Janjeera: Not for the Feint of Heart

The unconquerable fortified city of Janjeera, still standing from the golden age of sail. Built over a 20 year time period in the late 1500s, this city protected the harbor from attacks from other groups within India, as well as the Portuguese and British. 

For as imposing as it is, I kind of expected it to be a little larger. With thick armed stone walls fully encircling the island, a land attack was literally impossible. Even when we are invited, coming ashore nowadays is a bit of a trick! Cameras were banned for that portion, and I understand why. It's not the average museum door. There is no dock at the island, so the boats back up to stone steps, and visitors have to time entering and exiting the boat with the roll of the waves. Even with museum staff assistance, more likely than not, at least one foot will end up in the water. It is not for the feint of heart, and one family on our boat with a little child said they were not getting off.

I suspect the only way to capture this port would have been through a prolonged naval blockade. Even so, the city has two fresh water cisterns, access to fish, a staple of the local diet, and is really fairly close access to the mainland. Rumors have it that there was secret resupply route or tunnel, but it's hard to tell based on the hour I was there. My experience is that fortifications commonly have subterranean construction not open to the public, so it's entirely possible that some secret resupply route is there.

But before arriving, we had to drive. The fort is quite a ways away, in the mouth of a bay that opens to the Arabian sea. To help pass the time, my father bought a couple seasonal fruits. I was told not to come this time of year because of the heat, but this is the season for fruits like pineapple, guava, mango, and two that are new to me, tadgori and karvanda.

Tadgori "Plum fruit"- inside a hard purple shell are the fruits encased in a fibrous capsule that is peeled before eaten. By the time I was able to eat the tadgori, my hands were fully slimy, and I learned that the juicy fruit squirts juice making a mess if not eaten in a single bite! The whole process kinda reminded me of a vegetarian oyster! 

Karavanda- my father asked the driver to pull over in the middle of nowhere so he could talk to some young women selling something wrapped in a cone, each cone made from a single teak leave, held together with a small toothpick like stick. He returned to the car and I was handed a cone containing fruits about the size, shape and color of blueberries. A white sticky residue on some of the berries looked like spiderwebs, but was actually a latex based sap from the plant. Assuming they are to be eaten raw, I bit down on one, experiencing an explosion of tart fruity juice, as well as discovering numerous brown woody seeds. My father said I could throw the seeds out the car window, but that he just crunches and eats them. They don't taste bad, and I don't mind the texture, so I ate all the seeds too. The plant itself looks a little like salal, a low plant with waxy leaves, but these plants have inch long thorns.

Sailing on a traditional sailboat to reach Janjeera was a real treat! These boats use a short main mast with a long spar connecting from the prow to the main mast at the midpoint of the spar. When changing directions with a jibe, it's a trick and required at least three people: the coxswain remains at the tiller, at midship the main sheet is loosened and passed to a crew member in the prow. The boat is turned while not under power, while the forward crew brings the mainsail around the spar and passes the main sheet back to the crewman at midship who secures it while the sail unfurls again and the vessel regains full power. It's a lot of work to harness the wind, and we were hitting swells of 3 to 5 feet, taking on a little water to boot. 

After exploring Janjeera for an hour, I have more questions than answers, mostly about the function of the fort, but also about the armaments scattered about. The guides told us the guns were assembled on site, but there were a variety of styles and sizes. One had an ornamental mouth at the cannon muzzle, while others were strictly functional. Making cannons was an art, and if not done right the guns would become bombs and explode, doing more harm than anything. I suspect there was a dock on the island and cannons were offloaded from ships.

Serriff even identified one "cannon" on a single prong swivel mount. I suspect this was a large "swivel gun" that could have been mounted on as the single weapon on a gun ship. Fast and maneuverable compared to battle ships, gun ships were common in ports and could provide a serious challenge to their larger and heavier cousins.

One other thing about Janjeera: it wasn't the island that so many tried and failed to capture. In the Golden Age of Sail, territory was claimed by watershed. The goal would have been to claim the bay, the river that fed the bay and the lands around the river. Janjeera was not captured, which meant that the surrounding bay and watershed remained an autonomous principality. To this day, the structures and towns immediately around the port have a distinct Mediterranean feel to them, I suspect not just due to climate and diet but because both were developed and maintained under Muslim leadership for centuries.

My goal upon entering the unconquerable city and mounting it's walls was to climb up. The highest part of the fortification was at the middle of the island and offered a commanding view of the harbor, the fortified city and the Arabian Sea. It also felt like I was in a wind tunnel, with a constant stiff breeze. Even a large heavy banner would have waved clearly up there!

Finally, it was time to find our way down, to the stone steps and waiting sailboat, and step again, in time with the waves, back into the launch and return to the mainland.