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PLACES
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BAHADDURVADI
Bahaddurvadi, (pop. 3,136) lying 19.31 km (12 miles) south-west of Peth and 16,09 km (10 miles) south of Islampur, is a village in Valva taluka, easily reached by turning east from the Poona Bangalore road at the village of Tandulvadi which is 16.09 km (10 miles) south of Islampur. It is largely an agricultural village and the introduction of electricity has greatly facilitated well irrigation. There are a post office and a high school besides a primary school.
Objects
Fort.
It was remarkable for a fort with three enclosures and belonged
to the Raja of Sangli by whom it was granted to Ramcandrarav
Mahipatrav Ghorpade, a junior branch of the Mudhol family. The following is an extract from the Old Gazetteer giving the description of the fort. "The first or outer enclosure is round, about I37.16 metres (150 yds.) in diameter and consists of an earthen embankment, about 9.14 metres (30 ft.) high, Inside is another round space about 91.44 metres (100 yds.) in diameter enclosed by a stone and mud wall about' 1.21- metres (4 ft.) thick
and 6.09 metres (20 ft.) high, with a shallow ditch about 1.82 metres (6 ft.) wide. It has nine bastions of which the central bastion is over a fortified gateway of some strength. All the bastions arc loopholed for musketry. The third and the inner most enclosure is a square about 54.86 metres (60 yds.) in diameter surrounded by a moat 6.09 metres (20 ft.) wide and 9.14 metres (30 ft.) deep. It is enclosed by walls of stone and mud about 3.96 metres (13 ft.) thick and surmounted by eight bastions, one at each corner and one at the centre of each side. The bastions facing cast are particularly strong and the wall is of rough masonry mortar. The centre bastion on the east is inhabited and the walls contain store-chambers. The walls and bastions are surrounded by a parapet and are also loopholed for musketry. Their ramparts formerly held guns and mortars, the few remaining of which were taken possession of by government when the district was disarmed in 1857-58. The inmost enclosure has a mansion forming the residence of the Inamdr, a rock-cut well with steps about 15.24 metres (50 ft.) deep and 7.62 metres (25 ft.) wide, and always holding 6.09 metres (20 ft.) of water. The situation of this fort is decidedly striking, crowning as it does the knoll on which the village is built with the temple-crowned hill of Mallikarjun to the north and the luxuriant Varna valley on the east, south and west and Panhala and Pavangad to the south-west." The fort is now in a crumbled state except for the gateways and is of no consequence any longer. Even the gateways are tottering. The ditches and moats have completely dried up and the walls and the bastions surmounting them are almost beyond repairs.
No remarkable engagement seems to have taken place at the fort and since the death of Mahipatrav who served the last of the Pesvas in a high office under Hari Pant Phadke, the general in charge of the Jaripatka, the family has not been distinguished. The fort is said to have been built by Madhavrav, the fourth Pesva (1761-1772) as a frontier protection against the attacks of Kolhapur.
Mahadev Temple.
The vilage has a noteworthy shrine dedicated to Mahadev.
It consists of an idol chamber and a mandap, the whole being 15.24x6.09 metres (50 ft. by 20), It is entered by a low, irregular shaped arch, and the walls about 3.65 metres (12 ft.) high are of well-dressed black stone. The brick spire is not unhandsome. The walls have a facade of images carved in relief and painted in cunam with some grotesque figures of animals and human beings on the roof of the mandap.
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