Bidar Fort is situated in North Karnataka in Bidar district of the northern plateau of Karanataka, India. Sultan Alla-Ud-Din Bahman of the Bahmanid Dynasty shifted his capital from Gulbarga to Bidar in 1427 and built his fort along with a number of Islamic monuments.

Bidriware is a very popular handicraft, an art form with 800 years history with linkage to the Persian art, from which it evolved during the rule of the Bahamani Sultans. During 2008, Bidriware, as one of the important exported handicrafts from India, was awarded the Geographical Indication (G.I) authorized user status which is exclusive to the artisans resident in the Karnataka region only

Structure

With the establishment of the Bahmani Kingdom in the Deccan from 1347, the architectural styles of the Persian architecture of Iran made impressive and lasting impacts, which are seen in the Bidar Fort. The mosques, arches, gardens and the palaces were built within and also outside the fort in the Bidar town. Some of the important structures built are elaborated.

The influence of Persian culture was distinct in Bidar in the Deccan, during fifteeenth and sixteenth centuries.

The fort

The Bidar fort, constructed on the edge of the plateau, has a hapazhard quadrangular layout plan of 0.75 miles (1.21 km) in length and 0.5 miles (0.80 km) breadth. The peripheral length of the fort walls measure 4,500 yards (4,100 m). The walls, bastions, gates and barbicans of Bidar, though in ruins, are well preserved and considered as some of the most stylish in India. It is sarrounded by a triple moat.

There are seven gates in the fort. The dominant main gate exhibits Persian style architecture. The ‘Gumbad Darwaza’ depicts arches with stilted size, also in Persian style. The ‘Sherza Darwaza’ of Bidar Fort, the second gate of entry, depicts two images of tigers carved on its fascia; according to Shia belief, the tiger decorations are indicative of Ali who was also known as Asadullah-Al Ghalib that assured protection to the building from enemy attack. The other gates are the Fateh Gate on the south (has octagonal towers and drawbridge); the Talghat Gate in the east; the Delhi Gate and the Mandu Gate. The prominent bastion at the entry is known as the ’Munda Burj’ with guns positioned on it.

It is said that the Bahmani Sultanate claimed lineage of the Sasanians and the motifs on their buildings, particularly the crowns of the arches that they built depicted a crescent and occasionally a disk that was closely reminiscent of the crowns of the Sassanian emperors.