Samangad is a hill fort in
Kolhapur District
Kolhapur district (Marathi pronunciation: olʱaːpuɾ is a district in the Maharashtra state of India. The city of Kolhapur is its district headquarter. It is situated near Panchaganga river.
It is bordered by the Sangli district to the Nor ...
,
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 ...
. It is above sea level. The fort is situated on the oval-shaped top of the hill. The eight-foot-high wall of the fort which encircled the hill top is still intact. Earlier several cisterns cut out of the rock ensured a plentiful supply of water to the fort but by 1957 most of them were in ruins.
The Samangad grant, which belongs to the seventh
Rashtrakuta
Rashtrakuta (IAST: ') (r. 753-982 CE) was a royal Indian dynasty ruling large parts of the Indian subcontinent between the sixth and 10th centuries. The earliest known Rashtrakuta inscription is a 7th-century copper plate grant detailing their ...
king
Dantidurga
Dantidurga (reigned 735–756 CE), also known as Dantivarman II was the founder of the Rashtrakuta Empire of Manyakheta.Reu (1933), p54 His capital was based in Gulbarga region of Karnataka. His successor was his uncle Krishna I who extended his ...
or Dantivarma II, bears the date ''sak'' 675 (A.D. 733–54).
In 1676, the fortifications were considerably improved by
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 Adils ...
, subsequent to which it was known as one of the "smallest yet strongest forts" of the great
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 ...
s. In 1844, the Samangad garrison rebelled and took over the fort, shutting the gates. But it was stormed by the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
under a General Delamotte and retaken from the rebelling soldiers. The British Raj dismantled the fort and it has been in ruins ever since.
This fort is a tomb of famous warrior Shri Prataprao Gujar who fought against the Adil Shahi army of Bahalul Khan with only six soldiers. Stories are told by local from generation to generation.
The fort is surrounded by trees; it is developed by the government of Maharashtra as a tourist place. Also Maruti temple and Chaloba temple near fort is visited by devotees. A village near fort is Naukud, Hasursasgiri and Chinchewadi which is a rural area. Gun fire weapons at Naukud found and kept near Vithoba temple.
The other most important attraction over here is BHUI BHANGARA which means cracked land. It is actually temple of lord shiva under the crevices of rock and has got stairs to climb down. there are statues of many deities like DATTATRAY, SHANI and GANESHA. It has got long corridor there is belief among the natives here that there is a hidden tunnel from fort till here for escaping. Also the MARUTI temple near to this was built by SAMARTH RAMDAS SWAMI.The BHIMSHAPPA MATH is another prominent destination it is the shrine of local saint BHIMSHAPPA who attained nirvana here. A small village got its name BHIMSASGIRI from this saint which is later known to be HASURSASGIRI.
The spoken language around this fort is Marathi. People around this fort celebrate Samangad fair on the first Wednesday after Shivratri which is in February or March every year. During this time they perform lot of events including bullock cart race, horse cart race, bicycle race, entertainment during night time and much more.
References
{{coord missing, Maharashtra
Forts in Maharashtra
Tourist attractions in Kolhapur district