Since my childhood I am fascinated about this fort. I am visiting this fort since my school days and still I often feel that I have not yet fully explored it. I used to go to the fort on bycycle with friends. We used to spend whole day on the fort exploring various manuments. Its so huge and mighty that even today at many spots it scares me. It is built on a conical hill and is about 600 feet in height. It is said that King Bhillam-V of Yadava dynasty had built this fort in 1187 AD. Some say that Rashtrakuta Kings, who built world famous Ellora caves might have built this fort also. Yadava dynasty ruled this fort from 1187 to 1318 AD.
As usual, by habit, I tried to find out the purpose of building this fort at this particular geographical location. The location of the fort is peculiar. It is basically a plateau but this particular area is surrounded by hills which are not very high, but sufficient to protect the fort. It is said that the fort was built for certain purpose and thats very interesting.
The fort is located on the then Diamond and Silk route of India. At that time, trade of Golkonda diamonds and Paithani silk was at its zenith. The diamonds were mined and traded from Golkonda (near today's Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh) to what is known today as Middle east and Europe. Similarly, Paithani silk was manufactured at Paithan, a small town near today's Aurangabad which is about 75 Kms. from the fort. The sea port was at Surat. (even today its known as Surat in Gujarat) The goods were exported from Surat through ships and import was also allowed from the same port. This has significance since that time. It is the prerogative of the Government to decide from which sea port Export and Import would take place. Import-Export is not allowed from any xyz port. This is true even today. The then rulers of the area, where Surat is situated, were very liberal in respect of business and trade. (That's true even today!) So Surat was the port from where the import-export was 'permitted'. The Diamond merchants from Golkonda were required to travel from Golkonda to Surat. The fort is situated exactly at middle on that route. The route was known as Diamond and Silk route of India at that time. Later on, in Mughal period, the silk route changed.
The rulers were collecting toll from diamond and silk merchants in lieu of the protection they offered for safe journey of the merchants and safety of their merchandise. The toll was in the form of gold and silver coins, gold or silver ornaments, articles of gold and silver, lengths of silk, Paithani Shalus etc. Real Paithani, as we know, is not ordinary silk. It is a silk cloth woven in natural silk yarn in which very fine gold or silver threads are interwowen. Real Paithani is sudded with pearls, rubies, diamonds. It is said that to wear real Paithani, the lady was required to be eually strong to bear its weight! I have seen real Paithani in one private meusium and have also felt it. I could get a chance to hold it in my hands, and belive me, its quite heavy!
The collected toll was so huge that they felt need to store it in safe place and the safe place was identified in the conical shaped hill surrounded by other hills which in fact protect the huge cone. The fort was built on the hill and was named in most holiest manner "Deogiri" which means Hill of Gods.
The fort was build with an idea that it would serve the purpose of "safe deposit vault" for storing the toll and will also serve the purpopse as safe place of residence for the rulers. Eventually, the "vault" got converted into capital of Yadava dynasty.
The fort is thereofre highly secured. Various measures are employed to secure the fort. I call them layers of protection. They are : surrounding hills, three layers of fortifying wall, the peculiar arrangeemnt of gates, falls gates, steep gradient, the great moat and ultimate is the "bhul bhulliya".
I propose to write about each of them seperately as and when I get time to do so.
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