| | Tourist Places » Vishalgadh | |
| Meaning : hear only Bajiprabhu's chest stopped the way, chest was destroyed but it remains as 'Red Tilak' on Vishalgadh's glorious memory.
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Keshav Pandit says in this poem 'Vishalgadi durgi samprat vidyate tav , Aqnnapi durg samagriparipurnen bhati me.' i.e. At Vishalgadh fort food & all materials are available in plenty.This poem reveals why the name of this fort is Vishalgadh (Large fort). But in some old documents & stone carvings its name is mentioned as 'Khila Khila', 'Khila Gila', 'Khelna' also. Shivaji gave 'Vishalgadh' name to this fort.
Vishalgadh is spread on the western border of Kolhapur dist. The lattitude & longitude of this fort are 16-56 & 73-47 respectively. The height is 3300 ft. above sea level. The distance from Kolhapur to Vishalgadh is 86 km. While going from Kolhapur on road we see Panhalgadh & the branch of Sahyadri starts from here & remains along the road till Malkapur. On this track there are many small & large hills, beautiful villages, small towns in those valleys, all is so attractive.
There is one way from east & one way from west to go to this fort. It's big as it's name suggests. It's length & breadth is at top are 3200 ft. by 1040 ft. The average annual rainfall at this place is 250 to 300 inches. However there is not a single large town in the fort region. People staying in the houses on the fort have to go to Malkapur for any work. There were many political transactions from Raja Bhoj second (1849 AD) on this fort. Not only this, the fort Vishalgadh was the capital of Maharashtra when Rajaram Maharaj went to Chandi.
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| The credit of constructing fort Vishalgadh goes to Raja Bohj second oof Shilahar family. Especially Shilahar from Kolhapur were more leading in this area. Out of them above mentioned Bhoj second was initially Samrat (land lord) of Chalukyas. He used to call himself Mahamandaleshwar. During this time only Chalukya dynasty was getting diminished & they ware struggling to keep it in their control. Deciding to take full advantage of this situation, Bhoj systematically constructed forts at number of places on the limits of Sahyadri after careful scrutiny, and enhanced his power with the help of these forts. Then he assumed kingship and Paschim Chakravarti designation by overthrowing Chalukya's Samantship
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| The Vishalgadh & Kolhapur region was in the control of Rathee, Maharathee. Till 973, AD Rashtrakuta ruled here. They were conquered in turns again & again by Chalukya ,Shilahar, Yadav, Marathe, Palegar, Adilshah, Shiv Chhatrapati & fort witnessed all such dynasties. Most of the bastion & protecting walls of the fort are in crumbled state & buildings on the fort are also in the same state. Though the old wealth of fort is destroyed, its natural beauty has remained intact. Except for front side towards Rajapur, all the other sides of the forts are seen to be surrounded by deep valleys & Sahyadris large thick & trunks.
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This fort is 12 miles inside forest area from traffic road. There is memory stone of Bajiprabhu Deshpande on Vishalgadh fort in new survey no 8 & near it there is Vrundavan of his brother Phulaji. Hajrat Pir Malik Raihan's Darga is one more important place on the fort. This is memory of one saint named Malik Raihan. The building of Darga is quite old & in 1639 AD one religious businessman Kordusheth Ballar gave a large donation to Vishalgadh Saunsathan & renovated this old building.
Amruteshwar is temple of God Shankara. It was constructed by Amrutrao Pratinidhi in 1751 AD to 1762 AD. There are small water tanks in front of temple. After the steep rise of fort there is a plane hill top like rectangular construction. It's called as Ranamandap. When Bhoj king constructed Bhupal tank the excavated soil was used for constructing this structure. The wars on the place took place here only hence the name Ranamandap was attributed to it. As this part is at high level, very pleasing & beautiful sunset view can be seen from here. Mundha or thief gate (Chor Darvaja) is one more important place. There is no way to go ahead from this point but it is useful for surveillance.
Late Rajaram Maharaj expired in 1700 AD on Singhgadh fort. His third wife Ambikabai sacrificed her life with the turban as Sati. There is Vrundavan of this sacred lady It is called as Satiche Vrundavan. There are 52 Vrundavana of 52 ladies who sacrificed as Saties. This place is called as Bavan Sati. There is a Takmak cliff for giving death punishment. There is also a mansion constructed by Ramchandra Nilkanth. There are many tourist spots like Half moon size well representing shape of moon on Ashtami. Temples of Shri. Bhagavanteshwar, Narsoba, Tank of Gouri, Bodanicha Mala, Patalnagari, Dik Mal, Ganjicha Mal, Tas hill on this fort. Tourists are very pleased to see this historic lineage.
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