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PLACES
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Kadus, on the Kamandalu a feeder of the Bhima, six miles north-west of Khed, is a large alienated village, with in 1872 a population of 3437 and in 1881 of 3571. A weekly market is held on Wednesday. To the west of the town on the left bank of the Kamandalu are small shrines of Mahadev, and near the shrines is a rude and massive
temple of Bhairav called Siddheshvar. A fair attended by 1000 people is held at the temple on the tenth of the bright half of Chaitra or March-April.
Kalamb, is a small village on the Poona-Jurmar rond about
thirteen miles south-east of Khed and four miles north of Mam-bar. In 1814, according to Sir T. E. Colebrooke, Mr. Elphinstone noted caves in the hills round 'Kullum' many of them difficult of access and some with inscriptions. [Colebrooke's Elphinstone, I. 283.] He describes them as very handsome. A careful, search in the hills round Kalamb shows no trace of caves and the people of Kalamb know nothing of carves. Apparently a mistake has been made in extracting from Mr. Elphinstone's diary. It is difficult to say whether the caves visited by Mr. Elphinstone were the Manmoda group to the south-east of Junnar with forty-five caves, and nineteen inscriptions or the Shelarvadi group with six caves and one inscription.
Kalas, village, fifteen miles north-west of Indapur, with in 1881
a population of 1066, has a weekly market on Tuesday.,
Karde, a market town of 2074 people, stands in a plain among
small hills, six miles south of Sirur. Karde is a large trade
centre with about 190 merchants shopkeepers and moneylenders, The trade is
chiefly in grain and other articles from the neighbouring villages or from the Bala Ghat in the north-east. The grain
is sent to Poona, Junnar, and other market towns. Karde is the
largest cattle and money centre in the Sirur sub-division and is much
frequented by distant traders.
Ka'rle in Maval, six miles west of Khadkala, is a small
village of 731 people with a station on the Peninsula railway and a
public works bungalow. A weekly market is held on Friday.
About two miles north of Karle, within the limits of Vehargaon
village, is a noted group of Buddhist caves details of which are given
below under Vehargaon.
In 1817 Karle was the scene of the capture of the Vaughan
brothers who were hanged at Talegaon. [See below Talegaon Dabhade.] In 1827 Captain Clunes
notices Karle with forty-two houses eight shops and a tank. [Itinerary, 10.]
Kavte, a large village, twelve miles north-west of Sirur, with in
1881 a population of 2063, has a weekly market on Thursday.
Kendur, on the Vel a feeder of the Bhima, about twenty miles
south-west of Sirur, is a large market town, with in 1881 a population of 2989. The weekly market is held on Monday. The second Peshwa Bajirav Balaji (1721-1740) granted Kendur to his favourite mistress Mastani. [Details of Mastanbai, better known as Mastani, are given below under Pabal and
Poona objects.] To the east of the town is the tomb of a Musalman saint Wali-Bawa where a small fair or urus, attended by 500 people, is held on the bright fourth of (Chaitra or March-April. The tomb enjoys a grant of land assessed at 4s. 6b. (Rs.2¼.)
Khadkala, on the right bank of the Indrayani thirty miles
north-west of Poona, is the head-quarters of the Maval sub-division
with a railway station and in 1881 a population of 816. Though a small village Khadkala, on account of its central position and the
vaearness of the railway, has been made the head-quarters of a subdivision. Not far from the railway station is a rest-house for native
travellers. The 1880 railway returns showed 26,921 passengers and 739 tons of goods.
Description.
Khandala, north latitude 18° 46' and east longitude 76° 23', in a hollow about 1787 feet above the sea and 200 below the crest of the
Sahyadri hills, forty-two miles north-west of Poona, is a station on the Peninsula railwav, with in 1881 a population of 3069. The Khandala hollow highlands to the east south and west, slope north-west to the wild gorges of the Paraha and Ulhas rivers. To the north is the wild gorge of the Ulha's, to the east rows of low ridges that, running nearly north and south, part the Ulhas and the Indrayani, to the south the Bhoma-Umbari hills, and to the west a long flat spur that stretches north into the Ulhas ravine. Besides by the slopes that lead to the Bhoma-Umbari hills and to the western spur, the level of the Khandala hollow is broken by several knolls crowned by casuarinas, mangoes, bamboos, jambhuls, and other forest trees; it is seamed by the beds of torrents that cut their way north from the steep sides of the Bhoma range to the Ulhas ravine; and it is crossed from north to south by the Peninsula railway and from southeast to north-west by the Bombay-Poona high road. Houses are dotted over almost the whole of the Khandala hollow. European and Parsi dwellings hold most of the higher sites and the houses of the village are scattered over four hamlets, the old site and the Mhars' quarters on rising ground to the south of the railway, a group of tanners or Chambhars' huts some way to the
easty and the New suburb now the main village lining the Bombay road near the centre of the hollow. Between the now village and the western spur is a large reservoir.
North and east, beyond the wild gorge of the Ulhas, stretch waving grassy uplands, sprinkled with trees and with patches of brushwood and hill tillage. To the north, behind the uplands, rise the bare tops and slopes of the double-peaked Rajmachi, and. the more distant flat crest of Dhak, and, nearer to the east, the tamer dopes of the Gira or Tungarli hills. To the south-east the spurs that part the Ulhas and Indrayani rise towards the south and join the east end of the Bhoma-Umbari range which stretches about two miles from east to west at from 300 to 500 feet above Khandala, rising from the Vajiri pass in the centre, east into the Bhoma plateau and west into the bare bluff of Umbari. In the extreme south-west, behind Umbari, stands the sharp clear-cut cliff known as the Duke's Nose or Nagphani that is the Cobra's Hood. [The likeness in the outline of this rock to the Duke of Wellington's nose, the head lying back on the hill side, is best seen from near Lonavla. The overhanging point and side rocks which make the peak look like a cobra in act to strike are said to be best seen from near Khopivli or Campoli at the mouth of the Bor pass.] Except the two long spurs at the ends and the gentle rise to the Vajiri pass [The Vajiri pass takes its name from Vriji Dev, a red-smeared stone, which, on the Tuesdays of Ashadh or June-July is worshipped with cocoanuts and grain.]
in the middle, the north face of the Bhoma-Umbari range, furrowed
from crest to base by lines of deep cut stream beds, is in places
thick with brushwood and small timber, and in the less steep
and more open slopes is covered with grass which remains green
or a rich brown after the other hill-sides are bleached and bare.
