{"id":129366,"date":"2026-10-17T15:01:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T09:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=129366"},"modified":"2026-10-17T15:01:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T09:31:37","slug":"murud-janjira-fort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/murud-janjira-fort\/","title":{"rendered":"Murud-Janjira Fort"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Murud-Janjira Fort Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Months after being closed during the monsoon for safety and cleaning work, the historic Murud Janjira Fort in Maharashtra&#8217;s Raigad district has finally reopened to visitors recently.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Murud-Janjira Fort<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is an <\/span><b>island fort<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> located on an island off the coastal village of Murud, in the Raigad district of <\/span><b>Maharashtra<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>surrounded by the Arabian Sea<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on all sides and is <\/span><b>one of the strongest marine forts <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of India.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Murud-Janjira Fort <\/b><b>History<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>history <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of Murud Janjira Fort dates back to the <\/span><b>15th century,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> when the <\/span><b>Siddi rulers <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">established a powerful naval base along Maharashtra&#8217;s western coast.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Siddis were the rulers of Murud-Janjira. They were <\/span><b>people of African origin<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> who had come to India many centuries ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The name &#8220;Janjira&#8221; is believed to have originated from the Arabic word &#8220;Jazeera,&#8221; meaning island.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Initially constructed as a small wooden fort by local fishermen, it was later re<\/span><b>built into a massive stone fortress under the Siddis.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fort\u2019s <\/span><b>strategic location<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on the <\/span><b>bustling maritime trade route<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> connecting Broach, Daman, Diu, and Mangalore made it a <\/span><b>vital hub fo<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">r <\/span><b>commerce and military operations.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the centuries, <\/span><b>Siddi alignment with<a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/mughal-empire\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Mughals<\/a> provoked conflict with local kings,<\/b> <b>including Shivaji and his son Sambhaji, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">who attempted to scale the walls and tunnel to it, respectively.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However,<\/span><b> no outsider (including British, French, and Portuguese <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">colonists) ever <\/span><b>made it past the fort\u2019s 12 m-high granite walls, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which, when seen during high tide, seem to rise straight from the sea.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite numerous attempts, its defenses <\/span><b>remained unbreached,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> earning it the moniker \u201c<\/span><b>Unconquerable Janjira.\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Murud-Janjira Fort <\/b><b>Architecture<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The structure is built on a rock outcrop and has <\/span><b>26 massive bastions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>high protective walls.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fort was made by a mixture of lead, sand, and gul.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The main gate of the fort facing Rajapuri on the shore is a huge structure. There is a <\/span><b>small gate towards the open sea to escape from the enemies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once it stood firm and robust in defence with 572 roaring cannons, only a<\/span><b> few of the large cannons remain <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in place today, and the <\/span><b>largest <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of them is known as the <\/span><b>Kalaal Bangdi.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Earlier <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the fort was a<\/span><b> full-fledged living place <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with all the necessary facilities like palaces, quarters for officers, a mosque, two small 18 m natural freshwater lakes, etc.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is also a deep well with cold and sweet water, a wonder of nature in the midst of the sea.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mid-day.com\/news\/india-news\/article\/maharashtra-months-after-monsoon-closure-murud-janjira-fort-reopens-ahead-of-tourist-season-23655453\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>MD<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Murud-Janjira Fort is an island fort located on an island off the coastal village of Murud, in the Raigad district of Maharashtra. Read more about Murud-Janjira Fort, Location, History, Architecture, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":129412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10954],"class_list":["post-129366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-murud-janjira-fort","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129366"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129431,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129366\/revisions\/129431"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}