Solapur in a day | Part 3 | Bhuikot aka Solapur Fort

Bhuikot Fort means a fort that is built on flat land and not on a mountain.In Marathi language Bhui means Land and Kot means Killa or Fort. Thus the name Bhuikot.  Currently this fort is converted into a  garden and is under the ASI departrment, Located very adjacent to Siddeshwar temple pond, this place offers enthralling view. One Gets a good view of this fort in the backdrop from the Siddeshwar temple.

Bhuikot Fort in the backdrop can be seen from
Siddeshwar Temple

The Solapur Fort, also known as the Bhuikot fort is said to have been built during the reign of the Bijapur Sultanate of which Solapur was a part. Emperor Aurangzeb resided on this fort for a year between 1685-86 AD. Between 1795 and 1818 this fort was in the hands of the Maratha rulers. Bajirao Peshwa II lived in the fort.

External wall of the Solapur Fort

There are few very interesting stories about this fort which involves Dowry Theory. It is believed that Burhan Nizam Shah ruled Ahmednagar and Ismail Adilshah was in power in Vijapur , Inorder to strengthen the relationship between two states they decided to marry Adilshah's daughter with Nizam Shah of Burhan. The marriage was performed at this Solapur fort with great pomp.At that point of time(1523) Solapur fort was under the control of Adilshah of Vijapur and he declared that this fort shall be given as a dowry to Nizamshah. But after marriage he refused to give the fort which resulted in a war between the son in law Nizam Shah and his father in law Adilshah. Nizamshah lost the battle and fort remained with Adilshah. ( I am just wondering what happened to the wife of Nizam when her father cheated on her husband)

I think enough of history for the time being, now lets move on to our journey of exploration of this fort.

One of the bastion as seen from outside

Our Journey:

Early morning we finished our visit of Siddeshwar temple and moved out of the temple complex but not before trying our hands on the local sugarcane Juice machine. Travel me aise chote chote majje zaroor lene chaiye. Washing down two glasses of the sugar cane juice and listening to olden melodies blaring from the antique transistor was another highlight.

A small walk of 5 minutes we were at the gates of the Bhuikot. There was this ticket counter of ASI , we paid Rs 25 per person and entered the Fort Complex.

Entrance point with the ASI office

The moment you enter you are welcomed by the neat Garden and 2 Cannons pointing at you.

Cannons pointing toward the entrance door

The Cannons are well polished and you have the year of manufacturing on them, Monogram of the rulers. 

Year of manufacturing carved on the cannons

Monogram of the Rulers on the cannon

Over the years I have made it a practice to first explore the fort along the top of the Fort walls, which gives me good birds-eye view of the place and later I explore from within.Hence we moved toward the right side and climbed the stairs to reach the top of wall of the fort.

We climbed these stairs to reach the flag post platform.

Grass has grown at most of the places hence the watchman told us to be careful of the creepy reptiles.We smiled and nodded and went on our way.The outer side of the fort walls had lots of shrubs grown but the inside portion was easily walk-able.

Way towards the Flag post (PC: Dr Neha Mehta)

moving to the left from the stairs we reached the highest point of the fort ie. the Flag post platform. Standing here we could see the Siddeshwar Temple across the lake.

Siddeshwar temple as see from Solapur Fort

We spent some time here enjoying the breeze, absorbing the beauty around us and of course clicking lots of pictures

Today we realised what does the term leaping in joy meant 

Until pooja and me drew Nikhil Crazy😆😆and he has to throw his arms high in despair as if saying Kamino ab bas karo aur aage bhi badho. And both of us were like Hum nahi sudharenge, Ek photo aur Please 😛😛

 

Bola tha na... ki Hum nahi sudherenge 😆😆

Talking about the construction of the fort, there is a moat around the fort thus this creates Two layer of fortification one outer wall then moat and then the main fort wall. This main Fort wall is around 30 metres broad.Due to overgrown grass and bushes it was difficult to circumvent the entire fort. Hence we descended down the same stairs from where we had come and moved toward an other attraction of this fort, 32 Minar ki masjid .

32 Pillar Mosque

This masjid is on left side near the back end of the fort. Its an old masjid with 32 pillars. Basically its in ruins, Not maintained at all.

Low roof supported by the pillars

Moving inside the masjid you realise  that the roof is quite low and the pillars standing are all more identical in shape.

