A trip to Purendar Fort

Purendar Fort:  It rained heavily when we drove down to the Fort. Mud and slush all around gave the place an eerie atmosphere. Pradeep and Swati  accompanied us and guided us with detailing the history.

The history of the Purandar fort goes back to the 13th century.  The Bahamani Sultans in the 14th century built here some walls and bastions.  From 1484 AD, for about a hundred years, the fort remained in the hands of the Nizamshahi rulers.  In 1596 AD, the fort was given as Jagir to Maloji Bhosale, grandfather of Shivaji.  It is also the birth place of Shivaji. However, Shivaji had to struggle very hard to establish his control over the fort in 1646 AD.  In 1665 AD, Purandar was besieged by the mighty Mughal forces under the command of Jai Singh and Dilir Khan.  In the ensuing battle Murar Baji Prabhu, the gallant commander of the fort, was killed.  Shivaji, under a treaty, had to surrender to the Mughals his 23 forts, including Purandar and Vajragarh.  At the lower fort a statue of Murar Baji Prabhu has been installed in his memory.

Purandar was recaptured by Shivaji in 1670 AD Later it became a favourite retreat of the Peshwas.  Purandar was captured by the British in 1818 AD.  During the Second World War, the British kept here the German war prisoners. Dr. H. Goetz, one of the German prisoners, thoroughly studied Purandar and wrote a monograph on it.  After Independence there also functioned a National Cadet Crops (N.C.C.) Training unit at the top. The Church symbolizes the occupation  of British The security and checking seems quite funny. It is right on the top of hill and miscreants can climb from any side if they so desire. But people like us driving on the proper road leading to the fort has to identify and what not. Be it so. Let the authorities be happy. We wanted to climb to the top but slush and slippery footpath was difficult to scale. satyed for sometime and came down to proceed to Balaji temple.

Balaji Temple in Pune --- surprise n more surprise
There used to be a small unknown town named town named Kapurhol in the district of Pune. One day, someone decided to build a replica of the very famous temple or Tirumala, of Lord Balaji. And, this was created. Now the town is not so unknown. It is wort visiting if one reches in at 6 in the morning, quiet and peaceful as people say. But I reched in afternoon and throngs of people were there all over. Surprisingly no commotion and chaos. Everything was well organised, disciplined and clean - very unusual in Hindu temples, Security was unbelievable, body search and scanning of the bags and purses was done thoroughly. To my utter dismay the photography was totally prohibited inside the temple.

  

The free lunch to all devotees was served and a big fat laddoo in prasadam was excellent.

3. JadhavGarh Fort : 
It was built by Pilaji Jadhavrao who not only rose to fame as the Maratha General in the Army of Chhatrapati Shahuji, but also proved his mettle  each and everytime someone dared to challange the supremacy of Maratha ruler. The stone structure is the representative of the man as strong in mind and body as he envisioned to create this fort.    
The descendants of this family have built a modern palatial house nearby and this has been converted into 4 star hotel. The inside is maintained as it was and the hotelier has taken care to keep the ambieance of a Fort and Mughal/Maratha culture.

We planned to stay here for a night but prohibitive tarrif made us change our mind and we proceeded to Naranayapur.

It is a small town and seems to have importance due to an old Shiv Mandir and one and only temple of one headed Lord Dutta.

Narayanpur is situated at the bottom of famous Purandar fort. Narayanpur is village of Changdev Maharaj. A tree of " Audumbar " here is very old and is worshiped by pilgrims. There is also an old temple of Narayaneshwar. This temple and 3 sculptures in the temple are very pretty. These sculptures are said to be of 'Yadav' era. Narayanpur must be seen by both - the pilgrims as well as the nature lovers - because of 2 temples " Lord Datta " and " Narayaneshwar " and the beauty of the Purandar valley.In Monsoon season the scene of Purandar valley is beautiful.             

Narayanpur is a famous place in Pune region. Narayanpur is famous for their Lord Ek Mukhi Datta. Usually lord Datta has 3 faces but in Narayanpur there is Ek Mukhi Datta. The statue of Lord Ek Mukhi Datta is very beautiful.The idol of Lord Dattatreya here in the sanctum is different from the idols that we see otherwise.You can also see the Padukas i.e. footwear of Lord Datta here. These were placed in the sanctum by Lord Datta himself before he left for Samadhi. Many devotees comes to Narayanpur on the eve of Guruvar and Pournima. The number goes in lacs on the occasion of Datta Jayanti.

On way back to Pune Pradeep suggested that we may spend the night in one of the resort of his friend. We failed to locate that and returned to Pune.