A day's dream, I am wide awake. - Coorg

Trekking The Majestic Raigad!

All that was need during the final year of college days was a break from all the assignments and projects. My friend suggested we could trek the Raigad Fort, that was nearby her native place. I decided to go for it, I just overviewed about the Raigad Fort. The pictures and reviews fascinated me all the more.This fotress is situated in the Raigad district of Maharashtra, approximately 125 km away from Pune. The fort once served as the capital of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the Great Maratha king. It was around the year of 1674 Shivaji Maharaj was crowned the King of a Marathi kingdom, and the auspicious coronation ceremony was held at this fort itself. This fortress falls in the Sahyadri Mountain ranges of India.

In the Afternoon  around 3.00 pm, we left for Raigad from Pune busstation, it was the season for the celebration of holi and the bus was fully packed with people excited to leave for their village. It was a rocky ride up and around the mountains along with many rivulets passing by. We reached our destination at around,7:00pm. My friend's house, was located in a village that was located at the heart of the hills, we could see a wild forest fire far on the mountains.The locals said that because it was a hot and dry summer such forest fires occur often.

The next morning we woke up at 5:00am and we got ready for the most awaited  trek. The sounds of the birds humming, the smell of burning fire wood for cooking and warm mist in the air  made the morning pleasant. We had a hot cup of tea and toast, collected our packed food and left for the trek. We walked down the village, greeting the villagers towards the main road. As we were waiting for the bus, we could see the beautiful sunrise, it just felt auspicious. We got into the bus happily, hearts beating with joy and jittering laughter, we reached our stop where we got off the bus. We came across a bread and milk loaded small rickshaw also called as "tumtum", that dropped us to the foot of The Raigad Fort.  

We began climbing, with all the zeal motivating each other to climb the higher than the normally heighted stairs. After a perilous walk up.. We came across the "Mahadarwaja" The main entrance of the fort. The door was fantastically designed in such a way that the enemies could not strait march towards the fort. The thoughtfulness and the sight of this magnificent entrance rendered such joy forgetting the perilous walk we had. My friend also said that all the ones who stayed in the fort would come up to this entrance waiting to welcome the king. As they were telling me stories related to certain places I could imagine it all. I felt the stories as if they echoed from the walls. we went around in the place till we found a place to take a break where we ate the Zhunkaa and bhakri.. it tasted all of love and care as we had packed it from home.

We felt energized and started again to explore the rest of the fort. We walked towards the queen's quarters, having six chambers with a uniqueness of its own, we also came across the Granary, as well as the minister's chambers. I was being told about the Raj darbar on the way, so I couldn't wait to see how it would be ,we hurried towards it. Well It was just a marvellous view.  I had Never seen such a place. The replica of the throne, that was originally made of gold and studded with precious stones was facing the Nagarkhana Darwaja. One the interesting feature of this place was that,  anyone talking near this door was audible at the area of the throne. There was also a special area build for the women to sit, just reflecting how much regard the king had for women. There were some enthusiastic groups who had come to visit this fort they who would sing the praises of the king, with such vigour, that it could be heard far across.

We  moved towards the Holi cha maal , where the colourful festival of holi was celebrated. We came across the famous statue of the king facing towards the Bazaar Peth , the market place. We walked passing the Bazaar Peth  reaching the Jagdishwar Temple. It had a divine feeling. The temperature inside the temple was lower than the temp. outside. Sitting there in peace, I was feeling grateful for being in the lovely place. I specially sat near the dome shaped area of the temple, these ancient architectural marvels are designed in such ways that  one can feel the peace and serenity. After spending some time there we went to see the Samadhi of the Majesty, that was across the temple. The was a great feeling of being around the area where such a great personality had his last rights and rituals conducted. The samadhi of the dog ,"waghya" too was erected beside.

We got to know that Bhavani temple was still far ahead and we will get exhausted reaching there so we walked back towards the Tak mak tok, the point where the sentenced prisoners were thrown off, well it was a scarry view from that point. We could see little villages in small patches from this point, deep down the valley.

We headed down the stairs ,enjoying the limejuice served on the way by the locals. We reached home by evening all with the memories of the lovely day. The warm night, I was sitting beside the fire place watching bhakris being prepared by my friends aunt. I took my eyes off the hypnotizing flames and gased at the pale yellow moon above the forest fire on the mountain. Till now, it had created a glazing necklace shape on the mountain, with the smoky breeze blowing across the village. There was  nothing beautiful than such a break I could ever ask for. A wish that I had, spending time in nature's own nest and drowning in its serenity.