Manvi fort

December 23, 2012

Manvi town is a taluka headquarter place. It is about 45 kms south-east of Raichur. Mani fort was the first place on our itinerary of the day. The fort is located one of the four or five hills of Manvi. After entering Manvi town limits, we spent 30 minutes to locate the base of the hill from where we could reach the fort. Locality close to the base of the hill range have narrow lanes, we had to leave the car nearly about half kilometer and walk it up to the hill. There it is- Manvi Kote.

Ravi and Mohan mama lead the way. Mama is right opposite the natural shelter which might have been used as a sentry post. The passage between the rocks is the fort entrance. 

Look of these walls reminds me of Irakalgad fort in Koppal district. The constructions styles are similar, builders have utilized the natural rock formations to their advantage.

Half way up the hill is the Dargah of a Muslim saint. On the tomb walls was painted a name which read as Gous Peer Rehmatullah Alai.

These two neighboring hills are on the west of Manvi fort hill. The small white patch on the closer hill could be Mallikarjuna temple.

This the uppermost and innermost part of the fort.

Close to the entrance is a rain water tank.

The tank is about 11' at the deepest point. Malatesh just entered the scene, he was lagging behind because he was shooting videos as he climbed.

Stone pegs driven into holes work as stoppers. This technique can be seen at few other forts such as Madhugiri and Huthridurga.

The uppermost fort is half open space and the other half is a mass of massive rocks. The highest point of the fort is a turret. Unfortunately the path to the turret was blocked by plants and I was no mood to wrestle with shrubs creeping with God knows what all creatures. In the picture below, to the extreme right is a vertical 40' fall.

In spite of near vertical rock faces a wall has been placed here. Perhaps, it covers a gap between the rocks and also it provides a platform for sentries.

The terrain is quite rough, ground surface is hard and loose pebbles make slopes dangerous.

We walk along the edge of the fort.. Mallikarjuna temple on the neighboring hill.

Down below is evidence of quarrying. On one of the rocks we saw a motif of concentric squares connected in the middle on all four sides.

Now we are the north-eastern corner. The corner most point has a small watch tower perched on a rock with vertical faces on 3 sides.

The structure is circular in plan with a narrow stairway to the roof which is about 14' in diameter.

Ravi and mama enjoy the commanding view of the town and the neighboring hills.

On the way down, I stop for a minute to take one last look at Manvi town.

We found a small restaurant right next to Manvi court premises. Breakfast was fresh idli/vade and tea. I happened to talk to local folks trying to find out about other historical monuments which might have got missed out in our plan. The men mentioned temples but I wasn't very keen in visiting temple because forts and prehistoric sites are my interest. Anyway, I thanked them and we left... Maliabad was next on our list.

I tried finding history of Manvi fort but very less was found. Here are few things-
* Mavi is home to Kalmath, Sri Chowdeshwari temple, Sri Mallikarjuna Swamy temples
* The other name for Gous Peer Rehmatullah Alai could be Hazarath  Sabjali Sattar Dargah.
* Manvi is the hometown of a great Madhva follower Sri Jagannatha Dasa, author of Harikathamruthasara


Manvi fort coordinates: 15°59'3"N   77°3'0"E
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