The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7: History of the Konkan

The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7

Language: English

c7.s1 Authorities — 9 parts
c7.s2 Introduction — 29 parts
c7.s3 Addenda and Errata — 6 parts
c7.s4 Section I. Early Travellers — 65 parts
c7.s5 Section II. Antiquities and Traditions — 150 parts
c7.s6 Section III. The Musalmans — 128 parts
c7.s7 Section IV. The Portuguese in the Sixteenth Century — 81 parts
c7.s8 Section V. The System and the Decline of the Portuguese — 298 parts
c7.s9 Section VIII. The Angrias — 278 parts
c7.s10 Section XII. British Rule — 57 parts

History of the Konkan

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“Hills with peaky tops engrailed,
and many a tract of palm and rice.”
Tennyson.

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BOMBAY: PRINTED AT THE GOVERNMENT CENTRAL PRESS. —

the *Goths*, the *Vandals*, the *Suevi*, the *Burgundians*, the *Alani*, the *Huns*, the *Franks*, the *Saxons*, the *Thuringians*, the *Rugians*, and the *Heruli*. The names of these tribes are familiar to the reader, but their origin, their migrations, and their settlements are involved in the deepest obscurity. The most probable opinion is that they were all of German or Scythian extraction, and that they had been driven from their native seats by the pressure of the Huns, a formidable nation of Tartars, who had crossed the Volga and the Tanais, and were advancing with rapid strides towards the frontiers of the Roman empire.

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The first of these nations that crossed the Danube was the *Goths*. They were divided into two great branches, the *Visigoths* or Western Goths, and the *Ostrogoths* or Eastern Goths. The Visigoths, under the conduct of Fritigern, implored the protection of the emperor Valens, and were permitted to settle in the province of Thrace. But the perfidy of the Roman governors, and the insolence of the Roman soldiers, soon provoked them to rebellion. They defeated the imperial armies, and Valens himself perished in the battle of Hadrianople.

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The death of Valens was followed by the accession of Theodosius, who, by his wisdom and valour, restored the discipline of the Roman legions, and compelled the Goths to accept a peace, which was rather a truce than a permanent settlement. The Goths, however, remained in the heart of the empire, and their presence was a constant source of danger and alarm. They were no longer the rude barbarians who had first crossed the Danube; they had learned the arts of war and the policy of the Romans, and they were ready to take advantage of any opportunity to assert their independence.

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The reign of Theodosius was the last period of the glory of the Roman empire. After his death, the empire was divided between his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius. Arcadius reigned in the East, and Honorius in the West. The division was fatal to the interests of the state. The two brothers were weak and indolent, and they were governed by their ministers and favourites. The Goths, under the command of Alaric, took advantage of the weakness of the government, and invaded Italy. They besieged and took Rome, and the eternal city, which had for so many centuries been the mistress of the world, was plundered by the barbarians.

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The fall of Rome was a shock to the whole civilized world. It was the end of an era, and the beginning of a new and darker age. The Goths, after the death of Alaric, retired from Italy, and settled in Gaul and Spain, where they founded kingdoms which were destined to last for several centuries. The Vandals, under the command of Genseric, crossed into Africa, and established a powerful kingdom, which for a time threatened the security of the Mediterranean. The Franks, under the command of Clovis, conquered Gaul, and laid the foundations of the French monarchy. The Saxons, under the command of Hengist and Horsa, invaded Britain, and established the kingdoms of the Heptarchy.

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| | PAGE |
| AUTHORITIES . . . . . | v |
| INTRODUCTION . . . . . | ix |
| SECTION I.—Early Travellers . . . . . | 1 |
| SECTION II.—Antiquities and Traditions . . . . . | 9 |
| SECTION III.—The Musalmáns . . . . . | 29 |
| SECTION IV.—The Portuguese in the Sixteenth Century ... ... | 43 |
| SECTION V.—The system of the Portuguese and the causes of their decline . . . . . | 52 |
| SECTION VI.—Shiváji (1648 to 1680) . . . . . | 67 |
| SECTION VII.—The Maráthás from the death of Shiváji to the expulsion of the Portuguese (1680 to 1739) ... ... | 76 |
| SECTION VIII.—The A'ngriás . . . . . | 87 |
| SECTION IX.—The Maráthás from the fall of the A'ngriás to the accession of Bájiráo (1756 to 1796) ... ... ... | 97 |
| SECTION X.—The reign of Bájiráo and the British Conquest (1796 to 1818) . . . . . | 110 |
| SECTION XI.—English Establishments in the Konkan previous to 1818 . . . . . | 120 |
| SECTION XII.—British Rule . . . . . | 123 |