To the west the spur that stretches from the foot of the Umbari cliff
north to the Ulhas ravine has its crest covered with buildings,
dwellings with groves and rows of trees, two low flat-roofed blocks
of barracks, and an English chapel. Especially in the soft mornings
and evening side-lights Khandala commands beautiful views
down the Parana and Ulhas ravines. From the grassy thinly-wooded
crests the ravines fall down bare withered slopes or in sheer rugged
cliffs, through gentler bush-clad banks or terraces and cool deep-wooded dells, into the sheer walls of rock that overhang the stream
beds. Further on, as the gorges join and broaden into a valley, the
stream winds slightly to the east round the broad base of Beran or
Nath Pathar whose withered and rocky upper slopes end in a broad
coppice-covered plateau, crowned near the west by two grassy knolls
Skirting the base of Behran the deep wooded valley and lower slopes
of the Ulhas, lightened by grassy glades, stretch north till in the
distance the valley is crossed by a spur from Rajmachi hill.
Except that their crests burn from yellow to white or red, the
masses of foliage in the valley and lower slopes grow thinner, the
brown grassy glades whiten and the streams slowly run dry, the larger
ravines that are cleft down to the Konkan keep their main features
unchanged throughout the fair season. On the other hard the
uplands and shallow Deccan valleys which, during the rainy month
are a one-toned green and in the dry season are bleached and yallow
are full of colour in October. The deep grass, white only on steep rocky
slopes, passes through bright or pale yellow and gentle or ruddy brown
in the deeper soiled uplands, to the softest green in hollows and
stream beds. In the valleys and lowlands the harvested rice plots,
still moist and soft, are gay with small grasses and marsh flowers,
other unreaped rice fields are masses of gold or white framed- by lines
of brown-gray grass; while in the damper hollows, flooded from some
tiny channel, are beds of late rice with gray nodding plumes and
sharp quivering leaves of the brightest green.
Houses.
Of the 280 Khandala houses seventy-five are of the first class,
forty-five of the second, and 160 of the third class. Of these, eleven
are on the original village site, eleven in the Mhars' quarters, four
in the Chambhars' hamlet, and the rest in the new suburb or scattered
over the hollow.
Stock.
The stock returns show thirty-four bullocks, 120 cows, and forty
buffaloes thirty-five of them female and five male, five horses, and fifty-eight sheep and goats. There are nine two-bullock ploughs, and six bullock carts and one riding cart. The fields, chiefly in the upper valleys to the east, yield rice, nagli, vari, and sava.
People.
Among the 565 people of the village proper, besides Maratha Brahmans and Kunbis are an Osval Shravak, three families of Lingayat Vanis, two Pardeshis one a Thakur the other a man of low caste, two Sonars, a Lohar, a Kasar, a Namdev Shimpi, a Nhavi, a Dhobi,
two Pujari Kolis, and several families of Chambhars and Mhars. There are nine houses of Musalmans and one or two of Christians. Europeans and Parsis visit the village in the fair season but none stay during the whole year. There are nine shops, three kept by Lingayat Vanis grocers and grain-dealers, one by a Marwar Vani a grain-dealer and moneylender, one by a tailor, two by goldsmiths, and two Liquor-shops one for European the other for native fermented liquor.
Trade.
During the fair season twenty or thirty bulloek-earts pass up and
down the Bombay road daily, besides a few ponies and some droves of pack bullocks. The cartmen are Deccan Kunbis, Telis, and Musalmans, belonging chiefly to Poona and Ahmadnagar. They make three or four trips in the fair season, taking wheat, millet, oil, butter, onions, potatoes, raw sugar, cotton, kulthi, a dye called tarvat, pepper, and coriander seed; and bringing back chiefly salt from Panvel and Pen and to a less extent rice, date, and cocoanuts. The bullock packmen are chiefly Lamans from the eastern Deccan who take millet, wheat, and linseed and bring back salt which is the only article it pays them to carry. They make two trips a year. Ponies, belonging chiefly to Kunbis and Musalman Bagbans, take betel-leaf or pan to Pen and Panvel and come back either empty or with loads of dried fish. These ponies make about two trips a month. Men are sometimes met carrying headloads of grain, chiefly rice and nagli. They are almost all Musalmans and Kunbis and come from Khopivli, Karjat, and other villages near the foot of the Sahyadris.