Identical Pillars

 We spent some time here and moved towards the Shiv Temple which is next to this masjid.

The structure is in complete ruins. Had it not being for the shivling at the lower base, Its difficult to make out that this structure was a temple.

Ruins of shiv temple 

The brown grill that you are seeing in the picture above, the shivling is place below that and we could see fresh flowers on it which meant that its used for worshiping. 

Shivling with fresh flowers

What I found strange about this temple was that the pillars here too looks quite similar to the one that I saw in the masjid. The question in my mind was did the  same ruler made both masjid and temple or this structure was something else and now shown as temple...

Please note the design of pillars

History often leaves so many questions open.I would like to have your views in comment column what is your take on this. 

From here on we moved towards the teen Darwaza which the ASI guy at the ticket counter reminded us not to miss. Actually the entrance of the fort in ancient times were from these Darwazas or Gates. But ASI had changed the entrance from the road side.

Main Gate of the Fort

The Entry gate of the fort is quite formidable, two bastion like pillars with a windows  along top is something typical of the architectural  designs of those times.

This was the last site that we visited at the Bhuikot or Solapur fort.  Generally one hours is enough to explore this fort but it took nearly 2 hours for us.( too much time spent on photos and masti)  We were now quite hungry hence we planned to sit in the lawn of the fort and munch some biscuits and chips before moving on to our next destination Naldurg Fort.

To read about our journey from the beginning click here

Dwarka | Gujarat Series

It was around September 2017 when  I last visited Gujarat  and I was simply zapped by the beauty of Champaner UNESCO World heritage site.( To know more about Champaner you can check my Champaner Series Blog.)

The beauty of the ancient Mosques,Temples and stepwells stirred the wanderer spirit and nudged me to search for more such ancient sites in Gujarat and hence the quest to explore ended with plan to visit Dwarka-Somnath-Diu-Sasan Gir.

Once the plan was fixed I called up my friend Pooja and Nikhil who too wanted to come along and from my side my wife and daughter joined in and we were a team of 5 people all set to go

Gujarat here we come

As usual the programs are more of impromptu kind thus railway bookings in such situations are always a herculean task and this time too we ended up with RAC tickets. Gujarat trains waiting list are quite slow in moment hence even on the day of journey our tickets were not confirmed and upon that we were hit by another bomb when Nikhil called in to say that he cannot make it as some urgent work has turned up at his office. I take these kind of things in my stride because for a regular traveler these kind of situations are more of Deja Vu experience and like a seasoned traveler we have to work around all these obstacles, hence I requested Nikhil to meet us in Diu and this way he too can travel and only miss out on Dwarka.

We took Saurashtra Mail  which leaves at 21.35 from Mumbai Central and the train reached Dwarka in the afternoon at 4 pm ( Official time is 2:30 pm , our train was late)

After getting down from the station we took autoriksha to our hotel. During the auto journey to hotel I fixed up with my auto guy to take us for local sightseeing; Within an hour we were all ready and all set to explore local Dwarka today.

Dwarka is one of the Chardham, other three being Puri ,Badrinath and Rameshwar. Dwarka is also one of the Sapta Puri meaning that it is one of the seven most ancient cities of India. Dwarka is situated on the coastal strip of Gujarat.

There are so many tales connected with this city which we will keep narrating in the due course of my blog. For a start let us begin with the connection of Dwarka and the name given to lord Krishna "Ranchod Das"

 Jarasandha, the king of Magadha, had married his daughters Asti and Prapti to Kamsa, Krishna's maternal Uncle. After Krishna killed his Uncle Kamsa, Jarashandh was furious with him because his daughters were widowed due to Krishna. He decided to teach Krishna and the Yadavas a lesson. Since the Yadavas were concentrated in and around Mathura, he decided to battle them and destroy the race forever. 

These repeated attacks on Mathura forced Lord Krishna to move out of Mathura and settle at a new place. But to build a whole new city was not a joke but it was here that Vishwakarma the chief architect of gods in those days came to the rescue of Lord Krishna because when he was questioned as to how long it would take to construct a new city he smiled and replied that the city has already been built under water and can be raised above the sea water anytime on their approval. Infact behind this whole tale the was a name given to Lord Krishna i.e."Ranchod Das" meaning the one who ran away from the battle. Ran-Battle Chod-leave or run.( But one must remember here that lord Krishna didnt leave because he was a coward but because he was to save the subjects of his kingdom from the wrath of Jarasandha. 

