Trip to Konkan: Part 3

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On the third and final day of our adventurous trip to Konkan, Aai and Venumaushi made a plan to stop at Raigad en route back to Pune.
In the morning just before breakfast, mom and I walked to the most famous temple in Diveagar called Suvarnaganesha Mandir. The history of Suvarnaganesh is indeed quite enthralling. It is said that a copper box was found one day at a farm. The box was all muddy and looked pretty ancient. It had some words written from the 10 century in Sanskrit. When the box was opened in presence of Govt Officials, there was a sculpture of Lord Ganesh made out of pure gold. Also the box contained ornaments belonging to Lord Ganesha. It was then that this scuplture was named “Suvarnaganesh”. However it’s still a puzzle as to who has buried it and for what reason. But people of Diveagar have tremendous faith in Suvarnagensh and that the god is blessing the place with prosperity. We were awed by the magnificence of the gold sculpture. After praying for a while at the temple we walked back to the cottages for breakfast.
Post breakfast, we packed up got into our rented car and were on our way towards Raigard. Since this was a spur of the moment plan we were totally clueless on how to get there. Our driver made a few halts along the way asking for directions. And as anticipated we made one wrong turn and went in a completely different direction for about 5 miles. I have no idea where we would have reached if we had stuck to that course. Sheesh.
But finally after many turns and one miss including some hairpin turns we reached the foothills of Raigad fort. It was at this great fort where Shivaji Maharaj was crowned as the ruler of the Maratha Empire in the year 1674. "European historians have described this fort as 'The Gibraltar of the East'. Placed at an altitude of 2700 feet on an irregular wedge-shaped mass of rock, Raigad fort is inaccessible from three sides."
I remember coming here many years ago when I was in my teens on one of my trekking adventures. We had then climbed up to the fort. It must have taken us about 4 hours to reach the top. But now due to modern marvels and technology the shackles of inaccessibility were broken and this impregnable fort was reachable by everyone by a ropeway which was built a few years ago. Although Venumaushi wanted to come to see the fort she was a bit jittery going up the ropeway. So Mom and I bought tickets for the ropeway while Venumaushi sat at the cafeteria reading her book.
The ropeway took us up to the fort within minutes. I managed to get some nice photos on the way up. We disembarked at the top of the fort, right next to the Mena Darwaza. This was the special entrance for the royal ladies and now a special entrance to us travelers of the Ropeway. 😊 .
As we ascended the steep steps towards the Mena Darwaza, mom complained about knee pain. Since it would be a long walk, I advised her to go back down the ropeway and wait for there along with Venumaushi.
So after mom went back down, I resumed the climb towards Mena Darwaza. As I went through the Mena Darwaza, I saw the queens quarters.
Although this fort is in ruins, if one looks at the ruins and you could visualize the grandeur of this palace during its era. It is sad to see this magnificent fort in such a dilapidated state a result of being looted and destroyed by the British upon siege.
Click, click... my camera went snapping away taking pictures of the Queens quarters and the palace grounds. In front of the queens quarters was the Palkhi Darwaza. A special entrance for the convoy of Shivaji Maharaj. I decided not to walk to the Palkhi Darwaza as I had a lot walk ahead and in addition to that it was brutally hot with the sun burning through my cap. So I strolled on the palace grounds.
I noticed the ruins of three watch towers directly in front of the palace grounds. I somehow managed to get onto the ledge of one of the watch towers. One slip of the foot and i would have plummeted onto the rocks below. Scary as hell but hey, I like a like a little thrill for the heart. The watch tower was overlooking an artificial lake called Ganga Sagar created next to the fort. It also had a view of the execution point called Takmak Tok, a cliff from which the sentenced prisoners were thrown off. From the Watch Tower I got a panoramic view of the Sayhadri Mountains, unfortunately with all the excitement of not loosing my footing, I didn’t get a chance to capture this alluring view.
Anyway, shortly i jumped back on and started following the muddy trail. I wish it were the ‘yellow brick road’ in the 17th century. But alas…. Reality …..
Right behind the palace grounds was the Durbar, where Shivaji Maharaj dispensed justice in petty and routine matters. The durbar was a mute witness to the joys, sorrows, anger, victories and overwhelming generosity of Shivaji Maharaj. The Durbar has a replica of the original throne that faces the main doorway called the Nagarkhana Darwaza. It is said that the durbar had been acoustically designed to aid hearing from the doorway to the throne. So if anyone even whispered, it could be heard very clearly at the throne. Damn, talk about technology. 😊
There was this one dude sitting on the footsteps leading to the throne who asked me to take my shoes off in order to walk to the throne. Hmmmm. I wonder why ? it was just a replica.. ah well must abide to the local verbal laws. As I started walking around the throne, this dude shouted saying that no one is allowed behind the throne. Goodness…
And what do u know .. no pictures also allowed of the throne. Too bad, I had already taken one....

