Tungareshwar and Ghodbunder Tour

Mode of transport: Bike
Travel date: 25-Mar-2024


    Every year on the occasion of Holi, we go for a walk, visit placess near Mumbai. This year too, we decided to go, but the place was not decided. The day before Rangpanchami, Shailesh Dada and I decided to visit Sanjay Gandhi National Park, so we left home at 7:00 am on our two-wheeler. In just twenty minutes, we reached the gate of Sanjay Gandhi National Park. We were disappointed to see the gates closed. When we asked the security guard, he said that the park was closed today because it was Monday. The park, which is always open on public holidays, was closed today, so what other place should we choose?

        Sitting at the gate, we decided to visit the Vasai Fort and headed towards the Vasai Fort, but on the way, we remembered that today was Rangpanchami day. The people in the settlement near the fort would be celebrating today, so we decided to go to Tungareshwar as we did not want them to bother us and they did not want us to bother them. We reached the forest department post of Tungareshwar around 9 am. Since it was Rangpanchami , the post was closed. However, you have to pay the forest department entry fee to enter. It took us 35 to 40 minutes to cover such a short distance from the forest department post to Tungareshwar temple because the road here is unpaved and we had to be very careful while riding a bike.

    We parked the scooty in the parking lot and reached the temple of Mahadev. The aarti had just finished, due to which there was a big queue for darshan, so we decided to go ahead and come when the crowd had thinned. There is a deepstamb (light poll) at the entrance of the temple, looking at this lamp, it is clear that it was built in the 21st century. The beauty of the lamp in the ancient temple was not visible in this lamp. This lamp was small and looked like a chimney built on a mill. Many new constructions have been done in the Tungareshwar area and the natural beauty here is destroyed due to the tiles installed in the name of beautification. We continued climbing the mountain on the newly built footpath, crossed the bridge built over the stream and reached the temple of Goddess Durga. We took the blessings of the goddess and spent some time there. 

    Tungareshwar is a collection of five mountains, where Lord Parashurama is said to have killed a demon named Tunga. This temple was built in honour of Lord Parashurama. Lord Parashurama performed penance at this place. It is believed that Adi Shankaracharya meditated at a place near Shuparaka, which is now called Sopara or Nalasopara.

Tungareshwar Mahadev Temple

    While resting, Shailesh Dada said, when he came here a few years ago, there were many Veergals (hero stone) placed on the banks of the stream, now they are nowhere to be seen, I thought they must have been taken away while beautifying. Some tourists were seen going to the back of the Durga Devi temple, we also went to see what was behind the temple, and when we saw that the Veergals we were discussing about had been brought here. We went down to see the Veergal and had darshan of Mahadev. Veergal means a stone built in memory of a soldier who achieved heroism in war. Many battles must have taken place here and it is mainly remembered how important this place was in the past.

Virgal

    We had darshan of Mahadev and set off to visit Sadanand Maharaj's monastery on the top of the hill. We originally wanted to do a short trek. When we went further, we saw a forest department board and barricades there . It was forbidden to go further, so we were disappointed here too. We sat there and decided to spend some time, but just then, Shailesh Dada's mother called and came to know that he had forgotten to take his morning medicine! So, without wasting much time, the goal was to reach the chemist and buy the medicine. We rested there for ten to fifteen minutes and then started our return journey.

    While returning , we saw a path on the left, we parked the bike there and continued along that path. After going some distance, we saw a stream, there was no water in the stream. We got into the water steam path, spent some time there and saw a surprising thing, a tree on the bank had fallen, but the vine on its side was holding the fallen tree tightly. It was as if they were inseparable .

 

Love for nature - A bond for lifetime

    We spent some time there taking photographs and eating the puranpolis that had been brought from the box. We took pictures of some flowers there. Due to the sudden gust of wind, the dry leaves on the trees started falling, but we missed capturing this moment on camera. While coming out of the forest, we saw small red ants' nests. Shailesh Dada gave me valuable information on how to use these nests as a guide, which is as follows.

    "When ants build their nests, the soil is wet, and they need plenty of sunlight to dry them out as quickly as possible. Therefore, when building nests, the flat areas face east and west, so that the sun's rays fall on the nests throughout the day. This helps us find the right direction if we get lost in the forest".

