Panhala Fort – The famous fort of Panhala is situated in Maharashtra. This fort is very important in history. This fort has seen history’s big battle itself. This fort was ruled by King Bhoja by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and later Angraso. The work of this fort to save Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj from the enemy is very much appreciable. The famous battle of history was fought in this fort at Pavankhind. In this battle, the Marathas gave a huge fight to the enemy’s army. Due to which Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj easily reached Vishalgad, it could possibly only helped by this Panhala Fort. Interesting information about such important Panhala fort is given below.
The well-known Panhala fort is located in the northwest direction of Kolhapur city. The name of this Panhala fort comes in large fortresses in India and Panhala Fort is the biggest fort in the entire province of South. To make trade easily, this fort was built so that the business of Maharashtra can be added by way of Bijapur and Arabian Sea and it should be extended to it. The people are interested in history and trekking it is the best place for those persons.
History of Panhala Fort – Panhala Fort History
Panhala Fort was built by Bhoj 2 ruler of Shilahar in the 12th Century. The fort of Panhala was also built for the 15 fortresses (Bavda, Bhudargad, Satara and Vishalagad fort) they built.
During 1209-10, Bhoj Raja defeated Yadav Singh Raja Singhagana of Devagiri (1209-1247) in a fight and since then the castle was captured on this fort. But Yadavo did not pay much attention to the care of this fort and gradually the fort moved under the control of different local rulers.
During the Bahamani rule of Bidar, this fort was used as borderline. Bijapur in the year 1489 had gone under the control of Adil Shahi dynasty and he did extensive work to protect this kilo from all sides.
He paid special attention to strengthening the fort and doors of this fort and it took many years to complete the work.
In 1659, Afzal Khan of Bijapur died and after taking advantage of it Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj took away Panhala fort from Bijapur. But to get this fort again from Shivaji Maharaj, Adil Shah II (1656-1672) sent Siddhi Johar to fight.
But he failed to regain this fort and returned empty handed. But this fight lasted for almost 5 months, due to which all the necessary things inside the fort were going to be finished and Shivaji Maharaj was also likely to be caught.
In such a situation, Shivaji Maharaj had no choice but to run away from there. That is why he left for Vishalgad on 13th July 1660 at night. But all the work to stop Jawahar’s army in the middle of the way came to Baji Prabhu Deshpande.
Together, both Baji Prabhu Deshpande and Shiva Kashmed fought hard with the enemy’s army. Shiva Kashid was a barber and he looked exactly like Shivaji Maharaj. His fight with the enemy’s army lasted for a long time and the enemy’s army seemed to himself, Shivaji himself was fighting against them.
Shivaji Maharaj’s army suffered huge losses in this fierce battle and more than three quarters of them were killed. Baji Prabhu Deshpande himself had also been martyred in this and later this fort was taken under the control of Adil Shah. But in the last 1673 Shivaji Maharaj recovered this fort.
But shortly after 4th April 1680 Shivaji Maharaj passed away. When Shivaji Maharaj ruled the Panhala fort in 1678, at that time there were 15,000 horses and 20,000 army in the fort.
Sambhaji became the Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire after the death of Shivaji Maharaj . When in 1689, General Perib Khan of Aurangzeb made him captive in Sangameshwar, then this Panhala Fort went under the control of Mughal.
But in 1692, Kashi Rangnath Sarpotdar, under the guidance of Parashuram Pant, the Maratha commander of Vishalgarh fort, had acquired this fort again. But in the last 1701, this fort was again in possession of Aurangzeb. But only a few months after this incident, the Maratha army under Ramchandra Pant Amatya again captured this fort.
In 1693, Aurangzeb once again attacked this fort. The result was that Rajaram had to leave Panhala and go to Jinji Fort. Rajaram had to leave Panhala in such a hurry that his 14-year-old wife Tarabai was left behind on Panhala fort.
Aurangzeb wanted to catch Rajaram in any condition, that is why he was lying behind Rajaram. Tarabai alone had to stay on Panhala fort for five years and only after that, Rajaram could meet her.
During this important time, Tarabai took all the business of the fort alone and removed the problems of the people, due to which people respected them. The time he spent in Panhala fort, he taught all the work of the court and he also got the support of the officials of his court. Rajaram sent his army from the Jinji Fort to Panhala fort and in October 1693 Panhala fort was again captured by the Maratha army.
Rajaram died in 1700 and behind him was his 12-year-old son Shivaji 2 and his wife Tarabai. In 1705, Queen Tarabai established her power and ruled from Panhala fort by becoming the Revenue Service of her son Shivaji 2.
In 1708, Tarabai had to fight with Shahuji of Satara, but in that battle he had to face defeat and he had to go to Malvan in Ratnagiri. But later in 1709, Tarabai won Panhala again and established Kolhapur in his new state and made Panhala the capital. By 1782, they were ruled by Panhala.
In 1782 the capital was turned from Panhala to Kolhapur. But during the rule of Shahaji I in 1827, Panhala and Pavankhad were assigned to the British.
But in 1844 when Shivaji 4 was small, some revolutionary people had been arrested by Colonel Owens when he was on a tour and those revolutionaries had again occupied Panhala.
But on 1 December 1844, Angrajo sent an army under the leadership of the Democrats and attacked Panhala and captured the fort, and since then the British deployed their forces on Panhala forever. Kolhapur was under the control of this fort of 1947.
The architecture of Panhala Fort – Architecture of Panhala Fort
To protect this Panhala fort, in Sahyadri’s greenery, fortification has been built up to a distance of 7 kilometers and in order to strengthen this fort, three large gates of two walls were constructed in it. The three gates of Yehapar are all of the same shapes and they all look the same. This fort was built by the Marathas, Bahamani and Mughal rulers. The tall and big walls and Garhi were built by this fort.
There is a lot of room for trekking in Maharashtra, but the best place for trekking is on the path of Pavankhind from Panhala. This is the place from where that war was named Pavanakhind war. This trekking route is about 50 km.
In order to know what happened in history, people still come to see this fort and get drowned in the glorious history of the country. From the hill which was built on this hill, this fort looks beautiful.
This fort of Kolhapur looks very large in appearance. But when this fort was being constructed then Adilshah was ruled by it. When Adilshah had built Panhala fort, the fort was built along with it.
But when he built this new fort, he had the intention of making the fort in the second place, in the Panhala fort. This means that if you look from above, Panhala is only one fort, but if you look carefully, inside this fort you can see the fort on one side. The fort used to use this fort to trap the enemy’s army in its net.