About four miles south of the Karle cave hills and eight miles south-east of Khandala, in the range that forms the southern limit of the
Indrayani valley, stand two fortified hills. Lohogad to the west short and comb-backed, and Visapur long and level to the east. From the village of Bhaja, about a mile south of the Karle railway station, a path leads up the face of a slightly wooded spur to the plateau from which rise the sheer cliffs of Lohogad on the right, and the tamer sides of Visapur on the left. From the top of the pass, between two hills, the track divides, one branch running west below the cliffs of Lohogad, the other east below the slopes of Visapur. This is the simplest path up either of the hills and is open all through the fair season. During the hot months (March-May) the pleasantest way of seeing Lohogad and Visapur from Khandala or Lonavla, is to start from the western village of Avadholi, climb Lohogad from the south, and passing to Visapur, scramble up the steep rugged gorge in its south face, and, crossing the hill, return by the north ravine along a smooth
part-tilled plateau and down the steep hill-side that overhangs the
village of Bhaja. From Lonavla, keeping to the right under the
southern range of hills, a rough cross country road follows the line
of the first English highway between Poona and the Bor pass, [Though rough and in places entirely destroyed this road can still be clerly traced. It is locally known as the Peshwa's road, and may be on the line of a Maratha highway, but the remains of pavement and metalling seem English.]
about four and a half miles south-east to Avadholi. The closer
view of Lohogad shows a long rocky point, known as the Scorpion's
Sting or Vichu-kanta, running north-west from the main body of
the upper hill, and ending, over the Avadholi valley, in a bare black
fortified crag. From Avadholi the path leads up a steep well
wooded pass to a rolling plateau with scattered trees and patches
of tillage from which, on the left, rises the black cliff of Lohogad fort.
At first under the Scorpion's Sting, a cliff about 300 feet high, and then,
under the bare scarp of the main hill whose walled crest, connected with the Scorpion's Sting by an arched gateway, rises about
150 feet higher, the path leads through about two miles of open
woodland and hill tillage to the shady village of Lohvadi. To the
left of Lohvadi are the sites of some large buildings, the dwellings
of the local deshmukhs who had formerly large mansions and a well and garden. A filled up well may still be seen, in which according
to the local story at a wedding the child bride and bridegroom fell
were drowned and the place was deserted.
The Way Up,
Behind Lohvadi a path leads to the sole entrance to the fort,
where, from among the trees, up the face of a steep spur, winds a flight of steps, partly built partly rock-cut, guarded by four arched gateways, each flanked by double bastions rising one above the other, the highest standing clear against the sky. [According to Lord Valentia (1803) the gateways take away from the strength of the place by offering a lodgment for a storming party. Travels, II. 171.] On the right, before reaching the lowest gateway, at the foot of a high rugged scarp, is a row of three caves, their mouths, except narrow doorways, closed by modern masonry walls. The first cave, known as the Salt Store, and measuring nineteen feet long by twenty-two broad and six and a half high, is plain without pillars or writing. Along the east wall are two stone benches each about six feet long by three broad and two high. Between the stone benches a door, cut in the rock, leads into a second cave, also plain and without pillars, about twenty-six feet by twenty and seven high and divided into two compartments by a modern stone and mortar wall. Adoor in the back wall of this cave opens on a second smaller chamber. A few yards further along the hill side is a third cave, with a masonry wall built nearly across the entrance and the inside partly filled with water. Beyond it is a large rock-cut water cistern about forty feet square and eighteen deep, the roof supported on two rough rock-cut pillars. In the bare face of the cliff, about thirty feet above this line of caves, reached by a broken flight of rock-cut steps, are two unfinished ceils, the lower five feet and a half by five and the upper six by five and four high. A hole leads through the floor of the upper into the lower cave, and, when
finished, the two would probably have formed one chamber. Their position outside of the defences, and the contrast between the modern masonry entrance and partition walls and the rest of the work of the lower caves, and the rough stone steps and openings into the upper caves, bear out the people's belief that these caves were not granaries but Buddhist monk-dwellings or, as they say, Pandav-hewn houses. Their simplicity and rudeness, and their close resemblance to some of the older Junnar caves point to an early date. A little above this line of caves rises, on the left, the western bastion of the first or Ganesh Gate. This was the first of the additions made by Nana Fadnavis about 1789. There is still a generally believed, and apparently true, story that the building had to be stopped because the foundation of the bastion would not hold. At last Nana was warned in a dream that the defences could never be completed until the favour of the god of the hill was won by burying alive a man and a woman. After much difficulty a Maratha of the Sabale clan agreed to offer his eldest son and his son's wife. A hole was dug and the two were buried alive and over them the foundations of the bastion were again laid and have ever since stood firm. In reward for this sacrifice the headship of the village of Lohvadi was taken from a Ghadshi family and given to the Sabale whose fourth in descent is the present police patil.
