Belgaum

Belgaum lies near the foothills of the Western Ghats, where routes cross between the Deccan plateau and the western coast. The Ratta kings made it an important centre, and their official Bichiraja built the Jain Kamal Basadi in 1204. Within the fort, the temple’s lotus-shaped ceiling and image of Neminatha preserve the work of the early settlement. Walls, bastions and a wide moat later made the fort a stronghold for a succession of Deccan powers.

In 1474 Mahmud Gawan captured Belgaum for the Bahmani Sultanate. It later passed to the Adil Shahis of Bijapur, whose officers strengthened the fort. The Safa Masjid inside its walls was built by the Bijapur commander Asad Khan. After the Mughal conquest of Bijapur in 1686, Belgaum came under Aurangzeb’s authority; the Marathas gained control as Mughal power declined. Hyder Ali of Mysore occupied the region in the eighteenth century, but the Peshwas recovered it. In 1818 British forces besieged and took the fort from the Peshwa’s garrison. Its Jain temple, mosque and layered fortifications recall the different rulers who valued this passage between the uplands and the coast.