The railway station, in the south-east of the Khandala hollow, is surrounded on the east south and west by ridges, hills, and wooded knolls. Northwards the country is open rising in the distance into four chief hills, the nearer and lower spurs of the Gira or Tungarli hills in the east, the flat top of Dhak and the double peaks of Rajmachi to the north, and the wooded knoll-crowned plateau of Nath Pathar or Beran to the north-west. From the station the road runs north for about 150 yards to the Bombay road which stretches in a somewhat irregular line north-west to the crest of the Bor pass. Almost the whole of Khandala lies to the west of the station and the Bombay road, between the point where they join and the barrack ridge in the west. The only parts of the village that lie beyond these limits are the old village site and Mhars' quarters on rising ground to the south of the railway; to the east three dwellings, two on high ground almost a mile towards Lonavla and a third smaller and lower about half as far; and in a hollow, a few yards east along the Poona road, a cluster of Chambhars' huts. To the north of the point where the railway and the Bombay road meet are three small dwellings, and, a little to the west, on a bare plateau that stretches north to the edge of the Paraha ravine are the travellers' bungalow [The charges at the travellers' bungalow are 2s. (Re. 1) for one room for a day and, night and 1s. (8 as.) for one room for a'day. There is a messman and messenger. The messman's boarding charges are, besides wine, for a hot breakfast or luncheon 2s. (Rs. 1), for a cold breakfast or lauchuon
1s. 6d. (12 as.), and for dinner 3s. (Rs.1½).] and two small houses one used as an hotel. On the flat ground across the Paraha ravine to the north of the travellers' bungalow
reached from the Poona road, across the little wooded ravine where the Dhobis wash, traces of a cleared carriage way and several house plinths seem to mark the site of the straw-built shed, built by Mr. Elphinstone, and often visited by him when Governor of Bombay (1819-1827). The house stands close to the edge of the rocky precipice skirting the Paraha ravine and commands a fine view west and south to the Khandala plateau. [Colonel J. White, R. E. As early as 1811 Mr. Elphinstone had found out the charm of Khandala. In December 1811 (Colebrooke's Elphinstone, 1. 243) he wrote; The deep solitude of these valleys, apparently shut from all mankind, the silence disturbed only by the waving of branches, and the picturesque arrangement of crags and woods, recall delightful ideas and lead, to the fancy of happy hours spent in the enjoyment of the pleasures of the imagination. In September 1823 (Colebrooke's
Elphinstone, II. 247) he wrote from Khandala: I have this morning ridden from Panvel on to my bungalow here; I am now in my room within three steps of the cliff. My window is immediately over it. It has been raining and thin clouds are still sailing up the chasm. Nak Puner is in sight over a cloud which cover the whole of the top of the Khandala hill. The cascade though not full is in great beauty and the sound of it is the only one heard.] About a hundred yards to the
west of the travellers' bungalow is a pyramid-shaped stone monument
to Mr. Graham the botanist. [The inscription runs:
To
John Graham, Esqr.,
Deputy Post Master General of Bombay,
An Active Originator, Warm Supporter, and Accomplished Member
of the Agricultural Society of Western India.
Born at Westkirk on Esk 1805
Died at Kandalla 28th May 1839.
Erected by his numerous Friends throughout this Presidency
In commemoration of
The many Estimable qualities for which he was distinguished in all the relation
of Private Life and
The untiring exertion to oblige for which he was not less Conspiouous In the
Discharge of his Official Functions
And in token of their high sense
of his Disinterested Labours and Valuable Contribution
in the cause of Botanical Science.]
A few yards to the east of Grahamen's monument are two small tombs, one
with a flat, the other with an upright stone.
[The writing on the flat stone runs:
Sacred
To the Memory
of
Wm. Byrne,
Late H. M's IV Lt. Dragoons, Who
Departed this life 28th January 1844,
Aged 59 years
Leaving a widow and a large family to lament their loss.
—0—
Weep not for me my children dear
I am not dead but sleeping here.
The writing on the upright stone runs:
Sacred
to the
Memory of
Mary Jane
Infant
Daughter of
Joseph and Harriet
Duncombe
Who departed this life
On the 3rd Dee. 1842
Aged 13 months and 25 days.
On high she now doth stand
With Angel's harp and voice;
And midst the saintly band
She doth in Christ rejoice. ]
Further north where the ground falls into a lower
plateau is a flat stone about two feet from the ground 4½ long and
three broad with a raised central square block on which a pair of food-
prints are carved. This stone marks the grave of a Hindu mason or Gavandi who died while the railway was being made.
To the west of the station, the Bombay road passes, with the post office on the right and a wooded knoll on the left, through new
Khandala, a double line of low-tiled or iron-roofed houses with a stone-built school and some brick-built graindealers' and grocers' shops. Beyond this, after passing over the railway the lake lies on the left and on the right is a second hamlet with a Parsi rest-house, a blacksmith's and a butcher's shop, and some other houses chiefly of lower class Hindus. On a wooded knoll to the right stands a dwelling house, the property of Sir Jamsetji Jijabhai. To the left in front are the rest-quarters for troops and a rest-house for travellers and the Roman Catholic church. To the south at the mouth of the Vajiri pass are two small dwelling-houses, and in the west on the barrack spur surrounded by casuarina trees is the Khandala hotel, further to the north a smaller house used as officers' quarters, the barrack outhouses, two long flat-roofed blocks of barracks, another set of outhouses, and a hospital, and a little further to the north the English chapel. At the end of the cliff with rows of tall casuarina trees is Bairamji's bungalow overhanging the Ulhas valley. [Near the west wall of the garden of Mr. Bairamji's house is a pillar about a foot square and four feet high covered with rich much worn carving. Among the figures are more than one small seated images. The pillar is said to have been brought from near the reversing station by a Mr. Adam who was employed in making the railway.]
Trips.
Half Day.
The old forts, rock-temples, and sacred groves in the country
round make Khandala a convenient centre for a number of trips. These trips may be divided into two classes, half-day trips and whole-day trips.
