Solapur in a day | Part 4 | Naldurg Fort

We were done with Siddeshwar Temple and Solapur Fort aka Bhuikot.( you can click on the links to read about our earlier journey) The next destination on our card was Naldurg Fort, which is situated around 50 kms away from Solapur.

We started to walk from Bhuikot Fort to Solapur Bus stand which is hardly 1-1.5 kms away from the fort.Walking through the local markets we reached the Solapur Bus stand. Finding the bus at Local bus stand is always a challenge however we were lucky we were guided by a local person and we boarded the bus going towards hyderabad. As the bus was starting from here so we had empty bus for ourselves, As usual I jumped to grab the window seat and for our time-pass we bought cucumber which felt so refreshing in this heat.  

Kakdi (Cucumber) khane ka apna hi majja hai...

My co-travellers Nikhil and Pooja took a cat nap while I was doing my videography, Boss window seat aise hi toh nahi li thi...The bus journey lasted close to one hour and  soon we reached Naldurg bus station.

At Naldurg Bus Stand

One can have glimpse of Naldurg fort from the Bus stand. Hence we started walking toward the fort, We had to  walk for 15 minutes on the highway and then thru the village to reach the fort. 

Glimpse of the Naldurg Fort from the Highway 

Finally we were at the gate of the Famous Naldurg Fort.

I feel it is mandatory that we should have some knowledge about the history of the fort. Toh chalo dosto now chota sa history lesson


History:
There are different version about the construction of Naldurg Fort. One belief is that it was built By Nalraja, Hence the fort and the place got the name Naldurg. Then there is another belief that the Chalukyas of Kalyani built this fort.This fort was also known by the name Yeral, when it was under the Bahamani Sultan from from 1351-1480, Later it was handed over to Mughal Empire. Later the Adilshahi rulers constructed the massive impregnable wall of the fort in the year 1558. In simple words what we see today of Naldurg fort the credit goes to Ibrahim Adilshah II (1556-12 Sept 1627).

Upon reaching the fort entrance we were informed that we had to buy entry tickets. As ASI is maintaining this fort so tickets are issued by them.We bought the tickets, here we also came to know that you are charged for carrying DSLR camera. Mobile phones are allowed for free. Another interesting thing is that there is a luggage room too near the entrance of the fort where by paying a nominal charge you can keep your bags.

The moment you enter the Main Gate of the Fort you can see that the efforts are been made to clean up the fort. The beautiful pots are lined up along the ramp  as you pass through two gates viz Hurmukh Darwaza and Hathi Darwaza to enter the fort. We come out of Nagarkhana to see huge view of the fort from inside.

We come from here...The Nagarkhana (Pic source Internet)

Once you reach inside the fort it opens up a huge view of the fort area with fountains.Lots of efforts has been made to beautify this fort.

View from inside the fort

Upon entering what I was surprised by the neatness of the place. Well kept gardens and then there was a structure on the right side after coming out of the Nagarkhana

Structure on the right side after entering the fort

Fort Adoption Scheme:
Few years back this fort was quite neglected however a initiative was undertaken to adopt forts and this fort was one of them. Where adoption of Red Fort by Dalmia group raked up controversy on other hand the initiative by Maharashtra govt to adopt 371 heritage sites proved to be a big flop show with only 2 forts been taken up for adoption. The reason been for the flop show was that there was not much incentives for the corporate in terms of gate money or the icon use and also many of the sites been fort and temples charging entry fees was little difficult.

Anyways as this fort is adopted so let us enjoy the views.

Structure on the left side and
our resting place for having lunch.

Green lawns and few ancient structures are the inviting sights for a traveler like me. It was almost 2 pm when we reached here so we decided to have our lunch sitting under the shade of the tree. We generally carry our lunch so in no time we were done and moved on our exploration.

We started from the right side because I had heard so much about the Nav Buruj. It is said to be  a nine petal lotus kind of Bastion. This bastion is unique because it has two floors within it.

View of NavBurj from outside

The view from this bastion was amazing. We explored a bit on the top and as usual stole a moment to click few of our pictures. After all the hard work of climbing up and down photo toh banta hai bhai.

