Poona [A great part of the Poona city account is contributed by Rav Saheb Narso Ramchandra Godbole, Secretary Poona City Municipality.] City and Cantonment, north latitude 18° 30' and east
longitude 73° 53', 119 miles south-east of Bombay and 1850 feet
above the sea, cover an area of about 6114 acres, in 1881 had a population of 129,751, and in 1883 a municipal revenue of £23,304
(Rs. 2,33,040).
On the right bank of the Mutha river, in a slight hollow, the city and cantonment are bounded on the west by the Mutha, on the north by the joint Mula and Mutha, on the east by their feeder the Bahiroba, and on the south-east and south by the spurs and uplands that rise to the northern slopes of the Sinhgad-Bhuleshvar hills. Beyond the tree-fringed line of the Mutha-Mula, to the north with a gentle rise and to the east with a gentle fall, stretches a dry plain without trees and with scanty tillage, broken by scatteed blocks of bare level-crested hills, the outlying eastern fragments of
the range that separates the Indrayani and Mutha-Mula valleys. On other sides, except up the Mutha valley to the south-west, the city and cantonment are surrounded by uplands and hills. On the north-west is the soilless Ganeshkhind upland, and on the west, from the rocky slopes of the Chatarsing or Bhamburda hills, bare waving ranges rise to the central peak of Bhanbava. To the south rises the low but sharp-cut and picturesque temple-crowned top of Parvati, and behind Parvati the broken outline of the Sinhgad-Bhuleshvar range.
Geology.
In and round the city and cantonment the underlying rock is
basalt. On the neighbouring hills an amygdaloid trap crops out or comes close to the surface. The higher parts of the cantonment have a surface layer of crumbled trap or murum, which in the lower parts passes into a whitish loam, and on stream banks and near the Mutha-Mula turns to a deep black cotton soil. To the west and north-west of Poona, on the Ganeshkhind uplands, in the Government House grounds, and further to the north, where black soil and rock mix at the meetings of the Mula with small local feeders, numbers of pebbles and crystals are found. The chief of these are white chalcedonies in large quantities, red carnelians, bloodstone, moss agate, jasper, and rock crystal. [Mr. T. M. Filgate. The richness of the neighbourhood of Poona in agates and pebbles is noticed by Lord Valentia in 1803. (Travels, II. 103). The abundance of agates and crystals suggests, as is noted below under History, that Ptolemy's (A. D. 150) 'Punnata in which are beryls, refers to the Deccan Poona, perhaps to distinguish it' from punata without beryls in Maisur. [Compare Mr. Rice in Indian Antiquary, XI. 9]. Beryl the Greek berylos, though now technically used of only one emerald-like stone, seems originally to have been a general term. It apparently, is the Arab bilauri crystal.]
Aspect.
The land between the Mutha-Mula and the Sinhgad hills is a wooded plain, rising
slightly to the south and east, the surface unbroken except near the river and
along four of its smaller feeders which cross the plain from south to north. The
area covered by the city and cantonment includes three belts, a western a
central and an eastern. In the west is the city, with, in the heart of it,
thick-set streets and lanes, and on the north and south fringes of rich garden
land. The central belt, to the east of the city with poor soil and broad
tree-lined streets, is, except the thickly-peopled Sadar Bazar in the south,
parcelled among detached one-storeyed European dwellings whose sameness is
relieved by scattered public buildings, the Council Hall (52). [The number in
brackets after this and other names is the serial number of the . object
in the lists of Objects of which details are given below,] the Sassoon Hospital
(101),the Synagogue (113), St. Mary's and St. Paul's churches (109 and 111), the
Arsenal Water Tower, and the Military Accounts Office (84). The eastern belt,
with a gentle fall to the Bahiroba stream, except some garden-land in the
north-east, is a bare rocky plain crossed by roads lined with young trees, and
skirted by blocks of one or two-storeyed stone barracks and rows of detached
officers' dwellings.
The River.
