Fort at Mirjan

Mirjan is my maternal grand mother’s place. My brother and I loved to stay there in vacations. For the purpose of job my parents were staying at Shikaripura so it was common for us to spend our vacation enjoying in the hamlet Mirjan with cousins. Mirjan is in Kumta taluk of Karwar district and situated thirteen kilometers away from Kumta on the way to Gokarna. National Highway – 13 passes through Mirjan and as a game we were counting number of vehicles going towards Karwar or Kumta.

Few attractions of Mirjan at that time were bullock carts, big coconut and arecanut trees, jungle, boats, church and fort. Church was mainly visited by the Christian community people and people of other religions involve lighting candles during one-day celebration ‘Feast’. It is a belief that wishes will come true by lighting candle on that day at the church. A few meters away from church building is Fort. I never visited there as a kid but had a dream of visiting it. The reason being not visiting fort was not properly maintained and was a drinker’s paradise. Only thing I knew that time was the tri-color flag was to be hoisted on Independence and Republic day celebrations. Even many told me that the flag pole inside the fort is the second tallest flag pole in India after the tallest being the flag pole in Delhi. I am not sure whether this information is correct or it is just a rumour.

Many years later archeological department showed interest in the maintenance of fort and took almost three years to convert it into a visitors place. I visited there during the renovation work. There are seven deep wells with one being very deep. All wells have steps which help in reaching the bottom of the well. May be the steps are constructed to reach the water level in deep wells as the wells get dried during summer. Also there is a tunnel outside the fort may be used to enter the fort secretly or during the night.

There are few evidences which show the existence of broken buildings or walls. Around the fort there is shallow channel, may be filled with water to prevent the sudden enemy attacks (My imagination is that the crocodiles are bred in this channel as a safety measure.) Flag pole is one more attraction. Recently heard that tourists visit fort regularly and slowly becoming a tourist spot.

Karwar district administration has celebrated ‘Kote Utsava’ to give popularity to this fort. No accurate information on history and rulers of this fort is known, many possibilities are given by the archeologists based on their observations. But all agree that Mirjan was an important spices market during the British rule as Mirjan is also connected through the water way (Thaari Bagilu). One more interesting fact is there are people who searched the fort with the hope of getting the ancient treasure.