Stone Sentinels of Power

UNESCO’s recognition elevates the Maratha fort network into global history as a model of terrain-led defence.

Earlier this week, amid ceremonial rhythms in Paris, a piece of Indian history was quietly elevated to the global stage when Maharashtra’s Minister for Culture Ashish Shelar was presented with the official certification from UNESCO recognising a clutch of twelve forts which have played a key role in Maratha history as a World Heritage property.

The newly inscribed property is not a single monument but a martial landscape stitched together by stone, strategy and ambition. Eleven of the forts lie in Maharashtra, with one notable outlier in Tamil Nadu. Together they chart the rise of the Marathas from regional insurgents into one of early modern India’s most formidable political and military forces. Built, adapted or expanded between the late seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries, these fortifications were less about architectural flourish than about dominance over terrain, movement and trade.

The UNESCO’s citation notes that the forts were “strategically located on coastal and mountainous terrain” forming a “complex defence system” that underpinned Maratha military power and territorial control. This was warfare shaped as much by geography as by arms. Perched on knife-edged ridges, embedded in island outcrops, or looming above vital ports, the forts turned the landscape itself into an ally.

Constant Conflict

The Maratha state was forged in the crucible of constant conflict with the Mughals, especially during the long war waged by Aurangzeb when the Mughal emperor came down to the Deccan to crush the nascent Maratha power (as well as the Deccani sultanates) following the death of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in 1680 CE. Aurangzeb’s 27-year Deccan campaign (1681 till his death in 1707), which proved to be the Emperor’s undoing was the longest in Mughal history, draining imperial resources and exposing the limits of conventional siege warfare against a dispersed, fort-centred resistance.

It was also in conflict with the Deccani sultanates and later European powers. A fort had to be difficult to reach, harder to besiege and nearly impossible to surprise. Access paths were deliberately tortuous; gates were angled to expose attackers’ flanks; water storage was engineered to withstand long sieges. In many cases, the mountain was sculpted as much as the masonry.

Hill forts such as Raigad and Rajgad that loom high in the Sahyadri ranges served as nerve centres of political authority. From these heights, Maratha commanders could monitor trade routes, troop movements and rival territories. Coastal forts like Sindhudurg, by contrast, projected power seaward. Built to counter European naval threats and protect lucrative maritime commerce, they reveal a state alert to the changing technologies and economics of war.

The inclusion of the Gingee fort complex in Tamil Nadu adds a telling southern chapter to the story. Often described as the ‘Troy of the East,’ Gingee’s layered defences spread across three rocky hills made it one of the most formidable strongholds in the subcontinent. Its occupation by Chhatrapati Shivaji in the late 17th century demonstrated the Marathas’ capacity not only for expansion but for absorbing and repurposing existing military architectures beyond their core region. Its presence in the UNESCO listing underlines the Marathas’ reach beyond their Marathi heartland and their ability to adapt existing fortifications to their own strategic doctrines.

‘Distinctive Landscape’

Taken together, these forts form what UNESCO calls a “distinctive landscape of hill, coastal and island defences.”

For India and especially Maharashtra, the recognition carries symbolic as well as scholarly weight. The country already boasts a substantial number of World Heritage sites, but many are associated with imperial dynasties - the Mughals, the British, or ancient civilisations. The Maratha forts foreground a different tradition: one of indigenous state-building rooted in mobility, resilience and local knowledge. They tell a story of how a regional power learned to fight empires on its own terms.

There is also a contemporary subtext. Maharashtra’s political leadership has been keen to project the Marathas as exemplars of self-rule and strategic acumen. International validation from UNESCO lends that narrative a degree of legitimacy that domestic commemoration alone cannot provide. Yet the certification is not merely a nationalist bauble. It comes with the obligations of conservation, sustainable tourism and protection from the slow violence of neglect and unplanned development.

According to Dr. Tejas Garge, Director of the Directorate of Archaeology & Museums, detailed proposals have already been submitted covering the practicalities of preservation. “We have submitted detailed proposals for the conservation of these forts, aspects like approach road, toilets, water supply, information centre, security, etc.,” he says. “We hope that the official formalities will be completed soon, funds will be sanctioned this financial year, and these works will begin.”