One [Mr, R. G. Oxenham, Principal Deccan College.] of the chief beauties of Poona is its river, the Mutha-Mula, formed by the meeting, about three quarters of a mile west of the railway station, of the Mutha from the south-west and the Mula from the north-west. About a mile and a quarter north-east of the
Railway Station (97), at the Bund Gardens (47), about 200 yards above the FitzGerald bridge (63), the Mutha-Mula is crossed by a stone weir or Bund built in 1850 by Sir Jamsetji Jijibhai at a cost of £25,749 18s. (Rs. 2,57,499). Except when floods dash several feet deep over the weir and fill the lower bed from bank to bank, the water, even in the rainy months, falls from the weir shallow and clear only partly covering the rocks of the lower river-bed. During the rainy months, to clear silt and let the muddy flood waters pass, the side sluices are left partly open. The sluices are generally closed in November; in average seasons the flow of water is nearly over by the end of December, and in the river below the weir lines of sedge fringed pools lie in a broad bed rough with ridges and boulders of trap. Above the weir, through the cold and hot months of all ordinary seasons, the river is navigable for pleasure boats as far as the old masonry bridge known as Holkar's Bridge (75), a distance of about three and three quarter miles. About one and a half miles of this distance, from the weir to the meeting of the Mutha and Mula, is nearly south-west. Above the meeting the Mula curves to the north and north-east as far as Holkar's bridge. At about throe quarters of a mile below Holkar's bridge, or almost three miles above the weir, on the right or eastern bank of the river is
Rosherville the meeting place for the Boat Club. Above Holkar's bridge are some rocky barriers, but during freshes boats can go to the Powder Works dam, two miles above Holkar's bridge. Above the Powder Works dam another navigable reach stretches about three miles as far as the village of Dapuri above the Peninsula railway bridge (96).
From the FitzGerald bridge looking west is one of the prettiest views in Poona. On the right, about 150 yards from, the river, a rocky flat-topped hill rises about 150 feet above the bank and stretches about 300 yards west gradually falling to a small river-bank tomb. On the left are the trees and flowers of the Bund garden, the higher tree-tops half hiding the distant broken line of the Sinhgad-Bhuleshvar hills. In front, from the edge of the dam, between low tree-fringed banks, the river, about 200 yards wide, stretches west about half a mile to where it is divided by a long low woody island. Beyond the island, as it turns south-west to the meeting of the rivers, the water passes out of sight in the green Kirkee plain behind which the low rounded blocks of the Ganesh khind and Bhamburda hills lead to the central peak of Bhanbava.
About 1700 feet above the FitzGerald bridge, hid in trees on the south or right bank of the river, is the Boat House of the Poona Boat Club, well supplied with the ordinary Thames-built racing and pleasure boats. Above the boat-house, with a nearly uniform breadth of 200 yards, the river stretches a little south of west about three quarters of a mile to where a large and a small woody island divide the stream. On either side of the large island is a channel, a main or western channel always open for boats, and a narrow eastern passage open only in floods. Above the island the river gradually widens, till, a little below the meeting or sangam of the Mutha from the south-west and the Mula from the north-west, it is 430 yards across, that is 140 yards broader than the Thames at London Bridge. At this point a remarkable
he gives back clearly spoken words three times
or even more A little below the meeting of the Mutha and the Mula is perhaps the most picturesque spot in the three miles boating course. In the foreground are the woody islands and the mouth of the Mutha spanned by the Wellesley and railway bridges, its left bank crowned by the lofty trees which surround the Judge's house and its right bank ending in a cluster of temples joined to the water by nights of steps. From the middle distance rises the bold temple-topped rock of Parvati and behind Parvati stretches the level scarp of Sinhgad. Above the Sangam a rough dam, 500 yards beyond the railway bridge, makes the Mutha impassable to boats. But the Mula, with an average breadth of about fifty yards, between low banks, the left babhul and bamboo fringed, the right studded with houses of which the chief is Sir A. Sassoon's Garden Reach, winds, passable for boats, a mile and a half higher to a resting place named Rosherville, where, on the right or eastern bank, a landing stage is moored and seats and refreshments are provided. The boating course from the boat-house to Rosherville is about a furlong short of three miles. In the yearly Regatta the racing-course is from Rosherville down to a point opposite to Garden Reach, a distance of one mile. The racing course, with the exception of one slight bend about a third of a mile from the start, is straight.