Fort Details.
According to the local story, of the four gateways, the Ganesh, Narayan, Hanumant, and Maha, the first second and fourth were built in the time of Nana Fadnavis and the third or Hanumant is older and was built by the Musalmans. The gateways of all are arched in Musalman style and strengthened by masonry bastions, the windings of the steps and the heights of the gateways being so planned that the approach is commanded by all the bastions. The gates are of teak strengthened with iron, the lowest or Ganesh gate being armed against elephants by long iron spikes. Here and there in the bastions of the Ganesh and other gates are a few small dismounted guns. [On one of the guns are out the letters and figures T. P. D. 4-1-17 and on another in Balbodh the words Ali Madat and the figures 3-3-12,] Inside of the Ganesh Gate on the right hand, about the level of the roof of the gateway, is a broken image of Ganpati. A little further, about halfway to the Narayan gate, in a niche on the right, is a small broken image of Gauri, Ganpati's mother, seated with crossed feet and upturned soles, her hands resting on her knees, four bracelets on each wrist, a bodice and a tiara or mukut on her head. To the right, about halfway between the Narayan and Hanumant gates, are two caves, the nearer fourteen feet by sixteen and nine high, used by the Marathas as a nachni store, and the further, about twenty-nine by thirty feet and twelve high, used as a rice store. They are plain, without pillars ornament or writing, and, except narrow doors, have their mouths closed by masonry. Their depth, three or four feet below the entrance, and the roughness of the tool-marks, support the local belief that they are the work of men, not of the Pandavs, and were cut by the Marathas as granaries. A few steps further, before passing through the Maruti or Hanumant gateway, a rough broken image of Maruti is cut in
the cliff on the right. Just above this image is the Maruti or Hanumant
gateway, the original gate of the fort, which, according to the local
story, was built by Alamgir or Aurangzeb, but is probably at least as
old as the Ahmadnagar kings (1489-1636). A few steps above the
Maruti gate the staircase is spanned by an arch or kaman fitted with
holes for bolts and bars. A little further the staircase turns sharp to
the right in front of the Maha or Great gateway, a plain wooden door
set in a Musalman arch, with some slight tracery above and a small
image of Maruti on either side. Within the gateway is a ruined court
and guard-room with one arch standing.
Facing the Maha gate, on a stone plinth about five feet high, stands
a stone mausoleum, a square tower capped, as it seems from the out
side, by a rough clumsy dome. This building, which is about fifteen
feet square inside, has two slightly ornamented one tombs on the
floor, and rises in a plain well-proportioned dome bout twenty-five
feet high. It has no inscription. According to the local story it is a
cenotaph in honour of Aurangzeb and one of his wives. Close to the
mausoleum are the ruins of the small court-house or dhakti sadar, and
in front, between the tomb and the clif edge, are the remains of the
armoury or lohar-khana. Behind the dome, the hill rises into a bare
knoll about 100 feet bigh, and to the right, under a cliff about thirty
feet high, are the well-built plinths of four courtyards or chauks
said to be the remains of the chief Government offices or mothi sadar.
