Parenda
Type:Ground Fort
Region:Osmanabad
Base Village:Parenda
The fort, known to have been built by Mahmud Gavan, the prime minister at Muhammad sah Bahamani II.
The Imperial Gazetteer states that it was erected by Mahmud Khvaja Gavan, the celebrated minister of the Bahamanis. A little later, after the disintegration of the Bahamani kingdom it became a part of the kingdom of Ahmadnagar.
After the capture of Ahmadnagar by the Moghals in 1600, it became the capital of Ahmadnagar for a short time.
About 1628 or so, it was captured by Sahaji and remained with him for two to three years. The Moghal attempts to carry it by assault were twice frustrated. It was captured by the Bijapuris in 1630.
In 1657 it was again captured by the Moghals. It was in this fort that sivaji's emissary to the Moghals, Kazi Haider, was confined in 1669.
Places of Interest
The fort is a solid construction of the mediaeval age, its rampart walls being fortified by 26 strong rounded bastions, two of which flank the main entrance on the northern side. Further it has a protective moat or khandak around connected with the fort by a cement bridge.
Some of the bastions in strategic places are mounted with huge canons which can even be seen today, their names being Malik Maidan (Ranaragini), Ajadahapaikar (Sarprupa), Lande kasayaci canon and the like.
These were mostly cast by Dutch craftsmen and one of them bears the name Hussain Arab, an Arab engineer in the service of the Bijapuris. In one of the store-rooms there are a few more cannons of which one is quite huge and on which is inscribed “Sarkar Nabab Mir Nizam Ali Khan.
The fortifications for the most part as also the guard rooms and a mosque are in good order, but the old town is in ruins.
he entrances are ornamented with finely burnished beautiful carvings. In the front there is a square built-in water tank. A few idols of Hindu deities, prominent among them being Ganpati, Sesasavi and Digambar, have been deposited in a chamber. Outside this there is a square well where a Narsimha shrine supposed to have been built by Murar Jagdev can be seen. It is in a ruinous state.
Adjacent to the temple was the Rajmahal whose remnants were destroyed in a sudden explosion that took place in 1951.
Parenda, the headquarters town of the tahsil or the same name, with 6,273 inhabitant, in 1961, situated on the interfluve between the Sina and its tributary, the Dudna.
The town is connected by a fine tar road with Barsi in Solapur district, a distance of 27.36 km (17 miles) and there is a regular bus service plying between these two towns.
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