Dwarka town is full of temples, you find temples at every nook and corner. "itne resturants nahi milege jitne mandir honge". 

As far as our journey was concerned we started our sightseeing the Laxmi narayan Mandir. It was a simple temple with not much to talk about. We had a darshan here and moved on to our next temple i.e Gayatri Sakhtipeeth Temple.

Gayatri Sakhtipeeth Temple

View from the Gayatri Sakhtipeeth Temple

Talking about Gayatri Sakhtipeeth, this temple is just next to the sea and is probably the only temple of Gayatri Mata in Dwarka. One Dharamshala next to the temple could be seem. I presume its associated with this temple to facilitate the religious pilgrims who come there.

View from the Gayatri Sakhtipeeth Temple

More than the temple I liked the beauty of the settings around it.

Impressive structures near the temple

The sea,the sitting area created across the temple, which of course is not the part of the temple looked very beautiful.

Sitting area near the Temple

Taking advantage of the ambiance we all took turns to indulge in photography.

Golden glow of the sun creating a picture perfect image

Trying different angles

Standing next to the temple one can also see Lighthouse which look very attractive with the combination of sea, stones and the sun.

Combination of sea, stones and the sun

From here on we moved toward the Gita mandir 

Gita Mandir is situated towards the Western Ghats of Dwarka, close to the Bhadkeshwar Mahadev Mandir. This temple was built by the industrialist family of Birlas in 1970. The temple is constructed using marble, which adds to the beauty of the temple. This shrine was built to protect the rich scripture, teachings and values of the religious book of Hindus, the 'Bhagavad Gita'.

Besides, the walls of the temple are carved with the hymns of Bhagavad Gita. We were informed by the priest that the temple ceiling is designed is a special way so that every voice heard in the hall is echoed.( I felt it was more due to emptiness of the hall). (Sorry don't have the pictures of this temple due to some malfunction with my camera here) 

The sun was on the verge of setting

The sun was almost on the verge of setting so we rushed toward the Bhadkeshwar temple , as I didn't want to miss the beauty of the setting sun on the horizon of the Arabian sea.

Bhadkeshwar Mahadev temple

Bhadkeshwar Mahadev temple as the name suggest was Shiva temple which is little away from the land mass joined by the cemented path built from land to the temple. The Badkeshwar darshan timing are from sunrise to sunset. The best time to visit Bhadkeshwar is around sunset when you get enchanted by the golden sheet of sea bed and the towering temple in that backdrop.This spot is so beautiful that you can indeed have panoramic view of the coastline with small boats blinking in the view on far horizon.

boats blinking on the horizon

Our first day at Dwarka was drawing to close and with heavy heart we had to bid adieu to the magical sea,Gentle breeze and those exotic birds but not before hogging few Panipuris, Bhuta and yummy Kesar pista Kulfi and finally boarded autoriksha to our Hotel.

Exotic Bird

Tommorrow we shall be visiting Nageshwer Jyotiling (Click here to read the next part), one of the famous Jyotiling out of the 12 jyotilings spread across the length and breath of our country India. To know more check my next blog on Nageshwar Jyotiling temple.

Traveler Tips:
1. Do your train booking well in advance.
2. Autorikshas are available from outside the station. some are big and can accommodate more than 5 people.
3.Autorikshas are not metered so do collect some info in advance as to the fare charged.
4. We paid Rs 300 for local city sightseeing.(year 2018)

Champaner Series | Iteri Masjid | Part 3

After exploring the Shaher ki masjid(Click here to read), I enquired with the the security guy as to where the other mosques are. He advised me to check out other mosques like Kevada Masjid and Nagina Masjid first and in the end finish my exploration with Jami Masjid. In fact most of the tourist who come here generally go to  Jami Masjid first. 

As advised by the security guy I ventured to explore Kevada Masjid, Taking the directions from him I set out , little walk and on my left I saw this gate of custom house.

Custom House

 I think it housed Govt office so I didn't go inside to check out. Again a little walk into the village Yes! within the walls of Champaner you find these small village houses, reaching at a T section I turned left with the boundary walls of the heritage site quite visible on the right side.