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Authorities

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AITCHISON—Collection of Treaties, Engagements, and Sanads relating to India. Calcutta, 1864. ANNAES MARITIMOS E COLONIAES (4th Series). Lisboa, 1844. ARCHIVO PORTUGUEZ ORIENTAL. Nova Goa, 1866. ASIATIC ANNUAL REGISTER, 1799 to 1811. London. ASIATIC JOURNAL, 1816 to 1830. ASIATIC RESEARCHES, 1799 to 1836. London. ASTLEY—New General Collection of Voyages and Travels, 1745. BARBOSA—Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabár in the Sixteenth Century. Hakluyt Society. BIRD—History of Gujarát. London, 1835. BLACKER—Memoir of the Operations during the Marátha War, 1817-19. London, 1821. BLUE BOOK—Pindáree and Marátha War. Do. War in India, 1819. BOHOURS—Life of St. Francis Xavier, translated by Dryden—WORKS, Vol. 16, Ed. 1808. BOMBAY GOVERNMENT SELECTIONS—New Series : No. VII.—Statistical Account of the Kolába Agency, by W. Hearn. No. VIII.—Statistical Report on the Principality of Kolhápur, by Colonel Graham. No. X.—Memoir on the Sávantvádi State, by Major Hutchinson and others. No. XVI.—Tours in Gujarát and the Konkan, by Dr. Hové. No. XXVI.—Miscellaneous information connected with the petty States of the Konkan. No. XCVI.—Papers relating to the assessment of part of the Thána Collectorate. No. CIV.—Military Papers by Hon. M. Elphinstone. BOMBAY QUARTERLY REVIEW, 1855 to 1858. BOMBAY REGULATIONS, 1799 to 1816. BRIGGS—History of the Mahommedan Power in India, 4 vols., 1832. BRUCE—Annals of the East India Company from 1661 to 1708, 3 vols., 1810. CHAPLIN—Report on the Deccan, 1824. Bombay, 1877. CLUVERIUS—Introductio in Universam Geographiam. Amsterdam, 1697. CORREA (GASPAR)—Lendas da India. Lisboa, 1858. CHURCHILL—Collection of Voyages, 6 vols., 1732. CUNNINGHAM—Ancient Geography of India, 2 vols., 1871. DACUNHA (J. GERSON)—Chaul and Bassein. Bombay, 1876. DEBARROS—Decada da Asia, 9 vols. DECOUTTO—Do. 15 vols. } Lisboa, 1778. DELA VALLE—Viaggi. 4 vols. Venetia, 1662. DELLON—Relation de l'Inquisition de Goa. Paris, 1688. DUPERRON (ANQUETIL)—Zendavesta (Vol. 1, Discours Préliminaire). Paris, 1771. EAST INDIA PAPERS relating to the Marátha War of 1803. ELLIOT (SIR H. M.)—History of India as told by its own Historians, 7 vols. 1867. ELPHINSTONE—History of India. Edn. London, 1854. ERSKINE—History of India under Báber and Humáyun, 2 vols. London, 1854. FERGUSON (J.)—Rock-cut Temples of India, 1864. FIELD OFFICER—Memoirs of the Early Life and Services of a—, London, 1839. FORBES (JAMES)—Oriental Memoirs. 4 vols. quarto, 1813.

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FORBES, A. K.—Rás Málá. London, 1856. FREIRE DE ANDRADE—Vida de Dom Joao deCastro. Edn. Paris, 1869. FRYER—New Account of East India and Persia. London, 1691. GILDEMEISTER—Scriptorum Arabum de Rebus Indicis. Bonn, 1838. GRANT DUFF—History of the Maráthás. Edn. Bombay, 1873. HAKLUYT—Collection of Voyages, 5 vols. Edn. London, 1809. HAMILTON (W.)—Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Description of Hindustán, 2 vols. 1820. HEBER (BISHOP)—Indian Journal, 2 vols. Edn. London, 1849. HEEREN—Historical Researches, 3 vols. Oxford, 1833. HERBERT (SIR T.)—Some Years' Travels into the divers parts of Africa and Asia, London, 1665. HISTORIOAL ACCOUNT OF THE SETTLEMENT AND POSSESSION OF BOMBAY BY THE ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY. London, 1776. HOUGH—History of Christianity in India, 2 vols. 1839. IARRIO (PIERRE DU)—L'histoire des choses plus Memorables &c. Tuisiéme partie. Bordeaux, 1614. IBN BATUTA—Travels of. Translation by Lee. 1829. INDIA IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Hakluyt Society, 1857. INDIAN ANTIQUARY. Bombay, 1871 to 1874. INSTITUTO VASCO DA GAMA. Nova Goa, 1866. IVES—A Voyage from England to 1754 and an historical narrative. London, 1773. JERVIS (T. B.)—Geographical and Statistical Memoir of the Konkan. Calcutta, 1840. JOURNAL ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Do. DO. DO. Bombay Branch. Do. ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL. KERR'S GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS, 1812. KNOX—New Collection of Voyages, 7 vols. London, 1767. LINSCHOTEN (T. H.)—Histoire de la Navigation aux Indes Orientales. Amsterdam, 1638. MACPHERSON (DAVID)—History of European Commerce with India. 1812. MALCOLM (SIR J.)—Government of India. 1833. MANDELSLO—Voyages and Travels of the Holstein Ambassadors. London, 1669. MARCO POLO—Travels of. (Colonel Yule.) 2 vols. 1871. MICKLE—The Lusiad, 2 vols. 1798. MILBURN—Oriental Commerce, 2 vols. 1813. MILL (JAMES)—History of British India, 6 vols. Edn. 1840. MOOR—Narrative of the Operations of Captain Little's Detachment against Tipu Sultán. London, 1794. MURRAY—Historical Account of Discoveries in Asia. Edinburgh, 1820. O CHRONISTA DE TISSUARY. Nova Goa, 1866 to 1869. OGILBY—English Atlas, 5 vols. About 1670. ORME—History of the Military Transactions in Indostán, 2 vols. London, 1778. Do.—Historical Fragments of the Mogul Empire. London, 1805. OVINGTON—A Voyage to Surat in 1689. London, 1696. PARSONS—Travels in Asia and Africa. London, 1808. PINKERTON—General Collection of Voyages, 17 vols. 1808. PRIAULX—Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana &c. 1873. PYRARD (F.)—Viagen (Portuguese translation). Nova Goa, 1862. REINAUD—Fragments Arabes et Persans inédits relatifs á l'Inde. Paris, 14. RENNELL—Memoir of a Map of Hindustán. London, 1788. REPORT ON PAST FAMINES IN THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. Bombay, 1868. REPORTS FROM COMMITTEES OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, 1806.

