BHATNER FORT EXPEDITION 2026

AINCERT Ghaggar-Hakra Expedition 2026  Bhatner Fort

Date: 1 July 2026

Venue: Hanumangarh, Rajasthan

Organiser: AINCERT

Description: AINCERT Founder President Ujjwal BU Pant visited Bhatner Fort at Hanumangarh, a medieval fortified city that connects the prehistoric landscape of the Ghaggar-Hakra IVC sites to the medieval political history of Rajasthan and Punjab. Founded approximately 295 CE by the Bhati Rajput chief Bhupat, from whom the settlement took its original name of Bhatner, the fort sits astride the desert route between Sindh and the Gangetic plain, one of the most strategically important corridors in northwestern Indian history. The fort's position ensured it was contested repeatedly across the medieval period. In 1398 CE Timur, the Central Asian conqueror whose invasion devastated northern India and brought about the sack of Delhi, besieged and captured Bhatner after the garrison offered fierce resistance documented in Timur's own memoirs, the Tuzuk-i-Timuri. The fort changed hands multiple times under the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal periods. In 1805 it was conquered by Bikaner under Maharaja Surat Singh and renamed Hanumangarh, the name it bears today. The AINCERT visit documented the fort's architectural heritage and produced a complete research paper covering 1,500 years of recorded history at this single site.