ASIRGARH

Indian fortress situated between the Tapti and Narmada rivers a little to the north of the town of Burhanpur, in the former Central Provinces and the present state of Maharashtra. The principal importance of the fortress lay in its command of the only easily accessible route from northern India to the Deccan in the southwest. Asirgarh was a stronghold of the Hindu Rajputs but fell to the Muslim sultanate of Delhi in the late 13th century. It was later held by the Faruqi rulers of nearby Khandesh, from whom it was taken after a long and historic siege (160001) by the Mughal emperor Akbar; his success opened the way for all the later Mughal operations in the Deccan. The fortress was later held by the Hindu Marathas, whose lands lay to the west, from whom it was twice captured, in 1803 and 1819, by the British.