Murud-Janjira - History

History

The fort was originally built in 15th century on a smaller scale by a local Maratha-Fisherman Chieftain- Ram Patil to protect his people from pirates/ thieves and was known as " Medhekot". He was a fearless man with independent bent of mind who was quite popular with the local fishermen. Nizam, the the ruler from Ahmadnagar felt threatened by this and sent one of his Siddi commanders Piram Khan, who came with three ships armed with necessary weapons and soldiers and entered fort in disguise as a travelling merchant, at night. He captured the unsuspecting fishermen inside and massacred them including the brave Ram Patil, as they refused to be converted to Islam. Piram Khan was succeeded by Burhan Khan, who demolished the original fort and built an impregnable much bigger, 22 acre, stone fort sometime in between 1567 and 1571. The fort was called 'Jazeere Mahroob Jazeera ' which in Arabic means an Island. Siddhi Ambersatak was nominated as Commander of the fort.

Despite their repeated attempts, the Portuguese, the British and the Marathas failed to subdue the power of the Siddi's, who were themselves allied with the Mughal Empire. Major historical figures from Murud-Janjira include men such as Yahya Saleh and Sidi Yaqub. The fort has a tunnel which opens in Rajpuri. The fort was made by a mixture of lead, sand and gul.

The Marathas led by Shivaji attempted to scale the 12 meters high Granite walls but failed in all his attempts. His son Sambhaji even attempted to tunnel his way into the fort but was unsuccessful in all his attempts.

In the year 1736, Siddi's of Murud-Janjira set out to recapture Raigarh from the ravaging forces of Baji Rao, on 19th April 1736, Chimnaji attacked the gathering forces in the encampments of the Siddi's during the Battle of Riwas near Riwas, when the confrontation ended 1500 Siddi's including their leader Siddi Sat were killed. Peace was concluded in September 1736, but the Siddi's were confined to Janjira, Gowalkot and Anjanwel.