Purandar Fort

Purandar Fort rises to about 1,374 metres in the Western Ghats, some 50 km southeast of Pune, with its smaller twin Vajragad on the eastern side. The earliest known mention of it dates from Yadava times, in the 11th century, and it was strengthened in 1350 and held directly by the Bijapur and Ahmednagar rulers. A grim legend says a mother and her first-born son were buried beneath a bastion to make it secure. Sambhaji, Shivaji's son, was born here.

Shivaji took the fort in 1649 in one of his first victories. In 1665 Mughal forces under Jai Singh and Diler Khan laid siege; the commander Murar Baji Deshpande died defending it, and Shivaji signed the Treaty of Purandar, handing over 23 forts. The Marathas recaptured it on 8 March 1670, and later in the Peshwa period it was granted to the Purandare family. The village below takes its name from the fort.