Some playful time

Talking of Bastions you would be surprised to know that there are around 114 bastions on the fort and the fort wall is almost 3 kms long'

After climbing down from the bastion I captured few nearby structures which are scattered outside the fort wall

One of the structure outside the fort wall.

We were given to understand that Naldurg is a huge fort hence one requires lots of time to cover its each nook and corner. Personally I felt that if you are a serious fort lover then you need a full day to cover every square inch of this fort.

Another structure outside the fort wall

We started to walk along the path made and came across ancient structures but due to the paucity of time we gave them a casual looks and moved on from  this the point and....

Reached a location  from where would see a huge  lake!

Lake within the fort 

 Yes this Fort has a lake and that too is huge, I was left open mouth with OMG written all over my face. I have visited many forts in Maharashtra but never seen something as amazing as this. 

Breathtaking view of the lake

 One can take boat ride, Banana ride, Water scooter and many more water sports activity. This is perhaps one of those few forts which offers such delightful water sports.

Variety of water sports 

A little walk further we came across another interesting structure. This structure is perched as a watch tower kind of thing. In other words this structure is the highest portion of the fort and is called Upali Buruj.

Upali Buruj

 There are close to 70-75 steps to climb to the top and Pooja and me raced on these steps with Nikhil shooting us on the camera. These silly antics keeps us going and we find our fun in them.

Pooja and myself racing to the top

70 plus stair of upali buruj and fun time for us

Upon reaching the top we saw two cannons, quite a long one. This bastion was made for keeping watch and  to oversee everything, I can vouch for this, because I could see the highway from the fort with the vehicle movement on it.

View from the Upali Buruj of Highway

This bastion is at the centre of the fortification of the fort.Due to which one can have a bird eye view of the entire fort from the Bastion.

View of the fort from the top.

Upli Buruj has two cannons on it-- though historians believe that during the Adil Shahi period, there were three cannons. One of the cannon had a crocodile face kind of mouth, hence is called Magar Toph 

Magar Thop or cannon.

 For a history lover these cannons are something to be proud of and sacrosanct in a way, but its sad to note that for people who just come to spend an outing here, its a place of fun, and these canons are a resting place, a magical broom kind of thing to sit on. Parents without realising I feel are giving wrong indications to their children when they make them sit on the cannons just to enjoy. Please respect the historical past.

This 21 feet long canon is reduced to a garden bench..sic

We spent some time at the Upli Buruj enjoying the cool breeze and enjoying the mesmerizing 360 view of the fort. Clicking pictures from vantage point is always so delightful.

Talking selfie on the edge can be edgy 😅 

From here we moved on the one of the most unique structure on this fort and it is called Pani Mahal.

Actually in 1613 AD, Ibrahim Adilshah II built the weir or dam on the river Bori and constructed Pani Mahal. This dam itself is an engineering marvel of its time. This Dam is 90 feet tall, 275 metres long and approx 31 metres in width.

View of the Dam from the top

Pani Mahal is an interesting structure whereby when you come on the dam section there are stairs going down  and you come across a floor kind of thing. Not much is left today to see here though. One can catch the glimpse of the gushing water of the dam from the window of this section. This floor was made in such a manner that though this palace is on the wier yet the water never passes through it. Isn't it an amazing architectural marvels of yesteryear.

Me enjoying the view on the top of the Dam

The sun was coming down and the breeze was getting all the more cooler so we thought to chill out on the top of Pani Mahal. The river water was glittering in the evening sun and the view looked mesmerising.

Good Bye Solapur...and Naldurg

It was now time for us to say goodbye to this lovely Fort and begin our journey back to Solapur Station from where we were to take night train to Mumbai.

How to reach:
From Solapur: Naldurg is situated around 50 kms from Solapur. The fort is situated on the Solapur -Hyderabad highway in Naldurg Village. There are regular State transport buses plying from Solapur to Naldurg.

Click on the link to have video journey of our entire Solapur trip 

Weekend wanderer at Solapur Vist


Traveller Tip: 
If you are visiting on Sundays park your vehicle somewhere on highway and take a walk to fort. Sunday is market day and its too hard to drive four wheeler in narrow lanes with lots of roadside stalls and crowd.

