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PLACES
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Na'ne in Maval, about two miles north of Khadkala, with in
1881 a population of 727, has a weekly market on Saturday. In a revenue statement of about 1790 Nane Maval appears as the headquarters of apargana in the Junnar sarkar with a revenue of £1963 (Rs. 19,630). [Waring's Marathas, 240.]
Na'noli village, three miles north-east of Talegaon Dabhade, has
some old caves in a hill scarp a mile to the north. A steep climb three quarters up the hill leads to the base of a high scarp facing south-west. Skirting this scarp a cistern and a cell are passed, and beyond them a flight of rudely cut steps leads to a square flat-roofed cave (18'x 18'x 7') now used as a temple dedicated to the goddess Phirangabai. In the south wall of the cave is a small cell. Beyond the cave the scarp is hollowed into two small cells.
Na'ra'yangaon on the Mina, nine males south-east of Junnar,
with in 1872 a population of 3915 and in 1881 of 3447, is a large
market town with a post office and a public works bungalow. The
weekly market is held on Saturday. The Poona-Nasik road affords
good communication to the north and east and a well made local
fund road joins the town with Junnar eight miles to the north-west.
The town is entered by two main gates, the Junnar gate on the
west and the Poona gate on the east. Narayangaon had a
municipality from 1861 to 1874, Close outside the Junnar gate is
an unfinished mosque with two fine pillars in front and near the
mosque is the tomb of a Musalman saint. Further to the west
towards Junnar a temple of Vithoba stands picturesquely on the
left among fine trees near the Mina. On a hill about a mile to the
south of Narayangaon is the tomb of Ganj Pir where a yearly fair
attended by one to two thousand people is held on the bright ninth
of Chaitra or March-April.
Fort.
About three miles east of the town on a detached hill which on
the north, south, and west rises sharp from the plain is the dismantled fort of Narayangad (2916). The chief strength of the fort lay in its great natural defences. Its artificial fortifications, which were never very strong, were almost completely dismantled in 1820. Ruins of its north wall and of four of its bastions remain. Inside the fort on the extreme hill top is a small temple of Hatsabai.
The water-supply is abundant from two cisterns or tankis fed by springs and several reservoirs or hauds. At one of the cisterns the god Narayan is said to have shewn himself to his devotees about 1830. For two or three years after the manifestation, a fair, attended by thousands of
people, was held every Monday in honour of the god. The hill has some other ruins, especially a stone doorway bearing on its lintel a figure of Ganpati and two attendant tigers. The fortress is said to have been built by the first Peshwa Balaji Vishvanath (1714-1720) and given in saranjam or service-grant to Sayaji Povar. In the last Maratha war of 1818 Narayangad is said to have surrendered to the English after only one shell had reached the inside of the. fort. [The late Mr. G. H. Johns, C. S.] In 1827 Captain Clunes notices Narayangaon as a market town or kasba with 700 houses, twenty shops, forty houses of dyers, and 200 wells. [Itinerary, 18.]
Narsingpur, at the meeting of the Bhima and the Nira, in the extreme south-east of the Poona district, about twelve miles south-east of Indapur, with in 1881 a population of 1004, has a temple of Shri Lakshmi Narsinh with flights of steps leading to the river bed. [Mr. Norman's Report on Poona temples. Dr. Burgess'Lists, 81.] The temple was built by the chief of Vinchur in Nasik about 150 years ago at a cost of about £45,000 (Rs. 4,50,000). The temple is eight-sided, built of black stone, with a gilt apex seventy feet high. Most of the steps are as old as the temple and a ruined part on the south was rebuilt by Vaman Kelkar a Deshmukh of Aurangabad at a cost of about £1100 (Rs. 11,000). A yearly fair, attended by about 4000 people and lasting two days, is held in honour of the god on the bright fourteenth of Vaishakh or April-May.
Navlakh Umbre in Maval is an old village about ten miles
north-east of Khadkala. The village lies at the source of the Sud a
feeder of the Indrayani, and has some interesting Hindu and Musalman remains. The hills round the village enclose it like an amphitheatre. The Hindu remains are a temple of Bahiroba Naukhandi in the hill range and a canopied tomb locally known as Barakhamb or the twelve-pillared. The tomb lies to the north of the village on the left bank of the Sud. The tomb looks like a bandstand and consists of a plinth 23' 3" square raised four feet from the ground and a dome resting on twelve octagonal pillars, arranged in a circle in the plinth. The pillars are 7'5" high. Under the capitals are carvings resembling spear-heads but they slightly differ in form on the different pillars. They are said to represent the leaf of the suru or cypress tree. The plinth, pillars, and twelve-sided entablature are of cut stone, and the vaulted dome, which is of burnt brick plastered over, shows signs of decay on the outside. The dome is surmounted by a central ornament with a small piece of wood called kalas. The tomb is said to have been built over the remains of his priest or guru by a Jangam Vani of Umbre about 200 years ago. On the plinth, under a boss hanging from the middle of the dome, is a ling without a case. On the north of the tomb is an unreadable inscription. To the south of the village, facing a pond, is a mosque, a square and very massive building ornamented with graceful tracery and said to be about 500 years old. It has a well preserved inscription said to contain the builder's
name and the date. The gateway of the Moghal office or gadhi is still preserved,[ Mr. H. E. Winter, C. S]
Legend.
