Akola Fort: Difference between revisions

|builder =Asad Khan  

|controlledby = [[Mughal Empire]]

Its earliest form of mud was made by one Akol Singh to protect the village. He saw a hare chasing a dog and considering this to be an auspicious sign, he built an earthen wall here to protect the village. Akola was heavily fortified in 1697 CE during the reign of [[Aurangzeb]] by Asad Khan,<ref name="fof"/> from whom the fort took its name (Asadgad). While at The time of Chatrapati sambhaji Maharaj Maratha army had chased Mughal troop up to Akola and Murtijapur to terror over mughal for the safety of  people. In 1803, [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Arthur Wellesley]] camped here before proceeding to win the [[Battle of Argaon]] in the [[Second Anglo-Maratha War]].<ref name="annual">{{cite book|last=Blackinston|first=J.F.|title=Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India|publisher=Government of India|year=1927|url=https://archive.org/stream/annualreportofth030750mbp/annualreportofth030750mbp_djvu.txt|access-date=2009-02-03}}</ref> The fortress was dismantled by the [[British Raj]] in about 1870. It was reported in 1910 in a district gazetteer that the central part of the fort (the ''hawakhana'') was  used as a school.<ref name="gazette">{{cite web|url=http://www.maharashtra.gov.in/english/gazetteer/AKOLA/places_Akola.html|title=Akola District Gazetteer|access-date=2009-02-04}}</ref>

While King Akolsingh was living in the Asadgad Fort, there is a famous story associated with this payas<!-- Americans don't know that word --><!-- So? Make us think a little. JJQ --> temple. Every night his queen went to this temple to worship [[Shiva]] at midnight. Once King Akolsingh thought that his queen was going out at midnight for illicit reasons, so he followed her with a sword; the queen came to know that King Akolsingh was following her. She felt gloomy and guilty and went straight to the Shiva temple and pleaded to the god that her husband the king was thinking wrong about her, and that it was insulting that he was having no faith in her loyalty and her character. So she pleaded to be allowed into Shiva's Pind (Shiva [[Lingam|Ling]]) (a stone of God Shiva that is worshipped)". The Shiva ling broke in two parts and the queen jumped in, and then it was closed. The king understood his mistake and could not forgive himself. Still the Shiva ling in this temple has a little crack which is said to corroborate this story. This temple is the base [http://dict.hinkhoj.com/%E0%A4%86%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A5%E0%A4%BE-meaning-in-english.words aastha] of this Akola city. There are 2 bridges: the first one is the dagadi pool (stone bridge) (also known as 'chota pool' meaning smaller bridge) and the other is lokhand pool (iron bridge) (also known as 'motha pool' meaning bigger bridge). This iron bridge was built at the time of British rule.