Ranpur

Ranpur lies in eastern Saurashtra, where a fortified settlement guarded routes across the peninsula. Local rulers held the town before the Gujarat sultan Mahmud Begada defeated its chief and destroyed the fort in the late fifteenth century. In the seventeenth century the Mughal governor Azam Khan built another stronghold called Shahpur to control the surrounding country. These successive forts reflect the changing powers that sought authority over the region.