The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s8.203

c7.s8.203

The island forts or Janjiras deserve separate notice. Suvarndurg (the fort of gold) is perhaps the most striking, as the walls remarkable for their loftiness seem to rise straight out of the sea, and are now so well covered with trees and shrubs as to be very picturesque. But the forts of Málvan are in other respects more interesting. They consist of a fort on the mainland and two fortified islands about a quarter of a mile from the shore lying in a bay which is so studded with rocks and reefs that at low water it looks as if nothing larger than a rowing boat could enter. The largest of these islands, Sindhudurg (the ocean fort), is of considerable extent, but being no more than a sand-bank and the walls neither massive nor very lofty, it is not so striking as Suvarndurg. The fort seems to have been very full of buildings, and though there is no record of Shiváji ever having spent any long time there, it is impossible to resist the belief that he meant it, partly at least, as a place of refuge in case he should ever be too hard pressed to be safe on the mainland.¹ He is said to have worked at the walls of this fort himself, and what is called a print of his hand and foot in the stone is shown and reverenced. He himself is enshrined in a temple as a deity or an avatár according to the taste of the worshipper, and the idol which represents him has a silver mask for common use and a gold one for festivals, both bearing the semblance of an ordinary Marátha face. The second island is called Padmagad, and is said to have contained Shiváji's ship-building establishments. This is now the most pleasing point in the scene, being half reef and half sand-bank and adorned with ruins and cocoanut trees just sufficient to make it picturesque.