 

Ant Hill

    We came out of the forest and sat on our two-wheelers and came near the forest department post. There was a watering place there, filled our empty water bottles and headed towards the main road. When we reached Virar Mumbai highway, we saw a chemist but the medicine we wanted was not available there, so we headed towards Mumbai. When we reached near Fountain Hotel, Shailesh took a left turn and turned the scooty towards Ghodbunder Road. He wanted to see Gaimukh Bandar and Gaimukh Temple, but before that it was very important to find a chemist.

The colors of nature seen on a Rangpanchami

    While going towards Gaymukh Port, we saw a chemist but the entrance was closed. While we were looking for a way to enter, a local person came and called the boy in the chemist and asked for medicines. Shailesh Dada also asked for medicines and took his share of the medicines. Both of us were now relieved. Within the next ten minutes, we reached Gaymukh Port. It is now very well decorated. There is proper seating available for tourists. We spent some time there and walked further to see the two statues of horses erected by the Thane Municipal Corporation. As we were walking, our eyes fell on an ancient structure on one side. There, the Archaeological Department had written that no garbage should be thrown here. Later, we came to know that this is an ancient post resembling a fort to keep an eye on Gaymukh Port. The Deadwood officers of the Archaeological Department had completed their work by putting up a board, and Its conservation and beautification have been left to fate. A restaurant has been built right next to the ancient structure, how did they get this permission? We went ahead and took pictures of the horse statues.

Newly built Gaimuk Port

Ancient Gaimukh Chowki (Fort)

    In the past, high-quality Arabian horses were traded here, so this place was named Ghode Gaon, later it was renamed Ghodbunder. The statues of horses erected by the Thane Municipal Corporation are in memory of that. This was an important route on the trade routes through the Arabian Sea, from here all the goods used to reach Junnar via Kalyan, Vasai, Naneghat. It is recorded in history that the Portuguese built a total of 11 forts and outposts around this trade route to protect it. One of these 11 forts and outposts is Gaimukh Fort (outpost). Today, due to political interests and the neglect of the Archaeological Department, this structure is counting its last elements. As a reminder, we took a photo of this outpost and went in search of Gaimukh Temple.

Horse statues

    The location of Gaimukh Temple was shown on a hill on Google Maps, but we did not know the way there at the time, we reached there with the help of local people. Gaimukh Temple is on a small hill and the current temple is newly built and the remains of the ancient temple are no longer visible. From this hill, the area of ​​Ulhas River is completely visible. We had darshan of Mahadev in Gaimukh Temple and started searching for an old knowledgeable person to know the history of this temple and the place, but we realized that the person with the information we wanted was not here and we started towards our return journey. We reached home around 2 pm.

Gaimukh Shiva Temple

Galaxies and Campfires: My Overnight Stargazing Experience at Vangni

 Journey Date : 2nd and 3rd March, 2024

A mess created by friends and travel experience.

    Stars and planets are not a matter of hiking, but if you get lost at night in the forest, how do the stars help you find the right direction? The important information I want to tell you all. Also, a small attempt to tell you all about the unforgettable stargazing experience I had. In the 21st century, adults, children, old aged people, people of all ages are obsessed with social media, and I am one of them! While scrolling through the reels on Instagram, I came across a post about stargazing. Big telescopes were shown in the photo, hence I became more curious, to have a unique experience and also to get new information about the universe. I called the given contact number (+91-8169167678). Mihir Gilbile picked up the call. At first, I thought that Mihir might be working as a volunteer for the organization "Horizon Astronomical Society", but while chatting with him, it was revealed that he himself is the owner of the organization. Talkative and open-minded person! According to the information given by him, if you want to stay in the dormitory, Rs. 1500 and if you want to stay in the tent, Rs. 2000 per person is charged. This fee includes an evening snack, dinner and the next day's morning breakfast. It should be noted that the charges mentioned above are for February 2024. It might vary in the future.

    Instead of taking this experience alone, I decided to take my friends with me. Hence, I sent a message to all my friends, but the only three friends who came anywhere were confirmed their availability. Vinayak, Kaushal and Amey, but Vinayak was not sure, so I had booked the tickets for Kaushal, Amey and for myself. It was only two days after the booking, and Kaushal's first sentence when he called me was "I had made a mistake!". The sentence itself is self-explanatory. I understood that he was canceling his booking. Kaushal had taken leave on Sunday 24th February instead of taking leave on Sunday 2nd March, now it was impossible to get leave again. As a best friend, I said a few harsh words to him in anger before dropping the call and called Mihir to cancel the booking. It was good that Kaushal had informed early, if the booking was cancel 7 days before, the full amount would be refunded, but after the completion of the event, so he asked if the booking could be transferred to Vinayak's name. Mihir gave email and asked me to send the booking ID and details of Vinayak on it. Called Vinayak once again to confirm his availability and sent a email to transfer the booking. Mihir confirmed by mail that Kaushal's booking had been transferred to Vinayak's name a day earlier, i.e. on March 1.

