There are temples of deities on many hills in Maharashtra and in some places these mountains with temples have been named as Gad (forts). Basically, Gad means a fort or an ancient defensive station on a mountain, but some places are simply called as fort without information. It especially includes places with temples of deities. Dindigad, which falls within the limits of Sonale village on the Mumbai-Nasik highway, is one of them. One thing that fort lovers should note about this place is not any kind of fort or fortress but a place with a Mahadev temple built in recent times. This hill without any kind of historical or documentary evidence has been mentioned as a fort in recent times. There is no mention of this fort anywhere in the history but there are stories about this hill without any evidence. ... This hill on the Mumbai-Nasik highway is 10 km from Bhiwandi and 13 km from Kalyan and can be reached by private vehicle directly on the hill plateau where the temple is located. The temple is about 200 feet above the plateau and there are walkways and steps leading to the temple. The temple was built very recently i.e. after 2001 and from this temple you can see the far away region like Thane city, Bhiwandi city, Mahuli, Ulhas creek which goes to Kalyan taking a turn. Since this is a high hill in this area, the far distant area can be seen from here but no fort or defensive structure can be seen on this hill. From where we stop the car on the plateau, a trail passes under an iron arch. After descending this path for about 15 minutes, we reach an ancient ruined temple. This temple is around 8th century and many broken sculptures can be seen in this temple area. It has a carved sculpture and a broken idol of Gajasur. The sanctum sanctorum of the temple still remains and contains the body of Mahadev. After descending again for 10 minutes from this temple, we reach the water supply tunnel line which supplied water to Mumbai during the British era. Now as this tunnel pipeline is not used for water supply, it becomes dry after the rains when the percolation stops. The length of this subway is about half km and if you have Torch along with it, you can bravely walk this subway. Half a day is enough to visit the temple on the fort, the Pataleshwar temple and the subway. Note – It is not appropriate to call it a fort/fortress as it is only a place with a temple of Mahadev.
© Suresh Nimbalkar