During Deepavali, children of Belagavi and surrounding areas build tiny forts to celebrate Chhatrapati Shivaji’s victory over neighbouring kingdoms.
Children begin preparations for the forts just as the Dasara festivities end. Groups of children in chawls and streets gather together to collect broken bricks, mud and small stones. On the eve of Deepavali, they start building the forts. They prepare clay by mixing water with mud and cotton. Stones are used as the foundation. Mud is used to build a rampart above the foundation.
These tiny forts are given the names of forts built or captured by the medieval-era Maratha warrior, like Raigad, Shivneri, Pratapgad, Vishalgad, Rajhansgad, and Simhagad. Some other forts in the Deccan, like the Belgaum fort, and those in Kakati and Kittur, are also recreated.
The forts have citadels, bastions, ramparts, and moats, which in ancient times were filled with poisonous snakes and crocodiles. Then the children add plastic figurines of soldiers, horses, elephants and camels. Miniature guns, canons, swords and shields.
The structures are not dismantled for several weeks. Children invite their friends from other neighbourhoods to visit their forts, and go on a tour of other areas to see how their competition has fared.
Such forts can be seen in Wadagaon, Shahapur, Angol, Tilakwadi, Hindwadi, and Maratha Colony.
“The practice is borrowed from neighbouring Maharashtra. Children in several towns and villages, especially in south Maharashtra, create such forts. It makes children aware of their past, and also sharpens their creative instinct,’‘ said Appaji Gouli, a farmer from Wadagaon whose grandchildren were busy building forts.
