Sajjangad
Sajjangad is located at 9 kilometers from Satara district. It was a spiritual place of Shivshahi. This is a place where Shivaji Maharaja's spiritual guru - Ramdas Swami rests. He spent his whole life here and paased away here only. It one of the important locations in Satara to visit.
On fort, there is samadhi of Samarth Ramadas. the fort is at 3000 ft height and has 750 steps which leads to fort entrance.
It has two water reservoirs inside. On Das Navami, the people around celebrates the festival on the fort in remembrance of Ramadas birth.
Now the fort's maintenance and Ramadas Swami's shrine is taken care of by Ramadas Swami Sansthan trust. This trust is established since the time of Ramdas swami.
In Sahyadri range, Shambhu Mahadev is one fo the sub ranges beggining from Pratapgad to east side. Again this is divided into 3 parts and the Sajjangad fort is located on one of this patrs. The fort was developed by Bhoj king from the Shilahar dine sty in the eleventh century. In many years back, it was known as Ashwalayan Gad bacause of sait Ashwalay lived on this place so.
The Parali village is at the base of Sajjangad fort. So it is also named as a fort of Parali.
Spots on Fort :
'Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharajdwar' is the main entrance of the fort at the southeast direction. 'Samarth Dwar' is the second gate on east side.
There is one place named 'Ramghal'. This was the meditation place of Samarth Ramdas Swami. Behind this, there is mosque like building and Anglai's temple.
It is not the picnic point; however it has the lot of spiritual importance. Therefore it is very nice location to visit.
How to go there
- Parali village is at 10km distance from Satara. From Parali village we can reach to fort by passing 780 steps. It will take one hour.
- From Gajwadi : Gajwadi is three kilometre before the Parali Road. From this we can reach at the fort's top directly by some vehicle. After crossing 100 steps further, we will reach at fort gate. It requires 15 min approx.
Some beautiful pictures of Sajjangad fort are :