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REPORTS OF CIVIL CAUSES ADJUDGED BY THE COURT OF SADAR ADÁLAT. Bombay, 1825. ROBERTSON (REV. JAMES)—Historical Disquisition on Ancient India. London, 1809. RULE (REV. DR.)—History of the Inquisition. SCOTT (JONATHAN)—Ferishta’s History of the Deccan, 2 vols. Shrewsbury, 1794. SEELY—Journey to the Temple of Ellora, 1812. SELECTION OF PAPERS FROM RECORDS OF THE EAST INDIA HOUSE, 4 vols. 1826. SHAMRÁO MOROJI NAYAK—History of the Páttána Prabhus. Bombay, 1877. STANLEY (HON. H.)—Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama. Hakluyt Society. STAVORINUS—Voyages to the East Indies, 3 vols. 1798. THOMAS—Treaties, Agreements, and Engagements. Bombay, 1851. THORNTON—History of British India, 4 vols. 1841. TOD—Travels in Western India. 1839. TOHFAT AL MUJAHIDIN—Translated by Rowlandson. TRANSACTIONS BOMBAY GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. Do. BOMBAY LITERARY SOCIETY. Do. BOMBAY MEDICAL AND PHYSICAL SOCIETY. VALENTIA (LORD)—Voyages and Travels to India &c. 1809. VINCENT—Voyage of Néarchus and Periplus of the Erythræan Sea, 2 vols. 1805. WILSON (H. H.)—Works, 12 vols. 1868. Do. History of British India, 3 vols. 1845. WILSON (REV. DR.)—The Bene-Israel of Bombay. Do. Sermon to Pársis. Do. Account of Warlees and Kátkaries. Do. Caves of Western India. YULE—Cathay and the Way Thither. Hakluyt Society. Do. Mirabilia Descripta. Hakluyt Society. XAVIER (F. N.)—Resumo Historico da Vida S. Francisco Xavier. Goa, 1861. MANUSCRIPT RECORDS FROM BOMBAY SECRETARIAT, &C.

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Note—The references to Faria y Souza are either to the Summary of his book in Briggs’ History or to that in Kerr’s Voyages.

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Introduction

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The Konkan is now held to include all the land which lies between the Western Gháts and the Indian Ocean, from the latitude of Daman on the north to that of Terekhol, on the Goa frontier, on the south. This tract is about 320 miles in length, with a varying breadth of thirty to sixty miles, and is divided into the British districts of Thána Kolába and Ratnágiri, and the Native States of Jawhár Janjira and Sávantvádi.¹ The Pant Sachiv of Bhor in Poona has also a group of villages below the Gháts.

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¹ As the Sávantvádi state has always been closely connected with Kolhápur, the main part of its history must be looked for in the account of Kolhápur and not in this work.

