The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s10: Section XII. British Rule

The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s10

Language: English

Section XII. British Rule

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IN 1818 the whole Konkan, with very little more exception than at the present time, was under the British Government. The state of Sálsette has been described in Section XI, and it is also of importance to show the condition of the rest of the Konkan at the time of its acquisition. No one who knows the Konkan now will suppose that it can have been very flourishing under the Maráthás, and it is in fact easy to prove that bad as was the condition of Sálsette that of the rest of the district was far worse.

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The system of farming out offices to the highest bidder was in the later years of the Peshwa's government rendered still more odious by the insecurity of the possession of these farms: for so-called leases were often summarily annulled on a higher offer being made. At the same time the taxation was exceedingly oppressive: in the Northern Konkan a list of thirty-six different taxes is given, cesses being levied even on cattle, vegetables, and poultry. The poverty of the people in general and the number of deserted villages were sufficient evidence of the evils of this system. "The Kolis, Bhils, Kátkaris, Thákurs, and other almost savage tribes who inhabit the jungles" were in the habit of plundering the villages at every opportunity, and were said to be in the most degraded state of human nature.¹ In the neighbourhood of the forts (which it must be remembered were scattered all over the districts) "the country was for miles round with scarcely an inhabitant, almost without an implement of any kind, or an artificer of the humblest description."² Only one exception is mentioned to the generally wretched state of the country, the island and sub-division of Bassein, where sugarcane and plantains were as now produced in abundance. "From Bassein to Dántivra every inch of the ground is highly cultivated, and the comparative and well-known wealth of the inhabitants is ascribable to the fertility and highly cultivated state of the island."³ There was also an excellent road from Dántivra to the Damanganga, but here the coast villages seem to have been freely plundered by the Pendháris.²

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¹ East India House Selections (1826), III. 767, 770.

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² Dickenson's Manuscript Report.

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³ East India House Selections, III. 770.

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The Southern Konkan, which had of late years suffered less from the miseries of war, appears to have been in the better condition,

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though even there very few of the villages consisted of “more than a rude cluster of thatched mud huts,” and it was stated as their misfortune that there were no village walls for defence, so that the Thags and Rámoshis were frequent visitors.¹ “A man wearing a decent turban or ever so coarse a dress attracts one’s attention as being above the lower orders.”² The sub-divisions of Suvarndurg and Anjanvel were said to be the most prosperous of all in the Southern Konkan, and the revenue there soon after the establishment of our Government was “easily and punctually collected.”¹ It seems probable that the *khots*, while themselves forming a body of men less poverty-stricken than the ordinary ryots, protected the latter to some extent from the rapacity of the Peshwa’s officers.³ The produce of the whole district was reported as very small: still the natural remark was made that “on viewing the face of the country, which to a cursory observer presents little less than bare hills, rocks, ravines, jungle, and mountains, the surprise is rather that there is so much, than that there is no more.” The population was put down at 640,000, and as this included some part of the present Kolába district, while the present population of Ratnágiri alone is put down as over a million, the difference will be seen to be very great.

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¹ Pelly’s Manuscript Report.

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³ Wingate’s Manuscript Report.

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This being the general state of the country it must be stated that at least three causes concurred to depress rather than to improve the condition of the people during the first years of British rule. In the first place the Konkan suffered in a very excessive degree from the return of the military men now thrown out of employ, as, besides numbers who had served in the cavalry and infantry, most of the forts in the Dakhan as well as along the Gháts and in the Konkan had been in a great measure garrisoned by Konkanis.² Secondly the great demand for grain, especially rice, in the Dakhan and particularly at Poona which resulted from the absence of cultivation above the Gháts and the presence of a great Court and army at Poona, suddenly ceased, for the Court and army disappeared together, and the immediate increase of cultivation in the Dakhan made it independent of the supply of Konkan grain, so that it soon became an exporting instead of an importing country.⁴ Thirdly the ruin of the Chitpávan dynasty which had always kept the great offices of the State to a great extent in the hands of members of that caste and had favoured other natives of the Ratnágiri district, could not have been otherwise than a most serious loss to so poor a country as the Southern Konkan. The measures taken for the improvement of the district were to a great extent counterbalanced by these inevitable causes of distress.

