Kalyangad Fort/Nandgiri is in the taluka

Koregaon Koregaon is a census town and headquarters for the surrounding Koregaon Taluka in the Satara subdivision of Satara district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is situated on the Satara- Pandarpur road about 18 km east of Satara ci ...

l. of

Satara district Satara district (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːt̪aɾaː is a Districts of Maharashtra, district of Maharashtra state in western India with an area of and a population of 3,003,741 of which 14.17% were urban (). Satara (city), ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

. The fort stands at the end of a spur of the Mahadev range running south-west from the villages of Vikhale and Bhadle, eight miles north of

and about fourteen miles north-east of Satara. Its elevation is 3,537 feet above sea level.

History

According to tradition the fort was built by the Silahara king Bhoj II, of Panhala. In 1673 it was surrendered, along with other Satara forts, to

Shivaji Shivaji Bhonsale I (; 19 February 1630 – 3 April 1680), also referred to as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle Maratha clan. Shivaji carved out his own independent kingdom from the declining Adil ...

. The Pratinidhi administered it until his struggle with

Bajirao Baji Rao I (18 August 1700 – 28 April 1740), born as Visaji, also known as Bajirao Ballal (Pronunciation: ad͡ʒiɾaːʋ bəlːaːɭ, was the 7th Peshwa of the Maratha Empire. During his 20-year tenure as a Peshwa, he defeated Nizam-ul- ...

, the second

Peshwa The Peshwa (Pronunciation: e(ː)ʃʋaː was the appointed (later becoming hereditary) prime minister of the Maratha Empire of the Indian subcontinent. Originally, the Peshwas served as subordinates to the Chhatrapati (the Maratha king); later ...

(1720–1740). In 1791, Major Price described it as looking like the hull of a ship of war, with another hill opposite it with some places of devotion on its summit. In the last Maratha war, it fell to the army of General Pritzler in April 1818. In 1862, it was described as a dismantled and uninhabited fort with a steep approach and a strong gateway, but no water and no supplies.Government List of Civil Forts, 1862

How to reach

The base village is Nandgiri (Dhumalwadi), which is connected by motorable road. The trek to the fort requires 45 minutes to reach the top.

Features

The fort has two gateways, one below the other, connected by steps. The first gate faces north, the path turning abruptly as it is reached. Within is a hollow used formerly for stores. From the inside facing east is another cave pond called the Gavi, full of good water. The entrance to it is protected by a wall. This cave pond is very hard to access, the way being thickly blocked with prickly pear. The second gateway of mortared stone leads out into the plateau, which is about two hundred yards high by one hundred yards high with many ruined buildings, and four chief ponds inside the second gate. The fort walls are in a state of bad repair. There are no buildings inside the fort except the temple of God Maruti. There are also idols of Dattatraya and

Parasnath Parasnath is a mountain peak in the Parasnath Range. It is located towards the eastern end of the Chota Nagpur Plateau in the Giridih district of the Indian state of Jharkhand, India. The hill is named after Lord Parshvanatha, the 23rd Tirthank ...

. Even though water is available abundantly, there is no habitation on the fort. The temple of Maruti was renovated by Dahanebuva of Ninapadali. The tomb of Abdul Karim, a Musalman Saint, inside the fort is still visited by a few people. An Urus is held in his honour for five days before Holi Paurnima. The fort was the headquarters of an administrative sub-division with a treasury and had an establishment of a mamlatdar, phadnis, sabnis,

havaldar Havildar or havaldar (Hindustani language, Hindustani: or (Devanagari), (Perso-Arabic script, Perso-Arabic)) is a rank in the Indian, Pakistani and Nepalese armies, equivalent to sergeant. It is not used in cavalry units, where the equivalent ...

and daffedar, two karkuns, three naiks, and one hundred and sixty sepoys.

References

{{Forts in Maharashtra Forts in Satara district 1818 establishments in the British Empire