Of the half-day trips the simplest is to walk, ride, or drive two miles to Lonavla, walk about three quarters of a mile through its sacred grove, and come back up the steep grassy slope of
Bhoma hill along its rolling plateau and back by the bush-clad Vajiri pass, a round of about six miles. The crest of the Vajiri pass, or still better, the top of the Umbari scarp to the west, commands an excellent view of the Thana and many of the West Poona hills. North, across the upper gorge of the Ulhas, rise the plateau and the double-fortified peaks of Rajmachi, and behind Rajmachi the distant masses of Jivdhan and Nana's Thumb, the watchers of the Nana pass. A little to the right of Rajmachi is the flat crest of Dhak, and behind, through a break in the range, the Kusur pass hills. Further east and closer at hand are the lower and tamer spurs of the Gira or Tungarli hills. The eastern view of the Indrayani
valley is hidden by the ridge of the Bhoma hill. To the south, beyond the lands of Kuranda where the Indrayani takes its rise, is the bare western cliff of Sakarpathar and to the left the three nobs of Devha rising by rugged steps to the jagged head of Morgiri or Jambulni. Behind the bare western scarp of Sakarpathar rise the two isolated peaks of Koari fort and Malegar backol by wild lofty ranges, the Mulshi hills behind Koari and the Tel Baili hills behind Malegar. To the west, beyond the Sahyadri ravines, stretch the rice fields and grass uplands of the Patalganga valley with the tree-fringed lake of Khopivli in the foreground, and down the centre of the valley the long rows of trees that mark the line of the Bombay high road. Beyond the Sahyadri spurs, that form the southern limit of the Patalganga valley, rises the massive block of Manikgad on the borders of Pen and Karjat; behind Manikgad stretches the water of the Apts creek, and still further west, out of Bombay harbour, rises the round-topped hill of Karanja. To the right of Khopivli, beyond the railway spur, stretches the flat top of Matheran, and the rugged crags of Bava Malang, and to the south the level crest of Prabal and the sharp point of False Funnel. Behind the south shoulder of False Funnel are the Persik hills and, further to the west, Salsette rising in three chief groups, Satkhindi behind Thana in the north, the Kanheri group in the centre, and the hills round Vehar in the south. Further to the north, rising close at hand from the Ulhas ravine, is the wooded knoll-crowned plateau of Beran or Pathar and a group of distant hills centering in the rugged mass of Mahuli. Across the Ulhas valley from Beran, Rajmachi Bhimashankar and the watchers of the Nana pass complete the view.
A second trip, which also is best made on foot, is, after passing two miles along the Lonavla road to the railway gate which leads to the Lonavla grove, to turn north across the Tungarli rice-lands and climb the Gira range that divides the villages of Tungarli and Kunch. From its central position Gira commands a finer view than almost any except the highest hills. To the north, bounded to the right by flat-topped ridges in the lands of Kuli, Pangloli, and Valvandi, stretches the wild wooded crest of the Sahyadris, gashed by the branch of the Kachal
gorge, that, all but a narrow neck, cuts off Rajmachi from the Deccan. Behind Rajmachi are the distant
out lines of Bhimashankar, Jivdhan, and Nana's Thumb. Over the narrow neck, to the east of Rajmachi, rises the massive level outline of Dhak, and, further to the right, range rises behind range till the view is closed by the Takir spur three miles from Khadkala. East and south-east lies the Indrayani valley, the level rice-lands broken. by wooded knolls, and bounded on the south by the wild clear-cut outlines of Kuvara, Batrasi, Visapur, Lohogad, and the Sakarpathar plateau, behind which rise the lofty peaks of Morgiri or Jambhulni, Koari fort, and Saltar. To the west lies the hollow of Khandala bounded to the south by the Bhoma-Umbari range and endinig northward in the rugged gorge of the upper Ulhas stretching to the base of the wooded plateau of Beran or Nath Pathar, behind which rise Matheran and Prabal, and, in the distance, the Salsette hills and the Bombay harbour. After reaching the crest of the Gira hill the path runs east along the hill-top till it turns down a
Steep gorge through a grove of old trees and huge climbers. It then crosses the rice-lands of Pangloli back to Lonavla and Khandala. The whole distance is about nine miles.
A third trip, which, like the two former trips, should be made on foot, is south through the Vajiri pass in the Bhoma-Umbari range down into the lands of Karvanda, up a steep zigzag grassy path, about three miles to the top of the Duke's Nose or the Nagphani that is Cobra's Hood, which commands a wide view like, and, in some respects, finer than the view from the Umbari bluff. Then back to within half a mile of Karvanda, turn to the west keeping the gaunt scarp of Nagphani to the right, and wind along a rugged uneven path through the rich forest that stretches to the foot of the Sahyadri slopes. Towards the north the wood grows thinner and the path, crossing the crests of spurs and winding along the edges of ravines, keeps fairly level till it reaches the grassy plateau on which stands the Khandala hotel. The whole distance is about nine miles.
A fourth half-day trip, which can be done only on foot and is best suited for a morning walk, is along the Bombay road to the first turn below Bairamji's bungalow. Then leaving the road, pass along a path that slopes down the west side of the ravine till it is crossed by the railway, keep to the railway for about 500 yards, and, leaving it when it enters a cutting, take to the left hand zigzag up the steep southern face of Beran or Nath Pathar.
