Madakasira Fort, also known as Simhagiri, is a

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

located in the

Madakasira Madakasira is a town with a population 19,432 in 2001 and also a mandal in Sri Satya Sai district in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. It is located near the state border with Karnataka. The Madakasira Hill Fort in the town is a centrall ...

town of

Sri Sathya Sai district Sri Sathya Sai district is a district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Its headquarters is at Puttaparthi. It was formed on 4 April 2022 from the Dharmavaram revenue division, Dharmavaram, Penukonda revenue division, Penukonda, Kadiri rev ...

, in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The Government of India has designated it as a

Monument of National Importance This article contains lists of Monuments of National Importance in India. An Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 defines an "Ancient Monument" as follows: A "Monument of National Importance" is designated by the Archaeological Survey o ...

History

According to the ''

Kaifiyat A ''Kaifiyat'' is a historical record, especially about a village or a town, from the Deccan region of India. Compiled in 18th and 19th centuries by village accountants, based on earlier records, the ''kaifiyats'' are a valuable source of local his ...

of Madakasira'', in 1492, a man named Siruda Rangappa Nayaka established the present-day

village near an older village called Madakapalle or Mandavyapalle. He named the new village Matakapalle, and built a small fort on the local hill. He was defeated by Muslim chiefs who established their headquarters at the nearby

Ratnagiri Ratnagiri (IAST:Ratnāgirī ; �ət̪n̪aːɡiɾiː is a port city on the Arabian Sea coast in Ratnagiri District in the southwestern part of Maharashtra, India. The district is a part of Konkan division of Maharashtra. The city is known for ...

. In the early 17th century, the fort was held by a local chief, who accepted the suzerainty of the

Vijayanagara Empire The Vijayanagara Empire, also called the Karnata Kingdom, was a Hinduism, Hindu empire based in the region of South India, which consisted the modern states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and some parts of Telangana an ...

. The members of the family that established present-day Madakasira, near the former village of Madakapalle, were apparently chiefs of Sira. After the

Bijapur Sultanate The Adil Shahi or Adilshahi, was a Shia,Salma Ahmed Farooqui, ''A Comprehensive History of Medieval India: From Twelfth to the Mid-Eighteenth Century'', (Dorling Kindersley Pvt Ltd., 2011), 174. and later Sunni Muslim,Muhammad Qasim Firishta's T ...

captured Sira, the ruler of Bijapur granted Madakapalle and the nearby

to these chiefs. The rulers of Bijapur revoked and restored the grant several times. In 1746, the

Maratha The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a M ...

adventurer

Murari Rao Murari Rao Ghorpade (1699-1779), known simply as Murari Rao, was an army general in the Maratha Army from Gooty who administered the fort of Tiruchirappalli and surrounding areas from 1741 to 1743. His administration marks the only period of Marat ...

established himself at

Gooty Gooty ( ) is a town in Anantapur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is the headquarters of Gooty mandal in Anantapur revenue division. The town is renowned for the Gooty hill fort. Geography Gooty is located at , at a d ...

, and established his suzerainty over several nearby forts, including Madakasira. The chief of Madakasira became his tributary. In 1762,

Hyder Ali Hyder Ali ( حیدر علی, ''Haidarālī''; 1720 – 7 December 1782) was the Sultan and ''de facto'' ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. Born as Hyder Ali, he distinguished himself as a soldier, eventually drawing the att ...

Mysore Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...

captured the fort after a 4-day siege, supported by the Portuguese troops led by Don António de Noronha, the Bishop of Halicarnasus. Two of Hyder Ali's Portuguese officers - Jose Reiz and Bento de Campos - died during the siege, and Noronha left the alliance shortly after. Murari Rao regained control of the fort after sometime, but Hyder Ali recaptured it soon after. In 1792, Hyder Ali's son

Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.Dalrymple, p. 243 He int ...

ceded the area to the

Nizam of Hyderabad The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th through the 20th century. Nizam of Hyderabad (Niẓām ul-Mulk, also known as Asaf Jah) was the title of the monarch of the Hyderabad State ( divided between the state of Telangana, Mar ...

as per the

Treaty of Seringapatam The Treaty of Seringapatam (also called Srirangapatinam or Srirangapatna), signed 18 March 1792, ended the Third Anglo-Mysore War. Its signatories included Lord Cornwallis on behalf of the British East India Company, representatives of the Niza ...

. In 1800, the Nizam ceded it to the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Structures

The fort has several structures and caves, including seven gates.

built several of these structures, including temples and the Hinduraya well. He also built a hill-top strcuture called ''Singe-moothi'' ("face of lion"), which has four pillars and a big bell. The hilltop has a palace called Rani Mahal, a horse shed, a gym and food storage points. Sri Ramalingeswara temple exists close to the hilltop, with two water ponds. Venkateswara temple exists near the south gate of the fort, and was left incomplete at the time of Hyder Ali's invasion. The Garuda temple was consecrated in the 1990s.

References

{{Forts in Andhra Pradesh Forts in Andhra Pradesh Sri Sathya Sai district Monuments of National Importance in Andhra Pradesh