Ratnadurg - The Cliffhanger Fort in Ratnagiri

You have given up on forts in Maharashtra. First you are not sure if you are already inside a fort since the gateways, walls and bastions are all gone. And if by chance you do spot a sign that says this open space overgrown with vegetation is a fort then you have to literally go down on your knees, like an archaeologist half buried in prehistoric dirt squinting at a possible weapon of mass destruction, to look for anything surviving. And that archaeologist has better chance of finding the tool that your ancestor used to kill a boar than you to find anything standing in a fort in Maharashtra.

View towards the Southern part of Ratnadurg and Arabian Sea - at Ratnagiri Maharashtra

The only reason you are going to go see Ratnadurg is that it offers awesome view of the roaring waves crashing below. And while all built structures would be gone, the monsoons would have created a green carpet all around. Also, you would stay true to the mission of this trip – enjoying the rain and sea and greenery.

It can't get prettier than this - on the way to Ratnagiri Fort

You are heading towards the western most tip of the town that juts out into the sea. This projecting land divides Ratnagiri’s sea shore into Safed Samundar (White Sea) to the North and Kaala Samundar (Black Sea) to the South. The narrow road leading to the fort is submerged in a sea of greenery.

Heading up to Northern part of Ratnadurg or Bhagwati Fort

Ratnadurg apparently has two distinct parts. You are on your way to the North or Upper Fort. The road dips before you see the ramparts of North part of Ratnadurg as the auto rickshaw huffs and puffs up the steep climb to the main gate of Bhagwati Fort or Bale Qila.

The Ugly, the Grotesque, the Joke - Maharashtra ASI wake up and smell the coffee

First look at the gate and your suspicions are confirmed. Maharashtra ASI is indeed full of nincompoops. Just when you thought these so called keepers of heritage cannot outdo themselves, they just outdid their outdoings! These people are killjoys: they just might put you off forts unless you have regular diet of forts of MP and Rajasthan to keep your faith alive. Keeping up the statewide healthy tradition, they have dutifully let this fort too wither and crumble. And when everything was gone they have installed this hideous fiberglass wall up in front. It seems you are entering the sets of a C Grade movie. They should seriously think of handing over the heritage here to someone competent like MSRTC or to MP ASI.  

Bhagwati Temple at Ratnagiri Fort

You did not have any expectations and in your frequent visits to heritage places in Maharashtra, you have learnt to stay unfazed. The only built structure is the Bhagwati Temple from which the fort gets its name. It is modern and painted. You keep moving.

Dude, you aint finding nothing here in this fort, so might as well take my photo

The Jetties below the Ramparts of Ratnagiri Fort

Keeping to the walls you move to your right. Rain keeps you company. It feels good - this rain in Konkan is rejuvenating your body and soul. You just have to be careful as you try to hold on to the umbrella; the wind driven over the Arabian Sea is threatening to parachute you with the umbrella to the churning waters below. Down there you can see couple of jetties for boats. Looking closer you can see the jetties are protected by concrete tetrapods. Such tetrapods line up Marine Drive in Mumbai to protect the expensive real estate.  The views are incredible as high winds sweep across the fort and below the waves churn up white surf – it is Safed Samundar after all.

The ramparts have been restored by the authorities but the same jokers have made it look like the boundary walls that you see lining up the government buildings.

Let's drop anchor in Konkan

Oh well, focus on the job at hand. The monsoons, like across Ratnagiri, have spread magic before your eyes. The fort has come alive in rains with greenery and butterflies and vines and cliff banana plants - a sight that had cheered you up in the crumbling Narnala Fort in Akola last monsoons. You make your way along the walls soaking in the atmosphere circumambulating around the Bhagwati Temple as it keeps peeping through the tree cover on the left and the turbulent waves roar below on the right.

Looking towards the Southern Bastion with the Lighthouse

The Southwest bastion, just beyond, has openings through which an eye was kept on ships coming in, and with them, the accompanying pirates. The southern part of the fort, from here, is covered in mist; even as the seas and the skies dissolve into each other again. The waters below keep rolling into the cliff and here above, in the fort, the rain sends you in sweet rapture.