Observing stars using telescope

    I had to stay up all night on 2nd March, so I took two days off, on 2nd and 3rd March. According to the information provided by Mihir, we wanted to board the Karjat fast local at 3:35 pm, which departs from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, but we decided to go a little early to get information about agro farming and decided to take the Khopoli fast local at 3:10 p.m. I left home around 1:00 pm, but due to a traffic jam, I reached Goregaon station late and the train to Dadar was missed. Due to which, I missed the connecting train Khopoli fast from Dadar. Now, according to the information given by Mihir, I informed Vinayak and Amey to board the Karjat Fast, because Amey was boarding the train from Thane and Vinayak from Dombivali. I boarded the Karjat fast local from Dadar and Ameya boarded the train from Thane, but Vinayak was late in reaching Dombivli station and missed the train. Amey and I reached Vangani station at 5:12 pm. Vinayak had only one option, which was to board the fast local of 5:25. We informed Vinayak that we were going ahead rather than waiting at the station for an hour and we both came out of the station at Vangani West and inquired about a share rickshaw stand in a nearby shop. As the shopkeeper told us, we were walking towards the stand. Suddenly, a rickshaw stopped nearby. When we told him that we wanted to go to Done village, he said that it would be 60 rupees. Note : If you go by share rickshaw, per head costs will be 15 rupees, but you have to wait until the seats get full. To save time, we paid 60 rupees and went down near Done gram panchayat office. We saw the board in front of "More Nature Tourism", we entered the farm house as per the direction of the arrow given on the board. I met Mihir Gilbile there and got to know that the stargazing program would start late, ie around 7:00 pm, due to late sunset. I immediately informed Vinayak and told him to take it easy, don't be in a hurry. Mihir took us to the dormitory. As there was a lot of time, Mihir asked us to see the flower plants planted in the farmhouse and other areas and to be present at the canteen for breakfast at 6:00. Amey and I walked around the entire area looking at the flower garden and reached the canteen for breakfast at 6:00.

    

Stargazing Experience!

    Mihir requested us to help him bring the telescope. The three of us went and brought the parts of the telescope and helped Mihir to attach the same. While helping him, we got information from him about the telescope. There was a telescope-like object over there. We held it in our hand and tried to see the planets, but nothing was visible! Mihir said that it is a small telescope. You will not see any planets, we use it as a spotter / finder scope. It was quite dark, creating a perfect atmosphere for stargazing. 17 people participated in this program, including young and old. Firstly, Mihir gave some important instructions to everyone, that is, less use of mobile phones, dimming the display light, so that the stars can be seen clearly with the naked eyes. When light falls on the pupil of the eye, it contracts and this causes difficulty in seeing the stars or not visible clearly. A good example of this is the blindfold of a pirate. Until now, it was believed that pirates would blindfold one eye after being blinded. But not like that, the bandaged eye helps to see clearly at a distance at night, as the pupil is not contracted due to the sunlight throughout the day. Stargazing requires the absence of light pollution, i.e. total darkness.

    Firstly, Mihir pointed to a star and said that a bright shining star is not a star but a planet, Jupiter. To our total surprise, Mihir showed us Jupiter and its moons through the telescope and then zoomed in to show us the wheather belt of Jupiter.

Pic1 Juptier and its moons. (source:Tom Lee - Internet).

Pic 2 Jupiter with its weather belt (source:Peter Hayman - Internet).

    After seeing Jupiter, Mihir showed Aries and Taurus constellations with laser light. Then the Greek and Indian constellation systems were explained. Further he showed the Orian Hunter and the Orian Belt constellations through Laser Light and after discussing the constellations, he showed the Orion Nebula through a telescope. A deep pink image was so beautiful that it looked like a rose blooming in space.

