The regions of Madhugiri and Madakashira are home to many Forts, a few to name are the forts of Madhugiri, Channarayanadurga, Midigeshi, Madakashira, Bhasmangi, Ratnagiri, Gudibanda, and Pavagada. Last Sunday we were on a mission to explore any two of the unexplored forts amongst the above and one of those was Bhasmangi. The Fort of Bhasmangi was built by Budi Basappa Nayaka around AD 1650 and was later captured by Hyder Ali in AD 1768 and improved it. The fort is a perfect example of the Forts built by Palegars and serves a great example in showing much importance given to rain water harvesting in those times.
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| The Mighty Madhugiri |
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| Bhasmangi Fort |
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| Our Break Fast |
We left early that Sunday morning (around 5:00 am) so we could cover both the forts. We started our ascent to this hill fort and in some time reached the first gate of the fort. We were amazed to see the magnificent fort standing tall in front of us. Every stone here stands to tell a story and the glory of the past. We sat down and had breakfast that we had packed. We then proceed further towards the second gate where we found a small temple dedicated to Lord Anjaneya. A few steps further lead us to a flat terrain which had a lot of ruins and water collecting ponds. Up above a small hill from here is a small temple dedicated to Nandi or Basavanna. The idol of Nandi is big and beautiful.
Continuing our climb up, we reached the last and the most intact tier of the fort comprising of many ruins and a doorway which probably lead to the location of the palace/ king's residence. The view from top was simply awesome. The descent was uneventful until we reached the first gate of the fort. Hereon, we took a simpler route to descend till we reached the roadway. There was a temple dedicated to Lord Anjaneya just outside of the fort, which is now being taken care by two elderly people. Resting a while here, we moved on, getting prepared to explore the next fort of Ratnagiri. It was close to 11:30 am while we reached our vehicle and started driving towards Ratnagiri.
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| Hopper |
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| Second Gateway |
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| Other View of the Second Gateway |
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| The Stairs |
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| Lord Hanuman |
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| The Fort Wall |
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| Dodda Basavanna Temple |
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| Nandi |
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| Last Tier of the Fort |
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| One Among the Many Water Ponds Here |
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| Panoramic View of the Last Tier |
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| One of the Ragi Grinding Stones |
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| Panoramic View from the Top |
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| Fort Walls |
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| What A View ! |
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| Ready to Jump |
A wonderful, fascinating post and beautiful captures for the day as always!! Thank you so much for sharing!! Hope your week is going well!!
ReplyDeleteWow! An amazing post!! You sure are documenting a great deal about the forts there! Time for a book? :)
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, what an amazing area and so ancient looking with interesting things to discover! Wonderful shots!
ReplyDeleteThe views from this fort are fantastic. Thank you for taking us there with you. It was nice to see that much of the fort is in good condition.
ReplyDeleteWonderful fort. Should head there soon. Nice images!
ReplyDeletewhat a beautiful area to tour! i thought we had big and ugly grasshoppers and locusts here. :)
ReplyDeletewow what a hike!
ReplyDeleteFascinating place. Thank you for taking us along via your outstanding photographs.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful experience right? Did I send you a book on Bhasmangi?
ReplyDeleteHey Sudhir. .ofcourse you did. .and thanks to you. .it surely helped us while exploring the fort.
DeleteHaven't visited the place!! Thanks for sharing. And as always a nice post!!
ReplyDeleteWonderful exploration of these forts.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos and nice writeup
ReplyDeleteI remembered my last visit to Chitharal Rock-cut Temple
Whoa! I am finding it hard to get the right words!!!
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen any of these and I am feeling so terrible.