When we talk about wardha district, we remember Mahatma Gandhi's Sewagram but in this Wardha district of Vidarbha many forts once existed in the form of hill fort, Ground fort and fortress. While exploring forts in Wardha district, we got to see a total of 10 forts remains. In Pramod Mande's book “Gadkille Maharashtrache” Except the 7 forts in this book, there is no mention of other forts anywhere else. In today's modern age, information about these forts is not even readily available on the internet. I have tried to present the information obtained while visiting these forts on this website Durgbharari. Many of these forts have been completely destroyed and only ramparts or a bastion or a gate is remaining and fighting against time. Among these 10 forts there are 2 hill forts, 1 Sarai and the remaining 7 fortress. Most of these forts have villages, temples or dargahs, near them so the settlements has taken over the remains of these forts. ... The ignorance and indifference of the local people towards these historical monuments is also contributing to the deterioration of these forts. Among the 10 forts that we visited, a relatively well-preserved structure is the Sarai at Nachangaon in Deoli taluka. Pulgaon town is the nearest place to visit Nachangaon Sarai. The distance from Wardha to Pulgaon is 32 km and Pulgaon to Nachangaon is only 3 km. Rickshaws are available from Pulgaon to Nachangaon. As this place is famous in the village, you can get down from the bus stop and reach the Sarai in the center of the village in 5 minutes. This is square shaped and is spread over an area of one acre and has two gates namely the main gate on the north side of the fort and one on the south side. The outer side of the main door has two bays and the inner side has guard rooms. Both the doors and the outer ramparts are made of stones and lotus flowers and kalash are carved on this door as well as on the outer wall. Inside the door there is a staircase leading to the top and the entire place can be seen from the top of the door itself. The interior construction is made of bricks. The second gate of this place also has a guard room on the inner side and due to encroachment outside the door, this door has been stoned and closed. The northern and eastern ramparts of the Sarai are still completely intact and a total of 23 rooms can be seen in the eastern rampart with 16 rooms and 7 rooms in the northern rampart. In the center of this place is a beautiful well and a built-in staircase leading down into the well. This well filled with water is two storied and two beautiful tiger faces are carved on the entrance of the well. Half an hour is enough to visit and see the whole place. Presently the public works department has taken up the repair work of this place and the repair is being done in a very horrible manner. A new concrete wall has been constructed in place of the fallen ramparts and gravel of cement is being poured in other places. Broken buildings are being repaired with cement bricks. A large two-storied Mughal style building can be seen on the outskirts of the village. Local people refer to this structure as “Killa” (fort). Since night had fallen we were not able to go inside here.
© Suresh Nimbalkar