In the rocky brow behind are a set of four caves. The cave most
to the south and west has its mouth, all but a hole about two
feet square, choked with earth and fallen rocks. To the north-east,
behind the ruins of the chief court-house, is a cistern about twelve
feet deep cut into the face of the hill, the inner part supported by a
roughly hewn rock pillar. A few steps to the right, with a porch
about fifteen feet by eight, is the second cave partly filled with a
mud and water, the entrance blocked by rocks and earth, and with a
modern wall and door built across it. Inside, a modern stone and
mortar wall divides the cave, leaving, to the left, a compartment
about thirty feet by twenty. From this, a few yards to the east,
two rock-cut doorways lead into two small chambers, one to the
left the other facing the entrance doorway. The cave is plain
throughout without pillars or ornament. A few yards further, opening
from a small terrace strewn with stones and under an overhanging
rock, is a third cave with a recess on the right and two small
chambers on the left. This cave, which is known as the treasury,
Khajandarki kothi or Jamdarkhana, measures about sixty feet long
by forty-five broad and about eight high. It is plain without pillars
or ornament and has, along the east wall, a stone bench about three
feet high, five feet broad, and twenty-seven feet long.
Slight brick partitions divide the cave into compartments about fifteen feet square, and up the middle a row of treasure-coffers, about three feet square, have been sunk in the floor. A few yards further, under an overhanging rock, about six feet deep, is a fourth cave known as the Lakshmi Kothi.
The original entrance seems to have been a central doorway with rock-posts and
two side windows or openings, each about three feet high and eight long, cut halfway down to the floor of the cave. But, except a doorway measuring five feet by
three, the front has been closed by a modern stone wall. Inside of the door is a rock-cut hall, fifty feet by thirty and seven high, with rock-cut side benches, but without pillars ornament or figures. Part of the hall, cut off by a brick partition, has been used as a store-room; sad in the roof, between the outer and inner doorways, a loop has been cut from which to hang the scales used in weighing grain and stores. In the back wall of this hall are four rough-hewn rock pillars, each about three feet square, placed so as to form a central doorway and two windows on either side, each window about eight feet long and four high, corresponding to the windows in the outer wall. A flight of three rough steps, with plain rock-cut side benches, each five feet long and three and a half wide, lead to the inner doorway. Within this doorway is a second hall, about fifty feet by nine and a half and seven high, in no way differing in style from the outer hall, except that at each end a door leads into a rock-cut chamber twelve feet by ten. Through the back wall of this second hall are reached a central and two side chambers, the central chamber about 17' 6" by 13' 6" and each of the side chambers ten feet by fourteen. Within this central chamber is an inner shrine about eight feet by four with a small room to the left. On the back wall of the shrine are some markings and hollows which look as if a relic-shrine or other object of worship had been wrenched from the wall. The story is that this cave was the dwelling of Lomesh Rishi and that a passage once ran through the back wail of the shrine into the seer's private chamber. One of the Musalman kings is said to have spent sixty bottles of oil in lighting this passage in search of the seer, and, on failing to find him, ordered the mouth to be closed. Beyond Lakshmi's chamber are two small rough caves and a larger one, apparently about twenty feet by forty, now half filled with mud and water. This group of caves is by the people believed to be the work of the Pandavs, and though no trace of ornament figures or writing has been found, the style of the work, the position commanding a fine view south-east across the Pauna valley to the Mandvi Tikona and Morgiri or Jambhulni hills, and the neighbourhood of the old shrine of Bahiroba now the tomb of Shaikh Umar, favour the idea that it was once a Buddhist settlement. If they are Buddhist, the caves rank among the oldest class belonging to the second or first century before or after Christ. Passing over the high ground in which the caves are cut, the path leads to a walled enclosure, at the west end of which, covered by a rough thatched roof, is the tomb of Shaikh Umar Avalia an Arab saint. Shaikh Umar is said to have come from Mecca with six brothers one of whom was Bava Malang who gave his name to the hill near Kalyan in the Konkan and another Shaikh Salla of Poona. They are said to have come as missionaries before Musalman power was established in the Deccan. According to the guardian or mujavar of the tomb, whose family have held the post for seven generations, when Shaikh Umar came to Lohogad he found a Hindu ascetic on the hill-top whom he seized by the leg and tossed across to the Visapur plateau where his shrine is still worshipped as the vandev or forest-god. [It seems doubtful whether this so-called ascetic was a Gosavi and was not Bahiroba, The present vandev is said to be Bahiroba and has a Koli ministrant. At the top of the pass, on the way from Bhaja, is an old temple to
some form of Devi with a broken dome in the cross-corner or Hemadpanti style. Closer under Lohogad on a rough plinth, are thirteen small stone horses about a foot high and a foot long, said to be the stable of Shaikh Umar. Here, in passing, Hindu women and children leave a small branch or tree-twig. It seems probable that Shaikh Umar's stud is a survival of the old Bahiroba horse-worship.] Once a year,
on the December-January or Paush full-moon, a fair is held at Shaikh
Umar's tomb, to which about 1200 pilgrims come, Hindus of all castes
as well as Musalmans, mostly from the villages round as far as Poona.