According to a local story the village was founded about 700
years ago. The Kazi of Umbre has grants one of which is said to be dated as far back as 634 Hijri or about 1235. The present Kazi
is an old man named Sayadu Dhondibhai. The traditional explanation of the name Navlakh or nine lakhs is that, during the Divali holidays in October-November, a daughter of one of the Moghal officers of Umbre asked her father for a present or ovalni [The ovalni ceremony is performed by Hindu sisters to their brothers on the second day after Divali, called the Brother's Second or bhaubij. It consists of the sister waving a light across the face of her brother and of the brother making he a present.] and he ordered her the payment of a day's receipts at the turnspike on the bridle path of Umbre. The toll is said to have been one tankha (½ a.) on animals and head-loads passing to Poona by the Kusur or Khandala passes. The day's receipts are said to have amounted to nine hundred thousand or nav lakh of tankhas or about £2800 (Rs. 28,000) and this event is said to have given the name of Navlakh to the village. [Lady Falkland's version of the story (Chow Chow, I. 238-239) is slightly different. According to her the present was asked by a Musalman queen from her husband. The king was greedy but he could not refuse his wife's request. But he was sorry the queen asked the income of so poor a hill toll as Umbre, which hardly paid, he thought, the establishment, when she might have asked the toll of a rich place like Lahor or Surat. His surprise was great when he learnt that a day's receipt amounted to nine lakhs of tankhas.] Umbre is probably the Russian traveller. Nikitin's (1470) Oomri on his way from Cheul to Junnar. From Cheul Nikitin went in eight days to Pilee in the Indian mountains, which is perhaps Pimpri at the head of the Pimpri pass; thence in ten days, Nikitin went to the "Indian" that is Deccan or above Ghat town of Oomri, and from Oomri he went in six days, probably by the old Talegaon and Khed road, about sixty miles to Junnar. [Major's India in XV Century; Nikitin, 9. Nikitin's route is puzzling. It was formerly supposed to have been by Pulu Sonale at the foot of the Nana pass but the position of Pulu Sonale does not agree with the sixteen days between it and Junnar. To explain Nikitin's eight days to the Pimpri pass it may be supposed that he went by Ramraj, Rohe, Ghosala, Tala, Indapur, Nizampur, and Umbardi to Pimpri. Mr. W. F. Sinclair, C. S. suggests that the Nagothna route is more likely. He would place Pilee at Pali fort in the Bhor state.]
Nimbdari, a small village of 655 people, six miles south of
Junnar, has a shrine of Renukadevi with a yearly fair on the full-moon of Chaitra or March-April attended by about 3000 pilgrims.
Nimgaon, an alienated village on the right bank of the Bhima
about six miles south-east of Khed, had in 1881 a population of 1121.
On a knoll to the north is a temple of Khandoba which was built by
Govindrav Gaikvad about the close of the eighteenth century. A
yearly fair, attended by about 5000 people, is held at the temple on-the full-moon of Chaitra or March-April. The temple enjoys twenty-two acres of rent-free land.
Nimgaon Ketki, eight miles south-west of Indapur, with in 1881 a population of 2408, has a weekly market on Saturday.
Nirvangni on the Nira, about twelve miles south-west of Indapur, has a temple of Mahadev with a large bull or Nandi. The bull stands under a canopy before the shrine of Mahadev which is to the west. [The space between the bull canopy and the Mahadev shrine has been recently closed by the villagers with masonry.] The shrine is half covered with earth and stones forming a plinth. On the left the bull has a slight scar. The horns, says the story, were knocked off by the Musalmans who were going to break the bull but blood gushed out and they refrained. On a stone, over the plain doorway of the shrine, is an inscription which cannot be made out. All pilgrims to Shingnapur in Satara about thirty miles south of Nirvangni must visit the Nirvangni bull and Mahadev before going to Shingnapur. The legend is that when Mahadev was at Nirvangni the bull strayed into a Mali's garden. The Mali pursued the bull and wounded it on the left side with a sickle or khurpe and the scar of this wound is still seen on the bull. Mahadev and the bull then went to Shingnapur but the bull came back to the Mali's garden. Seeing that the bull liked Nirvangni Mahadev arranged that he should live at Shingnapur and the bull at Nirvangni, and that every pilgrim to Shingnapur should first visit and pay obeisance to the bull at Nirvangni. [Mr. J. G. Moore, C. S.] |