If you wish to have drone tour of this place click on the link I have shared below.

naldurg fort from drone 


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Solapur in a day | Part 1 | Solapur Municipal Building

We slog through out the week at workplace and then comes the magical friday night. People with sane mind think of chilling out with friends over a glass of wine or beer, enjoy a good Sunday sleep Aur idhar hum Awara Ghumakad friday night yeh sapna dekhte hai ki yeh weekend kon sa saher ya konsa killa fathe karenge. Honestly speaking my whole week passes away like a breeze when I know I am going to explore a new place on the weekend.

This weekend I had planned to visit Siddeshwar temple, Bhuikot Fort aka Solapur Fort and Naldurg Fort.

This time I was lucky that I don't have to go solo because I had a wonderful company of my usual suspect kind of friends 😜 Nikhil and Pooja.

Train ke intezar ka apna hi maja hai

We took Siddeshwar express train from Dadar at 10.57 pm. As soon as we  boarded the train a very interesting thing happened, We saw this young boy sitting at the window seat. I think I might have looked at him sternly because he very defensively asked me kya yeh aap ki seat hai. I said nahi meri middle berth hai. He was relieved. After some time he looks at me and asked Mai mera saman seat ke neeche rakhunga toh chori to nahi hoga na, I was simply flabbergasted and my reflex action response was Arre mere ko kya maloom, rakh ke dekh le...subha tak maloom pad jayega. ( Honestly I wanted to say Oye kya hum chor nazar aate hai 😉 Anyways we had a good laugh over this. The young boy was actually very sweet chap, he had come to give interview for Railway job for engineer post. These kind of experience adds spice to your life  because travelling in train always allows you to meet different people and you enjoy your journey all the more.

Liked the pole at a traffic circle

It was 7 am when we reached Solapur station. We came out of the station and had our breakfast of Poha from the local Thela Guy and started to walk to our first destination that is Siddeshwar Temple. Normally one can take auto from the railway station and reach the temple but I prefer to walk if the destination is well within 2 kms. My idea of early morning walk is that one can actually have the local feel of the city. As I said that walking allows you to explore something which is not on your destination, well something same happened with us. As we were on our way to Siddeshwar temple we saw this fantastic building whose architecture fascinated me so I took a detour and started to explore the same. The Building was actually Solapur Municipal Office.

Beautiful Solapur Municipal Building

Ab samaj me aaya , mai kyo chal kar explore karne me believe karta hu. Had we been travelling in any auto we could have easily missed out on this pretty building.

The architecture of the building is very artistic. The colourful windows and arches makes it a photographers delight.

Beautifully designed windows

 There was  a statue of a person in front of the main entrance hence out of curiosity I went ahead and read the name of the person. Well the name embbed on the statue was Rao Bahadur Mallappa Alias Appasaheb Warad. For me it was unknown name so I spoke to one of the person working there and the information that he gave me was amazing.The information so collected from the local and my research put together showed the various aspect of this person.

Rao Bahadur Mallappa Alias Appasaheb Warad

Life of  Rao Bahadur Mallappa:

 Rao Bahadur Mallappa Alias Appasaheb Warad can be regarded as one of the makers of the Sholapur City. He was born on 18th June,1851 in a Lingayat family at Sholapur. He had no formal education and no knowledge of English,yet his thinking, his vision, his mature understanding of the ways of the world placed him among the then prominent leaders of the city. He was a reformist in agricultural techniques.A special quality of groundnut cultivated by him was popularly known as "Warad Shengdana"

Sculptures on the building

He was thick with eminent personalities of his time like Justice M.G.Telang, Justice M.G.Ranade, Lokmanya Tilak. His discussions with Lokmanya Tilak resulted in a kind of co-operative scheme for the weavers community of Sholapur. But the government did not approve it. He was more an institution than an individual.

Sculptures on the building

He was elected as a delegate in 1893, to present the city in Indian National Congress. He donated generously and without any discrimination to each and every good cause. The estimated amount of donations is not less than six lakh rupees. He donated generously for "Tilak Defence Fund"

Some interesting arches and statues

When Warad died on 19th January 1911,Lokmanya Tilak made a special mention of him in his letter from jail on hearing this sad news.

