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PLACES OF INTEREST
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BHARATGAD FORT
Bharatgad Fort (Malvan T.;), on the south shore of the Kalavali creek, on a hill commanding the village of Masure (p. 9,255).
is a fort with an area of between five and six acres. The inside of
the citadel is an oblong of 105 yards by 60. The citadel walls are
about 17 to 18 feet high and five feet thick. At the opposite ends
of a diagonal running north and south are outstanding round towers. Within the Citadel, about a quarter of its whole length from the north tower is a small temple, and near it is a big well
about north tower is a small temple, and near it is a great well about 228 feet deep, cut through solid rock. About seventeen yards from each side and 100 yards from each end of this citadel, is an outer wall with nine or ten semi-circular towers. The wall is ten or twelve feet thick with an outer ditch. It is not very strong and seems to have been built without mortar. Some parts of the wall on the east and the north are dilapidated. Water is abundant. The fort has constantly changed hands. In 1670, Shivaji surveyed the hill but finding no water, would not fortify it. Ten years later (1680) Phond Savant, fearing that it may fall into the hands of a chief named Bavdekar, cut the great well through the rock, and finding water, built the fort (1701). [Captain Hutchinson (Memoir on the Savantvadi State, 156) mentions a report that after a few shots from the fort guns, the water of the well disappears. In support of the truth of this story he notices that the garrison had wooden water tanks. But with so deep a well, even without a leak, it would be useful to have a store of water at the mouth of the well. Mr. R. B. Worthington.]
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