Gokarna's hidden jewel

Views of Mirjan fort. Photo courtesy: Wikimedia

Views of Mirjan fort. Photo courtesy: Flickr

A trip to Gokarna would normally mean temple visits, beginning with the famous Mahabaleshwar temple for the religiously oriented and the lovely beaches for the young and adventurous. We were a group of 11 — two couples, two children and five senior citizens. So, the trip was planned to include temples for the senior citizens and beaches for the young people.

Unfortunately, when we reached Gokarna and checked in at our resort, we were told check-in time was 1pm. And it was only 7.30 in the morning! What to do with the entire morning became a quandary. That is when one of the more enterprising hotel staff suggested a visit to the Mirjan fort. That is how we found ourselves outside a fort we had not put into our itinerary! But it was a blessing in disguise. The quaint fort caught our fancy right from the word go.

Located 21 km from Gokarna, on the western coast of Uttara Kannada district, in Karnataka, the fort’s obscure location shielded it from the main tourist circuit. No wonder that in spite of it being Christmas break, when all other tourist spots were filled to bursting point, Mirjan fort was desolate except for the stray tourist like us who had stumbled on it accidentally. This very isolation gave it a unique enchanting feeling – like a bride hiding behind closed doors waiting for her groom to find her.

Set on the banks of the Aghanashini river, the fort can be reached through a series of wide steps which take you to the interior of the fort. As you climb the steps, you wonder what awaits you on the other side of the fort wall.

A curious magic

One is totally unprepared for the wide open spaces inside. The octagonal fort is spread over an area of 11.8 acres over an elevated mound. The turreted walls around the fort, browned and stained through the years, speak of times when forts were once the only defence against intruders.

There are many versions of the history of this fort. One version, as per scholar Ibn Battuta is that the fort was built by the Nawayath Sultanates in the early 1200s, which then came under the Vijayanagar empire. Another version attributes the construction of the fort, between 1552 and 1606, to Rani Chennabhairadevi of the Tuluva-Saluva clan. She was given the epithet ‘pepper queen’, for her brisk export of pepper from Mirjan port. Another version states that the fort was built by a Bijapur noble Sherif ul Mulk as a first line of defence to protect Kumta town.

Whatever its history, the fort exudes a curious magic — with tunnels, incomplete stairways, wells and underground pathways. One bizarre structure is just a series of steps that curve into nowhere, leaving one to wonder what it was originally meant to be. It looks as if someone just wanted to commune with the stars, high up and away from mankind.

There are mysterious alcoves and passageways. One passageway had a rustic stone seat. One wonders who must have sat on the seat hidden away behind the stone walls. Maybe a romantic pair who wanted some time to themselves!

We stumbled onto staircases which led to underground tunnels, probably secret passageways which led outside the fort in times of danger.

As I walked further into the fort, I found a peepal tree, obviously very ancient, with a Devi statue set among the bushes and stones under the tree.

As we left the fort with its otherworldly charm and settled down to some fresh coconut water on the roadside, I ruminated on the lives and times of the kings and queens, retainers and servants who must have inhabited that fort during medieval times. Was it a glamorous experience as one would imagine — living inside a fort with secret passageways and underground tunnels? Or was it a life of fear and anxiety as one never knew what the next day would bring?