Standing at the top of an escarpment falling 366m to the plains, Rupmati’s Pavilion has a delicacy of design and beauty of location unmatched by Mandu's other monuments. According to Malwa legends, the music-loving Baz Bahadur built it to persuade his golden-voiced shepherdess beloved, Rupmati, to move here from her home on the plains. From its terrace and domed pavilions, Rupmati could gaze at the distant glint of the sacred Narmada River.
In fact, the pavilion probably began life as a watchtower a century or more before Rupmati’s time. Nonetheless, the love story is a subject of Malwa folk songs – not least because of its tragic ending. Lured by tales of Rupmati’s beauty, Akbar's general Adham Khan marched on Mandu and Baz Bahadur fled, leaving his lover to poison herself rather than fall into the invader's hands.
This place is simply gorgeous at sunset.
