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 NH-548C Satara-Baitul National Highway about 18 km e ...

l. of Satara district of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

. 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 I (Shivaji Shahaji Bhonsale, ; 19 February 1630 – 3 April 1680) was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle dynasty. Shivaji carved out his own independent kingdom from the Sultanate of Bijapur that formed the genesis of the ...

. The

Pratinidhi The Pratinidhi (the Viceroy) was an important member of the ministry in the Maratha Empire. The title of ''Pratinidhi'' means ''the representative of the King,'' and such officials were entitled to sign and seal papers and issue orders in the abse ...

administered it until his struggle with

Bajirao Bajirao I (né Visaji, ; 18 August 1700 – 28 April 1740) was the 7th Peshwa of the Maratha Empire. He was appointed Peshwa at the age of nineteen by Shahu I, following the death of his father, Balaji Vishwanath. He is credited with establis ...

, the second

Peshwa The Peshwa was the second highest office in the Maratha Empire, next in rank and prestige only to that of the Chhatrapati. Initially serving as the appointed prime minister in the Maratha Kingdom, the office became hereditary when Shahu gave t ...

(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 Hill (also Sammet Shikhar, Marang Buru) is a mountain peak in the Parasnath hill range. It is located towards the eastern end of the Chota Nagpur Plateau in the Giridih district (Hazaribagh district in British India) of the India ...

. 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: or (Devanagari), (Perso-Arabic)) is a rank in the Indian and Pakistani armies, equivalent to sergeant. It is not used in cavalry and armoured units, where the equivalent is daffadar. Like a British serge ...

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

sepoy ''Sepoy'' () is a term related to ''sipahi'', denoting professional Indian infantrymen, traditionally armed with a musket, in the armies of the Mughal Empire and the Maratha. In the 18th century, the French East India Company and its Euro ...

References

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