Graveyard classics

Save for the ruins and a few kids running about on the now bare grounds within,Sangramdurg doesn't really boast of having been the site where one of the most famous wars of the Maratha empire was fought for over 90 days.

Save for the ruins and a few kids running about on the now bare grounds within,Sangramdurg doesn’t really boast of having been the site where one of the most famous wars of the Maratha empire was fought for over 90 days. Having played host to the famous siege by Shaistekhan,Aurangzeb’s uncle who had come down to the Deccan to vanquish the Marathas,the fort now is a mute spectator to the once erstwhile glory and tales of valour that were told about it.

From having had a road built right through the fort,to being used as a public toilet and even a graveyard Sangramdurg is probably one of the few forts in the country that shares such a sorry fate. Probably the only good things about the fort in its current avatar is that it is no longer home to the hideous public ignorance that the localites around the village of Chakan displayed towards it. When the Firangoji Narsala Pratishtan stepped in 10 years back slowly but surely they managed to clean the fort interiors and even ensure that the people no longer use it as a dumping ground. But in the words of Swapnil Barmukh of the Pratishtan Our work is not even a drop in the ocean, does hold true.

At least now people can make out that there was a fort here, he says sadly,adding,Twelve years back people would walk through the fort,covering their nose,owing to the bad smells permeating from here. For the villagers who would lose their children below the age of five,the empty premises provided enough space to bury them. Also early morning it wasn’t uncommon for them to use it as a toilet either. During the days of the Maratha empire the fort was defended by Firangoji Narsala when it was under siege by Shaistekhan. And while the Mughal general claimed that he would take the fort in a day,Narsala managed to defend it for over 90 days.

Gajanan Shinde who has been working here as a cleaner at the fort on his own free will says,There is a small passage on the eastern wall that leads to an underground road which is 10 kilometers long and opens up in Indori village. What separates the fort from the other hill forts around is that it is a ground fort or a Bhuikot Killa and maybe that was also a reason as to why the fort was destroyed more easily than a lot of the forts in the region.

Barmukh does however mention that a lot of the things at the fort have changed ever since the Pratisthan has come in. We hold programmes here on the fort ground. The main reason behind it being that people are made aware of the problems that the fort faces and that others also join in to help conserve it.

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories

Loading Taboola...