Travel 48 kilometres away from Pune, through the wild foliage of the Western Ghats, up rocky mountains, past flowering valleys, and you will find Rajgad, a 2000-year-old fort with a glorious history. The first capital of the great Maratha warrior Shivaji, Rajgad found nation-wide notoriety as an impregnable and intimidating fort. Today, it is a wild mountain with crumbling fortifications and ruins; a haven for trekkers who arrive here every year when the hills deck themselves with a hundred shades of green. I was one among them.

Once I began my ascent, I discovered that of the three different routes to reach the fort, the one I chose, from the Gunjavane village, was supposed to be the toughest. It was some consolation that it meandered through tall grass, pretty flowers and shading trees, allowing me many photographic breaks. After three hours, I finally crawled into the fort via the tiny Chor Darwaza (secret door) used by Shivaji’s messengers, feeling like an accomplished warrior myself.

According to historians, the fort was first known as Murumbdev and belonged to the Behmani Empire. It passed many hands - the Nizamshahis, the Adilshahis and Nizamshahis again - before Shivaji finally conquered it in 1649. Measuring 40 kilometers in diameter at its base, the main Rajgad fort comprises of four areas: Bale Killa (the citadel) and the three machis, fortified arms of the mountain - Padmavati Machi, Sanjeevani Machi and Suvela Machi. The Chor Darwaza route led me to the Devi temple at Padmavati Machi, which also functions as the camping-site for visitors.

With the temple as the base, over a period of four days, I wandered the mighty fort’s expanse. To the west is the Pali Darwaza, the main doorway into the fort, with thigh-high steps cut into the rock, visibly meant for those who rode up to the fort on horses. Nearby were rooms where arms and ammunition were stored, living areas and an under-ground room used by the king to hide in case of an enemy attack. At Sanjeevani Machi in the south, double walled fortifications stand tall. As I explored a dark underground passage used by soldiers to furtively cross from the inner fort wall to the outer one, I was extremely conscious of the valour and resolve the soldiers here must have exhibited.

At Suvela Machi stand tiny temples smothered in holy orange paste by the villagers who still come up the mountain to pay their respects to the deities here. Further ahead there is a tiny opening that leads to another underground passage, but at the end of this path once was a gaping hole to the valley below. A system of punishment for traitors, this was the Maratha equivalent of making someone walk the gallows.

But it was at the Bale Killa, which soars 500 feet above the rest of the fort, that I was conquered by the fort. The Maha Darwaza, the grand entrance which guards this area, is the toughest spot to climb. And once up, I was floored by the view of the Sahyadri with its royal entourage of forts visible from there. Torana, Pratapgad, Tung, Raireshwar, Mahabaleshwar, Lingana, Sinhagad, Visapur- the peaks stood its own against the dominating sky.

After four days of clambering around the slippery rock surfaces and down secret passages, I was sated but exhausted. The locals from villages below who regularly come up the mountain to visit the temple were chatty. Interacting with them, it was easy to absorb the vibrancy of this land still revered by people.

At Rajgad every corner greets you with a story about this fort’s magnificent past and you are transported back to a world when brave warriors roamed these hills on grand horses. The canon sits silently now, but you can almost sense its rumble as you walk around the fort. Trekking back, I paid a silent tribute to the men who had fought for decades to build and protect this fortress that Shivaji aptly called the King of Forts.