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PLACES
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PADMADURG
Padmadurg (Murud Peta), the Lotus Fort, also called the Kansa
fort, commanding the entrance to the Rajpuri creek, was built about 1693 on a rock in the centre of the bay about two miles north-west of Janjira [About 1693 Kasa or Kansa is mentioned as one of the newly built forts of the Marathas. Elliot, VII. 355.]. The fort stands in 3½ fathoms water more than one mile from the main land. Its walls, which are pierced by a small gateway, are high and strong, and covered by six bastions about sixty feet apart. Above the bastions rise towers built in the shape of an irregular octagon of different sizes and are roofed in. Guns of various calibre lie about the fort and some are mounted on wooden gun-carriages in the towers. An attempt was made to build out-works on the sea side quite independent of the original fort, but they were never completed and are now in ruins. The water-supply is obtained from a large cistern which fills in rains and lasts through the dry season [Mr. F. B. O'Shea, Superintendent of Post Offices, Konkan Division.]. The fort is irregularly shaped, following the outline of the rock on which it is built, and was some times used by the chiefs as a State prison for political offenders.
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