Sindkedh

Sindkhed Raja is remembered as the seat of the Jadhav family and the birthplace of Jijabai, mother of the Maratha ruler Shivaji. Its old palace, unfinished fort and tanks recall a family whose members served the rulers of the Deccan and the Mughal emperors. The fort was built of dark stone with rounded corner bastions, while Lakhuji Jadhav’s palace became closely associated with his daughter’s early life.

The district was granted to the town’s qazi around 1450 and passed to the Jadhavs about a century later. Lakhuji held high military command under Ahmadnagar and later the Mughals; his daughter married Shahaji Bhonsle. Around 1650 an imperial envoy returned the grant to the qazi’s descendants and halted construction of the Jadhav fort. Sindkhed later came under the Shindes before being restored to the Nizam in 1803. Peshwa Baji Rao II camped nearby in 1818 while pursued by British forces.