Soon the rain starts pelting and you come back to take refuge in the temple. It has been a familiar pattern all day today – skies lighten up, clouds roll in, rain follows - first gently and then in torrents. Torrents will soon turn into gentle dancing rain before sun peeps out and the pattern repeats.

Green Carpet rolled out for you - Ratnadurg

Even though there is absolutely no feeling of being in a fort but protocol demands a little description of this so called fort. Ratnagad or Bhagwati Fort was built by the Bahamanis to be later conquered by Bijapur’s Adil Shah. The fort passed into hands of Shivaji in 1670. Later British and then Peshwas became the owners of this horse-shoe shaped fort sitting on top of this laterite hill in Ratnagiri. It is said Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi had visited this fort before the First War of Independence.

Ratnagiri or Rain Forest of Amazon? 

On Cloud Nine - South part of Ratnadurg with Lighthouse. And that is sea on the left side!

It is time to go to the south part of the fort. You go down into the valley in the middle and then climb the narrow road along the southern ramparts as you follow the light house showing the way. This is the first time you are this close to a lighthouse.

Lighthouse at Ratnagiri Fort

View of Kaala Samundar from Ratnadurg

The sign indicates that the Ratnagiri Lighthouse or Deep Stambh is run by the Directorate of Lighhouses and Lightships under the Ministry of Shipping. You had no idea such departments exist which leads you to think there must be a directorate that runs the traffic signals on Delhi roads. You are greeted with same delightful views as you look over the Kaala Samundar and the fishing village below. Under misty skies today really can’t make out if the waters are indeed black.

Best Seat in the Fort

It has been a wonderful day and half in Ratnagiri and the little known city in the beautiful Konkan has effortlessly managed to charm and thrill you.

Road to Konkan

You are sure that even with the yearning for his homeland, King Thibaw would have been grateful to be living in picture perfect Ratnagiri: a frame that has sea beyond the cliffs, rapturous rains, misty hills, greenery everywhere and beautiful people. The beauty of Konkan and Ratnagiri would have dulled some of Thibaw's pain. You feel lucky that Ratnagiri chose you to discover her many charms. It is time to discover other Konkan charms in the rains.  

Getting There: Ratnagiri has friendly auto-wallas who can drive you to the fort unless you want to walk the few kms through the greenery. 

Ratnagiri lies on the south west coast of Maharashtra on the Mumbai-Goa highway and is well connected by trains from Mumbai. Ratnagiri is about about 350 kms from Mumbai and 300 kms from Pune. In Ratnagiri you can hire auto rickshaws to take you around the town and to the fort. The Jijamata Garden will offer you spectacular views of Arabian Sea and Bhatye Beach. Other attractions are the Thibaw Palace, now turned into a museum and Ganpatipule Beach with spectacular views of the sea from the cliffs on the way and scintillating light shadow play on the waves.

Travel Tip: Most lighthouses including the one here at Ratnagiri are open for public viewing from 4 to 5 pm.

Related Posts on this Blog:

1. The Anguish of Thibaw Palace
2. Lokmanya Tilak Birthplace
3. Ganpatipule Beach Cliffhanger

4. Monsoon Mania in Ratnagiri

Walking in the Konkan Rains – Monsoon Mania in Ratnagiri

Konkan knows how to do monsoons. Living in North, you have forgotten the magic of rains. So before you forget what monsoons are all about and before Konkan too forgets what monsoons are all about with the climate changes and all, it is time you went and saw and experienced the monsoons yourself. The trip will have only one objective - enjoy the rains up, close and personal. It is going to be a week of only greenery and flowers and water flowing on the streets, water in puddles, water dancing down from the skies, water gurgling in rivulets, water raining on the sea and water crashing down from the hills.