Many of the forts are in remote or environmentally sensitive locations. Increased attention brings risks as well as rewards. Unregulated tourism can erode paths, strain water systems and litter once-impregnable heights with plastic detritus. Climate change, too, poses a quieter threat. Intensifying monsoons and shifting weather patterns could accelerate erosion in structures never designed for such extremes. World Heritage status, in theory, unlocks expertise and funding to mitigate these dangers. In practice, it demands long-term administrative discipline - something Indian heritage management has not always displayed.

Umesh Zirpe, President of the Akhil Maharashtra Giryarohan Mahasangh, notes that while administrative processes are underway, visible markers of World Heritage status are still absent. “After UNESCO accorded the honour, concerned organisations are following up with the due processes,” he says. “As of now, there are no World Heritage Site sign-boards at these locations, but things are moving to attract international tourists, researchers, historians and youth.”

The UNESCO recognition means that the Maratha forts are no longer just regional icons or trekking destinations but are part of a global conversation about how societies organised power, defence and space. Their recognition invites a reassessment of India’s military past, one that looks beyond battlefield heroics to the patient engineering of advantage.

Stone by stone, path by path, the Marathas built a world where geography itself fought on their side. Centuries later, that strategy has won them a different kind of victory: a place among humanity’s shared treasures, certified and preserved not for conquest, but for memory.

Fighting the Empire Sideways

On the way to Purandar - by M.V.Dhurandhar

To understand the Maratha forts merely as stone citadels is to miss their true purpose. They were not designed to win wars in the classical sense of pitched battles and decisive sieges. Instead, they were tools in a distinctly asymmetric strategy that allowed a comparatively small, resource-poor power to exhaust and outlast empires far larger than itself.

The origins of this system lie in the mid-17th century, under Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who inherited neither vast armies nor deep treasuries, but something more valuable: mastery over terrain. The Western Ghats, with their steep escarpments, dense forests and narrow passes, became the Marathas’ natural battlefield. From the 1640s onwards, Shivaji began systematically capturing, refurbishing and building forts.

Between 1645 and 1657, Shivaji seized key hill forts such as Torna, Rajgad and Kondana (Sinhagad), often through surprise assaults rather than prolonged sieges. These early campaigns established a pattern. Forts were rarely meant to be held at all costs. They were bases for raids, refuges during counter-attacks, and bargaining chips in negotiations.

This logic crystallised into the famed Maratha ‘ganimi kava’ - a form of mobile guerrilla warfare that avoided direct confrontation with superior forces while incessantly harassing them, cutting off their supplies. Forts acted as the fixed nodes of this otherwise fluid system. From them, small Maratha bands could strike supply lines, ambush detachments, and melt back into inaccessible terrain. Mughal commanders found themselves fighting an enemy who refused to stand still.

The Mughal response, especially after Aurangzeb’s arrival in the Deccan in 1681, was to revert to what empires knew best: sieges. But this played directly into Maratha hands. The Mughal imperial army spent years and staggering sums in attempting to capture hill forts whose strategic value often evaporated the moment they fell. When Raigad was finally stormed in 1689 after Chhatrapati Sambhaji’s murder, the Maratha leadership shifted power to Gingee where Rajaram was crowned Chhatrapati and carried on the struggle.

Maharani Tarabai of Karvir - by M.V.Dhurandhar

Though eventually captured, Gingee tied down imperial forces for nearly eight years. During that time, Rajaram and his able ministers, mainly under Prahlad Niraji (the Pant Pratinidhi) and later Rajaram’s wife Tarabai used the breathing space to regroup, raid Mughal-held territories, and stretch imperial logistics to breaking point. This period also saw the rise of the two legends – Santaji Ghorpade and Dhanaji Jadhav – who carried the success of Maratha guerilla warfare to its apogee.

Maintaining a fort garrison required far fewer resources than sustaining a field army. Rainwater harvesting systems, granaries carved into rock, and concealed access routes allowed forts to endure long sieges with minimal resupply. Mughal armies, by contrast, depended on vast baggage trains that were vulnerable to constant harassment.

