Sinhagad Fort: Where Tanaji Malusare Made History at Dawn
At 1,312 metres above sea level, Sinhagad Fort is where one of the bravest midnight raids in history took place — and where the best pithla bhakri you will ever eat awaits you.
Sinhagad Fort: Where Tanaji Malusare Made History at Dawn
The fort has been taken and retaken seventeen times. But only one battle — fought at night, with ropes and monitor lizards — changed the fate of an empire.
Category: Places | Elevation: 1,312 m | Location: 30 km from Pune
Sinhagad — "The Lion's Fort" — looms over the western edge of Pune's horizon. It is one of the most dramatically sited forts in Maharashtra, its sheer basalt cliffs dropping away to valleys on three sides. It is also, on any given weekend, filled with Puneites who have made the climb purely for the pithla bhakri and curd buttermilk served at small stalls near the top.
That combination — epic history and earthy food — is pure Pune.
The Battle of Sinhagad (1670)
In February 1670, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj decided to recapture the fort — then called Kondana — from the Mughal general Udaybhan Singh Rathore. He entrusted the mission to his trusted commander, Tanaji Malusare.
Tanaji led a small raiding party on a starless night and scaled the near-vertical cliff using a monitor lizard (ghorpad) tied with rope. The raid was a success — Kondana was taken. But Tanaji was killed in the fighting.
When Shivaji received the news, he reportedly said: "Gad aala, pan Sinha gela" — "We won the fort, but lost the lion." He renamed the fort Sinhagad in Tanaji's honour.
The Pithla Bhakri Tradition
Few things in Pune are as beloved as the food served at Sinhagad's summit stalls. Coarse bajra bhakri (flatbread), spicy pithla (gram flour curry), raw onion, green chillies, and cold taak (buttermilk) — eaten sitting on a stone wall with the valley of Pune spread out below. It is a ritual for generations of Punekars.
"Sinhagad is training for the body and feast for the soul — often in that order."
The lion is gone. But the fort bears his name, and on quiet mornings, before the crowds arrive, you can feel his presence in the silence.
📍 Sinhagad Fort — Sinhagad, Pune District | Base: ~30 km from Pune city