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The word Konkan is of Indian origin and of considerable antiquity, but its meaning as the name of a country is not obvious and has never been satisfactorily explained, although various interpretations of it have been given. The district known under the name appears to have had very different limits at different periods. The seven Konkans of Hindu mythology are mentioned in a Hindu history of Kashmir, and are said by Professor H. H. Wilson² to have included nearly the whole of the west coast of India. Grant Duff³ considered the Konkan to extend along the coast from the Tápti to Sadáshivgad, and inland as far as the open plains of the Dakhan, and he thus included in it part of both Gujarát and Kánara, and of the country above the Gháts. This latter he called Konkan Ghát-mátha as opposed to Tal-Konkan or the lowlands: and he inferred that the Musalmáns were the first who limited the name to the low country.⁴ Ferishta⁵ also speaks of the Konkan under the name of Tal-Ghát, and Kháfi Khán calls it Tal-Konkan. This inclusion of the hilly district above and near the edge of the Gháts is very reasonable: for any one who passes from west to east will see that the country immediately above and immediately below the Gháts is of exactly the same character, although so different in elevation, while it is a few miles further east that the great bare plains which characterise the Dakhan begin. This narrow district above the Gháts is made up of the Mávals, the Khorás, and the Murhás, but it should be stated that neither the name Konkan-Ghát-Mátha, Introduction. nor the meaning of the words describing its divisions is now generally known.¹ As opposed to this extended interpretation of the Konkan, Bird states that according to Sanskrit writers the Konkan stretched only from Devgad to Sadáshivgad (that is a distance altogether of only about ninety miles), from the Tápti to Devgad being Abhir, or the country of the shepherds: that the divisions of Abhir were Berbera or Marátha from the Tápti to Bassein, Virát from Bassein to Bánkot, and Kirát from Bánkot to Devgad.² It is curious that the limits thus assigned to the provinces of Virát, Kirát, and Konkan should exactly coincide with those generally given for the districts of the Parbhus, Bráhmans, and Shenvis respectively.

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² Asiatic Researches, XV. 47.

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³ History, 3.

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⁴ History, 33.

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⁵ Briggs, II. 338.

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¹ The meaning of Mával, Khora, and Murha has been thus explained to the writer: The Murhás are the comparatively level parts of the Ghát country found at the top; the Khorás the narrow gorges and ravines (Khora being similarly used throughout the Konkan) stretching towards the bottom; and the Mávals (the word meaning west) the lowest slopes of the hills extending quite into the Konkan.

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² History of Gujarát, 8.

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Whatever the old signification of the word may have been, the name Konkan is now used in the sense first mentioned, and the modern division of the district is into North and South Konkan, meaning the parts north and south of Bombay.³ The boundary between the North and South Konkan is, however, sometimes considered to be the Sávitri river, which divides the Habshi's territory from Ratnágiri, as, for some years after the English conquest, the district of the North Konkan included the sub-divisions as far south as the Sávitri.

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³ Grant Duff, 168.

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Of this district it may be said generally that the parts near the coast are fertile, highly cultivated, and populous, and the inland parts rocky and rugged, not much favoured by nature nor improved by man. Compared with other parts of India the climate is moist, the rainfall being very heavy, and hot winds but little felt. Although enervating it is much more equable than that of the Dakhan: and the district, especially the southern part, may be called decidedly healthy. North of Bombay the coast is low and sandy, containing in many places great expanses of salt swamp, the rivers few and shallow, and the harbours insignificant. South of Bombay the coast is bold with a line of hills often bordering the sea, never receding more than two or three miles from it; there are many navigable rivers and commodious harbours, and in most parts deep water near the shore. At various places along the coast are small rocky islands, generally within a quarter of a mile of the mainland, and which were in earlier times, and especially under the Maráthás, fortified and highly valued. Such are Arnála, Kolába, Dánda-Rájápur, and Suvarndurg. At Málvan, besides one or two islánds of this sort, there are a great number of smaller rocks and reefs, and the whole sea between that port and the Vengurla rocks (formerly called by the Portuguese Ilheos Queimados, and thence shown in old English maps under the name of ‘The burnt rocks’)¹ is made dangerous by rocks of all sorts and sizes. Passing inland, the North Konkan is less rugged, and contains far more arable land though a thinner population than the South Konkan, which is, speaking generally, a rocky plateau slightly elevated, and from want of soil exceedingly sterile. But it is intersected by many great rivers and arms of the sea, and the valleys through which these and their tributary streams flow, partly make up by their fertility for the barrenness of the surrounding plateaus. The North Konkan is still in most parts well wooded, and in the coast districts the palmyra and the date palm spring up spontaneously in every direction. Parts of the Southern Konkan are also well covered with trees, though, from the nature of the soil, many parts are bare. On this part of the coast neither palmyra nor date tree is seen, but their place is better supplied by great groves of cocoanut trees planted along all the sandy parts of the coast and the banks of the creeks. The villages throughout the Konkan are almost invariably shaded with trees, and wherever there is room enough the houses stand in their own compounds, while in many of the inland districts they are found in scattered hamlets, several of which go to make up a village.

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¹ From their colour and ruggedness. De la Valle, III. 143.

