The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s11.37

c8.s11.37

a territorial division known as the Koṅkaṇa fourteen-hundred:¹ opinions have been expressed, identifying it with Ṭhāṇa, the chief town of the Ṭhāṇa District, close to Bombay,—with Ghârâpurî or Elephanta, an island, noted for its cave-temples, on the east side of the Bombay harbour, and about four miles distant from the mainland,—and with either Râjpurî in the Kolâba Agency, or Râjâpur in the Ratnâgiri District; but no conclusive identification has as yet been established. And they were perhaps descendants of some branch of the Maurya dynasty of Pâṭaliputra, which was founded by Chandragupta in the fourth century B. C. Other traces, also, of the ancient Mauryas, or of persons who claimed descent from them, are forthcoming from Western India.² A prince named Dhavala, of the Maurya lineage, is mentioned in the Kaṇaswa inscription, of A. D. 738-39, in the Kôṭah State, Râjputâna.³ And an inscription at Wâghlî, in Khândêsh, mentions a Maurya chief named Gôvindarâja, with the date of A. D. 1069, as a subordinate of the Yâdava Mahâmaṇḍalêśvara or feudatory prince Sêuṇachandra II. of the Sêuṇa country, and states that the original town of the Mauryas, or rather of his branch of the Maurya stock, was Valabhî,—the modern Waḷâ,—in Surâshṭra or Kâṭhiâwâḍ.⁴