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PLACES
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PRATAPGAD FORT
Pratapgad Fort, (Mahabalesvar Peta; 17° 55', N, 73° 35' E; RS.
Wathar, 52 m.) 3,543 feet above sea level, twenty miles north-west of
Medha and by road eight miles west of Mahabalesvar, is built on a range which forms a spur of the Mahabalesvar hills and separates the villages of Par and Kinesvar commanding the road between them. The fort from a distance looks like a round-topped hill, the walls of the lower fort forming a sort of bend or crown round the brow. It can be visited with great ease from Malcolm Peth. Now the motar car goes right up to the top of the fort, near the main gate. An hour's drive down by the Fitz Gerald pass road brings the visitor to the pretty travellers' bungalow at Vada or Ambenali a small hamlet within the limits of Kumbhrosi village. Ponies or chairs with bearers are to be had here during the fair weather. About three quarters of an hour's easy climbing leads to the fort gateway, most of the pathway lying through small, but in places, thick forest. On passing the gateways, the outwork of Abdulla's tower lies to the right while the path to the upperfort is on the left. The temple of Bhavani is on the eastern side of the lower fort. It consists of a hall which was rebuilt recently and a shrine, the hall with wooden pillars about 50' long 30' broad and 12' high. The shrine is of stone. It contains a black stone image of Bhavani with some fine clothes belonging to it. The roof of the temple is flat inside. Outside is a leaden covering put up by the Satara Raja Pratapsinh (1818-1839) and over the
shrine is a small spire or shikhar. The temple is in good repair but unattractive and only worth a visit on account of its historical associations.
The western and northern sides of the fort are gigantic cliffs with an almost vertical drop in many places of seven or eight hundred feet. The towers and bastions on the south and east are often thirty to forty feet high, while there is in most places a scarp of naked. black rock not much lower. In an inspection report of 1842 Pratapgad is described as occupying the highest point of the range with a full and commanding view of the surrounding country. The west and north sides were very steep and inaccessible, both covered with huge masses and a vast precipice of trap rock. On the east and south the hills were more sloping and covered with a dense wood in contrast with the rocky west and north, and gradually descended to the valleys separating Mahabaleshvar and the Kineshvar range on the east and the Konkan valley on the west. It consisted of two forts, an upper fort built on the crest of the hill and a lower fort immediately below on the south and east, both overlooking the surrounding country and guarding the passage to the hill on almost all sides. One approach, however, was not so strongly guarded as others, which, passing over an easy ground fit for a motar battery, led to a tower locally known as Abdulla's tower. From the tower the ascent ran up a steep and rugged pathway along the south of the outwork and completely defended by it. The pathway led to the entrance between two strong towers through two narrow and well built gates. From the lower to the upper fort were two entrances one of them on the north-east corner. It was a mere opening without a gateway between two towers very weak but for a precipice outside,
The fort walls varied in height according to the nature of the ground. The parapet wall was very slight and the rampart only three feet broad. The upper fort, built upon the crest of the hill, was 200 yards long by 200 broad and contained several permanent buildings for residence and a temple of Mahadev. Both the upper fort and the temple of Mahadev are in good condition even now. The lower fort, 350 yards long by 120 broad, was on the eastern and southern side of the hill. The southern side was rocky and precipitous, while the eastern side had a strong outwork ending in the tower above mentioned which commanded the approach to the place. The outwork was said to have been added by Shivaji after the entanglement with the Bijapur general Abdulla, properly Afzal, who died at the hands of Shivaji and whose head is buried beneath the tower which bears his name. At the end of the outwork, where it joins the lower fort, appears to have been a gateway now destroyed. The entrance to the fort lay on the south of the outwork, but the approach to it was completely commanded by the walls of the outwork which overlooked the path the whole way up to the entrance. The entrance was well protected and very strong, the space between
the towers on each side not exceeding four feet, the pathway very steep and rugged, and a double gate or door way forming the actual entrance. The only buildings in the lower fort were a few ruined huts, some houses of Brahmans and a well furnished temple of Bhavani. In 1882 Pratapgad is noted as a strong fort with ample water-supply and provisions. It was garrisoned by ten of the Satara police [Government lists of Civil Forts (1862).]
An old tank which was in disuse for a long time is now repaired and brought into use. However, water supply is scanty and not safe for drinking.
History.
Pratapgad was built in 1656 by the famous Brahman minister Moro
Trimbak Pingle at the command of Shivaji, who pitched upon this
high rock near the source of the Krshna, thereby securing access to
his possessions on the banks of the Nira and the Koyna and strengthening the defences of the Par pass. [Grant Duff's Marathas, Vol. I, 119.] In 1659, the foot of the hill was
the scene of Shivaji's famous interview with the Bijapur general
Afzalkhan and of Afzalkhan's death' [Details of the interview and murder are given above.]. In the rains of 1661 Chhatrapati Shivaji, unable to visit the famous temple of Bhavani at Tuljapur, dedicated with great solemnity a temple to Bhavani on Pratapgad fort. [Grant Duff's Marathas, Vol. I, 144.] In 1778 Sakharam Bapu, a famous
Poona minister, was confined by his rival Nana Phadnis in Pratapgad and from here secretly removed from fort to fort until he perished miserably in Raigad. In 1796 Nana Phadnis, flying from the intrigues of Daulatrav Shinde and his minister Baloba. to Wai and the Konkan, threw a strong garrison into Pratapgad and went to Mahad. [Grant Duff's Marathas, Vol. II, 261.] In the Maratha war of 1818 Pratapgad surrendered by private negotiation, though it was an important stronghold, had a large garrison, and could much annoy the country round Wai.
A road was constructed by the then P. W. D. from the village Kumbhrosi up to the main door of the Fort in 1957. An equestrian bronze statue of Chhatrapati
Shivaji Maharaj was erected in the year 1957. The statue which measures 17 feet in height was unveiled by Pandit Javaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India on the 30th November 1957. The statue is placed on a square edifice which is 20 feet high. The management of the statue rests with the Pratapgad Shivsmarak Samiti.
A darga of Afzalkhan is. constructed a little away from the fort to the south-east of the Afzalkhan Buruj where an urns is held annually in the month of January or February. The management of the funds for the urus is in the hands of the Afzalkhan Tomb Committee.
A guest house and a national park have been recently (1960) built near the statue. The foot steps leading to the fort have been repaired recently.
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