One of the visitors, a Hindu of the saddler or Jingar caste, lately
(1880) presented the shrine with a handsome silk covering. In a
corner of the enclosure are several votive clay horses. Behind, that
is to the west of, the saint's tomb, the hill rises into a steep grassy
knoll about 100 feet above the level of most of the hill-top. To the
north of the central knoll, about 150 yards to the west of the saint's
tomb, is a masonry pond about 140 yards round and with two
flights of steps leading to the water. On the east wall of the north
flight of steps a Marathi inscription dated S. 1711 (A. D. 1789)
states that the maker of the pond was Balaji Janardan Bhanu
(that is Nana Fadnavis), whose agent or representative was Dhondo
Ballal Nitsure, and the mason who built it Bajichat. This pond
does not now hold water. At the time of the capture of the hill
the English are said to have run off the water in search of treasure
and the escape opening has never been closed. The remains of a
stone structure for working a leather bag and of water-channels
to the north show that the water of the pond was once used for
gardening. To the south of the central knoll and to the west of
the domed tomb is a ruined temple of Trimbakeshvar Mahadev, and
close to the temple a rock-cut cistern and a well of pure water. To
the north-west of the pond there seems to have been a garden where
the artillery apparently was parked. A few guns lie about and
stone balls are found in the grass. At the north-west corner of the
hill-top a path passes through an arched gateway down a rough
descent of 100 or 150 feet to the strip of rock known as the Scorpion's
Sting. This rock, which is about 1500 yards long and from twenty
to forty yards broad, has a rough flat top and steep sides strengthened
by broad masonry parapets. The walled passage at the west end of
the rock, according to Lord Valentia (1803), was the begnning of a
flight of steps which were planned by one of the Satara chiefs but
never completed. [Travels.II. 171.]
To the west of the plateau, below the Lohogad cliff, is a hamlet of
about six Koli huts. They grow hill-grains, nachni and vari, own
cattle, and make butter. They are Pujari or Pan Kolis acting as
temple servants to Ganpati, Maruti, Bahiroba, Khandoba, and
Vithoba. The Maratha Kunbis eat and drink with them, but they
do not intermarry. Their surnames are Ikare, Dhanvale, Dakole,
and Shilke.
History.
Lohogad is one of the strongest and most famous of Deccan forts
and is probably a settlement of very great age. Its position, commanding the high road to the Bor pass, must have always made it
important, [Till quite lately the high road to the Bor Pass kept close to the southern range of
hills just below Lohogad.] and its large series of caves, though not yet properly examined, would seem to show that it was a Buddhist resort at least as early as Bhaja, Karle, and Bedsa (B.C. 200 - A.D. 200). On these grounds, and from its resemblance in name and position, it seems possible that Lohogad is Ptolemy's (A.D. 150) Olochoera, one of the chief places inland from the South Konkan or Pirate Coast. In modern times it is mentioned as one of the Bahmani forts taken by Malik Ahmad when (1489) he established himself as an independent ruler. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 33.] In 1564 Burhan Nizam Shah II. afterwards the seventh Ahmadnagar king (1590-1594) was confined here during his brother's reign. [Briggs' Ferishta, III. 271, 282. ] On the fall of the Ahmadnagar' dynasty in 1637, Lohogad passed to the Bijapur kings, but was soon after (1648) wrested from them by Shivaji. In 1665, after the successes of Jaising and Dilawar Khan, Shivaji was forced to cede Lohogad to Aurangzeb. Only five years later (1670), in the successful operations that followed Tanaji Malusre's capture of Sinhgad, Lohogad was surprised by the Marathas, and afterwards made a sub-divisional head-quarters and treasury. [The late Mr. G. H. Johns, C.S.] About 1704 Lohogad was taken by the Marathas, [Scott's Deccan, II. 56; Waring's Marathas, 125.] in 1713 it was taken by Angria, [Grant Duff's Marathas, 193.] and in 1720 it was given to Balaji Vishvanath. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 202.] About 1770 the fort was taken in the interests of Nana Fadnavis by a Koli named Javji Bomble. This man who was a famous outlaw had some capital rocket-men and advancing one of them to a favourable position pointed out to him the direction he was to fire. One of the rockets fell among some powder close to the door of the magazine and caused such an explosion that the garrison were forced to surrender. [Transactions Bombay Geographical Society I. 253.] Towards the close of the eighteenth century Nana Fadnavis, when prime minister to Bajirao II. (1796- 1800), placed Dhondopant, a dependant of his own, in command of Lohogad and sent all his treasure to the fort. After Nana's death (1800) his widow (12th November 1802)[Transactions Bombay Geographical Society, XIX. 84,] took refuge in Lohogad, and Dhondopant refused to hand over the fort to the Peshwa unless Nana's adherents received certain offices. Dhondopant remained in command till 1803 when the Peshwa, under General Wellesley's mediation, agreed to allow Dhondo to keep the fort on promise of acting as a faithful subject. Shortly after, from a fort near the Krishna, a garrison of Dhondopant's fired on the Peshwa and would not allow him to pass to a temple. In punishment for this outrage General Wellesley threatened to storm Lohogad; and on promise of personal safety and of a yearly grant of £120 (Rs. 1200) to Nana's widow whom General Wellesley described as ' very fair and very handsome Well deserving to be the object of a treaty,' Dhondopant retired to Thana and the widow to Panvel. When the fort surrendered to the British it held a prodigious quantity of ammunition of all kinds. It was at once restored to the Peshwa and in 1803 (October)
when visited by Lord Valentia, was strongly garrisoned, but poorly
supplied with stores. [Valentia's Travels, II.166-171. Dhondopant's garrison varied according to
circumstances from one to three thousand men. Ditto, 171.] Some months after the outbreak of the final
war with the Peshwa (4th March 1818) a strong force under Colonel
Prother was sent against Lohogad. On the capture of Visapur the
garrison left Lohogad and on the next day it was taken without
resistance. [Blacker's Maratha War, 247. ] Till as late as 1845 the fort was
garrisoned by a commandant and a few troops. [Insp. Report of Forts, Poona Division, 1845] The guard was afterwards removed
but, probably because the fort could at any time be commanded
from Visapur, the four gateways and other fortifications were left
unharmed. In 1862, it was reported as a strong fort, the walls and
gates in slight disrepair, with a sufficient supply of water, and able to
hold about 500 men. [Government Lists of Civil Forts, 1862.]
VISAPUR.
Rising from the same plateau as Lohogad, about half a mile to the
north, the rocky scarp of VISAPUR is crowned by a smooth bare hill-top, considerably larger than Lohogad, and, at its highest point, 3550
feet above the sea. Near the middle of its length two ravines, one
running down the north, the other down the south face, narrowing
its centre, hollow the hill into an hour-glass. Each half of the hill
rises into a gently rounded knoll which, though showing no trace of
fortifications, is dignified with the name of Bala Killa or upper fort Round the
edge of the hill-top runs a wall, high and strengthened by towers along the west face. In other parts, except where
the rock is not sheer and the crest has been scarped by a masonary
lining or pavement, it is little more than a stone and mud breast-work. In other parts, according to the lie of the ground, the defences
vary from strong walls backed by masonry platforms where the
slope was naturally easy, to a mere parapet of dry stone where the
plateau ends in a precipice.
