Trip to Padmadurg, Samrajgad and Revdanda

Journey Date : 17th Dec, 2023

Mode of Transport : Bus and Boat

History of the Forts

    1. Padmadurg was one of the sea forts built by Maratha King Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in 1676 in order to control the naval activities in the Arabian sea. It is located in the northwest direction of the Janjira fort at a distance of about 4 km. During cleanup activities in 2012, ASI authorities found around 250 cannonballs of historical value. The fort was not only a part of Sindhudurg's defenses but was also Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's main ship construction yard. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj built this fort in the year 1676 when there was no technology developed as today also they built while fighting with enemy and now ASI autorities giving the reason of lack of resources to perform restoration work!

Padmadurg Fort

    2. Samrajgad’ a.k.a. ‘Danda-Rajapuri’ is situated on a hill, south-west of the sea shore of Murud village and is near to the famous fort Janjira. It was built by Shivaji Maharaj to keep an eye on Janjira and to cut off its access from land. Samrajgad was used as the main base for the attacks on Janjira. Janjira was under the control of Siddi, who are Habshi or Abyssinians. Shivaji Maharaj sent Vyankoji Datto to build this fort. As Samrajgad is perilously close to Janjira, Vyankoji was given a platoon of Maratha soldiers for protection. Vyankoji fought with Siddi’s cavalry and captured the surrounding regions of Danda-Rajapuri. Around 300 Habshi were killed in this battle. Siddi tried to make a truce but Shivaji Maharaj did not yield. 

    Samrajgad was built on a hill near Rajapuri. With the construction of Samrajgad, the access to Murud was cut off for the Siddi. To remove these shackles over his trade routes, Siddi attacked Samrajgad. He sent soldiers and cannons in small boats. They attempted an attack on the fort by tying cannons to palm trees, but the trees collapsed and the attack fizzled out. After this failure, Siddi planned the next attack carefully. Shivaji Maharaj had left Raigad for the conquest of Janjira. Siddi wanted to capture Samrajgad before that. The second attack was led by Siddi Khairat and Siddi Kasim. 

    On 11th February 1671, under the cover of a dark night, Siddi Khairat attacked from the land side of the fort with 500 Habshi soldiers. It was the festival of Holi on that day and Maratha soldiers were in festive mood. They still managed to counter-attack and fought Siddi Khairat well. Meanwhile, Siddi Kasim had landed near the fort from the sea in boats. He put up ladders and ropes on the fort wall. While Maratha soldiers were busy fighting off Siddi Khairat, Siddi Kasim and his soldiers climbed up the walls and entered the fort. The Maratha army was now caught in this pincer attack. They fought hard in spite of the overwhelming odds. They were finally beaten when the stores of gunpowder caught fire and exploded. Scores of soldiers from both sides were killed. Hearing the news about explosion, Shivaji Maharaj sent his scouts to Samrajgad. By that time, Samrajgad was lost to Siddi. With this defeat, Shivaji Maharaj was forced to cancel his planned attack on Janjira.

Pond at Samrajgad

    

    3. Revdanda The history of this place dates back to the ancient legendary times of Lord Krishna. As per myth it is believed that the entire Revdanda area was ancient “Revatikshetra”, where Revati, the wife of Balaram, brother of Krishna resided. This place was gifted by Krishna to Revati during the time of her marriage. Another story goes like King Hansdhwaj stopped the Ashwamedha Yagna horse over here and Revdanda witnessed a violent war between him and Arjuna the Great.

    During the 6th century Revdanda was an ancient port which grew in importance by the 10th century with the trade augmentation by the Nizam Shahi rulers of the region. With the advent of the 16th century Portuguese came to rule these parts of the land. The Revdanda creek slowly became an important locale of their trade and commerce, which in turn led to the formation of the Revdanda Fort in 1558. Captain Soj or Soaj was the architect of this fort, which still stands in remnants as a testimony of the Portuguese rule in India.

