The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s6.43

c7.s6.43

The power of the Bidar kings having now entirely declined, their part of the Konkan was divided between the kings of Ahmadnagar and Bijápur. The Sávitri appears from the first to have been the boundary, and accordingly Chaul and Dábhol fell to different masters.⁴ These ports were no doubt of greater importance than all the rest of the country, and as early as the fourteenth century they had been mentioned with Bidar, Gulburga, and other large towns as having had orphan schools established in them by Muhammad Sháh Báhmani I. It should be mentioned that Yusúf Adil Khán, the first king of Bijápur, believed to be the son of an Emperor of Constantinople, had first landed in India at Dábhol, and from there had been taken as a slave to Bidar. Mahmúd Khwája Gawán had also come by this route from Persia to Bidar, and a little earlier in the century the Báhmani king Ahmad Sháh Wali had sent two different deputations by way of Chaul to a celebrated saint in Persia, some of whose family came to India soon afterwards by the same route.⁵ It may be supposed therefore that by this time more was known of the Konkan than before, and greater interest felt in it than was usual in these Dakhan courts. At all events it was in the time of Yusúf Adil Khán that the first steps were taken to improve the district, for in 1502 the Subhedár of the province of Dábhol, which extended from the Sávitri to Devgad, including therefore the whole of the Ratnágiri district with the exception of the Málvan sub-division and a very little more, gave grants to the first of the khots for the occupation and reclamation of waste lands. It is stated that at this time the country was in an exceedingly unsettled and impoverished condition, and that encouragement was now given to the former landholders to occupy their land at a light rent. Thus many of these grants confirmed in their *vatans* the old Hindu proprietors *desáis*, *deshpándes*, and *kulkarnis*.¹ It may be here mentioned that the origin of the Hindu institution of *desáis* or *deshpándes* and *deshmukhs* is unknown, but it is certain that the Moghals found them useful in their new conquests. Their authority was therefore confirmed and in some cases extended by the Bijápur government. It may be added that although higher offices urder the name of *deshmukhs* and *sardesáis* are known to have existed, Elphinstone could hear of only two families enjoying the *sardeshmukhi*, and of no *sardesáis*, except in the Konkan.²