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"The Konkan in early times seems to have been a thinly inhabited forest, from which character it has even now but partially emerged."² The last remark is at the present day true of part of the North Konkan only, the South possessing a population very thick compared with its arable area. It may be considered certain, however, that the whole was to a comparatively late period a district "where beasts with man divided empire claimed." The population Elphinstone considers to have been always Marátha,³ but there is a great difference between the inhabitants of the northern and those of the southern half. In the latter the population is purely Marátha, and the castes are few and very exactly defined; but in the north there are large tribes more or less aboriginal, several somewhat

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² Elphinstone, 220.

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³ Elphinstone 220.

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Introduction. mixed castes, and, except for comparatively recent settlers, a total absence of pure Maráthás and Bráhmans. The whole tract is agricultural, the largest town having little over 14,000 inhabitants. Until the accession of the British Government the population had always a distinctly warlike character, and the South Konkan still supplies so great a number of recruits to the Bombay Army, that there are as many military pensioners in this district as in the whole of the rest of the Presidency. Besides this, all castes of the South Konkan are much more in the habit of seeking their living abroad than the natives of other parts, though they almost invariably return home to end their days. Both coast and interior are remarkable for the number of forts, so that it is little exaggeration to say that in some parts every rock and promontory, mountain and hill, were fortified. These forts are now all in ruins, but the beauty of the creeks and hills and valleys remains, and in many cases the forts themselves

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“As stately seem but lovelier far
Than in the panoply of war.”

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Though the Konkan can scarcely be called historically famous, its long coast line and convenient harbours, together with its comparative nearness to the Arabian coast, made it known to the earliest travellers, while the natural strength of the country and the character of its inhabitants gave it in later days much greater importance than its wealth or extent would have justified. The Buddhists and after them the Bráhmans chose Sálsette for one of their greatest monastic establishments, and in other parts of the Konkan their cave temples are remarkable. The descendants of immigrant Pársis Jews Abyssinians and probably Arabs are still found in considerable numbers. The Musalmáns had two or three famous marts on this coast, and when the Portuguese began to make settlements in India the coast of the North Konkan was one of their early acquisitions; and in the South Konkan, factories of the English Dutch and French were established early in the seventeenth century. A little later the great founder of the Marátha empire chose a Konkan hill-fort as his capital. And when, after two or three generations, the pure Marátha dynasty lost its power, the Konkani Bráhmans better known as Konkanasths or Chitpávans inherited it and extended the Marátha conquests over the greatest part of India. Thus, though the Konkan has never been more than a province of some inland kingdom, it has many famous associations. And if, as geographically it does, the island of Bombay be considered

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to belong to it, the Konkan may be said to possess also one of the greatest centres of modern commerce. But the history of Bombay does not come within the scope of this memoir, and it must be admitted that the Konkan generally has for the last hundred years lost the greater part of such importance as it formerly had, and, except for its nearness to Bombay, would be even less regarded than it is. The Thána district has, indeed, benefited by both the railways which end at Bombay, and roads run through almost every part of it. But it is only within the last few years that roads fit for wheeled vehicles have been commenced in any of the districts south of Bombay, and many parts of the south, as well as the whole of the Jawhár and Janjira states, are still without cart roads. The Gháts separate the Konkan like a wall from the great plains of the Dakhan, and in the whole length of these mountains there are but eight cart roads leading from the Dakhan to the coast, and of these the two principal have been to some extent superseded by the railways that run close to them. In fact, none of the influences which have spread wealth over the rest of the Presidency in the last few years have affected the Konkan, except as regards a comparatively small part of the northern half. The interest of the country must depend therefore on the beauty of its scenery, its past history, and the character of its inhabitants, and in these respects it need not fear comparison with the more favoured and celebrated provinces of India.

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Note 1.—Owing to the Konkan, though geographically so distinct, having been from the earliest times divided, and its various parts attached first to one kingdom and then to another, no history of it either by a Native or European author is known to exist. This accounts for the great number of references to the works of historians and travellers which will be found in this short sketch.

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Note 2.—In the Second Section (Antiquities and Traditions) great additions have been made to Mr. Nairne’s narrative for which he is not responsible. These refer in some cases to discoveries made since Mr. Nairne left India.

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NOTE.

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With regard to the present state of the districts as given in the Introduction and at the end it should be remembered that the time referred to is the year 1884.

Addenda and Errata

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Page 2, line 19, Sir H. Yule (Hobson-Jobson, Art. Choul) confidently identifies Semulla of Ptolemy and Saimur of the old Arab Geographers with Choul. Page 7, for "the last section" read Vol. XI. page 85. Page 45, line 7 from bottom, for "1608." read "1508." Page 62, note 3, is part of page 63, note 4. Page 87, line 21, after "attacked Colába but failed," add "and the Shoreham Man-of-War was lost on the rocks." Page 88, line 12 from bottom, after "principal station," add "In February 1754 Angria's fleet burnt or captured three Dutch ships, one of 50, one of 36, and one of 18 guns; and having set on the stocks two ships, one of which was to carry 40 guns, he boasted that he should soon be superior to whatever could be brought against him in the Indian seas." These particulars are from Cambridge's "Account of the War in India from 1750 to 1761," 2nd Ed., London, 1762, in which there are plates of the attacks on Suvarndrug and Gheriah. Page 92, para. 1, at end, enter inverted commas; para. 2, at beginning, remove inverted commas. Page 94, para. 1, at end, enter inverted commas; para. 2, at beginning, remove inverted commas. Page 95, para. 1, at end, enter inverted commas; para. 2, at beginning, remove inverted commas.

