VAJRAGAD FORT

OVERVIEW

District : Pune
Hill Range : Pune
Height above sea level : 4444 ft (~1355 m)
Difficulty rating : Medium
Base village : Narayanpur
Approx. time to reach the top : About 4 hrs from the base village
Best Season to visit : November to February
Duration: 1 - 2 days

About and History

Vajragad was one of the 23 forts given to Mughals in Purandar treaty in 1665. It was won back in 1670. After Shivaji Maharaj’s death, it was lost to Mughal and they named it as "Ajamgad". Again in 1695, Shahu Maharaj won it and handed over the control to Peshwas. It is also called "Rudramal". It’s height from sea level is about 4444 ft (~1355 m). Vajragad and Purandar are sibling forts very near to Pune (about 30-35 Kms). Its mythological name is "Indraneel Parvat". As per Hindu mythology, when Lord Hanuman attempted to carry "Dronagiri" mountain range, a portion of it slipped off his hands and fell down to form "Indraneel Parvat". There is a Siva Temple in the base village of these forts, "Narayanpur", called"Narayaneshwar". This temple is said to be from the days of "Pandavas". Purandar and Vajragad always had a demanding place in Maratha Empire as Purandar was Capital of Peshwas for many years.

How To Reach

Kalyan to Pune (road/rail, 150 km)- Narayanpur (road, 40 km) (Vehicle like jeep can reach upto the level of Purandeshwar mandir now).

Reaching the Base
There are two ways to reach the Narayanpur, which is base village for both Purandar and Vajragad. One is via Pune-Swargate-Hadapsar-Dive Ghat-Saswad-Narayanpur and another is via "Balaji Temple" near Kapurhol on Pune-Satara highway (Pune-Swargate-Katraj-Katraj Ghat-Kapurhol-Balaji Temple-Narayanpur). One can go either by bike or ST bus or city bus to this fort. There is continuous city bus service for Saswad from Hadapsar and ST bus service for Balaji Temple from Swargate. Once you reach Narayanpur, take the blessings from "Narayaneshwar" and "Ek Mukhi Datta" and then move towards the Narayanpeth. It is a small locality of few houses very close to Narayanpur. From here, one can either go by trek route or by road. There are two trek routes available. One take you directly to "Binni Darwaja" and another route take you through some old bungalows and few lakes. We would suggest go by this route so that you can see the view of Sinhagad, Torna and Rajgad along with some great scenes from down and moreover some of the parts of Purandar and Padmavati Lake. Choose any route from these three (bike/car, trek1 and trek2 (which we suggested)) and you will finally arrive at Binni Darwaja on Pupandar Machi.

Place to Stay / Eat

At top there is no arrangement for food. enroute there are some local hotels.

Places of Interest

Once you identify and reach the footsteps of door, you can see the broken road and steps which will take you to the "Mahadarwaja". You can notice the sign (I think of it to be lotus) on the door which is not elsewhere (on other forts it is generally an elephant, horse or tiger is carved). There could be many buffalos and cows on the fort as they come here to eat the grass. Walk through the steps after door and come on the top of the fort. Here you can see a huge rock in the middle and the wall surrounding the border of the fort. You can see the bigger and complete picture of Purandar from here. There are not much places to see on this fort now but two temples and two water tanks are in good condition along with the Mahadarwaja and few ruins of fortification. Move beside that huge rock and you can see those temples of Vajra Maruti and Shiv Temple. Go though a small door cum window and see those temples and tanks. After seeing the temples you can spend some more time on fort and have a look at surrounding area.