Meet the man who hunts for lost forts

Every Diwali childrenrsquos inherent fondness for forts can be seen as they make or buy lsquokilasrsquo forts as part of the festive celebrations But for archaeological researcher Sachin Joshi forts are more than a mere childhood passionHunting for history Archaeological researcher Sachin JoshiJoshi has made it his lifersquos mission to unearth old and forgotten forts and amongst his many discoveries the two ancient forts from the medieval era 7th to 18th century are includedWhen Joshi came upon this water tank at Dasgaon he knew he wasnrsquot far from the old fortrsquos ruinsHis most recent finding the Manjarsumba fort is a 14th century structure built by Nizam Shah who ruled in the nearby Ahmednagar Fascinatingly Joshi located the fort in 2011 after he came across brief mentions of it while going through some old documents of the BritisheraA rare find at any fort this is a lsquomottharsquo or a twostorey structure at the Manjarsumba used to circulate water all over the fortJoshi found clues in the Maharashtra Government Gazetteer compiled by the British around the year 1860 Since then however there have been no more mentions of it and no one had conducted a research on it so far said Joshi It was in the same document that Joshi found clues to a second fort mdash Dasgaon near RaigadThe Manjarsumba fort is a 14th century structure built which was mentioned in old Britishera documents but has since been lost to historyWhile Joshi came across the first clues as far back as 2007 it has taken him years to conduct his research and eventually find the remains of the two forts Joshi who had discovered five other forgotten forts in the past Panhalghar fort near Raigad Mohangad aka Jaslodgad near Pune Manikdurg Kasardurg and Gudhe aka Navate near Ratnagiri mdash all discovered between 2006 and 2010 said ldquoWe have to go through a real struggle sometimes To find just one fort it takes more than a year mdash we have to visit the site repeatedly to find it and with every visit we discover morerdquoThese rocks are all that remain of the walls of the 17th century Dasgaon fort where Joshi also found broken remains of pots water tanks and several ancient coinsJoshi whose interest in forts intensified when he joined Bharat Itihas Sanshodak Mandal BISM an institute providing resources and training for historical researchers is currently completing his PhD research on the two forts now Manjarsumba and Dasgaon2000yearold coins found by Joshi during excavations Such coins are excellent signs of ancient cultures PicShashank SaneMahesh Tendulkar a BISM member and fellow historian said of Joshirsquos research ldquoThese forts were found by Sachin mdashwhile there are mentions of them in ancient documents no one had managed to find them before this Perhaps it was only the local villagers who knew of the forts or what remained to them Sachin took great pains to find the forts and full credit goes to him for doing so It is a great development for the people who study historyrdquoWhile researching Joshi finds citations of the forts in old documents and then attempts to locate them with the help of Google Maps This is a much quicker process than trying to read and interpret maps found in ancient documents Once he figures out the approximate location Joshi and his team visit the surrounding areas and attempt to speak to the local villagers to glean more information However even that can be a challenge sometimesWhile locating the Dasgaon fort they went to nearby villages and asked the locals if they had seen any fort or the remains of a fort nearby but no one had responded positivelyIt was only after extensive exploration of the area that the team spotted an old water tank that hinted at the presence of a fort nearbyThe process was even harder with the Kasardurg fort ldquoWhen we reached Kasardurg we asked an elderly villager whether he could recall the Kasar tribe or any remains of their fort He said he remembered one such tribe located in a village about two km from there He warned us however that only a few people from that tribe were remaining and they are not known to be very social When we went there the people ran away when they saw us We waited for them for a day and also tried to find them in the dense forest surrounding the village but in vain In the end we had to find the fort ourselvesrdquo Joshi recalledLost culturesAt each of the forts Joshirsquos team found several artefacts and remains of cultures lost to history At the Manjarsumba fort he found a surprisingly sophisticated water supply system ldquoOne of the best things about Manjarsumba fort is that it had a twostorey structure mdashcalled lsquomottharsquo mdash that was used to circulate water all over the fort This is a very rare finding in any fortrdquo said Joshi who add that they also discovered the fortrsquos main gate in an intact condition as well as remains of Chinese and Persianstyle artefactsAt Dasgaon the 17th century fort built by Marathas had remains of pots water tanks coins etc ldquoThe fort was originally named Bhopalgad but was renamed by the British as Dasgaonrdquo added Joshi