Three rings of stone on a granite summit.
A Palayagara fortress strengthened in Tipu’s time, with a craftsmanship Dr. S. K. Joshi calls a “shining example” of its kind. Trekking and fort access permissions are managed by the Chikkaballapur Youth Association.
Ambajidurga rises 3,499 feet above sea level. Its summit is ringed by three concentric stone walls — a fortress raised by the provincial Palayagaras and reinforced under later rulers.
The bastions follow a distinctive plan: square in the middle and round at the ends. On the upper fort a pyramid-shaped square bastion stands with a sloping section beside it. Dr. S. K. Joshi, who studied forts of this region, calls the architecture of this type of bastion “perfect in its features.” The construction is also a fine example of French engineering technique — French engineers were known to have worked on forts during Tipu’s time — though no cannon emplacements are found here.
The fort has a single gate, on the western side. The gate is decorated, though the approach is so rough today that the ornament is hard to see from a distance. Close up, the walls show rare carvings: an elephant and a monkey near the gate, and on the rear face, kings practising the war-art known as Viruja.
Within the inner fort stands a small Shiva temple. Small-scale dvarapala figures lie at the base of separate stone slabs near the doorway. The temple had fallen and has now been re-assembled — one sanctum, one small Shivalinga inside. A Bandukalli carries the Nagari inscription Lakshminarayana Namah. Before the sanctum stand a stone pillar and a finely worked Nandi, dated to the late Alvi period of the Palayagara (Avati) dynasty. Moving north from this structure into the fort one comes to a pond, and sees the wall continuing in two rows.