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Section I. Early Travellers

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THE earliest certain mention of the country now called the Konkan is in the geography of Ptolemy about A.D. 150, and in the Greek work called "The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea," the authorship of which is uncertain, and the date variously calculated from A.D. 66 to A.D. 240. Ptolemy makes of this part of the coast two provinces, Larika (Sk. Lâtaka or Lâtadesh¹) which is identified with Gujarát and part of the North Konkan, and Ariaka which includes the rest of the Konkan.² The author of the Periplus does not mention Larika, but applies the name of Barugaza or Broach to this province as well as to the port of Broach, and states that Ariaka included "the land of the pirates."³ This is the first mention of the pirates, who down to the present century were the terror of the coast between Bombay and Goa. With reference to them Rennell about 1780 wrote: "Few countries with so straight a general outline are so much broken into bays and harbours. The multitude of shallow ports, an uninterrupted view along the shore, and an elevated coast favourable to distant vision, have always fitted this tract of country for piracy. The land and sea breezes blow alternately and divide the day, so that vessels sailing along the coast are obliged to keep within sight of land."⁴ The pirates of Suvarnadurg are also mentioned by Strabo.⁵ Vincent in collating the various descriptions of the coast assigns to Ariaka the limits from Goa to the Tápti, and of course includes in this the land of the pirates, and he considers that as the province can thus be identified with tolerable certainty, it is of little use to try to ascertain the exact position of the different ports named, most of which were places of only local trade.⁶ The two identifications, however, which he makes without any doubt are Kalyán (Kalliéna) and the Vengurla rocks, the first a port which was already decayed in the time of the Periplus, as Sandanes the king admitted no Egyptian vessels, and if any entered the harbour by accident or stress of weather he compelled them to go to Broach. The Vengurla rocks are mentioned as islands off the southern extremity of Ariaka and called Sesekrienai.⁷ The ports given both by Ptolemy and in the Periplus between Broach and these islands are Oopára or Sopára near Bassein where interesting Buddhist remains of about A.D. 50 were discovered in 1882,⁸ Semulla, Mandagora, Palaipotamai (Balapatna in Ptolemy), Melizigara, and Toparon

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¹ Compare Bombay Gazetteer, XII. 57 note; XIII, Part II., 112, 431, 435 & note 4.

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² Heeren, II. 239; Tod, 187.

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³ Vincent, II, 418.

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⁴ Memoir, xxx.-xxxviii.

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⁵ Vincent, I. 178.

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⁶ Vincent, II. 428.

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⁷ Vincent, II, 422, 432.

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⁸ Bom. Gaz. XIV. Sopára.

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Early

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of the Byzantians (Byzantium) in Ptolemy.¹ Besides these Ptolemy alone mentions the river Binda between Sopára and Semulla, Hippocura south of that, and the islands called Heptanesia.² These last are identified by Lassen with the islands of Bombay and Sálsette.³ Semulla he puts at Bassein, Balipatna about Cheul or Dánda Rájápur, and Manadagora a little further south. Melizigaris, called by Pliny Zizerus, he puts at Suvarndurg, Vincent at Jaygad. Ptolemy calls this place an island, Pliny a river and a port, and the author of the Periplus a place on the continent. A tolerable agreement can be found between these three apparently contradictory descriptions if it is remembered that the Arabic word Janjira, which may be evidently traced in the two names given, is still used not only for the rocky island off Dánda-Rájápur, but also for the similar rocks at Suvarndurg and Málvan, either of which places, with the towns on the mainland which they protect, might then be identified with Melizigara or Zizerus.⁴ Byzantium Lassen puts at Vijaydurg. And Nitrias, mentioned by Pliny as a chief station of the pirates, Rennell identifies with Nivti, between Málvan and Vengurla.⁵

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¹ Vincent, II. 427, 431.

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² Liber, VII. Cap. I. Bom. Gaz. XIII. Part II. 414.

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³ Map to Indische Altherthumskunde.

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⁴ Vincent, II. 430.

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⁵ Memoir, 31; Vincent, II, 449; Bom. Gaz. XV. Part II, 336. The similarity of the name and position suggest that Mandagora is Mandangad, a lofty and prominent hill close to Mahápral, a village on the Bánkot creek, to which large native craft still pass.

