Ajinkyatara Fort.

After exploring sajjangad, i came back to Satara city where in the Ajinkyatara fort is located.

Ajinkyatara

Ajinkya-tara literally means "The Impregnable Star" and is one of the seven mountains surrounding the city of Satara. (Saat-tara)
This fort served as a watch tower for monitoring activities in south maharashtra.

Located in the heart of the city, it's a good respite from chaotic and idiotic two wheelers of the city.
Its 5 kms ride from city square.
We continue straight from Chaar bhinti's which leads to the base of Ajinkyatara fort. Vehicles reach at the base of this fort. The entrance is not as impressive as Sajjangad. The landmark of this fort is the big TV tower located bang on the fort.

There are some paintings and stone sculptures depecting gods and scenes from hindu epics.
Pics;

First view of Ajinkyatara fort.

The Maruti carved out on the wall.

Krishna and Radha.

Mammoth Darwaja of the fort.

Small temple at the beginning of the fort.

There is a big TV Tower, right in the middle of the fort. I feel it as RIDICULOUS.
Behind that TV tower, to the right is one small temple dedicated to Lord shiva.
As you walk in, a TV tower is always in the sight. This TV tower is located bang on the middle of fort. I felt it was ridiculous. Behind this tower, is a small shiva temple. The temple looks ancient. This temple was surrounded by marshy land so no pics from outside. But there's a lingam inside. The temple is overlooked by a bull which confronts you while entering the temple.

The Nandi aka Bull.

The Lingam inside

After brief prayer sessions, its time to return to the TV tower. To the left hand side, there is a Mangla devi temple.
On the way, you come across a deserted structure and another medieval temple which has fallen in ruins. It is still a active place of worship. And mind you, it has a Ladakhi flavour to it!!!

The deserted administrative office!

Follow the foot trail, you cross a thick jungle. Somewhere there i saw this hidden medieval jewel! From this foot trail, only its top was visible. I was just curious to know what it is and discovered that it is a temple!

The old temple in ruin.

Have a look at its walls! Its crumbling walls look lovely, isn't it!

Ruined walls.

As i said earlier, this temple is an active place of worship. And the proof it isthe lighten incense sticks.

The temple from inside

This is the Ladakhi surprise i was talking about!

Prayer flags Ladakhi style!

Some more flags!

Inside the forest are some mammoth banyan trees!

Mammoth banyan trees!

The jungle gives way to clear land. You can find this commanding view of South Maharashtra!
The vigil men would overlook for intrusion from here!
No wonder, they would also praise mother nature along with their job!

View from fort!

10 mins walk and you reach mangala devi temple.

Mangla devi temple

There is a board which says "Ajinkyatara" in marathi, which is written in devnagri font. (Zoom in the first pic of Ajinkyatara) But it is inverted! So i inverted it in a picture manager!

Board inverted

This is the end of the fort. You have to return back to the parking lot. Self start the bike and bid adeau this fort. The next obvious stop was the "Char bhinti" or the wall of policy.

The policy!

Finally! That FLAG FLIES HIGH, MAKES ME FEEL PROUD! :)

My love!

Thats all on this trip. As usual, i would like to give you few tips. It would help you plan accordingly.

Important tips;
1) Fort type: Hill fort
2) Trek rating: Very easy
3) Location: Vehicle can reach upto the base.
4) Best time: Any time of the year. Monsoon and winter most preferred
5) Distance: Sajjangad 12kms from Satara, Ajinkyatara located in city itself
6) Nearby excursions: Kaas plateau (Valley of flowers of Maharashtra), Thoseghar waterfall, Tapola, Wind mills, Kaas lake.
7) Time: 2hrs each fort
8) Local transport: Available are State buses and shared mahindra jeeps from satara bus depot.

Other tips;
1) Do not litter, keep satara clean
2) Do not drink and drive.
3) In rains, fort floor can get slippery. All the flooring is made out of chiseled stones. Sole with strong grips are advised.
4) Take back some authentic "Satari Kandi pedhe" a sweet item for which satara is famous for.
5) Take back the values of Ramdas swami, we'll need them in this superficially civilized world which is suffering every minute due to lack of spirituality.
6) Take back some wonderful photos! Leave only your foot prints behind and not plastics.

You live only once, so go out there and explore :)

Sajjangad & Ajinkyatara Fort, Satara.

Prologue:

Hello readers and subscribers!

I'm Vikas and my native is near Panchgani. It's located in Sahyadri's, and it turns out to be heaven in monsoon season.

It was the month of july 2011 and despite the weather being awesome, i was kinda bored. That's coz all my village friends have now settled in mumbai to earn their living. I was looking for something exciting.

The rain god was on a brief leave and it provided a good window to explore the region. The advantage of such brief weather break is that your photographs are clear and dont risk of being fogged. So those green mountains are ready to be composed.