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² E. I. House Selections, III. 765-769, 784, 790.

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⁴ J. M. Davies’ Manuscript Reports.

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Before entering on the general settlement of the country it was necessary to define the rights of those Marátha states which under the supremacy of the Peshwa had held a great part of the coast of the Southern Konkan. Málvan, the sea-port of the Kolhápur territories, had been ceded since 1812, so that the arrangements now made with that state did not affect the Konkan. But to gain the forts of Nivti and Ráiri in consequence of the injuries committed on the inhabitants of our villages by the Sávantvádi state, a force under Sir William Grant Keir, consisting of a wing of the 89th Regiment, 2½ battalions of Native infantry, and three troops of Native cavalry and artillery, entered the Konkan in January 1819. The heavy stores and ordnance were sent by sea. Nivti which had a garrison of 300 men, was invested and surrendered on February 4 without resistance, and the force proceeded by sea to Ráiri, the defences of which were found to be formidable. On the thirteenth at daybreak fire was opened on the fort by four battery guns and four eight-inch mortars, which in an hour dismantled the whole of the guns in the outworks, and then directed their fire against the general defences till 3 P.M., when the storming party of 330 men of the 89th Regiment in two columns assaulted the fort, and gained the outworks with a loss of eight killed and twenty-seven wounded, the latter including two officers. The enemy retained possession of the inner works that night, but most of them escaped before morning, and the remainder then surrendered.¹ A treaty was concluded by which the whole of the coast villages from Málvan to the Portuguese frontier were ceded and about twenty inland villages composing the districts of Pát and Ajgaum. These last however were restored in the following year and the coast villages alone retained.²

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¹ Wilson, II, 446; Asiatic Journal, VIII. 291; Blacker, 484.

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² Aitchison's Treaties, VI. 132.

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It was not found necessary to deprive the Kolába state of any part of its territories, which by gradual encroachments of the Poona government had been much curtailed, but a treaty defining the conditions of its dependence on the British Government was concluded in 1822. Finally, the Pant Sachiv of Bhor, who had rights over many villages in the Konkan, was settled with on the principle of exchange of villages and revenue.³

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³ Aitchison's Treaties, VI. 182, 45; East India House Selections, IV. 153.

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For several years after this and up to 1830 the Kolis and other forest and hill tribes in the North Konkan gave constant trouble by their depredations both above and below the Gháts, and it made it necessary to send out small detachments for the protection of the country.⁴ Notwithstanding this the generally peaceable character of the Konkan may be gathered from the fact that as early as 1820 there were not more than three battalions scattered over its whole extent, the Northern Konkan and down to Bánkot being included in the Poona Division of the Army and the Southern Konkan remaining a separate command, only because of its distance from Poona and Bombay.⁵ Thána had of course been maintained as a military

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⁴ Bom; Geo. Soc. Trans., 327.

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⁵ Bombay Selections, CIV. 4, 7.

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station ever since our Government got possession of Sálsette, and at the beginning of this century there was also a military establishment at Vesáva,¹ fifteen miles north of Bombay.² Vesáva had been spoken of by Gemelli³ as one of the three forts of Sálsette and the harbour is mentioned by Hamilton as deep enough to receive ships of the greatest burden.⁴ A small force was kept at Bhiwndi for some time and also at Panwel. There have now for many years been no troops in the district, except a wing of a Native Infantry Regiment at Thána.

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¹ The proper name of the village in which the fort is situated is Madh, which a military author romantically translated "Isle de Mer." The Native Regiment stationed there in 1810 "had every amusement and comfort that men could require, an excellent mess, good houses &c." Seely, 2.

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² Lord Valentia, II. 182.

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³ Churchill, IV. 198.

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⁴ Pinkerton, VIII, 343.