Ah well.. so I put my shoes back on and walked around through the Nagarkhana Darwaza towards what was known as the Market.
The market has been structured with two rows of platforms. These platforms were much higher level to the ground as in that era many shopped mounted on a horse and this ground clearance facilitated the purpose. How kewl is that ??? Just like the modern time drive throughs at Mc Donalds.

A statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji has been erected in front of the ruins of the Market. There were a big bunch of school kids who were hounding the statue to get pictures taken.. Since I knew that it would be fruitless trying to take a good picture, I would try taking it on the return from the Samadhi. Oh yes, Shivaji’s Samadhi was at the end of the fort. A long long walk away. That was the destination before making a return.
I continued walking through the market place onto a winding path which eventually lead to the Jagdishwar Mandir and finally to Shivaji’s Samadhi and also that of his dog ‘Waghya’.
It has been said that Shivaji’s faithful dog ‘Waghya’ committed suicide on learning about the death of his beloved master. Hence, he was immortalized next to his master. My camera went click click click click 😊
After a lot of clicking it was time to return and make my way back to the base. I took the same route to return to the Mena Darwaza. Offcourse this time there were no one near the statue of Shivaji Maharaj, so yes, I did manage to take some pictures.

I finally reached the Mena Darwaza. whew.. The brutal sun had dehydrated me. So while waiting for the ropeway to take me down, I spotted a small shack selling drinks and bought a bottle of aerated soda and gulped it down in an instant. What a relief.

I was shortly heading down the ropeway and was greeted by Venumaushi and Aai who were patiently waiting for my return even though it was way way past lunch time. We got back into the car and descended towards the main road. We stopped at the first restaurant we saw, ‘Kamat’s’. When I saw the menu card I totally cracked up. The menu card of Kamat's was on a ‘pati’ (Slate). I had not seen a slate for more than 20 years now. After downing some delicious food we were back on the road speeding away towards Pune. Our driver suggested we take the route from Mahableshwar which would be longer but less traffic but as we drove, we came by a sign which would take us through Bhor Ghat. Bhor Ghat is extremely dangerous to drive during the night, but since it was just afternoon, we decided to take the Bhor Ghat route. The road condition was not optimal with unexpected pot holes slowing us down along the way. To make it worse the road was narrow winding in a serpentine manner through lot of ghat sections. The ghat seemed endless, you climb one and as soon as you descend, there is another. Arrrrrrgghhhhhhh The journey on this road was monotonous. There was this one stretch of the road which climbed up the steep incline and suddenly had a sharp turn and a sudden drop. Holy $%#^*#, bloody dangerous, I must say. The only excitement we had on the ghat was we came across some monkeys sitting alongside the road. The driver slowed down the car so I could take some pictures.
The rest of the journey was uneventful. We finally reached back home at around 6 in the evening.
Wow, what a holiday. SUPERB. Thank you, mom, for arranging it.

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