As i mentioned, there were no friends around so this had to be a solo excursion. The place was finalized Sajjangad and Ajinkyatara forts. I have been to Sajjangad in 2008 but that was during summer season. There was dust all around and i felt the ambience was not nice. That same very trip, we crossed over from Kaas plateau to Mahabaleshwar on that 34km muddy road.

Coming back, irst i'll present you, the colours of Sajjangad.

Sajjangad:
Located 12kms from Satara city. Sajjangad literally means "Fort of Good People". That's said, it is the final resting place of "Ramdas swami" the spiritual guru of Shivaji Maharaj.
Swamiji is known to be a Social reformer and spiritual guru and his samadhi at the temple is the prime attraction of the fort. Ramdas swami settled in this fort on request of Shivaji maharaj and eventually attained the spiritual bliss and took samadhi. Temple has a serene atmosphere. It lits up your spiritual senses, literally. Visit in during weekdays.


Behind the temple, is the nature's delight. That's "Urmodi Dam" posing admist the fog clad sahyadri mountain makes everyone to praise the Mother nature! The view is worth the travel.

Pics will do more justice to the place, so here they are. :)

First view of Sajjangad.

My Cute bike :)

The great thoughts and quotes of Swami Ramdas are displayed on as concrete posts on the road to Sajjangad. There are many on this 12kms stretch. Here's the selected one.

Great thoughts of Swami Ramdas.

Mesmerizing roads!

The road, The mountain, and Tempo trax!

The diversion board is seen, the road goes straight to Thoseghar and turns right to Sajjangad base.

The road that leads to Thosehgar waterfall.

The whole fort is located on a flat table top, beneath which there are lot of Jagged rocks. :)

Jagged rocks!

At the entrance, there is a hoarding which summarizes the life and karma of Ramdas swami.

Info of Sajjangad.

You need to park your vehicles at the base and a 15 minutes uphill climb (stairs will guide you) passes through 2 main gates aka maha-darwaja's dedicated to the guru and his great disciple (shishya).

His highness, the great Shivaji maharaj maha-darwaja.

Up next is main gate dedicated to the guru himself.

Swami Ramdas Maha-darwaja.

The moment you enter this main gate, you'll be facing a stringent warning board. This reads as (aggressively), "Dont do things which would harm the pureness of this place" Considering the general attitude of Indians, such warnings should be displayed at all places.

Please understand and follow.

People were chirping wow, superb, awesome. I looked back and found this lovely Silhouette!

Silhoutte!

This fort was once under the control of Mughals and other muslim conqurers, but for a brief period. That's the reason why you find persian inscriptions on the walls. This art of writing fused letters which resembles like Urdu is called as Calligraphy (i guess). I posted this pic to get it revealed what it means, but i failed to get proper reply from most of it. Anyways, it's in praise of Allah.

Calligraphy.

Another 5 mins walk through the bazaar (typically Indian rural bazaar), you reach the temple where his holiness, Sri Ramdas Swami's soul rests in peace.

The welcome tower.

The temple is coloured with various colours. This temple is a prototype of hundreds of temples which surfaced near the banks of the Holy Krishna river all over in the 15th and 16th century. Their style of building, architecture, art forms are exactly the same! What an age it would've been!

The temple.

Temple Entrance.

Inside the temple, there are two wall paintings. These depicts history and mythological stories. The first one is about Shivaji maharaj taking lessons from his guruji, swami ramdas. The second is from Ramayana where in, Hanuman carries the mountain on his palm to heal wounds of laxmana and others injured in long battle with ravana's forces.

Shivaji maharaj and Swami Ramdas

The Ramayana epic.

Photography is not allowed inside the temple so i have no pics of Samadhi. The samadhi was strudded by gold and silver now a days replaced by other metals. Nearby is a shiv lingam, reverence to lord shiva.

Old resting place. Renewed now.

That's about the temple. When you cross this resting place, you'll be stunned by the views there in! There are fog kissing clouds everywhere! The sahyadri's and urmodi dam make an amazing sight to be hold!
Some panoramic views of Urmodi dam and surroundings.

Urmodi dam

There is a small clip which i made around this surrounding. Check it out. :)

Once to the other side, you can see the road to thoseghar waterfall

To the left!

The Kada on left side!

Dotted along the cliff are various hanuman "tents" and one big temple.

The Hanuman Tent.

The Hanuman temple

The thoughts of ramdas swami. 

The other side of the fort.

Thats about Sajjangad fort. So far so good. With everything stored in my memory card. Its time to bid adeau Sajjangad fort. After this visit, i developed keen interest in Swami ji's life and by reading him, i have been inspired. Lovely place to  be.

Up next was the Ajinkyatara fort.
It's here