Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India (Info: 1, 2)

Gwalior is justly famous for at least three things: its imposing fort, Mian Tansen, and the first epigraphic evidence of zero. According to legend, Gwalior began from a meeting between Suraj Sen and the hermit Gwalipa, who lived on the hilltop where the fort stands. The hermit cured Suraj Sen of leprosy with a drink of water from the Suraj Kund, which still remains in the fort. He then gave him a new name, Suhan Pal, and said his descendants would remain in power so long as they kept the name Pal. His next 83 descendants did just that, but number 84 changed his name to Tej Karan and -- you guessed it -- goodbye kingdom.

In 1398 the Tomar dynasty came to power in Gwalior and, over the next few centuries, Gwalior Fort was the scene of continual intrigue and clashes with neighboring powers. In 1516 the fort was besieged and taken by Ibrahim Lodi after a long struggle. Later the Mughals, under Babur, took the fort and held it until 1754, when the Marathas captured it. In the next 50 years the fort changed hands many times, including twice to the British, until it came into the hands of the Scindias, whose royal descendants still live in Gwalior. During the Indian Uprising in 1857 the maharaja remained loyal to the British but his troops didn't, and in the mid-1858 the fort was the scene of some of the final, and most dramatic, events of the whole Uprising. It was near here that the British finally defeated Tantia Topi and it was in the final assault on the fort that the rani of Jhansi was killed. Gwalior's most famous son of recent times is the former prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. [—Adapted from Lonely Planet India, 2003; Aug 05]
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A Place Called Home

(Going "home" can be bittersweet. In this essay, Namit Arora revisits Gwalior, where he came of age.)

‘No man ever steps in the same river twice,’ wrote Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher, ‘for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.’ Some also say this about ‘home’, making it less a place, more a state of mind. Or as Basho, the haiku master, put it, ‘Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.’ Still, in an age of physical migration like ours, one of the most bittersweet experiences in a migrant’s life is revisiting, after a long gap, the hometown where he came of age. More so perhaps if, while he was away, his neighborhood turned to ruin, crumbling and overrun with weeds, as happened in my case.

Last month, I revisited my boyhood home in Gwalior, a city in north central India, with my parents. I had grown up with my two sisters in Birlanagar, an industrial township in Gwalior, until I went away to college at age 17. After graduation, I left for the U.S. in 1989 for post-graduate studies and various jobs in the U.S. and Europe over the next two decades. I continued to think of Gwalior as my hometown until my parents also left in 1995 and I stopped going there during my India visits. By most measures I had a decent boyhood in Gwalior, yet I’m loath to idealize it or look upon it fondly. If it had its joys, it was also full of graceless anxieties, pressures, and confusions. (READ MORE)

The Tomb of Tansen (1, 2, 3)	The Tomb of Tansen (more)	Town hall, Bādā, Lashkar	Town hall, once Regal Theater (more)
Tomb of Mohammad Ghaus (1, 2, 3)			Bādā, Lashkar (1, 2)
Tomb of Mohammad Ghaus (1, 2)			MLB College
Gwalior Fort looming above	Gwalior Fort entrance	Gujiari Mahal entrance	Ganesh Chaturthi (1, 2)
Roxy Theater			Sarafa Bazar (more)
Paranthe Wale			Carmel Convent School entrance
Inside Carmel Convent school (1, 2, 3)	Once co-ed, now girls-only (1, 2)	Library is quite modest	With the Principal, Sister Ann Jose
Usha Kiran Palace Hotel	MITS engineering college	Gwalior Train Station	Gwalior Train Station (1, 2, 3)
Birlanagar
Former home in Birlanagar	Inside the home	Front lawn	Art inside the former textile mill Gwalior Rayon
Remains of Birla Industries Club	Once a Swimming Pool	Once a changing room	Public Heath Center
Playground	Durga Puja site	Performance hall	JC Mills gate
Assistant Line	Assistant Line	Cimmco Line	Cimmco Line
All pictures above were taken in 2014, and the ones below in 2005
Tomb of Tansen	Tomb of Tansen	Tomb of Mohammad Ghaus (in)	Kid studying
Old town from fort (1, 2, 3)	Old town from fort	Bada, Lashkar (more)	Town hall, Bādā, Lashkar
El tempo	Rides in Gwalior mela	Bombay variety show	Rani of Jhansi
Gwalior Fort
Pedestrian entrance	Man Singh Palace (1, 2, 3)	Strongest fort in India?	Fort entrance ramp
Diwan-e-khas	Palace courtyard	Music room	Royal bedroom
Swimming room	Bat infested ceiling	Jauhar kund	Palace pillars
Jehangir palace	Teli ka Mandir	Teli ka Mandir sculpture	Teli ka Mandir sculpture
Daata bandi chor sikh temple	Inside the sikh temple	Saas-Bahu temple (more)	Saas-Bahu temple
Saas-Bahu temple art	Saas-Bahu temple art	Saas-Bahu temple art	Saas-Bahu temple art
Agni 10th cent. CE, Sihonia, Morena Fort Museum, Gwalior	Saptmatrikas 10th cent. CE, Surwaya, Shivpuri Fort Museum, Gwalior	Parvati 11th cent. CE, Sihonia, Morena Fort Museum, Gwalior	Indra and Agni 10th cent. CE, Surwaya, Shivpuri Fort Museum, Gwalior
State Archaeology Museum (inside Gujjari Mahal), Jai Vilas Palace, and Scindia Museum
Dancing Ganesha 10th cent. CE, Padhawal, Morena State Archaeology Museum	Mother and child 10th cent. CE, Bagh-Dhar State Archaeology Museum	Vaman, 10th cent. CE, Narwar, Shivpuri State Archaeology Museum	Nayika 10th cent. CE, Sihonia, Morena State Archaeology Museum
Agni 10th cent. CE, Sihonia, Morena State Archaeology Museum	Nayika 10th cent. CE, Sihonia, Morena State Archaeology Museum	Mother and child 7th cent. CE, Badoh, Vidisha State Archaeology Museum	Dancing Ganesha 10th cent. CE, Padhawal, Morena State Archaeology Museum
Gujjari mahal, a.k.a ...	... State Archaeology museum	Jai Vilas palace (of the Scindias)	Behind the facade
Durbar hall Scindia museum, Gwalior	Leda and the swan Scindia museum, Gwalior	Where the tigers are Scindia museum, Gwalior	Average room Scindia museum, Gwalior