Trek to Rajgad Fort

Year 2011, I first visited Pune for Gurupoornima at Ramamani Iyengar Yoga Institute to see Guruji B.K.S. Iyengar. Since then a special bonding has established with Pune. I fell in love with Maharashtra and people of Maharashtra. The state of Maharashtra is blessed with beautiful nature full of mountains, forests and water resources.

I don't say that I traveled all over Maharashtra but I have traveled Maharashtra more than any other state in India. The beauty of Sahyadri mountain ranges pull me back to Maharashtra again and again. There are large number of places in Maharashtra for tourists and also the pilgrims to visit.

Another important thing that caught my attention in Maharashtra is the name of Chatrapati Shivaji. Though I have read many things about him in books and news papers, it is only after visiting Maharashtra I came to know how deeply he made an impact in the hearts of people even after 337 years of his death. Each mountain range of Sahyadri is the witness of bravery of the great warrior king Shivaji. When a Maharashtrian speaks of Shivaji, a sense of pride, honor and a certain emotion is seen in his eyes and voice. People are not tired of speaking his heroics even today. That was the impact he made on the lives of people in Maharashtra. 

You must be wondering why am I mentioning so much about Shivaji. It is because another attraction of Maharashtra is the forts conquered and built by Shivaji in his regime on the beautiful hilltops of Sahyadri. Shivaji captured strategically important forts of Rajgad, Prachandgad, Sinhagad, Purandar etc. and laid foundation for self rule called Swaraj. He then built, captured and repaired over 300 forts stretched over 1000 kilometers across Western Ghats.

Along with this, I love the people of Maharashtra. They are friendly, warm and jovial in nature. They can gel with anyone and with anything very quickly. They have got the heart and mind to adopt and adapt. This nature helped them prosper in every field of life. They are very conscious about health, wealth, sports, region, religion and spirituality.

I made quite a few good friends from Pune. One such friend is Sunil Kolhatkar. He is some way responsible for today's blog post. He is a passionate trekker as many Punekars are. He takes us to some trek or place of interest every time we go to Pune. Past July, he took us to the trek of Rajgad Fort.


Rajgad is a hill fort in Pune district of Maharashtra. It is around 60 kilometers from the main city of Pune to the south-west in the Sahyadri range. Since it was my first visit and therefore I am not sure which route he took us through. I could only remember him taking us through a narrow route amidst a beautiful lush green forest. It was an amazing view through out. We stopped our car near the foothill of the mountain. The fort is built at an elevation of 1400 meters (4600 feet) above the sea level. 

This is the image of the fort of Rajgad from the foot hill of the mountain. It took us around three hours to reach the fort. You have to go through a steep narrow trails through the thick forest. Since it was a monsoon season and rained heavily the other night, the path was really slippery. Though the trek wasn't really tough but the slippery path made it difficult. We had to walk with great care on the slippery path of red soil to reach the fort. The rising Sun made our task more difficult. Though we carried 2 liters of water each but that was not sufficient. We started around 9 Am and reached the top around 12 noon. We replenished our thirst by drinking few glasses of lemon juice and butter milk sold by the local villagers on the fort.

I shot this on reaching the top of the fort. This is where the fort begins. From here there is another forty minutes trek up the hill. I shot some beautiful pictures in the forest route to Rajgad and during our trek to the fort but unfortunately I can't share with you here as I lost the data from the SD card. Therefore all the images that you are going to see here are from the fort.

This is tired Sridhar having a sigh of relief on reaching top of the hill. His wet T-shirt tells you the story of his effort to reach the fort. It was really warm and humid that day.

You can see the ruins of Rajgad still remaining there to remind the history it has seen.

The ruins consists of Palaces, water cisterns and caves.

All of a sudden the mountain was covered by dark clouds with speeding winds.

Weather is not predictable on mountains. It was really warm and humid when we began our trek and all of a sudden it became dark with clouds. All our fatigue got lost with cool breeze blowing all over.

Virupaksha charged up with the change in weather condition and performed his signature style asanas on the edge of the hill. He did few ones but this is my favorite. A drop back from Adhomukha Vrkshasana. The drop, lift everything looks good though he hasn't touched the feet to the floor yet. 

Here you go "Ekapada Viparita Dandasana II."

This is Baba Sunil Kolhatkar chilling in Padmasana.

Sunil having a great time.

Here we go! The fantastic four of Sunil, Viru, Ram and Sridhar. Oops, Raghavendra is missing. He must be resting somewhere around.

Selfie time! Sridhar and Virupaksha chilling.

You can see some of these beautiful mountains on other side of the fort.

The fort is built on a diameter of 40 kilometers and hence it is not possible to explore the fort in one day. Enthusiasts come and stay on the fort at night in the Padmavathi Temple which can accommodate 50 people. 

Security is not a major issue as the regular trekkers say but it is always better to be accompanied by a large group of men if there are ladies for camping.

You can see the Torna and Sinhagad forts from Rajgad.

You can find a beautiful view of the agricultural fields down the valley of Rajgad fort.

Due to its vastness on a difficult hill top, strategically it was an important fort for Shivaji.

Rajgad was the capital of Maratha empire under the rule of Chatrapati Shivaji for almost 26 years before shifting to Raigad.

Chatrapati Shivaji is said to have lived here more than in any other fort. Rajgad fort is the witness of many historic events.

Each one of these ruins are the witness of the birth of Shivaji's son 'Rajaram Chatrapati', the death of Shivaji's Queen 'Sai Bai', the famous escape of Shivaji from Agra, the burial of Afzal Khan's head in the Maha Darwaza and many more.

Rajgad has seen some strategic wars with Mughuls during and after Shivaji.

It had been lost to Mughals and re-captured many times by Marathas.

Each wall remaining here is a witness of the rise and fall of Marathas over a period of time. They sustained the attack of Mughals, Britishers, climate and now still standing against the time depicting the heroics of brave Marathas.

Monsoon is the best time for trek to Rajgad and trekkers ideally love this time.

The hills look lush green with beautiful plants and trees.

We have returned down around 3 PM in the evening as we had to go back to Pune. Trekking down took only 1 hour as the weather was great.

I think we hardly explored 25% of the fort but have no regrets as we enjoyed every moment we spent on the fort. It was an awesome experience.

On our way back home we visited a very beautiful temple. I don't remember the name of the temple. It is a very ancient temple of over 1000 years.

Sunil made our day happening. We returned back to Hyderabad with memories of Rajgad and a plan to visit yet another destination when we go back to Pune. I would like to thank Sunil and his wife Mugdha for all the hospitality. 

Hope you enjoyed watching the blog. Keep watching the space for more updates. Thank you.