Shivaji has been rightly considered as one of the greatest Indian heroes of all time. His life reads like a storybook. He captured his first fort when he was just 16, waged a three-decade-long war against Aurangzeb and carved a Maratha Empire against all odds. Yet few of his exploits have gripped public imagination as much as the capture of Sinhgarh Fort – or to give it the name it had then, Kondhana Fort.
The fort of Kondhana stands 25 kilometres away from Pune, on the highest point of the Sahyadhri ranges. This triangular fort with its two-mile-long perimeter wall has the natural defences of a 40-foot-high cliff on three sides and is only accessible from two gates – the Kalyan Darwaza in the South East and the Pune Darwaza at its North East. It was considered virtually impregnable, and by its strategic location in the centre of a string of other forts—Raigad (Shivaji’s own capital), Purandhar and Torna—it was considered to be the linchpin in the defence of the Deccan.
The fort has a chequered history. It was built 2000 years ago by the Koli dynasty, which held on to it till its capture by Mohammed Bin Tughlaq in 1328. It then came under the control of the Nizams of Bijapur. In 1647, as Shivaji began his campaign for Independence, he gained control of the fort, only to lose it in 1649. He regained it again in 1656, and, in spite of concerted attacks by Mughals in 1662, 1663 and 1665, held on to this prized possession. In 1665, Aurangzeb sent his best General, Mirza Raje Jai Singh, to curb Shivaji’s rise in the Deccan. In a year-long campaign, he inflicted a series of reverses on Shivaji, forcing him to sign the Treaty of Purandhar. Amongst the terms of the agreement, Shivaji had to hand over 23 of his forts, keeping just 12 for himself. One of the forts handed over was Kondhana, which was soon garrisoned by Mughal troops.
In the five years following the Treaty of Purandhar, an uneasy truce existed between the Marathas and the Mughals. Then in 1670, Aurangzeb once again decided to bring the Deccan under his sway. He attacked the Deccan and tried to imprison Shivaji, who escaped just in time. With the truce broken, Shivaji gave the order, “Take the Forts.” As he set about recapturing the forts held by the Mughals, his first target was the strategically vital Kondhana fort.
Folklore says that one morning, Shivaji’s mother, Jijabai, was combing her hair in her fort at Pratapgarh, when her eyes fell upon Kondhana. By its location, Kondhana was visible to both Raigad and Pratapgad and dominated both. The thought that this prized fort was occupied by the Mughals infuriated her, and she summoned Shivaji, ordering him to recapture the fort. Shivaji vacillated, but then succumbed to his mother’s wishes and sent for the only person who would be capable of the task—Tanaji Malusure.
Tanaji, the Koli chieftain of Umrathe village in the Konkan, was engaged in the preparations for his son’s marriage when Shivaji’s summons reached him. Putting off his son’s marriage, he gathered a force of 1,000 Mavala soldiers and, accompanied by his brother Suryaji and uncle Shelar, set off for Raigad. He was a veteran of many campaigns with Shivaji and widely respected for his ingenuity and courage. He knew the import of the task and swore that he would capture the fort or die in the attempt.
The fort was occupied by around 1,700 Mughal, Afghan and Rajput troops under the command of the renowned warrior, Uday Bhan Rathod. Tanaji kept his troops some distance away. He then dressed as a commoner and mingled with the local Koli people, seeking out information. He discovered that the fort had one weakness. There was one spot in the West, known as the Dongri Cliff, from where its walls could be scaled.
Tanaji reconnoitred the area himself and the next night – on 04 Feb 1670 - moved his army in small groups toward the Kalyan Gate, moving them along different routes to avoid detection. Guided by two of the locals, he moved to Dongri Cliff with 300 men and began the silent, arduous climb along its walls. Legend has it that he used a giant monitor lizard to scale the wall, tying a rope to it and sending it scurrying up the walls and onto the other side. But in all probability, it is just a legend. ‘Ghorpade’—as these lizards are called in Marathi—is a common Maratha name, and it is likely that the first person who climbed the wall and then threw a rope ladder down was named Ghorpade. That individual is lost in history, but the story of the lizard remains.
Using the rope ladder, Tanaji and the rest of his men scaled the walls, their swords gripped between their teeth. They were undetected, but when around 50 men had climbed up to the ramparts of the forts, the rope broke. Tanaji and his small band were on their own inside the heavily defended fort.
Tanaji kept his nerve and silently led his party towards the Kalyan Gate, where they killed the guards and tried to open the massive gates. As they were doing so, one of the guards raised an alarm, and the party was soon surrounded by angry, vengeful Mughal guards.
The small band of Marathas held their own against immense odds, and to break their ranks, the war elephant Chandravati was launched against them. The elephant had been fed copious amounts of opium before its attack, and perhaps its senses were dulled. It was killed, either by a spear throw or by a Maratha warrior who managed to mount it and kill it with a sword thrust to its brain.
Yet, this was a small victory. The party was hemmed in and came under repeated attacks by the Mughal garrison, first by Sidi Hillal, the second-in-command of the fort and then by Uday Bhan Rathod himself. Uday Bhan attacked Tanaji, and a furious duel ensued. Uday Bhan’s powerful thrusts broke Tanaji’s shield, and he wrapped a cloth over his left hand and used it to parry the thrusts. Another powerful slash severed his hand, but in a final desperate lunge, he hurled himself at Uday Bhan, killing him with a blow to his head. Then weakened by the loss of blood from the many wounds he had suffered, he fell dead to the ground.
Seeing their leader fall, the Marathas were on the verge of collapse when Tanaji’s brother Suryaji, with around 200 other warriors, clambered over the wall with another rope ladder. Suryaji rallied the wavering troops and led them on a fresh counterattack, which kept the Mughals at bay and also enabled them to open the gates of the Kalyan Darwaza. The 700 Marathas waiting outside poured in and routed the defenders, killing most. Many of the defenders hurled themselves across the walls to their deaths below, and the rest were taken in as prisoners. By daybreak, the fort was in their control, and a thatched hut was set ablaze as a signal of success.
Shivaji saw the plumes of smoke from his fort at Raigad, indicating the capture of Kondhana. He rushed to the fort and entered through its gates, now held by Marathas. But there was no jubilation amongst the victorious Mavalas. They stood silently around the body of their fallen leader. Shivaji himself wept at the loss of his friend and comrade and said, “Gadh aala, pan Sinh gela” (The fort has been gained, but the lion is lost)
Kondhana was renamed Sinhgarh after the lion-hearted Tanaji Malusure, and even today his bust stands at the spot where he fell. With Sinhgarh under his control, Shivaji soon captured the adjoining forts of Purandhar, Moholy, Kurnalla and Lohgarh and reached as far as Bhiwandi and Kalyan. With the critical forts forming the crux of his defences, he launched a skilful guerrilla campaign in the rugged valleys of the Deccan that repulsed successive Mughal offensives for over a decade.
On 06 June 1676, he was coroneted at Raigad as Chattrapati, and with this act asserted his complete independence from the Mughal yoke. Over the next few years, he carved out the Maratha Empire, fighting both the Mughals and the Nizams of the Deccan, till his death in 1680. His legacy was carried forward by the Peshwas, who followed and extended Maratha rule virtually till Afghanistan till their eventual eclipse in the Third Battle of Panipat.
Sinhgarh remained in the hands of the Marathas till it was recaptured by Aurangzeb in 1703, only to be retaken three years later. The fort remained in Maratha hands till 1818, when it was eventually captured by the British after a three-month-long siege. Although the fort changed hands often, one thing about the fort remained constant. It retained the name of the lion that captured it – SINHGARH.