History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c77.s8.1

v5.c77.s8.1

When the campaigning season reopened in October 1701, the Emperor set out for the conquest of Khelna (or Vishalgarh). This fort stands thirty miles west of Panhala, on the crest of the Sahyadri hill, 3,350 feet above the sea and overlooking the Konkan plain lying on its west. The district is wet and cool, and the hills were thickly covered with trees and dense underwood in the 17th century.* Even now, though most of the timber has disappeared, there are still fine groves and stretches of hill-side closely covered with brushwood. The scenery is wild and picturesque. The fort stands on an isolated spur jutting into Konkan and is joined to the Sahyadri range by a narrow neck of land. The easiest means of reaching it is by the Amba pass, five miles north of it, and some 35 miles n. w. of Kolhapur. [Bombay Gaz. xxiv. 2—5.]