AHIRE.

Ahire, a small village twelve miles north-west of Khed with in 1881 a population of 323, has a Friday weekly market.

AMBEGAON.

Ambegaon on the left bank of the Ghod river, about twenty miles north-west of Khed, is a small village, with in 1881 a population of 877. The village gives its name to the Ambegaon petty division whose head-quarters are at Ghode. A mile west of Ambegaon the Ghod narrows and flows through a fine rocky gorge. A weekly market is held on Wednesday.

In 1673 the English traveler Fryer passed by Ambegaon on his way to Junnar. Fryer found one Musalman beggar in the town as all the people had fled from a party of Moghal horse. [East India and Persia, 123.]

AMBEGAON.

A'mbegaon, on the old Panvel-Poona road, is a small market town twelve miles south-west of Khadkala, with in 1881 a population of 653. Except during the rains a weekly market is held on Wednesday. Ambegaon was formerly the head-quarters of a subdivision.

ALANDI.

Alandi, on the Poona-Nasik road on the left bank of the Indrayani about twelve miles south of Khed, is a small municipal town, with in 1881 a population of 1754. Alandi is noted as containing the tomb and temple of the great Brahman saint Dnyaneshvar (1271-1300) where a large yearly fair attended by about 50,000 pilgrims is held in November-December.

Temple.

The Poona road crosses the Indrayani at Alandi by a stone bridge which was built in 1820 at a cost of about £8000 (Its. 80,000) by Thakurdas Mohanlal Agarvala a rich banker of Poona. The bridge gives a good view of A'landi with its temples, houses, walls, trees, and gardens. [Lady Falkland's Chow Chow, L 244.] The village contains about 300 houses. The temple of Dnyaneshvar has three chief gateways, Chandulal's, Gaikvad's, and Sindia's, the last facing the bazar being the chief. The temple enclosure has an arched corridor all round, now divided into compartments and used as dwelling houses. The mandap is large and arched and built of stone. It is painted on the inside with scenes and figures from Hindu mythology, and on the outside has the same scenes and figures sculptured in relief.[Oriental Christian Spectator, VII. 46. A part of Dnyanoba's temple-tomb is said to have been built by the great Vani saint Tukaram who was a great admirer of Dnyanoba.] An unwalled covered way leads from the corridor to the shrine which consists of a vestibule and the tomb-chamber. Over Dnyanoba's tomb is his image three feet high with a silver face and crown and dressed in red clothes. [Oriental Christian Spectator, VII. 46.] Behind the image are figures of Vithoba and Rakhmai. The shrine is said to have been built about 300 years ago by one Ambekar Deshpande and the large mandap by Ramchandra Malhar a minister of Sindia about 1760. The west wall and corridor were built about 1750 by the third Peshwa Balaji Bajirav (1740-1761) and the drum-house or nagarkhana in the west or Gaikvad gate was built about 1840 by Ganpatrav Gaikwad at a cost of £200 (Rs. 2000). About 1725 a descendant of Ambekar Deshpande built the east and south wall. The balcony over the east or Chandulal gateway was built by Chandulal a famous minister of the Nizam. The north corridor was built about 1750 by Sindia and one Kashirav. The balcony or drum-house over the north gateway was built about 1800 at a cost of £800 (Rs. 8000) by Balaji Govind one of Sindia's followers.

Alandi has six other temples of Bahiroba, Malappa, Maruti, Pundlik, Ram, and Vishnu. Pundlik's temple is in the river bed. Another object of worship is a masonry wall which is said to have served Dnyaneshvar as a horse. [See below p. 104.] The temple revenue, amounting to about £200 (Rs. 2000), is enjoyed by the Guravs who correspond to the Badvas of Pandharpur. The Guravs have about twenty-one houses and number about a hundred. Besides the income from pilgrims the temple enjoys a Government cash grant of £108 (Rs. 1080) managed by six administrators who are chosen for life by the people. Pilgrims come on the dark eleventh of every Hindu month, but the chief day is the dark eleventh of Kartik or November-December when about 50,000 pilgrims assemble. The camping ground for pilgrims is on the outskirts of the village with good natural drainage.

Municipality.

The municipality was established in 1867 and in 1882-83 had an income of £545 (Rs. 5450) and an expenditure of £522 (Rs. 5220). The chief source of income, £470 10s. (Rs. 4705), is a pilgrim tax at the rate of 3d. (2 as.) a head which gives the number of pilgrims in 1882-83 at 37,640.