Ornate Viewing area on terrace

I don't know how far this is truth but the local person told me that Appasaheb Warad had lots of outstanding taxes to be paid, due to which he has to handover this building in lieu of  those outstanding taxes. He also said that in earlier days this was the largest and tallest building in Solapur and one could see most of Solapur from the terrace of the building.

Breathtaking view 

Kahani Saachi hai ya Jhooti woh ek alag baat hai As far as I am concerned I often feel transported to olden times when someone narrates such kind of tales.

Dil toh bacha hai ji ....Ek kahani sunne ka mara hai ji

After spending some time here we moved on to the Siddeshwar temple which was just 2 minutes away from here.

Kugaon Killa : Forgotten Legacy Series

Last week after exploring the submerged temples of Chandori Village (Click on this link to read Chandori Temples blog ) which not only left me awestruck but also pained.
One may be surprised by this statement of mine but the fact remains that despite being such a treasured and beautiful art of architecture these temples of Chandori were totally ignored and wasted.  The heart can only cry in agony over the antipathy of the locals and the authorities on seeing ancient art scattered around here and there on the dried river bed of Godavari river. A small efforts from them can save such treasured ancient legacy.

It was during our exploration of Chandori Temples someone among our group informed me that there is another such kind of submerged temple which again due to torrid summer can be seen as the water levels of the river has receded here too. The temple we were talking about was Palasdeo Temple, near Indapur and Kugoan Killa aka Inamdarcha Wada.

Armed with this information me and Shashikant Dumbre started working on a plan to visit these places. Information regarding Kugaon fort was not there on the Google so we went around checking with our common friends to dig the details of the route and other things.Finally within a week time we were ready with our plan and decided to leave Mumbai by night at 9.00pm because we wanted to catch the sunrise at Kugaon Fort. 

Gotto catch the sunrise at Kugoan

Our Journey:
We all met at 9 pm at Ambarnath and boarded the hired Tavera, all set to go for our next exploration trip.Driving through the night on the deserted roads is an experience you don't get everyday.The distance to be traveled was suppose to be more than 300 kms one way and our route was Mumbai-Pune-Bhigwan-Palasdeo-Warkute Fata, taking the Solapur Highway.

Start of the journey with breaking of Coconut

It was 4 a.m when we saw the Palasdeo signboard on the Highway, Initially our plan was to visit Palasdeo Temple first and then move on to Kugoan fort which is around 9 kms ahead of this.We therefore stopped here for a tea break as lots of tea sellers were operating at this point and we also wanted to catch on with their tea and local information.

Drive through the Night

The tea seller informed us that the first boat to go to Palasdeo will start at 9 am so we thought it would be futile to waste time sitting here hence we decided to move on to the Kugoan Fort.We drove about 8-9 kms till we reached Varkute Phata,from where we took left turn,this small road which leads to the Kalasi village can easily be missed had it not been the advise by the tea seller who said to watch out for the left turn before petrol pump.Taking a left turn and around 10-15 minutes of bumpy ride we reached Kalasi Village.

It seems to be becoming a routine for us guys to stalk the empty streets of deserted villages in the wee hours of the night. As usual not a soul was to be seem who can guide us as to where do we go. so we kept looking around until we found one solitary man walking towards us, who finally showed us the way. Well the beach is at a distance of about half kilometer away from this village and the road is kind of dead end.

Reaching the dead end of the road
 to find this view

We moved out of our car and in pitch darkness we kept finding our way till the creek.Once we reached the creek we knew that next few hours shall be the waiting period for us to view the sunrise.

Waiting for the sunrise

Sitting here and watching the nature unfold the spectrum of colours  was simply amazing, I'll go one step further and say that it was the moment to die for. A moment, for which I can come again and again to watch.My true feelings of the moment can be guaged from this quote:
Right in this moment,
I can't even remember what unhappy feels like

This is the moment I can die for

Early morning bliss

The creek of Kalashi village not only offers one of the best visual delight in terms of exploding colourful skies but also is home to some of the wonderful migratory birds.

I was later informed by one of my friend that these birds are basically those which come to Bhigwan Bird sanctuary.
Hence we were lucky to catch glimpses of such wonderful species.