Boundary walls on the right side quite visible

Its here I got little confused when a villager told me to turn around and take the route exactly opposite to where I was walking. I said but the sign board say its on this side. He mocked at me and said "Arre Is raste se jungle me kahan batak te rahoge", for a minute I was in two mind and turned back but I dont know what came over me and I started to follow my original instinct to walk through the thick vegetation route.(The thing he called jungle 😜 )

Exit to thick vegetation route

Actually only Shaher ki Masjid is within the fortified walls of the complex, rest of all the Masjids are scattered outside this complex hence I moved out of the complex from the exit door and began my solo walk.
Hey neele gagan ke tale, jungle ki aur chale 

Exit Door

 With only the sound of birds and not a soul to be around you, the feeling could be very eerie. 

Bole tho darr bhi lagta hai aur majja bhi aata hai

Dhadakta dil ek hi baat bol raha tha woh Sholay wala dialogue                                    "Bhai Itna sanaata kyo hai"

Itna Sanaata kyo hai bhai

Sunsan raste per chalte hue ek minute ke liye yeah khayal bhi aaya ki, yahan akele me koi loot kar legaya toh... 

well actually these are honestly the vagaries of a Solo backpacker, walking little more deeper into this lonely track I saw this board of Brick Masjid alias Iteri Masjid . "Arre but no one told me anything about this Mosque".

Sign board of Iteri Majid and Amir Manzil

I took the left turn from the signboard and walked further, Just because I had seen the sign board so I was feeling confident that I'll find the place otherwise the track was too lonely and dense for my comfort. In fact at one moment my heart came in my mouth when I saw moment in the bushes and next moment PLOP! out jumps the peacock and run over towards the bushes on other side. Sigh !

The path was getting more dense

Just when I was losing all hopes I see this hopelessly standing Masjid of bricks in front of me.

Iteri Masjid

But before I could jump with happiness at my find, I saw few of these Buffalos grazing and seeing an intruder like me with swinging camera and walking towards them must have startled them, Perhaps that is the reason  they gave me fierce and fiery looks which almost stopped me in my tracks. 

Aa Dekhe Zara moment

Sach pucho toh yeh "Aa Dekhe Zara kisme kitna hai dum" moment tha. Half shivering I bravely stood my ground and took the picture of Brick masjid from a distance. "Ab yeh pata nahi tha ki woh kali bhains mere se utna hi darr rahi thi jitna mai usse."

Mere angane me tumhara kya kaam

I took few pictures and started to walk further in search of Amir Mahal, but after walking for 10 minutes I came to a dead end hence I retraced my steps till I was again at the Brick Masjid.( Sadly I didn't find Amir Mahal) 

View of Iteri Masjid

Luckily this time those dangerous looking baffalos had moved out. Garnering some courage I candidly moved near this Mosque to have closer look.

Closer looks of the Iteri Masjid

I climbed on the broken wall to reach the mosque platform to entered the Mosque. As the wall was narrow hence I had be be careful and worst the bricks were unevenly place. Ek khayal aaya tha tab, ki agar gir gaya toh koi utane hi nahi aayega aur phir ghabrat me woh kali bhains bhi yad aayegi

Narrow broken wall from where I climbed 

Upon reaching the top of platform I realised that there is not much to be seen. So the next best thing that I could think of was to shoot this Mosque from different angle. 

Angle Play

The plaster of this mosque has come off, exposing the bricks , probably that is the reason for the name Brick Masjid.

 Though on the minarets of the centre entrance few dilapidated carvings could be seen.

There was hardly anything behind the structure except for few ruined walls of the rooms and some overgrown grass.

Ruins behind the Mosque Facade

I wanted to explore little deeper but got worried that some snake may pop out from the grass to greet me Good morning 😅😅😅😅 

Socha aaj ke liye Bhains aur peacock ka fright kafi tha....


This mosque is in total neglected state, No ASI sign, no gate, no caretaker.

Dilapidated Walls of masjid

Probably it may not be so significant structure of its times. But who cares!

Hum toh woh hai , jin ko Dewaar toh chodo, Giri Dewaaro se bhi pyar hai, Hence enjoyed the moment and moved on.

Thank you for reading the blog hope you enjoyed the journey and be prepared to read about another beautiful Mosque i.e Kevada Masjid in my next blog, till then stay tuned.

TRAVEL TIP:1.Please carry your food and water.
                      2.Cap and Sunglasses could be quite handy.