Sinhagad fort is located at 35 km south west of pune city. Sinhagad fort is about 180 km from mumbai and 250 km from nashik. Sinhagad fort was initially known as kondhana. The fort is about 2000 years old. Height of the fort from the mean sea level is about 1312 meter. The fort have two main doors 'pune darwaja and kalyan darwaja'. Sinhagad fort is located on bhuleshwar range in sahyadri mountains. Height of the mountain on which fort is located is high with high slopes, this provides an advantage to fort against enemy attack. Bastions and fortification walls are provided very carefully for protection of sinhagad fort.
When you enters from pune darwaja then on left side there is khandkada, bastions and fortification walls are provided there. On sinhagad fort there is also a house of lokmanya tilak, tilak came to live here in 1889. In the green environment of sinhagad fort lokmanya tilak have written two books named 'artik home in vadas' and 'gita rahasya mudran prat'. Tilak also meet with mahatma gandhi here.
Chhatrapati Rajaram maharaj memorial is also there on sinhagad fort. Rajaram maharaj have given fight to mughal continuously for 11 years. At the age of 30 they died on sinhagad. There is zunzar bastion on sinhagad, when air is clear then you can watch purandar, torna, rajgad from zunzar bastion. There is a village named kalyan at the foothills of sinhagad fort above which one of main door of sinhagad is located which is named kalyan darwaja because of this village name.
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| Rajaram Maharaj memorial |
'Devtake' is the water tank on sinhagad. There are lots of water tanks on sinhagad fort but drinkable water can only be found in devtake. Today also people on sinhagad uses devtake for the storage of drinking water. Koli people are leaving on fort from many years. There is a temple of amruteshwar on sinhagad. Amruteshwar is deity of koli people. We can find memorial of tanhaji malusare on Sinhagad. On highest point on fort there is a temple of kondhaneshwar. Kondhaneshwar is deity of yadavs who was leaving on sinhagad fort. There are two doordarshan towers on sinhagad because of which we can identify sinhagad easily from far distance away.
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| Devtake |
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| Kondhaneshwar temple |
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| Doordarshan towers |
Battles of sinhagad fort
Lots of battles happened in the history of sinhagad, but most important battle was the battle fought by tanaji malusare. Tanaji malusare was general of chhatrapati shivaji maharaj. The battle was happened in march 1670 when shivaji maharaj have decided to recapture kondhana. Lets discuss this in detail.
Kondhana fort was close to pune, also the fort was close to other important forts of maratha empire such as rajgad, purandar, torna. Therefore one day shivaji maharaj thought that if kondhana fort becomes part of maratha empire then it can be beneficial strategically. Therefore shivaji maharaj called there mavalas one day, and they have told them that we have to capture kondhana. They asked who will do this task? One of there general stood up and said i will do. He was tanaji malusare. Tanaji malusare was actually came to give invitation of wedding of his son rayaba to shivaji maharaj. After reading the invitation shivaji maharaj told tanaji that you should focus on wedding of your son, we will give this task to someone else. But tanaji refused this and said "aadhi lagin kondhanyache aani mag mazya raybache" means first wedding of kondhana and then of my rayaba.
Finally the day of battle arrived. Tanaji malusare was with his brother suryaji and 500 soldiers. Kondhana fort was very difficult to capture because of its unique location and guarding arround the fort. therefore it was not possible to directly attack the fort from front side. Tanaji malusare therefore decided to go on the fort from one location called 'tanhaji kada'. Tanaji kada was having very steep slope of 90 degree. That's why there was very less guards, because no one thinks that enemy can come from this way also. Tanhaji malusare have tied a rope on 'yeshwanti'. Yeshwanti was the name of one monitor lizard. Monitor lizard can stick to walls easily that's why they have choose it. Tanaji malusare have then thrown the yeshwanti on fort and all soldiers manege to get on fort with the help of rope tied.
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| Tanhaji kada |
As soon as tanaji reached on fort Soldiers of kondhana have given a counter attack. At that time udaybhan was the general of fort from mughal empire. Heavy battle took place between tanaji and udaybhan. suddenly shield of tanaji malusare get damaged. Tanhaji immediately removed his pheta and used it as a shield. Due to heavy battle both tanhaji and udaybhan got injured. Suddenly udaybhan have attacked injured tanhaji and killed him. When maratha soldiers seen tanhaji died they get afraid and started running toward the rope but brother of tanhaji suryaji stoped all the running soldiers and told them that "our general tanhaji is died now battle for him, i have already cutted the rope, now either defeat the enemy or jump from this hill". After listening these words of suryaji all maratha soldiers returned and started attack on mughal soldiers. Already injured udaybhan also got killed by maratha soldiers. And finally they captured kondhana. After that maratha soldiers have ignited the grass. Burning grass was seen by shivaji maharaj from rajgad fort, and they got this news of winning kondhana.
On next day suryaji went to meet shivaji maharaj to give the information about capturing kondhana, but tanhaji was not with them. When shivaji maharaj seen suryaji they have asked him about tanhaji. Suryaji told him everything. After knowing about deth of tanhaji shivaji maharaj said "gad aala pan sinha gela" means fort is captured but lion is lost. After that kondhana fort was renamed as sinhagad.
How to go to sinhagad
Sinhagad fort is about 35 km from pune. Pune city is well connected to other cities by highway's, railway and airway. Sinhagad is about 180 km from mumbai and 250 km from nashik. You can see the map below.
Places to visit nearby
1) aga khan palace
2) shaniwar wada
3) Rajiv gandhi zoological park kartaj
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