The Beautiful Snake Gourd Flower (Trichosanches Cucumarina)

You pick Ratnagiri for your first walk in the rains and boy is it magical! Overcast sky greets you on your first day in Ratnagiri. You cannot help smiling. Heritage and other attractions in Ratnagiri are simply going to be incidental. Everything is perfect- or is it?

Allamanda Blanchetii or Purple Allamanda Flower that belongs to Apocynaceae or Oleander family

Tridax Procumbence - a weed

Mimosa Pudica - lovingly called chui mui as the leaves fold when touched

And the rain gods oblige. It is the kind of rain you remember from the days Delhi used to have monsoons. There is a slight breeze that seems to choreograph the rain into that languorous dance that kind of makes you want to sit on a park bench and lose yourself in the performance. After every performance, the rain pauses as if to catch its breath. The pause never lasts too long. And soon enough the dark clouds roll in. The choreographer up there treats you to another exhilarating performance. This pattern repeats itself every hour you are in Konkan. Today as you walk in the general direction towards the Thibaw Palace, the destination is not important. You want to feel the present. It is the delights by the road that interest you.

I could have never imagined the walls, the roofs and even tree trunks completely overgrown with green; there is moss, there are creepers, there are ferns, and there are some more ferns with beautiful coloured veins on them and then there are these flowers with dew dripping, these are flowers that I swear I have never seen before, and all these gold blessed sights leave me feeling lost in this Konkan wonderland and just to be sure I keep checking over my shoulder; yes this is a just a regular road with vehicles and with houses and with students with backpacks smiling and playing hookey with their giggling partners, and there is even garbage here even as the fern leaves try to camouflage it; so ok yes that clinches it, this is a regular road in India and I am here, and I have no idea how this happened that I am here in this heavenly place but I am sure some cosmic miracle took place in the universe and there was this flash of lights, lights that could give me a seizure just looking at them and then there is a clap of thunder and I am here in this gold blessed place

as I balance the umbrella with one hand, and with the other hand I try to put the viewfinder to the eye but the humidity is fogging up my glasses so I try to push up the glasses to the forehead where the cap visor wont let them stay put so I push the cap up and again push the glasses up and again bring the viewfinder to my eyes and try to click but the goddern shutter would not click and I am seized with this panic and invoke God that this could not be happening to me, God how could you do this to me, come on for godsake I am in Konkan after this cosmic miracle and the dern camera wont click and you know god I am not the kind of person who does not care about photos and says it is the memories that I carry home that count, to me it is the photos that I carry back that

help me carry the memories back when my synapses fail to complete the circuit with my memory centre in the brain it is the photos that take me back and help me knit a story and so for a moment I forget the rains, the ferns and the flowers and the love crossed kids who seem to be smirking at me now as I look at the camera as if it is a goddern piece of wood block I just picked up from the side of the road and then I punch the buttons and scroll through the menu and change modes and then that cosmic thing comes back to help one last time and the goddern synapses connect and I remember a friend showing me the manual setting on the lens and I toggle it to M and try to move the little lens appendage and I seem to hear the tiny focus sound, oh god that godblessed sound sounds so sweet so now I hold the umbrella stalk between the shoulder and neck and push the cap up and push the glasses up even as I adjust the lens with one hand and with the other hand press the shutter and this time it clicks and the photo is not looking bad either and I again seem to notice the rain tapping on the umbrella, the ferns with coloured veins, the houses, the towers of local Doordarshan and AIR and  the rain and the flowers are again looking beautiful and I say a quite thanks to the friend who showed me to shoot in the manual mode and who by another miracle has just saved my trip that probably happened because of a gold blessed cosmic miracle when lights flashed and skies thundered.

Stairway to Heaven

Opposite the Thibaw Palace stairs go down to the fishing village below at the foot of the cliff by the sea. The steps covered with moss seem to lead straight to heaven.

View of Kajali River and Kajali Mangroves, Ratnagiri

Residences of bureaucrats overlooking the bay of Ratnagiri

On the way to Jijamata Garden the views of the bay are priceless. Mangroves grow thick here seemingly creating islands of water in the greenery. The houses of the district bureaucrats occupy the prime estate on the hill abutting the sea just beyond.

