[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.fleet-1882) › c7.s2.3 # The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s2.3 The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s2.3 - **Language:** English ### [c7.s2.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.fleet-1882.c7.s2.3) 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. - [Previous: c7.s2.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.fleet-1882.c7.s2.2) - [Next: c7.s2.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.fleet-1882.c7.s2.4) - [Up: c7.s2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.fleet-1882.c7.s2) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.fleet-1882.c7.s2.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.fleet-1882.c7.s2.3) · Pramāṇa