Visit to Fort Lohagad : A Photo Travelogue

I had heard a lot of the unique fortification of Lohagad and was wanting to see it myself. Finally on 9.1.2010 , the opportunity came my way when a trip to Lohagad was actually decided upon.

Pic source: whereincity.com

Lohagad lies around fifty kilometers from Pune. It is located at the foothills of Lohagadwadi village , which is centrally located around ten kilometers between Malavali and Lonavala. It is around 3500 feet above sea level.

There are two routes to reach Lohagad (by car) from Pune. One being Pune city (Paud road)- Chandni Chowk-Pirangut-Paud village-Dudhiware Khind-Lohagadwadi. The other route is Pune city-Pune Mumbai expressway-Lonavala-Malavale-Lohagadwadi .(You can even take a road from within Lonavala directly to Lohagadwadi. This road is comparatively well maintained). We preferred the Pune Lonavala route.

We had to park our car at Lohagadwadi and tread the path up the fort on foot.

At the entrance we saw an saffron coloured board which displayed the history of the fort. A sage, Lomesh was said to have meditated here.

The fort supposedly existed since the Satavahana period (2000-2500 years back), followed by the rule of the Chalukyas, then the Rashtrakutas and the Yadavas.

Later it passed hands from the Nizamshahi of Ahmednagar (One of the Nizamshah rulers, Burhan II was imprisoned on this fort) to the Adilshahi of Bijapur, before being captured by Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in 1648.

But Shivaji had to cede it to the Mughals vide the treaty of Purandar in 1665. Shivaji recaptured the fort in 1670 and used it for storing his treasury (the Surat loot?). The fort once again changed hands to the mughals only to be captured by Sarkhel Kanhoji Angre in 1713. Angre had apparently camped here when he had a meeting with Peshwe Balaji Vishwanath , which led to the former accepting Shahu as his king. The fort thereafter came directly under the Satara throne.

Thus the fort passed over to Chatrapati Shahu and was in the charge of his Peshwa,Balaji Vishwanath. The fort later came under the supervision of Nana Phadanvis, the erstwhile chief minister of the Peshwas (Sawai Madhavrao). He had this fort renovated. The fort was managed by his trusted aides Javji Bomble and subsequently Dhondopant Nitsure.Nana Phadavis's wife too resided in this place after his death.

The British captured the fort in 1818 after the siege of Visapur fort. The British commander Col.Prother apparently took over this fort without firing a single cannon ball. But the structures on the fort were subsequently razed to the ground by the Britishers and the fort was rendered inactive.

The initial steps are made from stone cut from the mountain itself.

One encounters many monkeys lurking around waiting expectantly for food being thrown at them by the tourists. But we were warned not to entertain them lest they follow you all the way to the fort, even attempting to snatch unguarded foodpackets from the tourists.

On the way we noticed around twenty villagers ( we were told they were from Lohagadwadi and the neighbouring Bhaje village) pulling up a giant wooden gate , apparently meant for one of the fort gates. They were chanting slogans like ‘Har Har Mahadev’ and ‘Shivaji maharaj ki jai’ as they were pulling up that giant gate up the fort steps.

One has to pass through four main gates while climbing the fort.

The first gate is Ganesh darwaza, which can be identified by a Ganesh carvings flanking the gate. One family by the name of Savale apparently offered themselves as a human sacrifice (as was the practice of those times) in return for the 'Patilki' /revenue collection-headmen rights for the village Lohagadwadi. A shilalekh in its vicinity indicates this gruesome fact.

There are three more gates viz. the Narayan darwaza (Constructed by Nana Phadanvis between 1790-94. There exists a secret tunnel where rice and foodgrains were kept for safe storage),the Maha darwaza (probably the one that can be reached by climbing a stone stairway)

and the Hanuman darwaza (which has an equally beautiful Hanuman carved on the gate). These were also constructed as per instructions by Nana Phadanvis.

On the midway, one encounters cellars which probably housed the sentries on duty (or were used as storehouses).

Midway there is also one huge cave which may have been a storehouse. Next to it is a huge water cistern.

As you look down the fort walls the pattern of the ramparts below presents a very unique design.

Down below one can also see the vast expanse of the Pawna lake adorned with the lush greenery around it.

There is also a panoramic view of the Fort Visapur which is in proximity to Lohagad. (Note, there are also many other forts in the vicinity like Tung ,Tikona,Korigad,Ghangad, etc besides the famous Buddhist caves of Bhaja,Bedse and Karla) .

After a forty five minute climb and five hundred odd steps later, we reached the top of the fort.

 The fort then onwards is a plateau. The once existing structures are now in ruins.

 There is an tomb, supposedly of an Arab invader, Sheikh Umar (acc. to some belonged to Aurangzebs daughter) who had occupied the fort at one point of time.This tomb has since been converted into a dargah. There are two more similar dargahs towards the right which are habitated.

One more prominent cave like structure we came across is what remains of the ‘Laxmi kothi’where the Maratha chief minister Nana Phadanvis had supposedly hidden his treasures after an attempt was made to seize them by the then Peshwa Bajirao II.

There were also two water tanks one octagonal and other hexadecagonal in shape.

There is also one Mahadev temple constructed before a seemingly ancient Shiva linga.

We also came across several small cannon barells which may have been used by the Maratha army.
There were once edifices on the fort called as Khajindar kothi,Laxmi Kothi, sadars etc which since have ceased to exist.

As you go up north you see strip of land extending which takes you to the buruj (watch tower) which is the extreme end of the fort. It is almost 1500 meter by 30 meter in area and appears like a scorpions tail and is aptly called the ‘Vinchu kata’ .

The entire fort was covered in an hours time and we retraced back the path we came by.

We had lunch at the local dhaba at the foothills before bidding adieu to the fort.

Text and Photographs (except the ones credited) : Abhijit Rajadhyaksha