The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s9.248

c7.s9.248

Rájápur, which has not often been mentioned in the earlier parts of this history, is by far the best preserved and oldest-looking town in the Konkan. It is built, like so many of the other towns, at the highest navigable point of a considerable river, and as the hills rise almost immediately from the water the whole town is built on a slope, except that part close to the river. The streets are steep and narrow, and the bazárs are covered over as well as paved. The old English factory, a massive stone building with an enclosure leading down to the water, is now used as the kacheri and the walls of another building of European construction, and equally large, are probably the remains of the French factory. Rájápur is the only Konkan port to which Arab buggalows still come direct, and to it only two or three in the year. The rest of the great trade which used to pass to the Konkan ports from Arabia, the Persian gulf, and the Red Sea is now all swallowed up in Bombay.⁷