01The night of the ropes
By the Treaty of Purandar in 1665 Shivaji had to hand Kondhana to the Mughals, and it was held by the Rajput officer Udaybhan Rathod. In February 1670 Tanaji Malusare, Shivaji’s childhood companion, led a few hundred Mavalas up the steep western cliff at night, climbing with ropes. In the fight on the summit Tanaji and Udaybhan killed each other. Tanaji’s brother Suryaji rallied the men and the fort fell. Maratha tradition gives Shivaji’s words on hearing the news: ‘Gad ala, pan sinha gela’, the fort is won but the lion is gone. Kondhana became Sinhagad.
02Earlier and later sieges
Kondhana was old before the Marathas. Muhammad bin Tughlaq took it in 1328 from a Koli chief, Nag Nayak, after a long siege. Shivaji held it from the 1640s until he gave it up in 1665. Chhatrapati Rajaram died on Sinhagad on 2 March 1700, while the war against Aurangzeb was at its hardest. The emperor took the fort in 1703, and the Marathas won it back a few years later. Tanaji’s memorial and Rajaram’s samadhi are on the summit; Lokmanya Tilak kept a bungalow there.
The life of this place
- 1328Muhammad bin Tughlaq takes Kondhana from the Koli chief Nag Nayak.
- 1665Shivaji cedes the fort to the Mughals under the Treaty of Purandar.
- February 1670Tanaji Malusare retakes the fort and falls in the fight.
- 2 March 1700Chhatrapati Rajaram dies on the fort.
About 30 km from Pune; a road reaches near the top. Go early in the monsoon mist, and try the pitla-bhakri and dahi sold on the summit.
