Maha CM kickstarts Chhatrapati coronation celebrations with women's bike rally

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde flagged off an all-women motorcycle rally ahead of the 350th anniversary celebrations of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, coinciding with the 63rd Maharashtra Day festivities, here on Monday.

The rally comprised 350 women, who sped off from the August Kranti Maidan in Grant Road to the Swatantryaveer Savarkar Memorial in Dadar.

It was organised by the Maharashtra Tourism Department along with Amazing Namaste Foundation and women bikers, as many sporting the traditional Maharashtrian style saris joined the event.

The event marks the curtain-raiser for the 350th year of the coronation of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj held in Raigad, which will be celebrated in a grand manner with a series of major events in the state and other places across India linked with the Maratha warrior king.

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (February 19, 1630-April 3, 1680), was crowned at the Raigad Fort on June 6, 1674, from where he laid the foundations of the 'Hindavi Swaraj'.

On June 1 & 2, several major events will be held at the Raigad Fort besides social-cultural programmes across all districts, with other celebrations lined up all through the year.

Shinde said that the state government would also set up a Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Centre in Agra -- from where he and his son made the 'great escape' from the clutches of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb on August 17, 1666.

Previously known as Rairi, Shivaji Maharaj had seized it from the Jawli King Chandrarao More, a descendent of Chandragupta Maurya, in 1656.

Considered as impregnable by military standards, the Raigad Fort is one of the strongest, tallest and imposing forts in the Deccan Plateau, rising 1,356 metres above sea-level, often referred as the 'King of Forts' and now a major tourism attraction accessible by a rope-car and the traditional gruelling climb of several hours.

Flanked by two villages at its base, Pachad and Raigadwadi, it was renovated, repaired and enhanced for over a decade before Shivaji Maharaj finally moved in, declared it as his capital, expanded and ruled the Maratha kingdom from here, and even his coronation ceremonies were held here.

After the death of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and the killing of his son Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj in 1689, the Raigad Fort was captured by the Mughals under Aurangzeb, before it was targeted by the British East India Company in 1818.