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We visited one interesting fort - Kothaligad. This fort is also known by the base village Peth. The unique features of this fort are: the beautiful carvings in the main cave of the fort; the stairs carved through a tunnel to reach the top of the fort; beautiful patches of jungle on the way. Let us relive these experiences in this writeup. Hope this will keep you interested and make a visit to the place.
Location and getting there:
The fort is near Karjat, in Thane district of Maharashtra. To visit this fort, one has to come to Karjat. This town is accessible from Mumbai by local trains. From Pune, one has to come by a bus. Having a private transport is advisable as it will only save time and avoid unnecessary wait.
From Karjat, Ambivali village is nearly 20 kilometers. It takes about half an hour from Karjat to reach Ambivali village. The road is good. From Ambivali, the unpaved road winds up to Peth village. From Pune, the overall journey takes about 3 hours.
History:
There is no significant history associated with this fort. However, this fort has been mentioned in the history. It can be concluded that the Marathas used this fort as ammunition storage.
During Sambhaji Maharaj's time, Manakoji Pandhare became traitor and got admitted one Abdul Kadar along with his troops. They slayed the men stationed at the fort. Abdul Kadar presented the golden key to Aurangzeb as a proof. To confirm this Aurangzeb sent one of the very trusted person to the fort. He awarded 10,000 rupees to Abdul Kadar and 2,500 rupees to the moles only after confirming that the fort was really taken in possession. The fort was renamed as Miftah ul Fatah (key to victory).
Later sometime, Naroji Tryambak tried to capture the fort. But he was killed. His body was mutilated by Iddatmam Khan.
There is no other mention of this fort in the history.
| Trek We started from Pune by a private bus at around 6:30 AM. The bus reached Karjat in about 3 hours along old Mumbai Pune highway via Khopoli. En route, we had our breakfast on Mumbai Goa highway. It was raining heavily in those days. Hence everywhere it was lush green and pleasant. There is a distinct joy in travelling during rainy season. The atmosphere is pleasant and refreshing. These kind of breaks are needed for us who stay in big cities and cut off from nature. By 10 AM, we were in Ambavali village. From this village, we had to trek for nearly 4 hours to reach the fort. For some distance, the road is tarred. Soon after, the road converted into unpaved one. After passing through the gentle incline and fields on one side, the scene changes. Now the road became narrow, steep. The trees became taller. We were getting the feel of jungle. As the road was winding uphill, we could see tall, thick evergreen trees below. In the rainy season, these trees looked more beautiful. Sound of birds, insects, and flowing water made the jungle lively. Recent heavy rains had filled all ponds, the streams were flowing with some force and a lot of noise, and waterfalls were flowing with full force. Along the way, we could see one spider catching its prey in its web. There was a hairy crawler moving on one of the leaf. Then a spider appeared to move in the air without any support! Of course, it had its strand of web attached. But it was not visible to us. Jim Corbett rightly said, jungles in India are lively. |
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After walking for nearly one and half hours, we reached a plateau. Now the jungle around suddenly disappeared. We could see Kothaligad immersed in clouds. The valley below was deep. We waited here for nearly half an hour to get the glimpse of Kothaligada. But to our dismay, the clouds increased. As it would take further one and half an hour to reach the fort, we decided to resume the journey.
Now we were walking along the plateau towards Peth village. The wind was blowing. And the clouds were following. The entire experience was like a dream. Suddenly, for a few moments, there came the high point of the trek. Due to heavy winds, the clouds cleared view of Kothalogada. We could see the entire fort from one side. From the other side, the clouds were trailing the fort for quite a distance. The fort was preventing the wind to move the clouds on the other side. Unfortunately I do not have that moment captured in the camera. No camera can capture such an intimate mesmerizing experience faithfully.
In another half an hour we reached Peth village. The village is small. It is filthy. There is a hotel which can make arrangements for food. There is a small, but well kept temple of Hanuman. The children in the village offer to guide to the fort for some pocket money. However, the route is straight.
After taking 10-15 minutes break break, we resumed journey. By now, it was more than 3 hours since we started. We were walking on a narrow path. The slope had become steeper. The trees were taller. It was drizzling in between. There were steps along the route. Soon we reached a rock patch. But for the rains, this rock patch is very easy. The rains made it more slippery. Slowly but carefully, we negotiated the rock patch.
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The entrance of the fort is small. It is broken. Not much fortification has survived. We can easily guess that the fortification we see near entrance has been constructed relatively recently.
 | The main caves are just a few meters away from the entrance of the fort. Just before entering the cave, there is a shrine and a water tank. There are steps leading to the top of the fort. The shrine is in one of the smaller caves. It appears to be that of Lord Rama and Sita. |
 | Now we enter into the main attraction of the fort. A large cave dedicated to Bhairoba. There is an idol in the main chamber of the cave. It was almost 2 PM by now. We had started our journey from Ambivali nearly 4 hours ago. |
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The main chamber has three intricate pillars. One of them has been damaged extensively. Each of these pillars had extensive artwork. Due to neglect, the artwork is worn out by now. Even the window of the main chamber has beautiful artwork.
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The main chamber of the cave has inner chamber. The entrance of the inner chamber has intricate artwork. Due to low light, the visibility was very less. By now, heavy rains started outside. After having our lunch in the cave, we started to explore the top.
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 | Just outside the entrance of the cave, there are steps carved out of the rock. These steps lead to the top of the fort. The first few steps are broken. During rains, they can be slippery and hence become dangerous. We need to be careful. Soon enough we reach the top of the flight of the stairs. But not before we are gasping for breath. |
The uppermost part of the fort is rather small. There is no construction. It would give beautiful view of Bheemashankar, Siddhagad on the North; Nakhinda peak on the East; Malangagad, Chanderi, Prabalgad, Manikgad, Matheran on South West and South. However, since it was raining very heavily, nothing was visible.
After seeing the top, we descended carefully to the cave first. Just outside the cave, there is a canon lying in the state of neglect.
We carefully started our descent to Peth village. As it was raining heavily, the descent was careful. From Peth village the march on the plateau was very swift. We looked back to get a glimpse of the fort. However, it was immersed in the clouds.
While descending through the jungle, we collected water dripping through rocks. That would have been filtered and purified far better than any of the bottled water. As it was raining heavily, there was no sign of any bird, butterflies, or anything moving. The same winding path took us back to Ambivali. After changing the cloths, we started back to Pune. We were in Pune by 9:00 PM.
What a thrilling experience! Jungle, rain, beautiful flowers, beautiful carvings in the cave.
I wish,
a) The beautiful carvings are restored and protected from crumbling.
b) The inner cave is kept clean and free of bats.
c) The stairs are repaired so that they remain usable. If they break any further, then it will be difficult to climb to the top of the fort.
References:
Palande
Ghanekar
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