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The identification of all these places is an interesting study for those who are well acquainted with the district, and there are certain resemblances of names which will probably strike every reader; but the speculations made by different geographers are almost endless, and the means of ascertaining the real situation of the places mentioned are so small, owing to Ptolemy's mistake of making the coast from Broach to the Ganges run almost due east, and to no manuscript of the Periplus being known to exist, that it seems useless to go deep into the subject. Except Kalyán the places mentioned in the Periplus are all given as country ports frequented only by the natives.⁶ From Barugaza (Broach) and Ariaka to the coast of Africa were exported corn, rice, butter, oil of sesame, coarse and fine cotton goods, and cane-honey (sugar). And ships with these cargoes sometimes went on from the African to the Arabian ports.⁷ Whether this African trade was in the hands of Arabs or of the natives of India is doubtful, but all writers are agreed that the traffic from the west coast of India to the Red Sea was mainly in the hands of the Arabs.⁸ The trade of the ancient Egyptians with India is to be looked on as previous to history and a matter only of speculation.⁹ The Greeks from Egypt may occasionally have gone across the Indian Ocean, but in general they contented themselves with getting Indian goods from the

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⁶ Vincent, II. 428. Compare Bom. Gaz. X. 192; XI. 136, 137, note 6; XIII, Part II, 414-418; XV. Part II. 78 and note 1.

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⁷ Vincent, II. 282, 423.

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⁸ Heeren, II. 301; Elphinstone 166; Vincent, I. 43; II, 35, 119; Robertson, 38.

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⁹ Vincent, I. 284.

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Arabs in the ports of the Red Sea.¹ Authorities differ as to whether the Romans ever traded with this coast at all.² As regards the ports of the Konkan in the earliest times it may be taken as proved that the larger ones were frequented by the Arabs and the smaller ones by the natives who carried on the coasting trade.³ The author of the Periplus also mentions that Muziris, which is generally identified with Mangalore, was a great place of resort for vessels from the Konkan.⁴

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¹ Vincent, II. 119, 35; Priaulx, 84.

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² Priaulx, 234.

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³ Elphinstone, 166.

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⁴ Vincent, II. 448.

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The conclusion is that, notwithstanding the pirates, this coast was not devoid of trade or shunned by foreigners in the earliest times of which we have any record, though it had no place of such importance as Cambay, Broach, or the ports of Malabár; and that the exports were not very different from what they now are, cotton cloth, muslin, indigo, chintz, spices, and sugar.⁵ It must also be mentioned that the metropolis to which Ariaka was subject was Tagara, a place formerly identified with Divgiri or Daulatabad, about which there is now a difference of opinion.⁶

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⁵ Elphinstone, 169.

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⁶ Wilford in Asiatic Res. I. 373; Vincent, II. 403, 414. Compare Bom. Gaz. XIII. Part II. 423 note 4; XVI. 181 note 2; XVIII. Part II. 211 note 2; Fleet's Dynasties of the Kánarese Districts, 99 - 103.

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After the author of the Periplus no authority can be mentioned until Cosmas, a Greek merchant of the sixth century, who described India, though it is very doubtful if he had visited it himself.⁷ He speaks of Calliana as a place of great trade, and states that the return cargoes from there to Ceylon consisted of native brass, sesamum, wood, and articles of clothing.⁸ He also speaks of a king of Calliana, and of there being a bishop's see and a Christian community at Kalyán subject to the Persian metropolitan. In these respects Kalyán was not different from the other considerable ports of India, most of which were frequented by Persian traders.⁹ The conjecture has been made, though the evidence is certainly weak, that the Buddhist priest Fa Hian at the end of the fourth century and Hiuen Tsiang in the seventh century both visited the Buddhist caves of Kanheri, and that the latter on his return embarked at Kalyán or Bánkot.¹⁰

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⁷ Priaulx, 226.

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⁸ Heeren, II. 442. Heeren's sesame and wood should probably be sisu or blackwood.

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⁹ It must be acknowledged that the description here given by Cosmas seems to point rather to Quilon than Callian, and some writers have also considered the Kalyán of the Periplus to be Quilon. See Paulini a S. Bartolomeo in India Orientalis, Christiana. Vincent's account of the whole coast, however, renders this supposition untenable.

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¹⁰ R. A. S. Journal, VI. 329; Cunningham, I. 554.

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After Cosmas there is a long break before any other European writer mentions this part of India, but the gap is supplied by several Arabian geographers, by whom the name is variously given as Kemkem, Konkam, Kankan, Konkan, and Konkan-Tana, which last compound is given by Ibn Batuta (1340), and is conjectured by Colonel Yule to have been the proper name of the province. The compound is reproduced by an Italian writer of the fourteenth century

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as Cocintana. It appears in what is called the Catalan map of 1375 as Cocintaga.¹

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¹ R. A. S. Journal (New Series); IV. 340; Yule's Cathay, I. ccxxx.

