The Marathi-speaking Belgaom province was annexed to the state of Karnataka during the linguistic process. Even though this part is in Karnataka, Marathi culture still exists in this province and is still in Maharashtra in the minds of people, the Marathi culture is often seen while visiting the forts in Belgaon. As these forts in Belgaon district were once in Swarajya, I consider these forts to be in Maharashtra and I am referring to them as forts in Maharashtra. While wandering around the forts in Belgaon district, we had a list of 35 forts but one name was suddenly added to it. While exploring the fort in Hukkeri taluka, on the way to Chikkalandini fort, we saw a big bastion on a hill and another fort was added to our list of forts, namely Karguppi fort. ... While wandering around the Belgaon district, I was able to visit more than 35 forts. I have tried to give the information of all those forts on my website ‘Durgabharari’. The fort is situated on a small hill in Karguppi village at a distance of 40 km from Belgaon and 24 km from Hukkeri taluka. This distance is only 5 km from Pachhapur fort. After reaching the village, if you ask for Malleshwar temple or government school, you can reach the fort directly by car. There is also a staircase on the other side to reach the fort. Apart from the bastion and temple on the fort, other remains might have been buried under the ground and a school and some new houses have been built on it. The original Malleshwar temple on the fort has been renovated from the outside and the original structure of the interior has remained intact. Built of wrought stone, the bastion does not use cement to keep the stones intact. There is a small door to enter into this bastion. After entering through this door, we reach the top of the bastion by steps. As this is the only hill in this area, Pachhapur fort and 10-12 km area can be easily seen from this bastion. 10 minutes is enough for exploring the entire fort. This small fort must have been built to keep an eye out on the path leading to Pachhapur fort and to send and receive messages. The history of the fort is also unknown as the fort itself is in obscurity. Note - Due to the sudden heavy rains on the fort, we were unable to click more pictures.
© Suresh Nimbalkar