From the crest of the hill, which is about 125 feet above the travellers' bungalow, pass west, through blanched grass and stunted coppice, about a mile and a half to the top of either of the knolls. [The chief trees are: rundi karand Cassia carandas, gela Randia dumetorum, toran Zizyphus rugosa, jambhul Eugenia jambolanum, anjani iron wood Memecylon edule, kusar Jasminum latifolium, palur Ficus cordifolia, laigunda nana Lageratrsemia parviflora, bonda aulu Vanguiera edulis, rameta Lasiosaphon eriocephalua, asan Briedelia retuaa, and varas Heterophragma roxburghii.] Beyond the knolls, the hill top stretches in a second but shorter plateau, the part of the hill east of the knolls being known as Beran and the west as Nath Pathar. The view to the north is over the Ulhas valley with, in the distance, Dugad north of Matheran and Mahuli further to the right. To the north-east are the steep bare sides and flat plateau of Rajmachi with its two fortified peaks. Behind Rajmachi rises Dhak, and. beyond a deep bay in the line of the Sahyadris, Bhimashankar, Jivdhan, and Nana's Thumb. To the east and south-east, beyond the Ulhas gorge, are the peaks along the south of the Indrayani valley, the rounded Kuvara, the pointed Batrasi, the long flat of Visapur, and the short comb-back of Lohogad. Further to the south are the isolated peaks of Tung and Tikona and the jagged outline of Morgiri or Jambulni. To the south rise the pointed scarp of the Duke's Nose and in the distance the heights of Telbaili and Tamani. To the left is the heavy bluff of Manikgad and the range that centres in the pillarlike peak of Karnala or Funnel Hill. Futher to the left are the smaller pillar of False Funnel, and the long flat backs of Prabal and Matheran. The Beran plateau is badly off for water. About a month after the
rains some families of Dhangars come bringing herds of cattle. There are then some pools at the eastern foot of the knolls. But these pools soon dry and there is seldom water later than January.
Whole Day
There are six chief whole-day trips, two east one to the Vehargaon or Karle and Bhaja caves and the other to the forts of Lohogad and
Visapur; one south-east to the Bedsa caves; one south to Sakarpathar; one west to the Gambhirnath cave; and one north to Rajmachi fort.
For the Karle and Bhaja caves the only route in the beginning
of the fair season is to ride or drive to the Karle travellers' bungalow
about six miles; ride or walk to the Karle' caves and back to
the bungalow about three miles; breakfast at the bungalow; and in
the afternoon ride or walk to the Bhaja caves about three miles,
and back six miles to Khandala. The whole distance is about twenty'
miles. In the later part of the cold and during the hot season
(March-June) the pleasantest route is to drive or ride by the old
Poona road along the south limit of the Indrayani valley about eight
miles to Bhaja; from Bhaja about two miles to the Karle bungalow,
breakfast, and in the afternoon drive or ride two miles to the Karle
caves and back by a cross country track that joins the main road
near the village of Vakshai about two miles west of Karle. The
whole distance is about eighteen miles. The caves are described
under Vehargaon and Bhaja.
The second whole-day trip to the east is, in the early part of the
cold season, to ride or drive to Karle, from Karle to walk or rids
about two miles to Bhaja, and from Bhaja to walk up a pass to
the plateau from which Lohogad rises on the right and Visapur or
the left. Visit Lohogad, and then going east, up the south face of
Visapur, cross the hill and come down along the plateau above
the Bhaja caves; then back to Karle and home by the main road to
Khandala. In the later part of the fair season and during the climb
weather the pleasantest way of seeing Lohogad and Visapur is to take
the old Poona road, and leaving it at the village of Avadhi, to climb
the pass, cross the Lohogad plateau, climb Lohogad and examine
the fort, descend to the plateau and passing on to Visapur cross the
hill and return, meeting horses or a pony-cart at Bhaja. The
whole distance is about eighteen miles. Details are given under
Lohogad and Visapur.
The trip to the Bedsa caves is along the old Poona road and under Lohogad eleven miles to Pimpalgaon; climb the hill; go down the back a few hundred feet; and pass about one and a half miles to the caves, and return by the same route. The whole distance is about twenty-five miles. The caves are described under Bedsa.
The next trip is to the southern hills either through the Vajiri
pass about four miles or round by Lonavla eight miles to the top of
Sakarpathar. From Sakarpathar trips may be made in almost any
direction. One of the best is about four miles south to the great
Devgad wood.
The trip to the Brahmanic rock temple of Gambhirnath in the north face of Beran or Nath Pathar can be done only on foot. The way is the same as to the top of Beran hill, except instead of
leaving the railway at the first cutting, keep along the line through six tunnels to about 500 feet below Khandala. Then, leaving the-railway on the right, climb a steep hillside about 150 feet above the railway with roughly cut steps near the top. From this the path leads for a short distance along a rough rocky ledge under an overhanging scarp with an outer row of very old Michelia
champaca or champha trees. In front of the cave, which from its very sloping roof seems to be partly at least a natural cavern, is a rude frame supported on four pillars with a sloping roof roughly thatched with plantain leaves. [There was once a strong well built porch which was burnt clown.] Details of the cave are given under Jambrug in the Thana Statistical Account. [Bombay Gazetteer, XIV. 108-110.]
The path to Rajmachi fort in the north-east begins with a long bend to the east. It then winds along the rough crest of the Sahyadris, round the top of the deep Kachal valley, across a narrow neck or isthmus and round, up a steep pass, to the plateau from which rise the double fortified peaks of Manranjan on the west and the higher and steeper Shrivardhan on the east. The way back is across the same neck and along the same rough plateau and as the distance is about twenty-four miles, the whole of which must be done at a walk and most of it on foot, it is difficult to complete the trip much under twelve hours.
Khed, north latitude 18° 50'and east longitude 73° 57', on the
Bhima, twenty-five miles north of Poona, is a municipal town, the head-quarters of the Khed sub-division, with in 1872 a population of 6446 and in 1881 of 7015. The limits of the Khed township include the enormous tillage area of 13,060 acres or upwards of twenty square miles and about twenty-four hamlets. The town has good camping grounds especially in a mango grove about a mile to the east, and a rest-house for native travellers on the Bhima near the Ahmadnagar road. Besides the sub-divisional revenue and police offices Khed has a sub-judge's court, a municipality, a dispensary, a Government school, a post office, the tomb of the Moghal general Dilavarkhan and three temples.
