Ghodbunder Fort

About Ghodbunder Fort:

• It is a hill fort located in Ghodbunder Village, Thane, Maharashtra.
• It is situated on the banks of the Ulhas River.
• History:
  • It was originally built by the Portuguese and completed in 1730.
  • The place derives its name from two words: Ghod, meaning horses, and bunder, meaning Fort.
  • The fort derived this name because it was initially used by the Portuguese to trade their horses with the Arabs. 
  • Later, the fort was conquered and occupied by the Marathas.
  • In 1818, the British took over this fort, and the British East India Company started using it as its district headquarters.
• The fort was constructed from stones carved out of the very mountains and joined with the help of lime, rubble, gravel, stones, molten metal, and sand. 
• The fort consists of a Portuguese church built in the early 16th century AD.

There are also several mansions and rooms which throw light on the Maratha rule.

Q1: What is the Maratha empire?

It is an early modern Indian empire that rose in the 17th century and dominated much of the Indian subcontinent during the 18th century. The Marathas were a Marathi-speaking warrior group mostly from what is now the state of Maharashtra in India. They became politically active under the leadership of Shivaji, their first king, in opposition to the Islamic rulers of the time. The formal Maratha empire began in 1674 with the coronation of Shivaji as Chhatrapati (“Keeper of the Umbrella”) and ended in 1818 after defeat by the English East India Company.

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