Raja's Palace (Royal Palace) Rawala Gogunda – District Udaipur - Rajasthan - India

Restoration and reconstruction project

Extract from the restoration project report.
Description of the Palace:
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The Raja’s Palace Rawala Gogunda (Royal palace) is situated on a high peak of over nine hundred metres in the Aravalli Hills, thirty-five kilometres northwest of Udaipur (district of Udaipur, Sheet N. 45 H/9 – 72° 32’ East of Greenwich), state of Rajasthan -India.

A wall surrounds that part of the Palace complex which comprises of the residential quarters of the main Palace, namely the Dome Palace, together with all the other constructions which constitute the various activities and functions of the royal court.

Parts of the surrounding wall has collapsed, parts have been damaged and engulfed by the village tribes, where, since the abandonment of the Palace in the early 50s, some areas have been internally occupied, abundantly raided and vandalized with the destruction of internal decorations... ... a great deal of the materials coming from the collapse of the buildings can be recuperated for restoration works.... some cannons belonging to the fortress with dimensions similar to the XIVth century European falconet, made from a primitive substance more similar to iron than bronze were saved from the raids and retrieved from under the ruins.

The buildings denote repeated construction changes and adaptations made in the course of time; exposing the use of various construction styles as Hindu, Jain, Mewari and Mughal which are typical of Rajput Architecture developed during the period of 1450 and 1750, which at first sight its principal characteristic appears to be the lack of a defined pattern of which a descriptive interpretation is easier to attain than an analytical one, with successive adaptations made during the British domain…

Extract from the historical report:
........in XVI century, after the battle of Haldighati, Gogunda was the capital of the Mewar Kingdom, belonging to the Jhala family which is a Rajput clan (warrior caste).
The battle took place on 18th June 1576, Between Pratap Singh, the senior Rajput chief crowned in 1572 in Gogunda as the 54th Ruler of Mewar, and the imperial Mughal army led by Raja Man Singh of Jaipur.
It represent an attempt by the Mughal emperor Akbar of Delhi to subdue the last of the independent chiefs of Rajasthan.
The uncertain result of the battle, which was fought at the Haldighati Pass, about 12 miles from the fortress of Gogunda, forces Pratap to withdraw into the Aravali Hills, meanwhile the Imperial forces on 23rd June 1576 occupy the fortress rebuilding the external boundary wall. Gogunda is regained by the Rajput forces in October 1576 but is again taken by the forces of emperor Akbar and therefore abandoned at the end of the same year.......