Orion Nebula
(Source: Ameya Vipat - Image captured through telescope using I-Phone 14)

    A nebula is a pre-star formation process, consisting of many gases that fuse to form a star. This was new information for all of us. After seeing the Orion Nebula, we saw the cluster of stars and the Kritika Constellation through the telescope. After this, another important information was found that the brightest star is not a Pole star, but it is Sirius star. Till now, it was believed that the Pole star is the brightest star, but the Pole star does not appear in the list of top 100 brightest stars. When we viewed the Sirius star through a telescope, it was only visible as light, no shape was visible like any planet. There is a big difference between stars and planets, even though with naked eyes we see planets shining like stars, when viewed through a telescope, it appear to have a specific or sphere like shape, but stars are made up of different gases and contain no metals, so when viewed through a telescope, will not see any shape, only bright light will appears. It was 9:00 pm, we all reached the canteen for dinner. Both veg and non-veg meals were available. The food was excellent and tasty, but the Kala Jamun served with it was very delicious. After the meal, we went to the dormitory to freshen up and came back to the ground at around 9:50 p.m.

    The stargazing session was resumed and information was given about how to take pictures of stars using a mobile, how to do astrophotography and also showed the pro setting of the camera on the mobile. Using the given information, we took a picture of two constellations, namely Leo and Ursa Minor. Ursa Minor constellation is used to knowing the direction, the shape of Ursa Minor constellation looks like a spoon or a head of a cobra snake. A straight line drawn on the top end of the spoon tip or of the cobra head, it gives the direction of the pole star, and the pole star is always at the north. The Pole Star does not change its direction like other stars . Although the Ursa Minor constellation changes its angle, the tip of the spoon or head of the cobra always shows the pole star direction i.e. north. Even if the pole star is not visible, we get an estimate of the northern direction. Ursa Minor constellation or Pole star is used to finding the direction at night when one gets lost while hiking or while wandering in the forest. In today's modern era, compass apps are used on mobile phones, but when the mobile battery runs out or you forget to bring the compass, you can get the help of stars. However, it should be noted that it is not useful during the monsoon.

    

Picture 1 - Saptarshi Nakshatra, photo taken by One Plus Mobile.

Picture 2 - Example of direction finding by Saptarshi.

    While the astrophotography was going on, Mihir got a call from Khopoli. Another team was conducting a star observation program at Khopoli and there was heavy cloud cover, which stopped their star observation program. Mihir had guessed that Vangani would also be clouded soon. After astrophotography, the wait was for the moon to rise. We all sat looking towards the east and estimating the position of the moon with the help of a mobile app called "Star Tracker". Around 10:35 the moon rose. Mihir turned the telescope towards the moon, it was amazing to see the moon so close! Around 12:00 am, once again, Mihir serves the tea to everyone. All those who were feeling sleepy drank the tea and freshened! Mihir zoomed the telescope further and asked everyone to look at the moon again. This time, the craters on the moon were clearly visible, as well as the moon's precession as it orbited the earth was clearly visible through the telescope! All was done by observing the moon through a telescope. Due to the moonlight, the stars were obscured. While observing the stars, suddenly a member's attention was drawn to a twinkling star-like object, which was moving forward at a speed. When asked, Mihir said it was not a star or a plane, but a satellite, and his solar panels were shining. Around 2:30 AM, Mihir stopped observing the stars and asked everyone to go to their tents to rest and be present on the field at 5:30 AM. Vinayak, me and Amey three went to the dormitory and rested. But I did not sleep, because if I slept, I will not be able to wake up in the morning.

    We three reached the ground at 5:20 am. When we called Mihir, he was in the canteen. He reached the ground by 5:30 a.m. Mihir first showed the constellation Cygnus by laser light, and Alberio, a star in the same constellation, was observed by telescope. Mihir's prediction had come true, just as the clouds had come to Khopoli, now they appeared in Vangani too. Mihir hurriedly showed the star Arcturus through the telescope as well. Arcturus can be found about 37 light-years from Earth and is the fourth-brightest star in the night sky. The star Arcturus is 25 times larger than the Sun and is known as a red giant star and also known as a dying star. Stars that glow red are called dying stars mainly because the hydrogen gas in these stars is being depleted and after a few years these stars will die/explode. (Some years mean millions or billions of years 😁). After seeing the star Arcturus, Mihir tells the mythological story of Ursa minor (Saptarshi) and his wives, by showing the hidden start through the telescope right next to a star in Ursa minor constellation, a star not visible to the naked eye! After that, Mihir demonstrated to us how to do light painting. After the light painting, Mihir turned the telescope towards the moon again, and gave all the participants a chance to take photos of the moon through the telescope on their mobile phones. We also took pictures of the moon on our mobiles as below.

Moon photo taken in mobile with the help of telescope.

