Fort making thrives as number of structures goes up

Nagpur: The tradition of building forts during Diwali vacations has seen a surge this year, says Ramesh Satpute, who has been organizing a fort making competition for 31 years. "This year around 180 forts are being made in the city," he says and add, "The number of entries keep going up every year and this year we have six schools taking part. Besides there are entries for 20 historical forts inspired by Shivaji Maharaj's forts, six inspired by forts of Vidarbha and rest are based on imaginary designs," he informs.

The practice of building forts stems from the desire to preserve the rich historical heritage. "There are more than 400 forts in the state and this activity helps in learning about them," says Prafull Mategaonkar who represents Vidarbha on the state government's Qilla Samvardhan Samiti. "Those who take part in the competitions do a deep study of the structures," says Mategaonkar who had created the Rajgarh fort in 2001 and had gone there and stayed to take pictures. "Now digital pictures are available but still going to the site helps in creating exact replicas," he says.

Creating a replica of Panhala fort at Vishnuji ki Rasoi is Vishal Deokar and his team of Durg Jagar. "This is a very significant fort of Shivaji where he fought a battle with Adil Shah in 1656. We have built statues of Baji Prabhu, a trusted commander of Shivaji, and Shiva Kashid, who resembled Shivaji. Both of them engaged the army of Adil Shah and helped Shivaji escape," says Deokar who visited the fort in Kolhapur to study its design. "We have used six trucks of concrete and one truck clay to create this 30ftx10ft structure," he says and adds, "We will be keeping his structure for a month so that schoolchildren can come and see it."

For Dhanajay Degwekar of Durg Pratishthan the activity is all about making it easy for people to understand history and get a feel of these forts. Degwekar has created a replica of Shivneri fort, the birth place of Shivaji. The 5ftx4ft structure has been created at the home of his relative in PNT Nagar. Using materials like garden soil, concrete, cow dung, shaalu maati, Degwekar has put elements like greenery, water tanks and has built the house which was the actual birth place of Shivaji along with a model of Kamani Masjid which still exists there," he says.

Getting a replica of Raigarh fort at his home, DCP special branch Nilesh Bharne says, "It is a beautiful concept of bringing alive our rich history and so I too have got one made at my place." Working on a 2ft replica of a Maratha fort is Std V student Soumya Sawarkar. "I have used limestone, cow dung, bricks and garden soil to make this imaginary structure," say Sawarkar who has learnt the craft from his father.

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