Sinhagad

 

Wisps of monsoon threads

Waft dreamily

Like a moving veil

A burnished moon –

First amber’s dusk,

Now nights of silver pale

 

And to stand atop this fort

Makes you wonder

Alone, left behind,

Where intertwines

Reality with

The mists of a moonlit mind

 

For I clearly see

In the Komorebi

Of silver shine and black

Brave soldiers

Climbing, crawling  

Longing for this stronghold back

 

Like arachnids

They clamber

With sword and shield and knife-

See carefully, behold:

Monitor lizards pull the troops

As the fables come to life

 

Can you hear now?

The bells that ring

For the walls are breached

And the war begins -

The defenders awakened,

Surprised, and beseeched

 

At the very top

Now fires burn

The Mavala – Mughal spars,

The fort is won,

Alas, the Lion lost

Upon these very stars

 

Quietness again

As winds of peace

Blow with moistened love

Memories of the monsoon muse

Lost again

As hides the Moon above

 

Tanaji’s fort

The leonine one –

Sinhagad’s tales remind -

Here intertwines

Reality again

With the mists of a moonlit mind…

Sinhagad Fort, perched high in the Sahyadri hills near Pune, is celebrated not only for its strategic importance but also for the legendary sacrifice of the Maratha warrior Tanaji Malusare and his companions. In 1670, during a daring night assault to recapture the fort from Mughal control, Tanaji led a perilous climb up the sheer cliffs—an exploit later woven into legend through tales of the fort’s famed monitor lizards, said to have aided such near-impossible ascents. Though Tanaji fell in the fierce battle that followed, his courage secured victory for Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who is remembered to have said, “Gad aala, pan Sinha gela” (The fort is won, but the lion is lost). In his honor, Kondhana was renamed Sinhagad, forever linking the fort with valor, sacrifice, and enduring legend.