Bankot Fort

Bankot Fort / Himmatgad Fort/ Fort Victoria is a fort located 47 km from Dapoli, in Ratnagiri district, of Maharashtra. This fort is an important fort in Ratnagiri district. The Fort is located on a prominent and commanding point for guarding the trade route along the Savitri River, which runs till, Mahad which was a busy route in medieval times. It is a fort located on a hill near the sea.

First record evidence about this fort is found in the records of Greek geographer Ptolemy in first century AD. It was then called as Mandargiri or Mandagora. The Chinese traveller Hieun Tsang is supposed to have embarked in Bankot in 640 AD. This fort was captured by the Portuguese from Mohammed Adil Shah of Bijapur in 1548. It was won by Maratha Koli Admiral Kanhoji Angre in 1700 and named "Himmatgad". With Tulaji Angre raiding territories belonging to Chhatrapati Shahu and his noblemen, a rivalry between Tulaji Angre and the Peshwas ensued. After Tulaji ignored several warnings handed out to him to fall into line, the Peshwas allied with British and waged a war against Tulaji.

In 1755, this fort surrendered to Commodore James of British fleet after the fall of Suvarnadurg. British forces captured the fort and named it as Fort Victoria. Later it was revealed by the British that it was not an economically viable deal to maintain the fort and it was handed over to Peshwas. In 1837 the Mamlatdars office was moved from Bankot to Mandangad.

The nearest town is Harihareshwar which is 201 km from Mumbai and 194 km from Pune by road. The base village of the fort is Bankot which is 47 km from Dapoli and 21 km from Shrivardhan. To reach from Harihareshwar one has to avail the Bagmandala to Bankot base village ferry service to cross the Savitri river. There are good hotels at Dapoli and Shrivardhan. Now tea and snacks are also available in small hotels along the coastal road. The trekking path starts from the hillock west of the Bankot village. Now there is very safe and wide road up to the fort. It takes about half an hour to reach the entrance gate of the fort.

The fort is built by Lateritic rocks. Surrounding the fort is a moat dug up in the lateritic rock. There are two gates to the fort. The northern Entrance gate facing the Bankot creek is the main gate. The western gate opens up on a plateau. The main entrance has vestibules for the gate keepers.

Text adapted from “Bankot fort” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Bankot Fort ranks #7,173 of 8,764 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #206 of the 220 mapped in India. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how India compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