Jaigad Fort ( mr, जयगड किल्ला, ) (Also transliterated as Zyghur in old British records.) is a coastal fortification that is located at the tip of a peninsula in

Ratnagiri District Ratnagiri District (Marathi pronunciation: �ət̪n̪aːɡiɾiː is a district in the state of Maharashtra, India. The administrative headquarter of the district is located in the town of Ratnagiri. The district is 11.33% urban. The district ...

at a distance of 14 km from the temple town of

Ganpatipule Ganpatipule (Gaṇpatīpuḷē) is a small town located 25 km north of the city of Ratnagiri in Ratnagiri district on the Konkan coast of Maharashtra, in the sub-continent of India. The town of Chiplun is located to its north. Etymology A ...

, in the state of

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 ...

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 ...

. Nestled on a cliff, it overlooks a bay formed where the Shastri river enters the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel ...

. It has a commanding view of the bay, the nearby power plant and the open sea. A

jetty A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying somet ...

port Angrey, and a lighthouse is located nearby. Although in ruins, most of the fort's outer wall and ramparts still stand. A deep

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

surrounds the fort side not facing the cliff edge. In the middle of the 13 acre fort lies the palace of

Kanhoji Angre Kanhoji Angre (Marathi: कान्होजी आंग्रे, Help:IPA/Marathi, anʱod͡ʒiː aːŋɡɾe, also known as Conajee Angria or Sarkhel Angré (August 1669 – 4 July 1729) was a chief of the Maratha Navy in present-day Ind ...

, a Ganpati temple and wells to store water. It is a protected monument.

History

Jaigad fort is said to have been built by Bijapur Kings in the 16th century. Later it passed into the hands of Naiks of

Sangameshwar Sangameshwar Taluka is a taluka in Ratnagiri subdivision of Ratnagiri district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The headquarters for the taluka is the town of Devrukh.The headquarters was moved from the village of Sangameshwar to Devrukh in 1 ...

. He had 7-8 villages and 600 troops under his command. He defeated combined forces of Bijapur and

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

in 1583 and 1585. In 1713 Jaigad was one of the ten forts which was ceded by

Balaji Vishwanath Balaji Vishwanath Bhat (1662–1720) was the first of a series of hereditary Peshwas hailing from the Bhat family who gained effective control of the Maratha Empire during the 18th century. Balaji Vishwanath assisted a young Maratha Emperor Shah ...

Peshwa to

. In June 1818 this fort was captured by British without any struggle.

History

References

See also