HERITAGE STRUCTURE OF

RAIGAD FORT
Introduction
Raigad fort is an hill fortress situated near Mahad, Raigad
district of Maharashtra. The fort is an important fortress once
served as capital of great sovereign Shivaji which lasted from
1664 to 1680 CE. The fort rises 820 m (2,700 feet) above sea
level, is located in the Sahyadri mountain range There are
approximately 1737 steps leading to the fort, though today an
aerial tram exists to reach the top of the fort. The fort was built
by Chandrarao Mores in 1030 CE. Its ruins today consist of the
queen's quarters - six chambers, with each chamber having its
own private restroom. The main palace was constructed using
wood, of which only the bases of pillars remain. Ruins of three
watch towers can be seen directly in front of the palace
grounds overlooking an artificial lake called Ganga Sagar Lake
created next to the fort. It also has a view of the execution
point called Takmak Tok, a cliff from which the sentenced
prisoners were thrown to their death. This area is now fenced
off. The fort also has ruins of the market, and it has such
structure that one can shop even while riding on a horse. The
king's public Durbar has a replica of the original throne that
faces the main doorway called the Nagarkhana Darwaja. This
enclosure had been acoustically designed to aid hearing from
the doorway to the throne. A secondary entrance, called the
Mena Darwaja, was supposedly the private entrance of the
royal ladies of the fort; it leads to the queen's quarters. The
erstwhile main entrance to the fort is the imposing Maha
Darwaja. The convoy of the king and the king himself used the
Palkhi Darwaja. To the right of Palkhi Darwaja, is a row of three
dark and deep chambers. A statue of Shivaji maharaj is erected
in front of the ruins of the main market avenue that eventually
leads to the Jagdishwar Mandir and his own Samadhi (tomb)
and that of his dog Waghya.The Meghadamari, Nagar Khana
Mahadharwaja, Banjerpeth (market), Jadagishwar temple have
been conserved during the year of 2011-12 by the Science
Branch, Archaeological Survey of India, Aurangabad.
Condition of Antiquities of Raigad Fort
During excavation within the fort, a large number of iron, stone
and terracotta antiquities
were found. The antiquities were in corroded condition and
required scientic conservation
treatment. The iron antiquities were having incrustations and
the stone objects covered
with dust, dirt and other supercial accretions noticed. Many
stone sculptures were found
deteriorated with multiple cracks, loss of stone parts that need
immediate consolidation.
It appears that just after excavation the stone antiquities were
kept in hot sun, causing
multiple cracks, crevices and loss of stone material
Scientic conservation of Antiquities
The stone antiquities were having multiple
cracks and in deteriorated condition. One such stone antiquity
was consolidated with ethyl silicate mixed with similar stone
powder. The consolidation was carried out for a week and left
todry. The consolidation process took the duration of one
week. The dust, dirt, superficial accretions, micro-vegetation
growth of stone antiquities was cleaned with diluted liquid
ammonia and non-ionic detergent mixture followed with wash
of
fresh water. Figure 43
shows the condition
of the stone sculpture
before and after
scientic conservation.
After cleaning the stone
antiquities, Sodium
pentachlorophenate
was applied as biocide.
Finally wacker BS –
290, silane – silaxane
based preservative
was applied with the
solvent of mineral
turpentine oil. The iron antiquities were treated as per
scientic methods with care
(Plenderleith and Werner 1972). The incrustations of iron
antiquities were removed by
dipping the antiquities in steel tank with the solution of dilute
alkali. The incrustations
were removed by soft brushing. Then after, the antiquities were
washed with fresh
water followed by distilled water. Finally, the antiquities were
dipped in hot water to get
ridden of any un-reacted chemicals. Benzotriazole was applied
as inhibitor followed by
application of 1% polyvinyl acetate solution as preservative.
