Rajgad Fort

Region:Pune
Height:3500 feet
Base Village:Sakhar

Rajgad enjoys a unique position among the hill forts of Maharashtra.  It possesses all the salient features of fort architecture which are peculiar to the Deccan region.  Situated on one of the spurs of the Sahyadri Mountains known as Murum hill, Region is about 35kms south-west of Pune.  The fort is at a height of approx.  1300 metres from sea-level and comprises three terraces (machis) and a citadel (Balekilla).  There are four gates called Gunjavane, Pali, Alu and Kaleshwari or Dindi gate.  The first two gates lead to the Padmavati machi, the third to the Sanjivani and the last to the Suvela machi.  Rajgad looks like a winged bird flying in the sky – the Padmavati and the Sanjivani machis forming its two wings and the Balekilla and the Suvela machi its main body.

All the four of the fort have remains of buildings which included residential quarters, sadar or state offices, bazaar or business quarter, granary, armoury, temples, etc.  the fort had ample supply of water through tanks, cisterns and wells.  The water-supply being better on the Padmavati machi, it was major centre of activity on the fort.

Rajgad, formerly known as Murumdeo, was earlier held by the Nizamshahi and Adilshahi rulers.  By 1648 AD, it was under the firm control of Shivaji, who gave it the new name Rajgad, the king’s fort.   Shivaji’s construction activities here continued till 1670 AD.  For nearly twenty five years Rajgad was the pre-coronation capital of Shivaji.  Out of Shivaji’s short life of fifty years (18,306 days) his stay of 2827 days at Rajgad was the longest.  The fort witnessed a number of major political events of the Maratha period.

It was from Rajgad that Shivaji went to meet Afzal Khan in 1659 AD.  His departure to Agra return from there, both these historic events took place at Rajgad.  Rajgad, Shivaji’s second son, was born here.  By ‘Treaty of Purandar’ in 1655 AD, shivaji ceded 23 forts to the Mughals, but not Rajgad.  During the Peshwa period Rajgad did not play any significant part mainly due to the shifting of political activities from the hill forts to the cities.  Rajgad remained with the Sachiv family of Bhor till 1947 AD

Getting There :
Get ST bus from pune to velha. Get down at Sakhar. From here you will have to walk 2 Kms to reach the base of Rajgad. From here its two hours climb to reach the top.

Places of Interest 
One of the beautiful hill fort in maharashtra offers many places of attraction.
Rajgad has 3 machee namely Suvela, Sanjivani & Padmavati. All the three machee are worth visiting
Balekilla: inner fort of Rajgad is very beautiful & one can have very nice view of machee from this place

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