Migratory birds 

Everyone was busy capturing the birds and another reason for us not rushing to go to Kugaon fort was that one needs to take a boat to reach the Kugoan fort which is situated in the waters of river Bhima. We were informed that the boatman comes at 7.30 am so we were simply bidding our time.

Chilling in the boat,
Waiting for the boatman to arrive

Time now was 6.30 am and there was still one more hour to go,so we all had some photo fun on the boat which was anchored at the shore.

Photofun on the boat

After a long wait finally the boatman arrived and we were all set to sail to our destination which was waiting for us right across. Yes The Kugaon Killa or Inamdarcha Wada.

Inamdarcha Wada      (PC Dr Neha Mehta)

A very short ride of hardly 5 minutes for which you shell out Rs 40,gets over before it starts and you find yourself at the entrance of the Kugoan Fort,Fort which has no entrance gate to greet you, its only the crumbling rubble stone through which you wade your way to enter the famous Inamdarcha Wada.

Unusual entrance through the rubble

History :

Before we set our foot on this place it is very necessary that we should know about the history of this place.In the year 1976 Ujani Dam was constructed on the river Bhima due to which many big and small villages,temples got submerged under the waters of Bhima river which included this Kugaon's Inamdar's wada(Kugaon fort)too.

Partially submerged Kugaon Killa

The story goes that in those day the Nizam who was the ruler here gave Devrao Inamdar, Jijaba Inamdar and Nagoba Inamdar this Kugaon Killa and five villages around it as a gift in form of jagir.

This fort was built around 400 years back by Inamdar brothers on the banks of river Bhima river. There are four bastion in the four corners of the fort.In currents times these bastions are in ruins.

Crumbling bastions 

During the current times only one bastions is in proper shape rest have being partially destroyed.

Bastion on the right

The Main Darwaja or the Entrance gate is bigger than the Pune's Shanivar Wada. It is believed that during ancient times there used to be pedestrian way from the shore to the fort gate.

One of the entrance gate of the Kugaon Killa

The main entrance has two tall pillars on each side of the entrance gate, a close look at these pillars give an impression of minars type construction.

Minars at the entrance

Exploring the Fort we see there is a small well too within the fort area.

Well on the fort

Just adjacent to this fort but at a small distance we see a beautiful structure. We were informed that it is a temple. As one can see in the picture given below that there is water between the fort and the temple so I was not able to see it from inside however few adventurous among us swam across to have a closer look.

Temple little away from the main fort

I was informed by my brave friends who swam across that in this structure there is an idol of Hanuman and Shivling.We requested the boatman to take the boat closer to this place but he said the water is quite shallow so not possible.

From here on we moved towards the entrance of the fort from inside.This whole place has white colour looks which kept reminding me of the white dwelling places of Greece.

Inside view of the gate

The entrance has many sections, a small roomor a passage with a place to keep lamp or as they say devadi in marathi.

Passages within ( PC Dr Neha  Mehta)

Few more passages ( PC Dr Neha  Mehta)

I was told that there is one chor darwaja too.As the fortifications were in dilapidated condition so checking out for chor darwaja was difficult.

Searching for that hidden Chor Darwaja

Though the main entrance is in dilapidated condition still there is some structure left sharing below for your eyes only.

After exploring the fortification I moved on to the top of this entrance gate to get a birds eye view of the fort.The view from the top offers a very good panoramic view of the surroundings and the inside of the fort.

Panoramic view from the Top

The Fort is built on two acres of land and it is believed that the outer wall fortification was around 15 feet in width. The entire complex though is in ruins, still is able to hold its head high because of the intense beauty that surrounds it.

I am simply mesmerised !!

It was 11.00 am and the sun was hitting hard and we could feel the thirst in our throats,So quenching our thirst   it was time for us to move back and explore our next destination Palasdeo Temple another submerged Temple now visible.

Quenching our thirst 

We all regrouped and sat at the same spot where the boatman had dropped us waiting for our boat to arrive,The boat finally arrived bringing with it new batch of people and we all soon jumped into the boat for our return journey.We shall now be moving on from here to Palasdeo temple. Palasdeo Temple blog coming