The Mazagaon Fort was a British fort in

Mazagaon Mazagaon, also spelled Mazgaon and Mazagon (Portuguese rule Mazagão), and pronounced by the Catholics as 'Mazgon' or 'Maz-a-gon' and the Marathi-speakers as Mazhgav, is one of the seven islands of Mumbai. References ;Notes {{reflist ;Sou ...

, Bombay (present-day Mumbai), in 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 ...

n state of Maharashtra, built around 1680. The fort was razed by the Muslim

Koli Koli may refer to: Places * Koli, Finland, a hill in Finland * Koli National Park, a national park in Finland * Koli, Iran (disambiguation), several places in Iran * Koli Airfield, a former airfield in the South Pacific Other uses * Koli peopl ...

general,

Yakut Khan Qasim Yakut Khan also known as Yakut Shaikhji, Yakub Khan and Sidi Yaqub was a naval Admiral and administrator of Janjira Fort who first served under Bijapur Sultanate and later under the Mughal Empire.The African dispersal in the Deccan: from ...

in June 1690. The fort was located at the present-day Joseph Baptista Gardens, atop Bhandarwada Hill outside the

Dockyard Road Dockyard Road (station code: DKRD) is a railway station on the Harbour Line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway. It is the stop closest to the Mazagon Dock Limited. This station gives access to Mazagaon area. There is a sales tax office within ...

railway station.

History

Up to the eighteenth century, Bombay consisted of several small islands. In 1661, seven of these islands were ceded by the Portuguese to the British as part of the dowry of

Catherine of Braganza Catherine of Braganza ( pt, Catarina de Bragança; 25 November 1638 – 31 December 1705) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland during her marriage to King Charles II, which lasted from 21 May 1662 until his death on 6 February 1685. She ...

when she married Charles II of England. The harbour proved eminently apposite, and the British planned to shift their base from Surat. The Siddis, who were of African descent and noted for their navies, had allied themselves with the

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

. The British, through the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

, and the Mughals were constantly waging war on each other. As allies of the Mughals, the Siddis also viewed the British as enemies. Faced with relentless attacks by the Siddis in 1672, The British constructed several fortifications in the area, and in 1680 the Sewri fort was complete. It stood on the island of Mazagaon, on a hill overlooking the eastern seaboard. In 1689, the Siddi general, Yakut Khan, with an army of 20,000 men, invaded Bombay. The fleet first captured the Sewri Fort, then the Mazagon Fort, before sacking the town of Mahim. In April 1689, the Siddis laid siege to the British fortification to the south. The British governor Sir John Child appealed to the Mughal Aurangzeb to reign in Sakat for a price. In February 1690, the Mughal emperor agreed, on the conditions that rupees 1.5 lakhs (150,000) (over one billion USD at 2008 conversion rates) be paid, and Child be sacked. Child's untimely death in 1690, however, resulted in his escaping the ignominy of being sacked. Enraged at barter, Sakat withdrew his forces on 8 June 1690, after razing the Mazagaon Fort. In 1884, the British developed Bhandarwada Hill as a major water

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

. It supplies water to South and Central Mumbai. A popular recreation ground, the ground is named after

Joseph Baptista Joseph "Kaka" Baptista (17 March 1864 – 18 September 1930) was an Indian politician and activist from Bombay (today known as Mumbai), closely associated with the Lokmanya Tilak and the Home Rule Movement. He was the first president of Indian ...

, a freedom fighter and close aide of the Indian freedom movement activist, Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

History

See also

References

See also