    Many powerful rulers of that time had laid their hands in besieging the fort, but all their effort went in vain. The Angre rulers over and over tried to capture the fort between the span of 1636 - 1683 and the Marathas also tried in 1736. In 1740, Revdanda along with the fort came under Maratha kingdom as per the treaty signed by the Portuguese. By the year 1818, Revdanda Fort came under the British Raj, thus bringing an end to the Portuguese era.

Fortification of Revdada fort

Travel and Trek Experience

    Normally we plan our trips on our own, but the cost to visit Padmadurg sea fort is higher due to boat charges, hence we joined the travel & trekking group "Dongar Yatra". The cost is 1700 per person which includes the Exploration of three forts Padmadurg, Samrajgad and Revdanda forts, breakfast and lunch. Prathamesh and my two friends Vinayak and Ameya booked our seats. "Dongar Yatra" had arranged tempo traveler which was planned to depart at 10:00 p.m. on 16th December 2023. They had several pickup points such as Sanpada, Chembur, Neral, Kamothe etc. Sanpada is the nearest station for Vinayak and Nerul is the nearest station for Ameya so they decided to board the bus accordingly and I decided to board the bus from the starting point Dadar.

    

    On 16th December, I reached Dadar where trek leader Sneha and other participants were already present. While waiting for other participants, at around 9:45 p.m. I received a call from Vinayak that he was at Thane railway station and all trains for the trans harbor route were canceled. I informed the trek leader and she suggested he reach Dadar by fast train, Vinayak reached Dadar around 10:25 p.m. We started the journey at around 10:30 p.m. Ameya shared his current location, but when we reached Nerul L P, the bus driver took a flyover route and we reached 3 km ahead of him. We were running already 30 min delay and now again we waited for around 30 minutes. There is no option for Ameya to hire an auto or any other vehicle, he reached the bus at around 1:00 a.m. by walking 3 KM. We moved ahead and at Kamothe one more team leader Vikas Dutal joined us.

    We reached Murud beach at around 5:00 a.m, we rested on the bus, and at around 7:00 went for breakfast in the nearby mesh named "Panvalkar Khanawal". The taste of "Kande Pohe and Tea" was good. After having breakfast we returned to the bus, team leader Vikas gave some important instructions to the participants after that we all introduced ourselves and went to the beach. Everyone was excited for the Padmadurg fort, but the boat owner's phone was not reachable, finally at around 8:40 a.m. boat arrived. We removed our shoes and folded our jeans to avoid getting wet also helped the sailor to turn the boat by pushing it, after that we boarded the boat at around 8:55 a.m. and started our journey towards Padmadurg fort.

    

    As we were moving ahead, the fort was getting closer and the hugeness of the fort could not explained in words. Everyone's excitement was at its peak, within 10 minutes we reached the fort. We were elite from the boat into the knee-depth water. Corals were formed on the rocks also due to algae, rocks were slippery We all carefully walked over rocks and reached the dry place. We wore the shoes and started exploring the fort. Team leader Vikas started explaining the fort structure, and at the place, he pointed and said "Miracle / Engineering Marvel" Initially we didn't understand what he wanted to say, but soon he explained, that the fort was built 350 to 400 years back on the island, till date sea tides strike on the fortification, due to which fortification rock got erode, but the bonding material used has no effect of tides, it is still as it is. The quality of the material they used to bond the two rocks while building the fortification is still unknown. They build this fort while fighting and retaliating against the attack of Siddhis.

Engineering Marval, No affect of tide on bonding material

    We moved ahead and first, we explored the outer side of the fort known as "padkot", The fortifaction collapsed due to negligence of customs and ASI, also sad to see several ancient canons lying down and broken into pieces. After exploring the "padkot" we decided to move inside the fort through the main gate, while climbing each step my chest swelled with pride. When we moved inside the fort, on the left-hand side some ruins grabbed our focus, on some websites, they mentioned it as stable, but the structure is not stable, as in the sea fort what is the use of horses? those structures are like soldier rooms or might be used for other purposes but sure those are not stable. We moved ahead and reached the Kandeshwari Goddess temple, moved ahead and saw some room-like structure with cement coating; the team leader told us this structure was built by customs officers as this fort was used by customs officers earlier. We moved ahead and came across a big water storage tank, currently, water is not drinkable, but in the early days, they used to store rainwater and use it for the whole year as there is no water source or well on the fort.