The municipality was established in 1863. In 1882-83 it had an income of £45 (Rs .450) chiefly from a house-tax and an expenditure of £80 (Rs. 800). The dispensary was opened in 1876. In 1882-83 it treated twenty in-patients and 4187 out-patients at a cost of £69 (Rs. 690). Dilavarkhan's tomb and mosque lie to the north of the town just outside the Delhi gate. They are surrounded by a wall enclosing a large plot of land most of which is under cultivation. The shrine is domed and built on a raised platform, the upper part of which is ornamented all round with a hanging wreath of sculptured flowers. The outside is quadrangular with a minaret flanking the dome at each corner. The four walls are adorned each with a double row of three blank arches, the centre arch in the lower and the two side arches in the upper row being minutely cusped. The shrine contains two tombs said to be of Dilavarkhan and his brother. [A third brother of Dilavarkhan is buried at Rahimatpur in Salara.] An inscription over the entrance shows that the
tomb was built in 1613 (H. 1022) or early in the reign of Jahangir (1605-1627). The small mosque to the west of the tomb is a graceful specimen of Musalman carved-stone work. It is built on a raised platform and has a double row of three arches.
Temple:
The three temples are of Tukaidevi, Siddheshvar, and Vishnu, The
temple of Tukaidevi at Tukaivadi lies a few yards to the right of the Poona-Nasik road. The temple, which is a rough looking building, is entered from the east through a small porch with a wall and pillars on either side. The porch opens into a hall or mandap with twelve pillars in four rows of three each and guarded by a high parapet wall surmounted by short single-stone pillars. The pillars are rude and massive; square about the middle, then eight-sided, then four-sided, again eight-sided, and then a series of rings surmounted by a square abacus which is tapped by a heavy headpiece with four projections. A flat stone roof rests on the pillars and recedes slightly beneath each set of four pillars. The external roof of the hall or nave is flat with a pot or kalash at each of the four corners and a small spire where the hall roof meets the shrine. The shrine has an- oval dome with a rude minaret at each of the four corners. In front of the temple is a one-stone lamp-pillar. The temple of Siddheshvar stands among trees on the Bhima about half a mile east of the town. The building includes a nave, a transept, and a shrine. It is entered from the north through a small porch whose roof rests on. two pillars. The shrine has a pyramidal and fluted or ribbed roof with a dome above and some snake ornaments adorning the ribs on the east and west. Over either transept is a smaller dome and a very small one over the nave. The projecting entablature of the temple is adorned underneath with pendent abaci ending in what looks like a ling and with an occasional figure. A Sanskrit inscription over the doorway shows that the temple was built by Trimbak Mahadev a Vani in 1725 (S. 1647). A fair is held on the Mahashivratra Day in February-March. To the north-east of the temple is a ruinous corridor rest-house of brick and mortar. Its eastern side consists of four cusped arches, and the north side of seven arches of which the middle only is cusped. the flat roof is ornamented with a pierced cornice. To the north of the temple is a small pond with flights of steps on the east north and south. On the west the corridor has eight pillars and two pilasters in its frontage towards the pond. The north steps are broken by two small shrines facing similar shrines on the south. About a mile south of Khed on the Bhima is a temple to Vishnu built about 1830 by Chandiram an ascetic. A small fair is held at the temple on the dark eighth of Shravan or July-August.
In 1707 Khed was the scene of an action between Shahu and the
party of his aunt Tarabai the widow of Raja Ram. Dhanaji, the
general of Tarabai, did not support her minister the Pant Pratinidhi
who fled to Satara. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 185.]
Kedgaon village in Bhimthadi about twelve miles north of supa,
with in 1881 a population of 1572, has a station on the Peninsula
railway 331 miles east of Poona. The 1880 railway returns showed 17,802 passengers and 489 tons of goods.
Kikvi, a large village twelve miles south-west of Sasvad, with
in 1881 a population of 1563, has a weekly market on Saturday.
Koarigad Fort, in the Mulshi petty division on the Poona-Kolaba frontier, rises on a flat topped detached hill commanding
the Ambavni pass about twenty miles south of the Bor pass and about forty miles west of Poona. Stretching north and south with an extreme end pointing north, the fort is about a mile and a half in circumference. The ascent lies over a steep gorge, and the passage to the main entrance, which is completely covered with fallen masonry, leads on the north-east to a ruined gateway standing among blown-up walls. There is another on the west or weakest side of the fort. It is much more difficult than the main entrance, being steeper and up the rugged face of the rock. The defences include a wall banquette round the top, embrasured for guns at irregular intervals, and provided with embrasured towers at the corners. The top is flat and much of it is occupied by two large ponds supplied with abundant water and by a ruined temple of Koaridevi. [When the fort was deserted in 1818 the temple ornaments which were valued at about £50 (Rs. 500)' were brought to Bombay and made over to the Mumbadevi goddess.] Seven large cannon lie on the. hill, Lakshmi, the largest of them, being pointed to command the Ambavni pass.
History.