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In the Southern Konkan small detachments were kept for some years at Bánkot Málvan and Vengurla, which had all been for some time in our occupation, and also at Harnai. It was thought necessary, however, to make one regular military station, and Dápoli was fixed upon. About 1840 the regular troops were removed, and the veteran battalion alone kept there, and after 1857 this also was abolished, and the Southern Konkan left without any military force whatever.

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Thána had from the first been the civil station of Sálsette, and became naturally the capital of the North Konkan. On July 11, 1825, Bishop Heber consecrated the church which had just been finished, and which he describes as "extremely elegant and convenient, and the effect very pleasing."⁵ It was necessary also after we took the country in 1818 to fix on a place for civil headquarters in the Southern Konkan. Bánkot Málvan and Vengurla were out of the question as being at the extremities of the district. Officers sent to report on the matter considered that Jaygad Vijaydurg and Ratnágiri were the three most suitable spots,⁶ and eventually the choice fell on the last-named, which has since been the head-quarters of the district. About 1830, however, the North and South Konkan were joined into one collectorate, but this arrangement did not last long.

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⁵ Heber's Journal, II. 144.

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⁶ Manuscript Records.

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The first Collector of the North Konkan, Mr. Marriott, lost no time in recommending the abolition of a great number of the taxes, and within a year or two a rough survey was made of the whole collectorate.⁷ But even in 1833 Sir John Malcolm wrote of "the hitherto unproductive island of Sálsette," and only looked forward to its improvement by "respectable and opulent natives of Bombay" settling in it.⁸ Yet for several years after he had left India our Government levied duties at the rate of twenty-five per cent on all goods imported from the east into Sálsette and the other parts of the district which had belonged to the Portuguese. This was a Marátha impost, and our rulers apparently thought it so harmless as to retain it when many other taxes were abolished.¹ The ruggedness of both Konkans and the intersection of the country by large tidal rivers prevented the improvement of the greater part of it by road-making, so that it is only within the remembrance of the present generation that anything has been done to open out the inland parts of the district. But before the end of 1830 a great military road had been constructed from Panwel to Poona, and the Borghát opened for wheeled vehicles, which the Poona Government had on political grounds refused to let our Government repair as long as it was in their power.² This new road was said by Sir John Malcolm "to break down the wall between the Konkan and the Deccan." About the same time the road from Thána to Násik (afterwards part of the Ágra road) was made, and the opening of the Talghát, though it was not available for wheeled vehicles, had the greatest effect on trade, for up to that time Berár cotton used to reach Bombay by the circuitous route of Surat. The Kumbhárli Ghát was also made at this time, although not then passable for carts, and the road across Mahábaleshvar from Sátára to Mahád was completed at the joint expense of the Rája of Sátára and our Government.³

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⁷ E. I, House Selections, III. 769.

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⁸ Government of India, 81 and Appx. 63.

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² Seely, 59.

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³ Malcolm, 107, Appendix 86, 89.

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Thus something was done to improve the inland parts of the province, and the coast villages have from the beginning of our rule flourished and increased. The Konkani Bráhmans had not lost their old aptitude for government, nor the Konkani Maráthás their inclination towards military employ : so that, though a great part of the district had not, up to a few years ago, made much progress, and a small portion was and still is inhabited by some very uncivilised tribes, yet as a whole the Konkan probably felt the blessings of peace and strong government as much as most other parts.

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In 1836-38 a new assessment was made all over the Thána district, chiefly by Mr. J. M. Davies. It was found that owing to the fall in the price of grain in the Konkan Sadáshiv Keshav's assessments of 1788 which had then represented one-third of the produce were now equivalent to one-half, and a reduction of rates had to be made accordingly. Up to this time and for several years after the cultivation of the hill lands, which is now so largely carried on, was of very trifling extent, and scarcely any restrictions were placed on the destruction of trees which from their abundance were thought of little value.¹ In the Southern Konkan owing to the peculiarity of the tenures the survey was delayed almost up to the present time.

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¹ J. M. Davies' Manuscript Reports.