    After taking the photos of the moon, with the help of the Moon Atlas, we tried to find out the names of the craters seen in the photos taken in the mobile phone. After that, we were waiting for the sunrise and to see Venus, but due to the cloudy weather, we could not see the Sun and Venus 😢. It was certain that the Sun and Venus would not be visible, so we went to the nearby Ulhas river. I sat by the river for a while and came back to the field. Suddenly, raindrops started falling and Mihir was in a hurry, as it was important to cover the telescope. Helped Mihir to cover the telescope and put it in the office. In the office we saw the different types of telescopes, as well as cut-outs of Mihir's articles and interviews in newspapers. Once again, everyone reached the canteen for breakfast, did breakfast and went to the dormitory, packed their bags and started the return journey with beautiful memories.

    

    A big thank's to Mihir and the Horizon team for an unforgettable experience and valuable information provided!

Group Photo at Vangani stargazing

Candid photo while observing stars

Truss Tube Dobsonian Telescope

Ascending the Twin Pinnacles: Exploring the Ancient Caves of Mangi Tungi

  

Journey Date : 24th Dec, 2023
Mode of Transport : Private Car

History of the Fort

    Mangi-Tungi is a prominent twin-pinnacled peak with plateau in between, located near Tahrabad about 125 km from Nashik, Maharashtra, India. Mangi, 4,343 ft (1,324 m) high above sea level, is the western pinnacle and Tungi, 4,366 ft (1,331 m) high, the eastern. Mangi-Tungi is 30 km (19 mi) from the city of Satana. There are numerous temples and is considered sacred in Jainism. It enshrines images of Tirthankaras in several postures including Padmasana and kayotsarga. Sometimes, it is described as Siddha Kshetra, meaning a gateway to the state of enlightenment.

    Around 3,500 (7,000 Up & Down) steps lead to the foot of the peak, which is enriched with several monuments of historical and religious prominence. Besides, there are numerous caves named after great Tirthankaras such as Mahavira, Rishabhanatha, Shantinatha and Parshvanatha. A grand fair is held here annually during Kartik (September–October) where people visit in large numbers to witness festival.
There are many inscriptions on idols, most of them are not clear due to deterioration with time. Many idol installed in 595 CE(V.S. 651) are here. Many inscriptions on rocks of the Adinatha and Shantinatha caves here are in Sanskrit Language.

    In February 2016, The Statue of Ahimsa, a 108 ft idol carved in monolithic stone was consecrated here. It is recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest Jain idol in the world.

Mangi Tungi Montain

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Travel and Trek Experience

    Each and every day of your life does planned by the God! The line come true on 24th of December, Still it is unbelievable for me that, i got chance to visit Mangi Tungu Fort. Since four years i was trying to plan Mangi Tungi Trek, but due to low frequency of public transport, plan was remains on the paper. on 23rd of December there was a "Shree Satyanarayan Puja" in my building, but due to some reason i was sitting upset in my study room. In the evening at around 8:00 p.m. I got a call from Vilas uncle to meet as, he himself and other three friends came at my building for "Satyanaray Puja". When i met all of them, suddenly Ravi uncle said he is going Mangi Tungi tonight, and he invite me to join them, but it was difficult to decide in very short span of time. Vilas uncle, Dnyanesh uncle along with friend Shailesh and Latesh forced me to go to Mangi Tungi, as they didn't got chance to visit Mangi Tungi due to some unavoidable reasons, they advice me not to miss this chance. I requested Ravi uncle to give me 10-15 minutes to decide, as I need to discuss with my parents about there health condition, as due to age factor their health remains ups and downs.

    Immediately I went home and discussed with parents, they gave me a green signal also a additional thing was on next day there was Sunday and my brother had holiday. So he was at home if any medical emergency arise. Immediately I called Ravi uncle and I confirmed that I am joining with them for Mangi Tungi trek. He told me, they will pick me at around 9:30 p.m from my building. I keep my bag always ready to go, just i had added some snack and water bottle in it. Exactly at 9:30 p.m we started our journey towards Mangi Tungi, but before that we went to Thane to pick up Ravi uncles friend Umakant. This was the first time Me and Umakant uncle meet each other. We three moving towards Mangi Tungi with full excitement. Just before Igatpuri we took a 20 minutes halt, had a hot "Kanda Bhaji and Tea", after that we directly stopped at the Mangi Tungi Dharma Shala at around 4:30 a.m. We parked car in the parking area outside "Dharma Shala", Inittially we though, this was the starting point of Mangi Tungi trek.

