Forts around Dharwar-Hospet-Badami Triangle

The Maps

Original map courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.(Click to enlarge)

The Forts

1. Gajendragarh
2. Shantagiri
3. Belur
4. Wankandrug or Vakkandurg
5. Chikanal
6. Gudur
7. Kelur
8. Mangalgud
9. Badami –
   Southern part, Northern
10. Mudkavi/Mudakavi
11. Ramdurg
12. Sirsangi, Govankop
13. Hooli
14. Parasgad
15. Saundatti
16. Nargund
17. Anegundi
18. Hampi
19. Koppal
20. Bahadur Banda
21. Hamgi/Hammagi
22. HoLalavvana Gudda,Srimantha Ghada Fort
23. Mundargi
24. Rangapur
25. Torgal
26. Munnavali

Clustering of Forts
There are clearly three different clusters of forts in this map. The top half of the map contains two clusters, one to the west of the hill range and the other to the east. A thin ridge connects the two clusters and a bulge of plains that also extends southwards with Gadag at the center of this plain region.

The third southern cluster is obviously meant to protect access to the Tungabhadra river south of the cluster.

Thanks to Siddeshwar for pointing out some of the forts listed in this post and for putting up pictures from his travels to those forts at his blog.

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Gajendragarh

Todays map of fort’une is of Gajendragarh. Once belonging to Shivaji, it lies pretty much in ruins today.

Easiest way to locate the town of Gajendragarh is look right of the center of the Bijapur-Dharwad-Hospet triangle.

The fort is on the hill north of the town. The hill is actually the southern end of a ridge that starts around Gajendragarh and extends north-westwards towards Belur.

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The detail shows atleast one fortification that forms an enclosure and another that seems to extend to the west of the hill. Google doesn’t have very good imagery of this area.

I was a bit surprised that the AMS map, which I generally take as definitive when it comes to forts, did not show the fort at Gajendragarh. That is a lesson learned. On the other hand, it does show a smaller fort at the extreme end of the ridge. The green patch in the image is the ridge, with Gajendragarh at the SE corner and the smaller fort at the NW corner. Almost as if the ridge was to be protected or the towns East of the ridge were to be observed from these.

Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.

Zoom out and switch to terrain mode to see the ridge spanning the area between the two forts. Information on travel to Gajendragarh is