Surgad

Surgad is a hill fort on a spur broken away from the Sahyadri, beside Vaijanath village near Roha in Raigad district. It served as an observation post over the trade route that followed the Kundalika river from Sudhagad to Revdanda. The Shilahara kings are believed to have built it, the Nizam of Ahmednagar used it, and Shivaji is thought to have rebuilt it. Shankarji Narayan Sachiv took it from the Siddi of Janjira in Rajaram's time, Bajirao I captured it in 1733, the Peshwas used it as a prison, and Colonel Prother won it in February 1818.

A stone on the fort carries inscriptions in Persian and Devanagari naming the architect Nuryaji and the governor Tukoji Haibat. On the narrow top are 17 rock-cut cisterns, of which only the north-eastern one holds drinkable water, a Veer Maruti temple, bastions at either end and the ruined Sadar and powder house. A cannon lies on the plateau below, near an Ansai Devi temple, and dense teak forest surrounds the hill.