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Reinaud² gives an extract from an Arab writer named Beladori to the effect that in A.D. 636 the Khalif Omar sent an army to Tanna and he thinks that this was probably our Thána. But he acknowledges that the diacritical marks of the initial letter are wanting and he gives no other particulars. In the travels of the merchant Suleiman written in A.D. 851 the country of Komkam is given as part of the kingdom of the Balhára.³ But Alberuni, of whom Colonel Yule says that "in Indian matters he knew what he was talking about a great deal better than other old Arabic writers," says nothing of Balhára. He mentions a kingdom of Konkan with its capital at Tálah and gives the itinerary along the coast as Broach, Sindan 50 parasangs, Soubarah 6 parasangs, Tana 5 parasangs. Then the country of Láran and in that Djymowr, Malyah, Kandjy; then the Dravira which Reinaud says is the Coromandel Coast. Alberuni also mentions the plains of the Konkan as containing the animal called Scharan, a quadruped with four extra legs standing up above its back.⁴

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² Fragments, 1826.

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³ Elliot, I. 4.

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⁴ Yule's Cathay, I. clxxxiv; Reinaud, 109, 121.

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Rashid-ud-Din about A.D. 1300 mentions Konkan, of which the capital is Tana on the sea-shore. But further on he mentions Gujarát as a large country within which are Cambay, Somnát Kankan, 'Tana and several other cities and towns;' and again 'Beyond Gujarát are Kankan and Tana, beyond them the country of Malabar.'⁵ The question as to the dependence of the Konkan on Gujarát will be considered in the next section. It is sufficient here to say that the above extracts prove that the Konkan was a separate province with a capital called Thána, which is mentioned as a town on the coast by the traveller Al Masudi who died in A.D. 956.⁶ By Al Idrisi in the twelfth century the following itinerary of the coast is given: "From Baruk (Broach) to Sindhábur⁷ along the coast four days. From hence to Bana (Thána) upon the coast four days. This is a pretty town upon a great gulf where vessels anchor and from whence they set sail."⁸ Gildemeister has no doubt that the ancient and modern places are the same, and thinks that Thána is the only port known to the Arabs between Broach and Goa of which the situation can be exactly ascertained.⁹ When it is considered that, at no very distant time, the sea must have filled the whole space between the hills on the east of the Thána creek and those on the west of it, and must have flowed also over a very wide expanse of country between Thána and Bassein, it seems that these descriptions may have been tolerably correct for the Thána of eight hundred years ago. The last of these early Arabian

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⁵ Elliot, I. 60, 67.

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⁶ Elliot, I. 24.

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⁷ There is some confusion among travellers as to Sindábur. Colonel Yule thinks it was Goa, but that Al Idrisi and others confounded it with Sanján. Indian Antiquary, III. 116.

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⁸ Elliot, I. 89.

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⁹ De Rebus Indicis, 46.

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travellers is Ibn Batuta in the fourteenth century, who did not visit the Konkan, but mentions Thána as one of the ports from which great ships used to go to Aden.¹ But this last traveller was later in date than the famous Venetian Marco Polo (1290). His description of this part is unfortunately rather vague, nor does he mention the name Konkan. But he divides all this coast into the kingdom of Tanna and the kingdom of Lar. Of the latter his account is very indefinite, but Tanna he calls "a great kingdom with a language of its own and a king of its own, tributary to nobody; many ships and merchants frequent the place." He mentions leather, buckram, and cotton as the exports, and then he comes to the pirates, and their custom of giving up all the horses they take to the king, and keeping the rest of the plunder to themselves. With so much specified it is not difficult to assume Lar to be the Larika of Ptolemy, and to have included the northern part of the Konkan and part, at all events, of Gujarát. Colonel Yule adds that all the sea, west of this coast, was in early times called the sea of Lar.² The account of the martyrdom of the four friars at Thána, which is believed to have taken place on the Thursday before Palm Sunday 1322, is so curious that it cannot be omitted. It is given by the Friar Odoricus who himself visited Thána, and, though full of wonders anachronisms and absurdities, seems from some of the local details to be founded on fact. It is not clear whether the friars ever received the official beatification of Rome, but they appear as Beati in the Acta Sanctorum and are commemorated in one of the churches at Goa.

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Linked texts (15)

Kathāsaritsāgara — Somadeva Bhaṭṭa, Sanskrit
تحفة النظار في غرائب الأمصار وعجائب الأسفار — Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, Arabic
Kanheri Caves
Vishalgad
Devagiri (Daulatabad)
Toparon?
Vijaydurg
Kalyana
Muziris
Kumārapālacarita (Prākṛtadvyāśraya) — Hemacandra, Prakrit
A New Śīlāra Copper Plate Grant (ed. Telang 1880) — Sanskrit
Copper-plate grant of the Western Chālukya dynasty, dated Śaka 535 — Sanskrit
Grant of Vīra-Chōḷa — Sanskrit
Rajāngane inscription of Siri Sanga Bo — Prakrit
Girnār Rock Edict XIV of Aśoka (ed. Kern 1876) — Prakrit