History.

Dnyanoba's father was a Deshasth Brahman named Vithoba, who lived at Apegaon on the Godavari near Nasik. In travelling to different holy places Vithoba came to Alandi then called Alkapur. Here a village accountant named Shidhopant gave him his daughter Rakhmai in marriage. Soon after his marriage Vithoba went to Benares and became an ascetic or sanyashi. When Shidhopant heard that his son-in-law had taken to an ascetic's life, he recalled him, reasoned with him, and admitted him to the life of a householder. The village Brahmans, believing it against scripture rules that an ascetic should return to a householder's life, out casted Vithoba who went with his four children, three sons Dnyaneshvar Nivrittinath and Sopandev and a daughter Muktabai, to lay his case before the learned Brahmans of Paithan. The Brahmans would not have admitted the family into caste but for two miracles performed by Dnyaneshvar to showthat they were all four incarnations of Vishnu, Shiv, Brahma, and Lakshmi, and that no expiatory rites were, necessary for their re-admission. The two miracles were endowing a he-buffalo with speech and making him recite Vedic mantras, and inviting in person the ancestors of a man when he was performing their shraddh ceremony. On re-admission Dnyaneshvar returned to Alandi. On the way the Ved-reeiting buffalo died and Dnyaneshvar, giving him the name of Mhasoba, buried him with due rites at Kolvadi a hamlet of Ale village sixteen miles east of Junnar. [At Mhasoba's tomb a fair is still held on the bright eleventh of Chailra or March April. See below Ale.] At Alandi Dnyanoba performed his most notable miracle of riding on a wall. Changdev a reputed saint came to meet Dnyaneshvar riding through the air on a tiger and using a snake for his whip. Dnyaneshvar, not wishing to be outdone by Changdev, went to the town wall and striding on it caused a part of it to move forward and meet Changdev. The wall is still shown surrounding a mud temple of Vithoba on the river bank.

Dnyaneshvar was born in 1272 (Shak 1194) and is said to have died in his twenty-eighth year at Alandi in 1300. In 1290 he wrote at Nevasa in Ahmadnagar his greatest work called after his name Dnyaneshvari, a Marathi treatise in verse on the ogony and metaphysics based upon the well known Bhagvadgita. A book on Dnyaneshvar and other saints called Bhaktivijaya was written by Mahipati about 1775.

ALE.

A'le, a small market town sixteen miles east of Junnar, with in 1881 a population of 3397, was transferred by His Highness Holkar to the British Government. A weekly market is held on Friday,. In Kolvadi a hamlet of Ale a yearly fair attended by 1000 to 1500 people is held on the bright eleventh of Chaitra or March-April in honour of Mhasoba or the buffalo-god. The local account of the origin of the fair is that the great saint Dnyanoba (1272-1300) buried hero a buffalo-god whom he had taught the Vedas and raised a samadhi or tomb on the spot. A shrine was afterwards built and a hall added but never completed. In 1827 Captain dunes notices it as belonging to Holkar, with 300 houses, four shops, wells, and a temple of Maruti.[ Itinerary, 22.]

ANE.

A'ne, at the head of the Ane pass twenty-five miles east of Junnar, is a dumala or two-owned village, with in 1881 a population of 1916, and a weekly market on Wednesday. A well made road passes from Ane ten miles south-west to Belhe.

AVSARI BUDRUKH.

Avsari Budrukh. is a small town fifteen miles north-east of Khed, with in 1881 a population of 2778. The town was the headquarters of a petty division till 1862 when the petty division was abolished. The petty divisional office, which is just outside the west entrance of the town, is now used as a school. Within and close to the west entrance is a temple of Bhairav built about a hundred years ago by one Shankarshet a Lingayat Vani. The hall, which is entered through a broad archway, is elaborately painted inside with scenes from Hindu mythology. The outside of the temple which has several figures on the roof and spire, notably a Ganpati above the entrance arch, is every year re-painted in gorgeous colours. Facing the entrance are two fine lamp-pillars covered with brackets for lights and ending in square capitals adorned underneath with sculptured foliage. Beyond the lamp-pillar is a drum-house or nagarkhana on a stone canopy which contains a stone horse on a pedestal.