More history happened inside Rajgad’s walls than on any other Sahyadri fort. This was not a garrison or a watchtower — it was the seat of government, the place where a young Maratha king ran an expanding empire, signed treaties, buried a queen, welcomed a son, and stored the treasury that funded a rebellion against the Mughal Empire. Walking through the ruins is walking through the rooms where an empire was built, argument by argument, battle by battle.
Originally called Murumdev, the fort was captured and renamed Rajgad by Shivaji Maharaj, who is said to have built it with treasure found on the adjacent Torna Fort. He made it his capital and stayed here for roughly twenty-six years — the longest any single fort served as the Maratha seat of power — before eventually moving the capital to Raigad for the coronation.
Rajgad was the backdrop to some of the most pivotal events in Maratha history. Shivaji’s son Rajaram Chhatrapati was born on this plateau. His first queen, Saibai, died and was buried here — her tomb remains on Padmavati Machi, a quiet stone structure that most trekkers walk past too quickly. It was one of the twelve forts Shivaji retained when he signed the Treaty of Purandar in 1665 with the Mughal general Jai Singh I — a treaty that ceded many forts but kept the most strategically vital ones, of which Rajgad was first among equals. The head of Afzal Khan is said to be buried within the fort walls.
Rajgad’s three machis were not decorative extensions — they were independent defensive units, each with its own walls, gates, water supply and provisions, designed so that even if one machi fell, the others could hold and counterattack. Sanjeevani Machi’s double fortified walls, stretching 2.5 km with bastions and gates separating each section, are the most intact example of this layered defence philosophy anywhere in the Sahyadris. An underground escape route leads from the Bale Killa through the mountain to the outermost fortification — the last resort of a capital that planned for everything.
Rajgad is where the Maratha Empire was born, run, and defended for a quarter century. Walk its history with GoRaahi.