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PLACES
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GUNVANTGAD
Gunvantgad (Patan T; 17° 15' N, 73° 50' E; RS. Karad 24 m. E,) or Morgiri Fort, six miles south-west of Patan, is a steep oblong hill about 1,000 feet above the plain. The walls have fallen in. There is a well but no marks of habitation and no gateways remain. The hill is the end of a lofty spur branching in south-east direction from the main range of the Sahyadris at Mala.
The fort is completely commanded from this spur with which it is connected by a narrow neck of land a quarter of a mile long. The north-east coiner of the fort is the highest point and the ground slopes irregularly to the south-west. The form is not unlike a lion conchant. Part of the village of Morgiri lies close below the south-east side of the fort, while there is another hamlet similarly situated on a shoulder of the hill to the north-west.
The fort has no signs of age. In the eighteenth century it appears to have maintained a garrison of the Peshva's soldiery when Dategad held people attached to the Pant Pratinidhi and the authorities of the two forts seem to have thrown difficulties in the way of executing orders issued by the governments they opposed [Ascertained from papers produced during an enquiry into a hereditary office case.]. In the Maratha war of 1818 the fort surrendered to the British.
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