500-year-old cannonball discovered at Asheri Fort

A group of fort conservationists has retrieved a nearly 500-year-old cannonball from Asheri Fort in Palghar while cleaning one of the massive reservoirs there. Working in the field of fort conservation for the past 16 years, this is the first time that the group has excavated a solid iron artefact of the Portuguese-Maratha empire. Sadly however, this integral part of the state’s history has no official takers, thanks to a lethargic forest and archaeology department.

The group has been working in the Sahyadris for over one-and-a-half decade and organises activities on a regular basis to clean and maintain the forts of Maharashtra. Talking about the incident, Shridatta Raut, a noted fort conservationist and author of nearly a dozen books on the subject, said that they decided to clean the reservoir with a capacity of 250,000 litres, looking at its pathetic condition.

As Mr Raut and his team were cleaning the tank, apart from the algae and garbage, near the base, they found artefacts, chief among which was the solid iron cannonball dating back to the 16th century. Mr Raut said that though a number of rulers claimed ownership of the fort, the cannonball symbolised technology brought to India by the Portuguese. It took a team of nearly 20 volunteers a total of six hours to clean the entire tank, which will serve its purpose during the monsoon.

“The fort, built in the 11th century, has played an important part in history since it has served the Portuguese, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, his son Sambhaji Maharaj and later, for an extended period, Chimaji Appa, who witnessed the golden period of the Maratha empire. Of all the monuments and structures currently part of the fort, nearly 30 per cent belong to the Portuguese era and the remaining 70 per cent to the Maratha warriors,” added Mr Raut.

Meanwhile, sources from the forest department, which is currently responsible for maintenance of the fort, confirmed that they had cleaned the tank only two weeks ago. “We would find a number of things but generally, they are thrown away or given to locals,” said a forest official on condition of anonymity. With the archaeology department unwilling to claim any rights over the fort and forest officials least interested in taking care of artefacts, the 500-year-old cannonball has no official takers.