The antiquities are preserved and displayed in site museum of
Raigad. The condition
before and after scientific conservation of the antiquities
Scientific conservation of stone sculpture (before and after)
Iron objects (before and after scientific conservation)
Heritage and Us - Year 4, Issue 3
Conclusions
The utmost care was taken to conserve the stone as well as Iron
antiquities. Now, the
antiquities are in good state of preservation and will be
displayed at Raigad Fort Museum.
in the Science Branch of Aurangabad, Archaeological Survey of
India. In the past ten years,
he has been associated with the scientific conservation projects
of various centrally protected
monuments of Orissa, Karnataka and Aurangabad especially
World Heritage Sites like, Sun
Temple, Konark, Group of Monuments, Hampi and Ellora, etc.
He is having working experience
in the held of stone conservation, conservation and
preservation of museum exhibits mural
painting, oil paintings, manuscript, antiquities etc. He has
presented a number of papers in
national as well as international conferences.
About the authors
1 vsvinodhkumar@gmail.com
Dr Manager Rajdeo Singh is Superintending Archaeological
Chemist at Archaeological
Survey of India. He has worked in a number of reputed
organisations like Naval Laboratories,
Visakhapatnam; and Geological Survey of India, Bangalore. He
is also associated with the
scientic conservation and preservation of Ajanta Murals from
1997 to 2008 and has published
more than two dozen papers on various aspects of
conservation in international and national
journals.
2 m_singh_asi@yahoo.com
Smt. Anupama S Mahajan is working as Assistant Archeological
Chemist in Archaeological
Survey of India, Science Branch, Aurangabad since November
2004. She has completed her
master degree in Polymer Chemistry from Dr Babasaheb
Ambedkar Marthwada University,
Aurangabad. In is associated with scientic conservation
projects of various centrally protected
monuments of Maharashtra and Goa especially World Heritage
Sites like, Ellora, Churches of
Goa, etc. She is having working experience in the eld of stone
conservation, conservation and
preservation of museum exhibits mural painting, oil paintings,
manuscript, antiquities, etc.
3 anupamamahajan912@gmail.com
Sh. Sudhir Wagh is working as Senior Modeller in
Archaeological Survey of India, Science
Branch, Aurangabad. In the past eighteen years, he has been
associated with the restoration
of sculptures, structures, mending, fixing, lleting of murals,
stone objects, and consolidation of
wood and stone objects. He has been associated with
consolidation, mending, xing and lleting
works of Ajanta caves, Ellora caves, Pitalkhora caves,
Aurangabad caves, Elephanta caves,
Raigad Fort, Goa churches, Trembakeshwar temple, etc. He had
also executed conservation
Our history creates a great impact on shaping our future. The
ancient technologies adopted by our very own ancestors are
extremely iconic. During the early times, there was an
ecological balance maintained amongst the human and natural
environment. They believed in amalgamating nature with the
building to create a picturesque scenario so did not harm the
natural beauty of the environment. India at present boasts
about 3650 approximately renowned ancient heritage
Review Of Literature

(1909) Raigarh, Imperial Gazetteer of India, vol. 21.

plenderleith, H.J. and A.E.A., Werner (1972) The Conservation of Antiquities and
Works
of Art: Treatment, Repair, and Restoration, Oxford University Press.
Copper jar (before and after scientific conservation)
Dish of blue-and-white porcelain (before and after scientific conservation)
Scientific Conservation of Antiquities of Raigad Fort
Dr S. Vinodh Kumar is presently posted as Assistant Superintending
Archaeological Chemist
Shreemad Raigirao Gopal Chandorkar (ARCHITECT)
BOOK ISBN978-93- 80234- 60-1
2017
Raigadchi Jeevankatha Shantaram Awlaskar
BOOK ISBN10 : 9380793022 ISBN-13 : 978- 9380793023
1962
Architectural Marvel – Raigad Ajinkya Waradpande
Blog : https://www.smallstepsadventures.com/ blog/architectural-marvelraigad/
2016