PLACES

PARALI OR SAJANGAD FORT

Parali or Sajjangad [The name Sajjangad that is the fort of good men or sajjan is locally said to be derived from the number of good men who visited it after it became the residence of Ramdas Svami] Fort (Satara T; 17° 35' N, 73° 00' E; RS Satara Road 16 m. NE; p. 1,196) about 1045 feet above the plain and 1824 yards in circumference, lies on a detached Sahyadri spur about six miles west of Satara. The fort is surrounded and commanded by three hills, Yavteshvar about 3,500 yards to the north, Old Satara about 2,500 yards to the south, and Nanka within 1,100 yards to the south-west. The road from Satara to Parali, the village situated at the foot of the hill is asphalted and can be used throughout the year. The way up the hill leading to the fort is widened and steps have been built by the pilgrims.

The only entrance to the fort is by two gateways at the southwest angle. Both the gateways are in good order strongly built of cut-stone and flanked by towards and a parapet along the rock. The lower gateway which is partly under the rock is completely hidden from the approach and commanded by the upper gateway.

The defences consist of a scarp of perpendicular black rock varying in height from about 100 feet along the faces to about fifty feet at the south-west angle of the fort. The scarp is built up in places, but except near the gateway and at the south-west angle which appears to have been strongly fortified, little of the old parapet remains. The south-west angle is the only place practicable for an escalade as in other places the rock is too high and the hill below it too steep to allow ladders to be placed against it, while there is no cover from the fire of the fort.

The fort contains a partly ruined mosque and three temples, one of which situated about the middle of the fort and dedicated to Ram is a handsome cut-stone building capable of defence. In the village around are buildings of various kinds. Just outside the gate is a small hamlet. The water-supply of the fort is from ponds, of which there are several but only two hold water throughout the year. Of these two, one to the north of Ram's temple holds good water. The fort buildings are well maintained. The temples are repaired regularly and a fair is held every year on the day of Ram Navmi (chaitra sud. 9) which continues for nine days. A dharmashala is constructed in the fort to house the pilgrims.

Parali Village with a population of about 1,500 lies about 1,200 yards by a path to the north of the fort. It contains a number of houses, some of which as also several temples in the neighbourhood are built of cut stone or have thick mud walls, which, with their situation, rendered them capable of defence. A weekly market is held at the village on Monday at which forage, vegetables and other goods are obtainable. The watersupply of the village is from wells and from the Urmodi river which flows to the north. All round the base of the hill on which the fort stands are several small hamlets, some of them consisting of not more than three or four huts. Parali was the favourite residence of Ramdas Svami (1608-1681) who received it as inam from Shivaji. The local tradition is that if Shivaji in Satara required counsel from Ramdas Svami, Ramdas reached Satara through the air in a single stride. The temple of Ramdas is in the middle of the village, surrounded by the dwellings of his disciples. The temple of basalt with a brick and mortar dome was built by Akabai and Divakar Gosavi, two disciples of the Svami. It was repaired and ornamented in 1,800 and 1,830 by Parashuram Bhau of Sirganv village eight miles south-east of Wai The spire is in octagonal tiers and about seventy feet high with handsome stucco decoration. The verandah was built by one Vaijnath Bhagvat of Yavteshwar. A yearly fair attended by about 6,000 people is held in February.

On the north-west of Parali village about a few yards outside are two old Hemadpanti temples facing east. The southern temple now deserted looks like the older of the two; and some of its best carvings have been transferred to the northern temple. It is about forty by twenty feet, including the gabhara which is of the old star shape. Of the gabhara the walls alone remain. They are about six feet high and built of enormous blocks of unmortared stone. The gabhara has a pyramidal roof of huge slabs diminishing in size from the bottom upwards. The gabhara portal is most beautifully carved in relief in a pattern similar to the carving of the balustrade and pillars in the northern temple.

The northern temple of about the same size as the southern temple is complete. The hall or mandap is about twenty-four feet square with four rows of four pillars each, seven feet apart, supporting with brackets a flat roof ten feet high. The central one over the round slab in which the Nandi is placed has a canopied top. Each of the other compartments formed by four pillars has a ceiling of the lozenge pattern. Outside in an unenclosed court is the Nandi canopy. The pillars supporting it are specially rich, the carving pattern differing in each. Its ceiling is domed and about the same height as the rest of the temple. It is well paved and elaborately carved, every available bit of space being filled with decorative moulding of some kind. A small vestibule also beautifully worked leads to the gabhara which is square inside but star-shaped outside. The sides are walled in at an early but comparatively modern time with mortared stone. At the entrance is a balustrade very elaborately carved. The pillars in the mandap are plainer than is usual in the oldest Hemadpanti temples. Some are giving way and rude props have been erected between them. Slabs belonging to the broad eaves of the old temple roof have been used to make a pedestal for a lamp-stand. The balustrade and Nandi canopy probably belong to' the northern temple, the rest is very likely a building of Shivaji's time or perhaps even later after the Moghals took Parali (1,700). It is not known who first desecrated the old shrine, but either the Bijapur Musalmans or the Moghals must have done so, and the new temple was a feeble copy of the old raised after their departure. To the north of the entrance is a tablet bearing a very indistinct inscription. Fifty yards north of these temples is a pond about forty yards square and ten feet deep. It is of the old pattern, the lower stones projecting beyond the upper ones. The existence of these two old temples and ponds makes it probable that Parali fort was in existence before Musalman times. It was subsequently occupied by them and surprised by a detachment of Shivaji's forces in May 1673 [Grant Duff's Marathas, Vol. I, 202.]. A few days before his death in 1681 Ramdas Svami addressed from Parali a judicious letter to Sambhaji, advising him for the future rather than upbraiding him for the past and pointing out the example of his father yet carefully abstaining from personal comparison [Grant Duff's Marathas, Vol. I, 238.]. In 1699, when the Moghals were besieging Satara, Parashuram Trimbak Pratinidhi prolonged the siege by furnishing supplies from Parali. After the capture of Satara in April 1700 the Moghal army besieged Parali. The siege lasted till the beginning of June, when after a good defence of a month and a half, the garrison evacuated [Grant Duff's Marathas, Vol. I, 300]. Aurangzeb called the fort Naurastara [Shivaji Souvenir, Marathi Section page 78.]. In a revenue statement of about 1790, Peraly (Parali) appeared as the head-quarters of a paragana in the Nahisdurg sarkar with a revenue of Rs. 22,500 [Warring's Marathas, 244.]. In 1818 Parali was taken by a British regiment, and a detachment of native infantry under a native officer was kept here. During the 1857 rebellion a gang robbery took place in Parali, and it was rumoured that this gang was a detachment from a considerable body of men who had gathered in the neighbouring forests, but had dispersed on the return of troops from the Persian war. It was found that the ex-Raja Pratapsinh's agent Rango Bapuji had been living for six weeks in Parali [See history above.], and that he had gathered the gang to act with the band assembled in former Bhor territory and with armed men hid in Satara.

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