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The two political events of chief consequence in the Konkan between 1820 and 1850 were the lapse of the state of Kolába in 1840 on the death of the last of the A'ngriás of the direct and legitimate line,⁴ and the insurrection and military operations in the Vádi district in 1844-45. The sub-divisions of the Kolába state with those of Pen, Rájpuri, Mahád, and Thal, which had hitherto been

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⁴ Aitchison's Treaties, VI. 182.

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the charge of the First Assistant Collector of Thána, were formed into a sub-collectorate and recently into an independent collectorate. The Sávantvádi disturbances scarcely extended to the Málvan sub-division although its villages are much mixed up with those of the Vádi state, but one of the insurgent leaders attempted to raise the people of Málvan against our Government.¹ The Konkan was only affected by the mutinies of 1857 by a wing of the Native Infantry Regiment which mutinied at Kolhápur being at Ratnágiri and the fears entertained that the mutineers would march down. A steamer was sent to take away the ladies and children from Ratnágiri, but no disturbance took place. The ruffian, afterwards known as Nána Sáheb, was the son of a poor Bráhman of Vengaon a village of Karjat, and was adopted at the age of four by the Peshwa Bájiráv. Nána with his parents and brothers then went to live with his adoptive father in Bengal, and the Konkan had no more to do with him. The gifted French naturalist Victor Jacquemont in October 1832 contracted the illness of which he died two months later by his botanical exploration in "the pestilential jungles of Sálsette."

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¹ Bombay Selections, X, 19.

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Since 1850 the condition of the Northern Konkan has been entirely changed by the railways that pass through it, and the roads which now render most parts accessible. Sálsette in particular now (1883) presents a very different appearance from that described forty years ago. The hills are still covered with jungle, but are therefore more valuable than if scanty crops were grown on them, and much even of the better land is every year left uncultivated, but only because the grass gives a valuable return without the trouble and expense of tillage. The great numbers of carts which during the whole fine season pass along the roads and the flourishing appearance of the villages prove that Sálsette has now to a great extent at least recovered the prosperity it had 200 years ago. The rest of the Northern Konkan is in various stages of progress, part having improved nearly as rapidly as Sálsette and two or three sub-divisions being still, owing to want of population, not much better than the whole was described as being in 1818. Of the Southern Konkan the two northern sub-divisions, that is those nearest Bombay, are but little behind Sálsette, but the greater part of it is, and by the nature of its position must remain much isolated, while its greater poverty prevents the rapid extension of its communications, so that up to about 1860 it was probably but little different from what it was in 1818. But a cart-road now runs through the whole length of it, and steam navigation has of course been in its favour. The district still manages to attract to itself money earned in other parts of India, while those of the natives who take service elsewhere generally return to end their days in the place where they were born. During the years of the great public works in Bombay thousands of labourers used to go up there for the working season and return home for the rains, and though this practice declined with the decline of speculation in Bombay, greater numbers than ever find their subsistence in the factories of Bombay.

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Looking at the future prospects of the Konkan it must be said that the Northern Konkan at present suffers in its inland parts from a want of population and capital, but the whole of it may in time be as flourishing as the coast villages are now. The Southern Konkan is overpopulated, and nothing can make any but a small part of it fertile, nor does it seem likely that it will be ever distinguished by manufactures, or that mineral wealth will be developed. But it holds a race of men who in the last century conquered nearly the whole of India, and who show no signs of degeneration, and no one can for a moment suppose that the progress of education and science will leave the country of the most intelligent and industrious of Indian races unknown and unimproved.

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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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Down to the Mahomedan Conquest.

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RAMKRISHNA GOPAL BHANDARKAR, M.A., Ph.D., C.I.E., HONORARY MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, OF THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY, AND OF THE ITALIAN ASIATIC SOCIETY; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE GERMAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY AND OF THE IMPERIAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, ST. PETERSBURG; FELLOW OF THE UNIVERSITIES OF BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA; LATE PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES, DEKKAN COLLEGE.

The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s10: Section XII. British Rule

Section XII. British Rule

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