”. Take care with the name, because there is another, older Malot Fort in the Salt Range in Pakistan. The 1884 Hoshiarpur gazetteer records a local belief that Akbar was born at Malot. Rodgers dismissed it, since Akbar was born in Sindh. No protection is recorded for the fort today. The route to the fort involves a dangerous hike. A visitor has to hike up a narrow stony stream bed and climb through heavy vegetation, and Rodgers noted that the channels leading to the fort were too tight for two people to walk side by side. Various videos on YouTube show the treacherous route. Sources: Rodgers, Revised List of Objects of Archaeological Interest in the Punjab (1891), no. 89; Hoshiarpur District Gazetteer (1883-84); Jullundur District Gazetteer (1904); Babur-nama,