Even when forts were lost, the Marathas treated defeat as reversible. Sinhagad changed hands multiple times; Purandar was surrendered under treaty in 1665 only to be retaken later. Thus, forts were expendable assets in a war of attrition.

In this sense, the great Maratha hill forts anticipate modern doctrines of asymmetric warfare. They privileged endurance over annihilation, networks over nodes, and geography over brute force. The empire that tried to crush them collapsed under its own weight. The forts remained.

Seen this way, the UNESCO’s recognition, coming ahead of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s 396 birth anniversary on February 19, is an international acknowledgement of a way of fighting and winning that history’s conventional narratives of empire have often struggled to explain.

The Magnificent Dozen

Maharashtra alone is blessed with nearly 400 big and small forts built by different rulers and dynasties over centuries. UNESCO’s inscription, however, singles out a carefully chosen network of twelve Maratha forts - eleven in Maharashtra and one in Tamil Nadu - not for their individual grandeur but for the way they functioned together as a single military ecosystem.

This network combined hill forts, sea forts and island strongholds into an integrated system that fused geography, architecture and local knowledge. Through it, the Marathas challenged far mightier imperial forces - from the Mughals and the Adil Shahis to European colonial powers - using mobility, surprise and terrain rather than brute force.

What sets these forts apart is their extraordinary adaptation to nature. Hill forts such as Rajgad, Raigad and Salher erupt dramatically from the Sahyadri ranges, their steep cliffs, narrow approaches and twisting pathways designed to exhaust and confuse attackers long before battle was joined. By contrast, the sea forts - Sindhudurg, Vijaydurg and Suvarnadurg - demonstrate a rare mastery of maritime defence, exploiting rocky islets, concealed entrances and massive bastions to repel naval assaults.

This dual dominance over land and sea was unusual in pre-modern South Asia. While other great powers from the Romans and Portuguese to the Cholas and British had mastered similar systems elsewhere, the Maratha achievement stands out for having done so with limited resources, decentralised administration and strong local participation.

Raigad

The crown jewel of the network and capital of the Maratha Empire. Perched nearly 2,700 feet high, it was here that Shivaji Maharaj was crowned Chhatrapati in 1674. Its palaces, granaries and water systems reflect both military power and effective governance.

Shivneri

The birthplace of Shivaji Maharaj (1630). A residential-cum-military fort with seven defensive gates, rock-cut water tanks and strong walls, controlling ancient trade routes between the Konkan and the Deccan.

Rajgad

Shivaji’s capital for over two decades before Raigad. A vast and complex hill fort with multiple fortified spurs (machis), massive gates and deep water reserves, central to early Maratha statecraft.

Panhala

A plateau fort captured in 1659, notable for its sheer size, long ramparts and secret escape routes. Strategically vital in southern Maharashtra and remembered for Shivaji’s daring escape to Vishalgad.

Pratapgad

Built in 1656, this misty hill fort is synonymous with the 1659 battle in which Shivaji outwitted and killed Bijapur general Afzal Khan—an event that shifted the balance of power in the Deccan.

Lohagad

A treasury fort guarding key trade routes near present-day Lonavala. Known for its strong gates, long ramparts and the dramatic Vinchu Kata ridge.

Salher

At 1,567 metres, one of Maharashtra’s highest forts. Site of a major Maratha–Mughal battle in 1672, its elevation offered unmatched strategic advantage.

Khanderi

An island fort built in 1679 to counter Siddis and European naval powers. Served as a maritime watchtower controlling sea traffic off the Konkan coast.

Sindhudurg

Built in 1664 on a rocky island near Malvan. A masterpiece of naval engineering with hidden entrances, freshwater wells and massive stone walls; the nerve centre of Maratha naval power.

Vijaydurg

One of India’s oldest sea forts, later transformed by Shivaji into a near-invincible stronghold with triple-layered walls and underwater defences—earning it the title “Gibraltar of the East”.

Suvarnadurg

A crucial naval outpost off the Ratnagiri coast, guarding trade lanes and resisting foreign incursions with its laterite walls and concealed approaches.

Gingee (Tamil Nadu)

The ‘Troy of the East’ and Maratha capital between 1680 and 1689. Spread across three hillocks, it showcased the Marathas’ ability to adapt and govern far beyond their core territory.