View of Fishing Village in the Kajali River. Bridge leading to Bhatye Beach can be seen in the distance - Ratnagiri

Jijamata Garden under beautiful looking rain bearing clouds

Spot the Butterfly!

No, we are not going anywhere; we want to stay in Ratnagiri

Jijamata Garden is ticketed with the standard tiled fountains that don’t seem to work anymore. But the views of the sea and the flowers and butterflies more than make up for it. There are some children rides here which might start whirring around in the evenings.

Even a cactus can’t resist from flowering in this weather

Yes such houses do exist!

Just looking at these dream like houses you could settle down in Ratnagiri - unimaginable but yes these houses are in middle of the town.

Trip to Ratnagiri is incomplete without riding in the colourful auto rickshaws

I mean I have seen some gold blessed things in my travels but then sometimes even things like auto rickshaws make me wonder if this was all planned in the big scheme of things or one day somebody decides to put these beautiful, I mean really beautiful, curtains in the autos and then the entire fraternity of autos picks it up and here we have all autos in Ratnagiri wearing these wonderful saffron curtains and while it rains outside, the nice driver puts these covers on either doors and spreads these curtains and now as we go rocking these curtains throw such beautiful shadows inside and I feel as if I am in a palace in Jaisalmer or something but it is not this green outside in Jaisalmer or rains so much there but I just want to forget the world outside and want to lie inside even as it rains more and

even if  I want to go see Thibaw Palace but right now I am wondering when was the last time that dern curtains made me so happy and then I wonder is this because of these happy curtains that Ratnagiri has such friendly auto rickshaw drivers, because an auto driver just drove me from Ratnadurg, where he had come to pray to Shree Bhagwati Devi, into the city and did not charge me and which leads me to think if I could talk to the auto association in Delhi and distribute these curtains to auto drivers here so that passengers and the driver themselves could feel happy when they go rocking on Delhi streets but all this thinking is making me miss the present and I am like to hell with the auto drivers in Delhi, let me just soak in this experience for even I am not sure if God intended only the Ratnagiri autos to be this happy so I will assume its one-off phenomenon and that I will have my fill of this godblessed interior even if god does not mean me to sit in another happy auto like this all my life and as I go puddling on the streets I am as happy as all the auto drivers in Ratnagiri with those beautiful curtains.

And this is just couple of hours of rainwalking in the middle of a city in Konkan. In the next few days, rains of Konkan weave magic around you and cast a sweet & wet spell. The rain sings to you all day long, the rain lulls you to sleep, you wake up smiling listening to the falling drops. Meals have never been this leisurely as you sit by the window looking out to the rain outside. You cannot have enough of the heaven's bounty from the skies. You experience it all - rain on the beach, rain on the fort ramparts, rain as you go discovering churches, rain as the train clatters through glistening forests and green fields and misty hills and rain as you sit in the auto rickshaws with these beautiful curtains. Konkan you are beautiful - let this magic continue for ever. And, yes, let it rain!  

Post Inspired by Hirsch who went cycling around India in 2009. He wrote dern delightful accounts of his gold blessed adventures at http://www.makesomedaytoday.blogspot.in/2009_03_01_archive.html 

Hirsch bro, wherever you are, hope it’s a special place with lots of marshmallows, ladybugs and dewy flowers

Getting There: Ratnagiri lies on the south west coast of Maharashtra on the Mumbai-Goa highway and is well connected by trains from Mumbai. Ratnagiri is about about 350 kms from Mumbai and 300 kms from Pune. In Ratnagiri you can hire auto rickshaws to take you around the town and to the fort. The Jijamata Garden will offer you spectacular views of Arabian Sea and Bhatye Beach. Other attractions are the Ratnadurg with its Lighthouse and Thibaw Palace, now turned into a museum.

Related Links on this Blog

Anguish of Thibaw Palace

Lokmanya Tilak Birthplace