Six kilometres round by road from the centre of Karwar, across the long bridge over the Kali, a hill stands over the point where the river meets the Arabian Sea. Whoever held it controlled the harbour. That is the whole of its history, told four times over by four different powers.
1510: the Portuguese burn it
A fort already existed at this river mouth when the Portuguese arrived. They knew the place as Cintacora — also Chitrakul, Chittakula and Sindpur — and in 1510 they captured and burned the fort. They called what they took Forte de Piro, or Pito, after a Muslim dargah they found on the site: the tomb of the Sufi saint Shah Karamuddin. The dargah is still there, on the way up the hill, and is still in use. It is the oldest continuously used thing in the Karwar story.
1665: Shivaji crosses the river
Marching up from Bednore in the south and stopping at the temple at Gokarna on the way, Shivaji seized Ankola, came the next day to Karwar — then still Kadwad — and found both the East India Company and Sher Shah, the Bijapur sardar, badly alarmed. They collected a large sum and offered it to him, asking to be spared. Satisfied with the recognition, he took the money, crossed the Kali and took the fort on 21 February 1665.
1715: it gets its name
The fort is called Sadashivgad because Basavlingraj named it in 1715 after his father Sadashivlingraj. They were chieftains of Sonda who had taken Chittakula, Simveshwar, Kadra, Kadwad and Ankola and assumed the title of Raja. The old Karwar fort was pulled down and its stones went into this one — which is why there is no old fort in Karwar town, and why there is one on the hill across the water.
What is actually left
Ramparts of about eight metres, roughly two metres wide along the top, with towers and gun openings; the citadel at the highest point with a single arched gateway; an outwork down at the base of the cliff by the sea, called Pani Killa, and another on the eastern slope. A satellite fort called Samvargad — sixty metres by twenty on a hillock to the east — guarded it, and almost nothing of that survives. In May 1752 the Portuguese sent a fleet and took Sadashivgad from the Raja of Sonda, and gave it back when peace was restored.
Why you climb it
Not for the masonry, honestly. You climb it for what the picture at the top of this page shows: the Kali coming out between its banks, the bar, the open Arabian Sea, and the islands — Kurumgad, Devgad with its Oyster Rock lighthouse, the smaller ones — laid out across the water. The Shantadurga temple and the dargah are on the way up. The path is unmade, loose underfoot and has no handrail, so wear shoes and do not attempt it in the wet.