In 1486 Koari was taken by Malik Ahmad afterwards the first Ahmadnagar king. [Briggs' Ferishta, III. 191.] In the latter part of the seventeenth century, according to Koli tradition, a Koli Lumaji Bhokhar, the chief or naik of Pimpalgaon in the Mahad valley, was anxious to be sarnaik or head of the Kolis. To gain the favour of the Musalman government Lumaji brought word that there was a splendid horse in Koari fort. If he was given some money he would try and get it for the emperor. The money was advanced, the Kolis of all the fifty-two valleys gathered, and surrounded the fort. At the end of a year, as the siege had made no progress, the Musalman governor threatened that unless they took the fort in a month a number of them would be put to a disgraceful death. Many of the Kolis fled, but Lumaji and some of his friends dressing as woodmen got into the fort and bribing one of the garrison by his help got a ladder fastened at the top. Lumaji and his friends came down from the fort and then with a band of their followers began to climb. When they reached the foot of the rock from whose top the ladder was hanging they found the ladder was seven or eight feet short. One got on the back of another and a third on him and so reached the ladder and seventy or eighty made their way to the fort. They overpowered the guard and secured the horse. They were carrying it off in triumph when one of the garrison shot it dead. The Musalman governor was so pleased with Lumaji's daring that he raised him to the rank of a noble and enriched him. In the Maratha war of 1818 Lieutenant-Colonel Prather advanced to Koari after taking Lohogad, Visapur, Rajmachi, and Tung and Tikona in Bhor territory. Its difficulty of access from the Karle valley showed
considerable obstruction to the progress of the detachment; and one
attempt to communicate with the road leading to it from Poona proved
ineffectual. Another avenue being found. Lieutenant-Colonel Prather
came before the place on 11th March with an advance party which
drove in the enemy's outposts, [For the reconnaissance and investment of the fort Lieutenant Remon of the
Engineers and a party under Captain Hose of His Majesty's 89th Regiment were
detached from Scroti six miles south east of Koari on the morning of the 11th and
they completely succeeded in their object of gallantly driving in the enemy who
were advantageously posted on a height protected by a well directed fire from the
fort guns. The besieging force with knapsacks on the shoulders of the men the
after a inarch of six mites advanced to the charge up a steep hill to the very wall of
the fort, the besieged keeping up a brisk fire of cannon and musketry, Bombay
Courier, 28th March 1818.] leaving the remainder of the detach-
ment to follow under Major Hall of His Majesty's 89th Foot
which arrived on the following day with the exception of the heavy.
train. Even this had been greatly lightened by leaving at Lohogad
two eighteen-pounders and one of the thirteen-inch mortars. On
the 13th a fire from the smaller mortar opened against the place and
produced immediately an evident conflagration, while another battery
was in a state of forwardness, opposite the north-eastern gateway,
which was the chief access to the fort. On the morning of the 14th
at daybreak, this likewise opened with good effect from one
thirteen, one ten, and two eight-inch mortars, and about seven in the
evening the enemy's magazine was seen to blow up which laid the
chief gateway in ruins and burnt several of their houses. This
induced the garrison to demand a suspension of hostilities, which
was followed an hour afterwards by their surrender. About 700
men supposed to include some of those who had fled from Visapur
and Lohogad and the commandant Janoba Bhau were taken
prisoners. The loss of the detachment on this occasion was twelve
men including one officer of Engineers slightly wounded, and that of
the enemy about thirty-five most of whom were killed at the'
explosion. Treasure valued at about £10,000 (Es. 1 lakh) and some-grain were found in the fort. The fall of Koari was followed on the
17th by the surrender and occupation of the dependent fortress of
Gangad about eight miles to the south. [Blacker's Maratha War, 247-248.]
Battle,1818.
Koregaon, village, twenty-five miles south-west of Sirur and
about sixteen miles north-east of Poona, with in 1881 a population of 960, is famous for its successful defence on the 1st of January 1818 by 800 British troops against 30,000 Marathas. Towards the end of December, in the pursuit of Bajirav Peshwa which followed the battle
of Kirkee (5th November 1817), news reached Colonel Burr, who was in charge of Poona, that Bajirav was passing south from Junnar and
meant to attack Poona. Colonel Burr sent to Sirur for help. The second battalion of the first regiment Bombay Native Infantry of 500 rank and file under Captain Francis Staunton, accompanied by 300 irregular horse and two six-pounder guns manned by twenty four European Madras artillerymen under a Serjeant and a Lieutenant, left Sirur for Poona at eight in the evening of the 31st of December. After marching all night, a distance of the twenty-five miles, about ten in the morning, from the high ground
behind Talegaon Dhamdhere, they saw across the Bhima the Peshwa's army of 25,000 Maratha horse. Captain Staunton marched on as if to ford the river, then turned, and took the village. Koregaon was surrounded by a mud wall of no great strength. [Grant Duff (Marathas, 656) describes the wall as full of large breaches on the river
side and completely open on the east. This was its state at the end of the siege.] Captain Staunton secured a strong position for his guns and awaited the enemy's attack. As soon as the Maratha horse saw the British they recalled a body of 5000 infantry which was some distance ahead. When the infantry arrived three parties, each of 600 choice Arabs Gosavis and regular infantry, under cover of the river bank and supported by two guns, advanced to storm the village on three points. A continued shower of rockets set on fire many of the houses. The village was surrounded by horse and foot and the storming party broke down the wall in several places and forced their way in and secured a strong square enclosure from which they could not be dislodged. Though the village stood on the river bank the besiegers cut them off from water. Wearied with their night's march, under a burning sun, without food and without water, a handful of men held an open village against an army. Every foot was disputed, several streets and houses were taken and retaken, but more than half the European officers being wounded, the Arabs made themselves masters of a small temple, where three of the officers were lying wounded. Assistant Surgeon Wingate, one of their number, got up, and went out, but was immediately