From Lohvadi, at the foot of Lohogad fort, the Visapur path passes north winding among plinths of cut-stone, which attest the importance of the old peta or cantonment attached to Lohogad fort, past where Shaikh Umar dismounted, a spot marked by an earthen platform and a row of small votive clay horses, and past a hole in the east point of Lohogad cliff, made by the saint when he hurled his spear against the rock in defiance of the Hindu ascetic whom he was about to oust from the plateau. The Visapur
path leads over a bare rocky partly tilled plateau across the crest of the ridge
which connects Lohogad and Visapur. Beyond the shoulder, the path, for about a mile and a half, runs under the sheer scarp of Visapur fort. It then turns to the left up a deep gorge, the sides crested by massive masonry bastions, along a steep rough track strewn with large boulders and broken masonry, the ruins of the Deccan gateway, destroyed when the English dismantled the fort. At the head of the gorge, hewn in the rock, is a large reservoir said to be the work of the Pandavs, built in with modern stone-work and the interior plain. The hill-top, with its two conical knolls about two hundred
feet high, [By aneroid the height of the Deccan gate is 3350, of the eastern bastion 3430, and of the central height 3550 feet above the sea.] is smooth and thickly covered with grass, but, except a few old Ficus glomerata or umbar trees in a hollow near the centre of the north face, it is bare of trees.
Besides the wall round the hill-top there are three chief works, massive masonry bastions that in both ravines [The Patan gorge was not so strongly fortified as the other gorge. There were some fortifications but all were blown down and the ascent from Patan
is for a considerable distance over debris.] flank the ruined central gateway, a strong masonry tower at the north-east corner, and a great outstanding masonry-lined crag that guards the hill to the northwest. The remains on the hill are, in the western half, two roofless buildings surrounded by outer or veranda walls said to have once been Government offices, and in the east half, near the southern edge of the hill, a large three-cornered stone-built pond, and close to it a rock-cut cistern. Near the north wall is an iron gun ten feet long and of four-inch bore, marked in relief with the Tudor Rose and Crown flanked by the letters E. R. This is probably a gun of Queen Elizabeth's reign robbed from an English ship and presented to the Peshwa by Angria or some other Maratha pirate. [Government Lists of Civil Forts, 1862, state that most of the guns had the letters E and R carved on their trunnions. These letters have been noticed on this one gun only. Mr. J. McL. Campbell, C, S.] Like several other guns on the fort it has been disabled by breaking off its trunnions. Near the middle of the hill-top, between the two gorges, in a small grove of old umbar Ficus glomerata trees, are the ruins of a large stone-built house known as the Peshwa's palace. Close to it are the remains of an old Mahadev shrine.
The descent, through the north or Patan gate, is for two or three hundred yards somewhat steep and rugged with fragments of the ruined gateway. Lower down, the path passes under the north-west cliff, and, beyond the cliff, stretches for about a mile across a bare open plateau. Looking back from this plateau, the vast natural defences of the two hills stretch in a long waving line. Beginning with a bold bluff near the north-east corner of the hill the line recedes to form the northern or Patan gorge, then sweeps forward to the massive outstanding north-west crag, and again slightly receding stretches along the strongly fortified western face. Further west, with only a very short break, another line of fortifications crowns the north face of Lohogad, and, with a slight drop, stretches westward along the flat crest of the Scorpion's Sting. From the western brow of the plateau, which commands this view, down the Bhaja hill-side a smooth steep path winds quickly to the plain.
History.
Visapur fort is said to have been built by the first Peshwa Balaji Vishvanath (1714-1720). In 1818, when reducing the Peshwa's forts, the fame of Lohogad as a place of strength caused the English to
make special preparations for its attack. A detachment of 380 Europeans and 800 Natives, with a battering train, summoned from the Konkan, were joined by artillery from Chakan, and the second battalion Sixth Native Infantry and a detail of the second battalion
of the First. The whole force was placed under the command of Colonel prother. [The Hon. M. Elphinstone to Gov. Gen. 7th March 1818. According to Blacker (Maratha War, 247) Col. Prother's force consisted of seven mortars and four heavy guns, 370 men of H. M.'s 89th Foot; the first battalion of the Fifth and first Battalion of the Ninth Regiments of Native Infantry; detachments of the second battalions of the Sixth and First Regiments of Native Infantry; and two companies of the Auxiliary Brigade.] On the 4th of March Visapur was attacked, and on the same day was occupied without resistance. [Blacker's Maratha War, 247.] Both the north or Konkan and the south or Deccan gateways were blown up, and except a few Dhangars' huts the hill has since been deserted.
[Lists of Civil Forts, 1862.]
