PLACES

PRATAPGAD

Pratapgad, (also known as Pratapgad) is a small village in Sakoli tahsil with 520 inhabitants in 1971, situated about 40 miles south-east of Bhandara. The elevation of the hill on whose summit stands the utterly ruined fort of Pratapgad is 1,842 feet. It is believed to have been erected by the Gonds and afterward held by Raj Khan, the Pathan diwan of Seoni under Bakht Buland, the Raja of Devgad. The hill forms an outlying bluff of the cluster known as the Navegaon or Pratapgad range. The height of the hill and the singularity of its shape makes it a prominent feature in the landscape of the surrounding country. At an early period it became a place of worship among the people of the surrounding region, to which effect a legend is told. The legend connected with this place relates that a man-eating demon had made the hill his abode. From this position of vantage he surveyed the country below and snatched up for his meal any ill-fated person who happened to pass by. Finally a Muhammedan holy man came and resided at the foot of the hill and on being attacked by the demon vanquished and destroyed him in a battle lasting for seven days, thus freeing the people of his menace. In commemoration of his victory, the holy man erected a building and named the hill as 'The House of Victory'. The building and the hill were made over to the Gond Raja of the locality for safe custody. On the side of the hill is the tomb of Usman Wali. the saint. In a deep cave excavated in the hill side is a shrine to Mahadeva at which a fair, attended by about 4,000 persons, is held on Mahashivaratra in Magha (January-February). It lasts for three days. Until recently a majority of the crowd used to be of the Mahar community coming from Bhandara, the neighbouring districts and Berar. The story of the saint and the demon is an interesting example of the way in which an immigrant religion appropriates to itself the shrines and festivals of a lower one already existing. There is little reason to doubt that the hill was originally a place of worship of the Mahars and other primitive tribes as the abode of the demon and that the Muhammedan priests presented the locality with the story of the demon and the saint probably during the time of Raj Khan, the Pathan divan of Seoni who lived at Sangadi. But with the extinction of the Muhammedan power and restoration of Hinduism as the faith of the local governors, a temple of Mahadeva came to be established in the cave which became the object of pilgrimage of the Mahars and others, whose original veneration of the place is due to the commanding appearance and position of the hill itself. To the north of the village is a 12 feet high Balaji stambh installed on a 20' X 20' pedestal, its top decorated with images of deities. Near the village, the Gadhvi river, which is fed by streams issuing from the Pratapgad hills, is being tapped for irrigation by throwing an earthen dam across it. It is known as the Itiadoh project, and is expected to cost Rs. 753 lakhs and provide irrigation facilities to 141 villages. An interesting legend is told as to how the river came to acquire the name Gadhvi. At the prayer of Garga Rishi the river issued from the earth, but the waters flowing sluggishly, the holy man grew irate and shouted in rage ' Begone thou she-ass (gadhvi)'; so ever afterwards the river has borne the name alike of Gadhvi and Gargi a combination which would doubtless disturb the choleric saint if he only knew it [Major Lucie-smith's Chanda Settlement Report, pp. 19-20].

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