Jain Temple inside Dharma Shala

Tungi pincale view in the early morning

    When i came out of the car, feel very cold and was shivering even after i wore hoodie. The temperature was around 14 to 16 degree celcius, We entered into the Dharma Shala, got fresh and had a breakfast and tea. We enquired with locals about the starting point of trek, they said it was 1 KM ahead. Out side the gate of Dharma Shala, there were some mens who was selling wooden sticks which costs 20 Rupee, each. We purchased sticks for each of us, these sticks were going to help while descending the stairs. We sat in the car and move towards starting point, after passing around 200 meters, we saw there was two routes and had a sign board stating, left one is for car parking and right one for pedestrians. By taking left turn we moved ahead, we reached at the parking area, but the gate was locked also no one is there for enquire. We thought there will be another parking lot ahead, so we moved ahed, but we end up entering into the village. We realised that we took wrong turn, instead of taking left turn we need to take right turn. We took U-turn and reached at the point where we took wrong turn and moved straight, we saw some vehicles were coming from opposite direction, which was the sign of we are on the correct path. We took U-turn and reached at the place where we had took wrong turn, we halted (road which we missed to take right turn) for a second and  moved straight, we saw some vehicles were coming from opposite direction, which was the sign that we were on the correct path.

View from Top

Paduka and Tungi Pinacle

    We reached at the trek starting point at around 6:30 a.m. We parked the car and started the trek. At the starting point there is gate where the takes entry fee, but the didn't asked so we also didn't pay and went ahed. The time when we started the trek was a sun rise about to happen, we were trying to move fast so that we reach at the top to see sun rise, but my fitness level showed me the mirror. I experienced a slight pain in the chest, so i took a halt of 10 minutes to lower down the heart beat. On other had both Ravi uncle and Umakant uncle went far ahead of me, hats of to both of them for there fitness level. I resume the trek and when we reached haft of the way, observed sun rise was happened. We wait for a while, took some photos and resume the trek. We reached at the first pinacle within 75 minutes at around 7:45 a.m. There are several temple, so we removed our shoes and moved ahed to explore the ancient caves inside the pinacle. There are several statues of Jain saints inside the cave. We complete the circle around the pinacle, and took a halt of about 15 minutes for the snack.

Tungi Pinacle and Sunrise

    After taking the rest, we wore the shoes and moved ahed for second pinacle. We descend some stair and walked towards second pinacle through natural bridge. On both the side railing are installed by trustee to avodi accident. When we reached middle of the way, saw some mokeys beside the path and remembered the incident happened at Brahmagiri trek. Immediately I put mobile, selfi stick inside the bag and covered the bag with the hoodie. We moved ahed and reached and the stairs. Especially I was too tiered, and don't have energy to climb the stairs again, but giving up while trekking is not in my book. We started climbing the stairs and at around 9:00 a.m, we reached at the second pinacle. We completed the circle around the pinacle, saw the caves and statues carved inside the pinacle and decided to take a long break of about an hour. We had started experiencing the heat of sun raise, but on other hand we were also experiencing cold wind and fresh air. Also the view of first pinacle along with 108 feet statue of Shri Vrishabhdev was beautifull, it some what looks like China wall. At around 10:00 a.m. we started descending, I don't have a stick to provide support to my legs, as i gave it to old age uncle who lost his stick.

Beautiful Selfie

Mangi Pinacle from Tungi

        After descending the one fourth  of the stairs, we reached near the path which goes towards the 108 feet statue of Shri Vrishabdev. We paid entry fee 20 Rupees each at the gate and moved towards the statue. To reach near statue, there are two option, either you can go by stairs or by lift, we decided to go by lift. We had spent hardly 10 minutes at the statue and started our return journey.  While descending we have observed many peoples are climbing and many of them are getting tiered due to heat. We were lucky that we had started trek early in the morning. At around 11:10 a.m we reached at the base. We washed our face at nearby tap water and at the nearby stall had a glass of sugercane juice, also purchased packaged dringing water bottels, as our water bottels were empty.

World highest 108 feet statue of Shri Vrishabhdev

    With the plenty of wonderful memories, we sat in the car and started our return journey towards Mumbai. At around 2:00 pm we stopped at the Balaji Hotel for lunch. The food taste, quality and service was good. At around 3:00 p.m we left for Mumbai and at around 7:45 p.m we reached Thane where we dropped Umakant uncle and at around 8:45 p.m. me and Ravi uncle reached home at Goregaon.

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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