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The postal department released a special postal cover and a stamp on Medak Fort on 18 August 2026, an unusual honour in that both were issued for a single monument.
Medak Fort is a 12th-century hill fort in Medak town, Telangana, built under the Kakatiya ruler Pratapa Rudra and originally called 'Methuku Durgam'.
It served as a command post for the Kakatiyas and later for the Qutb Shahis, who added a mosque and granaries within its walls.
The fort spreads over about 100 acres at an average elevation of 90 metres above ground level and holds a small lake, a barrack, a warehouse and an 11-foot cannon of the 17th century.
The issue is expected to support efforts to develop the fort as a tourist destination.
A Deccan dynasty ruling from Orugallu (Warangal), whose best-known surviving monuments are the Warangal Fort and the Ramappa (Rudreshwara) Temple at Palampet - inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021, Telangana's first.
The Golconda-based dynasty that later held Medak; their signature works include the Golconda Fort, the Qutb Shahi tombs and the Charminar at Hyderabad.
Medak Cathedral, consecrated on 25 December 1924 and the cathedral church of the Church of South India's Diocese of Medak - a Gothic Revival building that makes the town a two-monument destination.
A special cover is issued by a postal circle to mark a local event or monument and is not valid postage by itself; a commemorative stamp is a nationally issued postage stamp. Questions often turn on this distinction.
GS Paper I > Indian Culture: Architecture and Medieval History; Art and Culture of the Deccan
General Awareness > Indian History, Monuments and Forts
General Awareness > Monuments and States
The fort's original Telugu name; 'durgam' means fort, and the name is the source of the modern place name Medak.
A two-headed mythical bird used as a royal emblem in the Deccan; it appears above Medak Fort's main entrance and is today the state emblem of Karnataka.
A fort built on a hill or rocky elevation, classified in Indian military treatises as among the strongest fort types because of the natural advantage of height.
A commemorative envelope issued by a postal circle to mark a local event, place or personality; unlike a commemorative stamp, it is not itself valid postage.