A gateway carved straight out of the hillside, which has stood without a door for more than five centuries.
Cut entirely out of living rock on the southern edge of Chanderi, this heraldic structure forms the link between Bundelkhand to the north and Malwa to the south. The rock face stands 230 feet above ground level and the gate cut through it is 80 feet high and 39 feet wide. An inscription on the eastern wall of the gate, in both Devnagari and Nask scripts, records that its construction was commissioned in AD 1495 by Jiman Khan, son of Sher Khan, the then Governor of Chanderi.
The legend attached to it is a bleak one. The gate had to be cut to welcome Ghyasuddin Khilji, Sultan of Malwa, who was due in Chanderi the next day. Jiman Khan announced a reward for any mason who could carve it out in a single night, and only one accepted, promising that he and his crew would finish. The next morning the gateway was in place, but on inspection Jiman Khan found it had no provision for door hinges, and since the spot was strategically important a door was mandatory for security. He refused to pay. The mason walked away with nothing despite having achieved the impossible, and later, dejected and inconsolable, took his own life. The gate still stands without a door.
The whole gateway is cut out of living rock rather than built up in masonry, which is what makes it unusual. Standing in the opening and looking up the 230 feet of rock above gives the clearest sense of what was removed in a single night, according to the story.
On the eastern wall of the gate an inscription appears in both Devnagari and Nask scripts, naming Jiman Khan, son of Governor Sher Khan, and dating the commission to AD 1495. The use of two scripts on one gateway is worth noting in itself.
Look at the jambs for the absent provision for hinges. This single omission is the whole point of the legend, the reason the mason went unpaid, and the reason the gate has never been closed.
The gate is on the southern edge of Chanderi and the road through it leads up to Ramnagar Palace, so the two go together naturally. It is an open roadside monument.
October to March is the comfortable season here as elsewhere in Chanderi. The cut throws deep shadow for much of the day, so mid morning or mid afternoon gives better light inside the opening than the extremes of the day.
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