stabbed by Arabs and his body mangled. Lieutenant Swanston,
who had two severe wounds, advised his remaining companion to
suffer the Arabs to rifle them, which they did but without
farther violence. In the meantime, a party of the battalion under Lieutenant Jones and Assistant Surgeon Wyllie, came to the rescue, retook the temple and carried their companions to a place of greater safety. Thirst drove the besieged nearly frantic and some of the gunners, all of whom fought with glorious bravery, thinking resistance hopeless, begged for a surrender. Captain Staunton would not hear of yielding. The gunners were still dissatisfied when their officer, Lieutenant Chisholm, happened to be killed and the enemy encouraged by his death rushed on one of the guns and took it. Lieut. Pattinson, Adjutant of the Second Battalion, a man six feet seven inches in height, of giant strength and heroic courage, was lying mortally wounded shot through the body. Hearing that the gun was taken he called on the Grenadiers once more to follow him, and, seizing a musket by the muzzle, rushed into the thick of the Arabs and felled them right and left till a second ball through the body disabled him. He was nobly seconded, the gun was retaken, and dragged out of a heap of dead Arabs. Lieutenant Chisholm's body was found with the head cut off. This is the fate, cried Captain Staunton, of all who fall dead or alive into Maratha hands. The gunners took the lesson to heart and fought on with unflinching courage, and the defence did not slacken though only three officers, Captain Staunton, Lieutenant Jones, and Assistant Surgeon Wyllie, remained fit for duty. Towards evening their case seemed hopeless. As night fell the attack lightened and they
got water. By nine the firing ceased and the Marathas left. Of the 834 defenders of Koregaon 275 were killed wounded and missing, of whom were twenty of the twenty-six gunners. [The details are: Second battalion First Regiment, 500 rank and file and five officers, Captain Staunton, Lieutenant Pattinson killed, Lieutenant Conellan wounded, Lieutenant Jones, Assistant Surgeon Wingate, killed. Artillery, twenty four men and two officers, Lieutenant Chisholm killed and Assistant Surgeon Wyllie, Auxiliary Horse 300 men and one officer, Lieutenant Swanston
wounded. Grant Duff's Marathas, 658 footnote 2.] The Marathas lost between 500 and 600 killed and wounded. In reward for the defence of Koregaon which General Sir T. Hislop described as
'one of the most heroic and brilliant achievements ever recorded on the annals of the Army' the second battalion of the First Regiment was made Grenadiers as the first battalion had been made for the defence of Mangalur. The motto of the regiment became Mangalur and Koregaon.
[Grant Duffs Marathas, 658 footnote 1,] Captain Staunton was appointed an
honorary aide-de-camp to the Governor General and presented by the Court of
Directors with a sword ornamented with a suitable inscription and a sum of 500
guineas. On attaining the rank of Major in 1823 Captain Staunton was appointed
a companion of the Most Honourable the Military Order of the Bath. [The sword was presented to Captain Staunton on the 1st of January 1820 by the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone. Five years later Lieutenant-Colonel Staunton,
C. B., died on the 25th of June 1825 off the Cape of Good Hope. Historical Record,
2nd Grenadier Regiment, 19-34,39.]
Mr. Elphinstone, who visited Koregaon two days after the fight
(3rd January 1818), found every sign of violence and havoc. The
houses were burnt and scattered with accoutrements and broken
arms, and the streets were filled with the bodies of dead men and
horses. The men were mostly Arabs and must have attacked most
resolutely to have fallen in such numbers. Some wounded were
treated with the same care as the British wounded. About fifty
bodies within the village and half a dozen without, with the wounded
and the dead, made not less than 300. About fifty bodies of sepoys
and eleven Europeans, besides the officers, were found imperfectly
buried. [Colebrooke's Elphinstone, II. 16-17.]
Obelisk.
At [Murray's Bombay Handbook, 304-305. Compare Jacquemont Voyage dans 1'Inde, III. 544.]
the eminence near the river is a round stone tomb, where the
artillerymen killed in the action were buried. At this point the
river is crossed, and 300 yards to the left of the Poona road on the
opposite bank is an obelisk 65 feet high of which 25 feet is pediment
12' 8" square. It stands on a stone platform 32' 4" square. The
obelisk is of polished hard stone, and is enclosed with a stone wall
six feet high on three sides, and an iron railing with a handsome
iron gate and two lamps on the west side. The inscription on the
north and south sides is in Marathi; and the inscription on the west
side given below is in English. The inscription on the north and
east sides gives the names of the English killed and wounded, and
of four natives attached to the artillery who were killed, from which
it appears that of the eight officers engaged three were killed and
two wounded, and of the twenty English artillerymen eleven were
killed. The English inscription on the west side is:
Inscription.
This Column
is erected to commemorate the defence of Coregaum
by a Detachment commanded by Captain
Staunton of the Bombay Establishment
which was surrounded on the 1st of January 1818
by the Peshwa's whole army under his
personal command,
and withstood throughout the day a series of
the most obstinate and sanguinary assaults of his best troops.
Captain Staunton,
under the most appalling circumstances,
persevered in his desperate resistance,
and, seconded by the unconquerable spirit of
his Detachment,
at length achieved the signal discomfiture of
the Enemy
and accomplished one of the proudest
triumphs
of the British Army in the East.
To perpetuate
the Memory of the brave troops
to whose heroic firmness and devotion it owes
the glory of that day,
the British Government
has directed the names of their Corps and of
the killed and wounded
to be inscribed on this monument.
MDCCCXXII.
[Compare Chesson and Woodhall's Bombay Miscellany, VII. 46-48.]
Kurkumb, a small village of 911 people, on the Poona-Sholapur road, seven miles south-east of Patas station and about twenty miles north of Baramati, has two temples built in honour of Phirangadevi, one in the village and the other on a neighbouring hill. The larger temple of cut and polished stone is eight-sided with an audience hall or sabhamandap and verandas on both sides. The other temple on the hill is smaller and was built by Sambhaji Naik Nimbalkar, Deshmukh of Phaltan in 1759 (Shak 1681). It contains a Marathi inscription in Devnagari characters dated Shak 1681 (A.D. 1759) recording the name and the pedigree of the builder of the temple.
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