Asirgarh

Asirgarh rises in the Satpura Range north of Burhanpur. Its fortress commands a pass between the Narmada and Tapti valleys, on a great route from northern India to the Deccan, and came to be known as the “key to the Deccan.” Tradition attributes the fort to the Abhiras, who held the surrounding country of Nimar. The Faruqi rulers of Khandesh later made Asirgarh a seat of their power.

When the Faruqi sultan Bahadur Shah declared his independence and refused homage to Akbar, the Mughal emperor occupied Burhanpur and besieged Asirgarh. The fort fell in 1601. Two centuries later it was again contested in the Anglo-Maratha wars: Company forces took it in 1803, and in 1819 a Maratha garrison under Jeswant Rao Lar held out against a British siege until the fortress was stormed on 9 April.