Ruins and water tank on Padmadurg

Kandeshwari Goddess Temple Ruin

    We moved ahead and climbed the fortification stairs and started walking on the fortification. The wall is approximately 4 to 5 feet wide. Fort Janjira is visible from the fortification, one big canon was kept on the bastion to protect the entrance of the fort, and from there you can aim the Fort Janjira, though the canon range is not that long enough. Also one can see the arrangement of ancient "Sauch kup" Toilets arrangement, nowadays Govt. is still struggling to educate people on this. Those days people know the importance of cleanliness as well they know very well how to construct drainage systems. We spent around 90 minutes exploring the fort and discussing the ancient construction technology. The same boat arrived at the fort for the return journey, we wanted to spend more time on the fort, but we had to visit two more forts hence we boarded the boat and within 10 minutes at around 10:40 a.m., we reached the sea coast.

 

Ruins at Padmadurg Fort

Canon on Padmadurg Frot and Fort Janjira

    At the sea coast, pay and use restrooms were available, and we got refreshed and got ready for Samrajgad trek. A strange thing we observed, local people don't know the Samrajgad! We boarded the bus and went for Samrajgad, with the help of Google Maps we reached the base of the Samrajgad, there was a way to Samrajgad from Shiv Temple, hence we sought help from locals for the correct route to Shiv Temple, but they misguide us and we took the wrong path and reached west coast where there was no clear path to move ahead.

The team leader and one team member went ahead to find the correct route, while we waited behind. One of our team members found the correct path, and we all moved back and reached the correct entrance. Earlier we passed from the entrance but due to no sign board, we missed taking a left and moved straight.

Stairs on Samrajgad reconstructed

Ruins on Samrajgad

    The height of the hill was not much, but it was almost noon, hence we got a little bit tired. within 20 minutes we reached the fortification of the fort, we tried to find more ruins on the fort, but nothing was available. Not sure, but ruins can be found if excavation work is done by ASI. There is only a fortification, a flag pole, and one broken pillar of the temple is available. If excavation work is done by ASI, more ruins can be discovered and also help to know more history of the fort. We all sat on the fortification and team leader Vikas, gave the information about the fort along with the historic fight between Siddhis and Marathas, which was told earlier in this blog in the section of History of the forts.

   We descended the fort and boarded the bus and went to the same mesh "Panvalkar Khanwal" for lunch. There was an option of Veg and Non-Veg lunch, so we ordered Veg lunch, after having delicious lunch "Solkadi", we boarded the bus for Revdanda Fort. Around 1:30 p.m. we departed for Revdanda Fort and in 90 minutes at around 3:00 p.m. we reached Revdanda Fort, where the team leader paid 150 Rs for bus parking. We entered the premises and the ruins of four four-story buildings grabbed our focus. Before entering into the building team leader Vikas told us the history and the importance of the fort. In the front of the building entrance old canons were kept, canons were in good condition. We entered the building but the building was completely hollow, also on the top of the building there were bee hives so we got out of it without disturbing them. We had a group photo and later we moved to Revdada beach, the beach is beautiful and clean. We spent some time on the beach, and while roaming on the beach observed a sculpture of the "Sharab" mythological animal on the fortification. Usually, this sculpture is observed on the Hindu fort, not on the Portuguese forts. Might be Marathas placed this sculpture when they captured the fort in the year 1740,

Building inside view on Revdanda Fort

Four sotry building at Revdanda Fort

Sculpture of Sharab on the fortification of Revdanda Fort

    After spending some time on the beach and taking a beautiful photo, at around 5:00 p.m. we started the return journey. While returning we took a 30-minute halt at Mumbai-Goa highway for tea. Dropping each member at their feasible location, we reached Dadar station at around 10:00 p.m.

    Thanks to the "Dongar Yatra" group for the beautiful and memorable trip, and special thanks to team leader Vikas Dutal for giving valuable information about the forts.

Group photo at Padmadurg

Shiv Temple from where path goes to Samrajgad top

Entrance of Padmadurg

Group photo at Revdanda fort