Raigad-fort

After a long time, I am back with my second published travelogue, this time after my visit to a place which has its great importance in Indian history from way back in 1600's till date specially to every maharastrian. The fort which silently boasts for its secured location, was the capital of one of great king- yes you guessed it and its right- Raigad fort.We started our journey at 0600 even when it was still dark, from ghatkopar via NH17. We had a smooth drive except 2 speed breakers hurting 2 of us on their top of heads.

Filled with jokes, UNO cards, snacks, songs, dialogues, we reached the foot of the Fort by 10.30am.
We took the ropeway due to lack of time and stamina which took us to the top of the fort in just 5 minutes which the other way would take us nearly 3 hours or more. By 11.30 we reached the top of the fort. Ganesh's aka "jaykant's" love for his native land  grew up to such an extend that he started standing up,waving hands, putting his head out from the ropeway.

Meena Darwaja

From the upper ropeway station., we reached the Meena Darwaja- the door for the royal ladies of that time. After getting inside from here, on the left was 6 Queens Palaces adjacent to each other. To the right was ministers room of which only little part was remaining.

Ruins of the twin towers

We then moved ahead to the ruins of the two towers which was originally of 7 floored out of which only 2 floors are remaining. One tower was used to hoist the flag of the ruling king & the second was used by the king to have a look over the entire territory in the evenings.


From here, we moved ahead to Shivaji's Palace and his Throne. This place where more than 6000 people used to gather here to speak to their king was created in such a intelligent way that if anyone sitting anywhere inside the durbar speaks or even makes a slightest of noise, the King could hear that sitting on this Throne. This was proved by one of the group's guide when he spoke really slow standing near the gate & we all standing near the throne.  Awesome Architecture.

Market place

Walking ahead, we reached the Holi cha mal where a statue of shivaji is kept facing the market place.

Jagdishwar temple from a distance

Guide explaning at Shivaji's samadhi

Then we headed towards the Jagdishwar temple. from a distance it will look like a mosque. This is because, ever if moguls attack raigad, they should feel that it inhabits their own people (muslims) and not any others. Also the door to that temple is not of much height. We learned that the reason behind it was the moguls of that time were tall with equivalent  weight should find it difficult to enter inside the temple.
Near to the temple was samadhi of Shivaji maharaj.  Next to Shivaji's Samadhi, stands the samadhi of his faithful dog waghya who committed suicide on  learning the news of his masters death. We returned back walking towards the Tak-mak tok point. It was at this place the death punishment during that time was executed by tying hands and legs of the person and throwing him down from this place. At the tak mak tok, there were people from yastwanroa university who were doing rappling. They used to go till 1700 feet down where there is a pleatue and again climb up. Jitendra our organiser, accounts manager, treasurer was always ready with his envelope of money and a pen to pen down the expenses.

Then we started our journey - trekking back. On the way we saw the Ganga sagar talav- the main water source for the soldiers of the time. Then was the main gate of the fort named MahaDarwaja

Mahadarwaja

A awesome story about a lady named Hirkani was heard who showed Shivaji that the so called extremely protected fort raigad had loop holes in protection. As per the rules at 6 pm trumpets are sounded and all gates of the fort will be closed. No one can enter or leave the fort after closing of gates. She was held up inside the fort and had to reach back home as her 2 weeks old son was alone at home. She found her way through the rocky terrain which was then developed into a Burj and named Hirkani Buruj. As we were descending down the fort, our much energetic, enthusatic Ganesh had drained himself of stmaina.

The elegance, beauty of the fort will not be forgotten even if most of it goes under ruins- such was the construction of that time. We descended down the 820 meters fort in about hour and a half. Had it not been the Britishers destroyed the fort, we could have got a more better glimpse of such a beautiful fort.