63 Wives in a graveyard

Soon after breakfast, we set off to see the Saat Kabar or 60 graves. In actual fact, there are 63 graves. 63 graves of the wives of Afzal Khan, a general of the Bijapur Sultanate who was tasked to kill the Maratha leader Shivaji. Before he left to meet Shivaji at Pratapgargh, Afzal Khan had a premonition that he would die in battle. He decided to kill his wives, all 64 of them, so that they wouldn’t marry anyone else upon his death. The unsuspecting women were killed and buried in what is now known as Saat Kabar. But there are only 63 women buried here. The 64th wife managed to escape and run away but she was tracked down and killed too.

be Once upon a time this graveyard was on the outskirts of the town but now with expansion, this historic site is almost part of the city.

It is not very easily accessible though it is very well cordoned off by the ASI. But apart from the mandatory sign warning people not to desecrate the site.

We had actually wanted to visit the graveyard the evening before but one of us who had visited the graveyard during an earlier visit said that seeing it in the fading light was a bad idea. Badly maintained and with poor access, it was a haunting and spooky sight. So we saw it in broad daylight.

It still was scary though, and deeply disturbing to see the graves lying unattended.

Onward to Solapur

On the way to Solapur we came across some sugar cane farmers who were protesting against sugar prices.

The three hours went by really fast as our tour leader ( my sister-in law) organised a quiz for all of us.At Solapur we had a leisurely lunch which we had at Priti Dining Home. Once again, it was a simple, unpretentious place, where we had local food.

We had a sweet peanut and jaggery filled chapati, ( shenga poli) a bhel like dish called Sushila, as we were intrigued by the name, some puri bhaji and sabudana wadas.

it had a heap of signs aoniahing people not to share a thali, to keep the toilet clean etc.