Bhairavgad

According to Grant Duff [Marathas, 13 note 3 (Old Edition).], Bhairavgad was one of the forts built by the Rajas of Panhala. The garrison in Maratha times was furnished by soldiers sent from Satara. There are no traces of houses and the walls are in ruins. In the last Maratha war, Bhairavgad was captured by the English on the 23rd of May, 1818. A detachment of a hundred rank and file was sent by Lieutenant-Colonel Kennedy under command of Lieutenant Capon from Savarde in Ciplun in Ratnagiri district They proceeded to Talavde, a village at the foot of the hill from which there was an ascent of nearly six miles. But a message brought down the native officer in charge of the fort with a party of the garrison, who promised to surrender next morning on condition that the arms and property belonging to him and the garrison about a hundred strong, were respected and an escort of sepoys allowed as far as Patan. The fort was accordingly taken without resistance. [Pendhari and Maratha War Papers.]

How to Reach

Bhairavgad Fort (Patan T; RS. Karad 48 m. W.,) twenty miles south-west of Patan and about four miles west of Mala, from which it is pretty easily accessible by a rough footpath through dense jungle, is a rounded hill situated on the face of the Sahyadri range and jutting about a hundred feet into the Konkan. A narrow neck thirty yards long separates it from the cliff on the east, which rises some 300 feet above it. About five acres in area, the hill has on the east a temple of Bhairav which gives it, its name. The temple roofed with earthen tiles is in a state of good repair. It was repaired in 1957.

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