“It was a very
dark night and some 200 to 300 Mavla soldiers slowly and without a sound were marching towards their destination. All of them
had determination etched on their faces. Their leader was a brave man from the
army of Shivaji Raje......He too was determined to finish off the task his
childhood friend had entrusted him with.......however he was also angry. “how
could Raje do this to me?how could he plan this attack without me? Just because
I have the marriage of my son pending does not mean that i am not going to do
my duty towards Swarajya. Thank Bhavani that I came to know about this attack
and now I am going to capture this fort for him. Raje ,aadhi lagin Kondanyache,mag mazya Raibache”(first will be the wedding of Kondhana and then that of my son
Raiba). This leader was none other than Tanaji Malusare, Shivaji’s trusted aide
and childhood friend who had set out to capture the fort of Kondhana.
The
fort in question was one of the favorites of Shivaji and there is no reason why
it shouldn’t be. It is located in between the
forts like Rajgad, Purandhar and Torna and stands majestically at about 1315
meters above sea level in the Sahyadri range. The fort was known as
Kondhana after Sage Kaudinya and its
history dates back to 14th Century when the Delhi Sultan Muhammad
bin Tughluq captured it from the Koli tribal chieftain. After that Kondana
changed many hands......from Tughluqs to Nizamshahi to
Adilshahi.........Shivaji captured it first in the year 1647 but soon had to
give it to Adilshah of Bijapur to release his father who was captured. Shivaji again
captured it in 1656 only to lose it to the Mughals in the Treaty of Purandhar
with Mirza Raje Jaisingh. In 1665. Aurangzeb who knew the importance of the fort
handed it over to a Rajput by name of Udaybhanu who was recruited as the
Killedar of this fort.
In
the dead of the night Tanaji along with his brother Suryaji and 300 Mavla
soldiers were heading towards this fort. They reached at the base of a stiff
cliff on the western side.Tanaji had a ghorpad (monitor lizard) ’Yeshwanti’ with him to whom he
tried the rope and threw her on the cliff. The Ghorpad with her sharp claws
scaled the cliff and hung itself to the wall of the fort. Following her Tanaji
and other Mavlas climbed the fort. The battle began and the killedar was told
about the intrusion in the fort. Wielding a sword he came out of his quarters
and a fierce fight began between Tanaji and Udaybhanu. Both were brave men and
injured themselves many times while fighting each other. Finally the shield of
Tanaji was shattered to pieces still he fought by protecting his hand with
headgear. At last both of them lost their life. Seeing their master fallen to
the ground dead, the Maratha army started running back. However Suryaji,
Tanaji’s brother cut the ropes and stopped them and encouraged them to win the
battle for their king in the name of Tanaji. Finally the Marathas won. When Shivaji came to know
of the victory he reached the fort only to realize that he had won the fort but
had lost a lionhearted friend. Mourning the death of his loyal childhood
friend, Shivaji is said to have said “Gad aala pan Simhagela”(we have got the
fort but lost the man with the strength of a lion). However there is a
controversy regarding this statement . According to the historians Kondhana was
known as Simhagad many years before this particular battle took place and this
line which is attributed to Shivaji is actually a line from a famous Marathi
novel Gad Aala Pan Simha Gela written by Hari Narayan Apte.
After
1670 till 1689, the fort remained with the Marathas. It again was captured by
Aurangzeb’s army. However Marathas were successful in recapturing it and it
remained with them till 1818. After that the British took over the fort.
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| MAP OF THE FORT(Courtesy Google Pics) |
SIMHAGAD AT PRESENT
Everytime
I visit Pune I make it a point to visit this fort. I think out of 5 visits of
mine I have been here at least 4 times. When you plan to go to this fort, do go
early in the morning and if possible without having breakfast. Starting from
the foothill of the fort you have small huts which sell piping hot Zhunka
bhakar and Kanda pakoras. It feels heavenly to sit there and eat.
After eating, you climb the steps
and the first gateway that welcomes you is the Pune Darwaza. Since it faces the
Pune city it has been named so.
