Shivaji and His Times c11.s1: §1. Kanara, its rulers and trade
Shivaji and His Times c11.s1
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§1. Kanara, its rulers and trade
c11.s1.1
In the seventeenth century, Kanara, the extensive country along our west coast, was held by various Hindu chieftains. North Kanara (now included in the Bombay Presidency) owned the overlordship of Bijapur, which ruled directly over the coast-strip from Karwar (south of Goa) to Mirjan (14·30 N. lat.), leaving the inland districts in the hands of feudatory chiefs, among whom the Nayaks of Sunda were the most important. The portion of Kanara that lay south of Mirjan formed a large and independent principality under the Keladi dynasty, whose capital was then at Bednur.
c11.s1.2
A Muslim officer with the hereditary title of Rustam-i-Zaman (originally Randaula Khan) was the viceroy of the south-western corner of the Bijapur kingdom. His charge extended on the west coast from Ratnagiri town, going southwards round the Portuguese territory of Goa to Karwar and Mirjan, while landwards it included the southern part of the Ratnagiri district, Kolhapur, Belgaum, a bit of Dharwar and the western corner of the North Kanara district. His seat was at Miraj. The fort of Panhala lay within his province, but it was governed by a commandant directly under the orders of the Sultan. The viceroy administered by means of his agents the flourishing ports of Rajapur in the north and Karwar in the south, through which the trade of the rich inland places flowed to Europe. In both towns the English had factories.
c11.s1.3
"The best pepper in the world is of the growth of Sunda, known in England by [the name of] Karwar pepper, though five days' journey distant from thence." (Fryer, ii. 42.) Indeed, after the loss of Chaul, Karwar became the greatest port of Bijapur on the west coast. "The finest muslins of western India were exported from here. The weaving country was inland, to the east of the Sahyadris, at Hubli (in the Dharwar district), and at other centres, where the English East India Company had agents and employed as many as 50,000 weavers." (Bom. Gaz., xv., pt. ii. pp. 123-125.)
c11.s1.4
At Mirjan, a port twenty miles south-east of Karwar, pepper, saltpetre and betel-nut were shipped for Surat. Gersappa, a district annexed by Bednur, was so famous for its pepper that the Portuguese used to call its Rani "the Pepper Queen." (Ibid., 333 and 124.)
c11.s1.5
In 1649 the pepper and cardamon trade of Rajapur was the chief attraction that induced the English Company to open a factory there. Vingurla was spoken of in 1660 as a great place of call for ships from Batavia, Japan and Ceylon on the one side, and the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea on the other. All the ports of the Ratnagiri district did much trade also in calicoes, silks, grain and coarse lac, though pepper was their chief export, "which coming out of Kanara is sent by sea to Persia, Surat and Europe. This country is the store-house for all its neighbours." (Bom. Gaz., x. 175.)