Wednesday 29 September 2010

Jivdhan-Naneghat 26th-27th January 2009


Jivdhan (height 3754 ft) is a fort which situated about 26 kms. from Junnar, its base village is Ghatghar. This fort is quite important historically since Shahajiraje (Shivaji Maharaj's father) rescued the infant Murtiza, the last scion of the Nizamshahi from this fort. Shahjiraje acted as regent to Murtiza till 1636 when the Mughals trapped them at Pemgiri and he was forced to surrender Murtiza to them, thus leading to the end of the Nizamshahi. This fort is said to have been built during the Satvahaan Era, maybe to protect Naneghat a route which leads to Konkan. In 1818, the British captured and destroyed almost all the forts in this region, even Jivdhan did not escape and its main entrance was destroyed.  

I had heard about the scenic beauty around the fort Jivdhan and could not wait to see it firsthand. We met at the enquiry counter at Shivajinagar S.T stand at 5:30 am and learned that the direct bus to Junnar was late. We therefore, took the bus which went to Lenyadri via Junnar. Finally, we left at about 7:30 am and reached Junnar in about 3hrs ie about 10:30 am. After reaching Junnar we had some breakfast and took another bus to Ghatghar(base village of Jivdhan-about). We reached Ghatghar at about 11:30am and started to climb in about 20 minutes. We reached the stairs in about 1½ hrs. There was a small rock patch which we climbed and reached the top. After taking some pics, we went to the 'Dhanyakothar'(a place used to store food) where we were going to stay for the night. 

We had our lunch there and left to see the fort at about 3pm. There is not much to see on the fort, with the exception of the ruins of the fortification. We can see many forts around such as Hadsar, Nimgiri, Alang, Madan, Kulang, Harishchandragad, etc. We can also see Nanacha Angtha from the top(it a a small peak next to Naneghat). After taking a round circuit of the fort we came to the west side from where we could see the sunset and Vanarlingi Pinnacle. Words cannot describe that amazing sunset which we saw that day. After sun had disappeared beyond the horizon, we went back to the 'Dhanyakothar' and cooked our meal (Flower-batata rassa!) ate it and went to sleep since we had to leave quite early in the morning.
 
We woke up next morning at about 6:30 am and after a breakfast of tea and maggi, we packed our bags and left at around 8:30 am. The route from which we were going to descend was actually the original route which people used hundreds of years ago. We retraced yesterday evening's route and reached the spot where there used to be a large gate which has now fallen down and had enough empty space for one man to go. This route was a little dangerous since there was a small rock patch and plenty of loose stones but we managed to navigate our way quite successfully. After this part the route was simple and went through the forest and met a kachha road to Naneghat.

Naneghat(2000 yrs old) was an important road during that era since it descended into Konkan and was near Junnar which was an important trading station in that age. Once we reached naneghat some of us went to the top of Nanacha Angtha and saw a splendid view of Jivdhan and the surrounding area and also caught a glimpse of Bhairavgad. Naneghat has some amazing caves which had some sculptures which have been stolen or broken. We had our lunch there and started our 4km walk to Ghatghar. 
When we reached the Ghatghar phata where the ST bus usually waited, we found that the bus had not come and was late. So we took a jeep to Junnar. After reaching Junnar we took the 6pm bus to Pune and reached Pune at about 9:30 pm.

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