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| PUNE DARWAZA |
After
you cross the gate, you come across a small room like structure. This structure
was used as storage room for the arms and ammunition. In between the storage
room and the Pune Darwaja, on the right hand side there were the water tanks
meant for the horses.
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| DARUKOTHAR OR THE STORAGE HOUSE FOR AMMUNITIONS |
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| WATER TANKS FOR HORSES, BEHIND IT CAN BE SEEN THE TV TOWER |
Keep walking for some distance and
again on the right hand side you come across the bungalow of Lokmanya Tilak.
Tilak used this bungalow on the Simhagad as his resthouse. It is very small but
a very beautiful structure and well preserved.
Near by the Tilak bungalow you find
the Samadhi place of Chatrapati Rajaram. Chatrapati Rajaram was the second son
of Shivaji. After the capture of Raigad by Zulfikar Khan in the year 1689,
Rajaram fled to Jinji in Karnataka while Yesubai, the wife of Sambhaji and his
son Shahu were taken as captives of the Mughals. Rajaram fought the Mughals from Jinji and
captured many territories. At last he came back in Maharashtra and made
Simhagad his home and here at this fort he breathed his last. Inside the
Samadhi temple you find a small shivlinga. (Our guide informed us that this was
one of the shivlingas that Shivaji used to worship daily.)
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| TILAK BUNGALOW |
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| CHATRAPATI RAJARAM SAMADHI(Courtsy:Google pic) |
Next
you go further and you come across the largest water tank in the fort. The
water of this tank is still used to drink. The people who live in and at the
foothill of the fort carry this water in the barrels. The specialty of this water
is not only it taste sweet but higher the temperature, the cooler is the water.
It refreshes you completely and again you are ready for the further
exploration.(of course here you can once again take a break and have pakodas or
ripe cucumbers which are given to you sprinkled with a little bit of salt and
little red chili powder and believe me it tastes yummy!!! )
After
resting we went to see the Samadhi of Tanaji. Nearby his Samadhi you have that
particular cliff of the fort which he is supposed to have climbed.(according to
the guide). Today if you see that steep cliff in the broad daylight you wonder
how did Tanaji climb it on that night when it was so dark. And your head
automatically gets bowed down imagining the bravery of those mavlas who climbed
the wall along with Tanaji. These unknown soldiers did not do it for the sake
of reward or money. In fact they did not even know what they would encounter
once they reach on the top. Their only thing was they have to conquer this fort
for their beloved Raje! Such was their loyalty...and such was their love for
Shivaji....
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| THE STEEP CLIFF |
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| SAMADHI OF TANAJI MALUSARE |
Other than these structures on the
fort you have the temples like Kondhaneshwar temple which the main deity of the
fort, Amriteshwar temple, the tomb of Udaybhanu, the rajput who died fighting
Tanaji and other ruins of the fort.
The fort is very large and it
takes you almost half a day to see it. Of course in between you can have rest
and eat pakoras, zhunka bhakar as I said earlier. The fort has two doors: one
is Pune Darwaja and the other is Kalyan Darwaja. When I had visited the fort
for the first time, near the Kalyan Darwaja we had sweet curd and buttermilk which
is served to you in earthen pots (another specialty!)J
The climate on the top of the fort is very cool and pleasant. And if at all you feel tired the fresh and cool glass of limboo pani or buttermilk will make your tiredness go away instantly.
Kalyan Darwaja is the last point of this fort. Then you go back to Pune but the
experience of this fort remains with you forever. For me it was very special
because this was the first fort that I saw when I started my travels.
Today
even though Simhagad has become a place for rave parties and one day picnic
spot for the people living in the surrounding areas, it still retains its charm
for the history-lovers like me.
HOW TO REACH SIMHAGAD:
Simhagad fort is about 30 kms to
the city of Pune.
v From Pune the distance by car is of about one or one and ½ hours.
You can take the car right on the top and then climb just few steps to reach
the Pune Darwaza.
v There are buses going to the foothill village of Simhagad from
Swargate.
v Half a day is enough to see the full fort. Though people do spend
the whole day since its a favorite picnic spot too.
v It is also a favorite fort among the trekkers.
v It is very easy to spot the fort because of the television tower
which can be seen from far .
