MALANGGAD FORT

OVERVIEW

District : Thane
Hill Range: Matheran
Height above sea level : 3200 feet (~789 m)
Difficulty rating : Medium
Base village :
Nearest City : Kalyan
Approx. time to reach the top : 2 hrs from the base
Google Map Co-ordinate :

How To Reach

By Train reach Kalyan. Buses are available from Kalyan to the base of the fort on a regular basis

One can reach the base of the fort by bus from Kalyan within half an hour. At the lower plateau of the Fort is the famous Dargah of Haji Malang. There are steps up to that point. There are also shops on the way. There is a big Shiva temple and a small temple of Devi. There is a lot of pilgrim activity up to this Dargah. Before the Dargah and between the shops, there is a route, which veers of to the right. There are houses and a well in that route. The route is along the ridge of the hill and starts climbing to the right. You can reach the top vertical rock face after a climb of about 15-20 minutes.

Place To Stay / Eat

No Shelters are available. Though one can get food and water from small hotels on the way.

Places Of Interest

You should reach the other end of the Machi going straight along this route. From there a secret route leads to an ashram at a lower level. From there two routes lead to both the ends of the hill, in the North-South direction. One route goes to the village of Vavanje at the base. One can get an S.T. to go to Panvel from that village. If we take the route going north, further away, it divides into two. The bifurcation going straight circumambulates the fort and reaches the entrance via a rock face, which looks like a Palanquin. The route going to the right goes down to the intersecting ridge between

Malanggad and the Ganesh Karthik Pinnacles. From the Machi, we can reach the topmost portion of the fort by keeping the rock face to the right and going around it and reaching the steps cut on the rock face. After we cross the steps we see a cave and a water cistern. It is quite difficult to go ahead from this spot. Many rock cut steps, after the initial 50-60 have collapsed and we can cross this expanse of rock face with the aid of an iron pipe, laid along this route. A rope has been fixed through this expanse as handhold. One can reach the top of the fort, in about 10 minutes after we cross this patch.

The top expanse is quite small. One can see a construction without a roof. There are 7 water tanks dug out behind this structure. There is a wild fig tree in the middle of the topmost portion of the fort and one can also see a bit of fortifications on this portion of the fort. The pinnacle of Devni is right ahead in front of the "Balekilla". All pilgrims have a custom of throwing a stone from the fort to the Devni pinnacle. It is said that if the stone hits the Devni pinnacle, they will get their wishes fulfilled.

If one looks from the East to the North East of this fort, we can see the regions of Gorakhgad, Rajmachi, Matheran, Peb, Irshal, Prabalgad, etc.

On the February full moon (Magh Shuddh' Purnima) a large fair is attended by the people of all faiths from Kalyan, Panvel, Thane, and Mumbai. The annual pilgrimage to the shrine is during May. On reaching the top the pilgrims perform three rituals - washing their hands and feet in the large water cistern, eating wild figs from the trees growing around the shrine and throwing stones at a rock pinnacle on the south west side.