Roads.
In the city most of the roads, though smooth and clean, are narrow crowded and
occasionally broken by sharp turns, but otherwise Poona is well supplied with
broad smooth roads generally lined and in places overshadowed with trees. Along
these roads the three favourite drives are, to the west and north, to the east,
and to the south and south-west. From the railway station as a centre the chief
drive to the west is by the Sassoon Hospital (101), across the Mutha by the
Wellesley Bridge (117), past the Science College (102), and along the Kirkee
road, returning across the Mula by Holkar's Bridge (75) and the Deccan College
(53), crossing the Mutha-Mula by the FitzGerald Bridge (63) and back past the
Bund Gardens, a distance of about seven miles and three quarters. This drive can
be varied and lengthened by leaving the Kirkee road a little beyond the Science
College, passing along the Bhamburda road and round the Ganesh-khind grounds,
and back through the Kirkee cantonment to Holkar's bridge. The whole length of
this outer round is about eleven and a half miles. The drive to the east is
through the Civil lines past the Club (49)and St. Mary's Church (109) through
the Vanavdi lines, round the race-course, through the Ghorpadi lines, and back
by the Bund gardens (47). The length of this round is about seven and a quarter
miles. The south drive is through the Civil lines and the Sadar Bazar to the
west, past the lake and hill of Parvati (90), to the north-west over a rather
rough river-bed to the Lakdi bridge, and from the Lakdi bridge back by Bhamburda,
the Wellesley Bridge, and the Sassoon Hospital. This round is about ten and a
half miles.
City.
For description the city and cantonment of Poona come most
conveniently under three parts, a western a central and an eastern, poona City, the western division, has spread so far eastward, and has been so nearly met by the outlying streets of the Sadar Bazar and of the Civil lines, that, in passing from one to the other it is not
easy to say where the cantonment and civil lines end and the city, begins. The eastern limit of the city may be fixed at the left bank of the Manik stream, which, after & winding north-west course, falls into the Mutha about 300 yards above its meeting with the Mula. From the left bank of this stream the city of Poona stretches about a mile and three quarters west along the right bank of the Mutha river. The city varies greatly in breadth. In the east the part covered with houses is not much more than a mile across. From this it gradually widens to about a mile and three quarters, and then narrows in triangular shape, the tip of the triangle lying close to the bridge known as the Lakdi Bridge about one and a half miles above the meeting of the Mutha and Mula. For municipal and other purpose this city area is divided into eighteen wards or peths. These may be roughly grouped into three divisions, the eastern the central and the western. The eastern division, most of which dates since the beginning of British rule, lies between the left bank of the small winding Manik stream and the right bank of the larger less irregular Nagjhari, which, after a westerly course, joins the Manik stream as it falls into the Mutha. West of the Nagjhari the city proper, the Poona of Muhammadan (1290-1636) and early Maratha (1636-1686) days, with its centre and original starting point at the younger Shaikh Salla's mosque (31), once the temple of Puneshvar about 1000 yards above the meeting of the Mutha and Mula, stretches about a mile along the river bank and runs inland about one and a half miles. West of the city proper the third division, stretching along the river bank about 800 yards and gradually narrowing to a point near the Lakdi bridge, consists of suburbs founded in the later days of the Peshwa rule (1760-1818).
As it is built according to no regular plan, and has only two main streets and many narrow broken and winding lanes, Poona City is difficult to describe. Most of its roads, though well kept and clean, are narrow with side-gutters either open or covered with stone slabs and with rows of houses generally built close to the roadside. Some of the houses are one-storeyed, little better than sheds, with long sloping tiled roofs and low plain front walls of unbaked brick coated with white earth. Other houses are two-storeyed, the under storey with a heavy tile-covered eave resting on plain square wooden pillars the upper storey plain, with perhaps a row of arched wooden windows closed on the outside with plain square shutters and slightly shaded by a shallow eave. In other houses the ground-floor stands back and beams of wood support an overhanging upper storey with a more and less ornamental balcony and a heavy upper eave. Every now and then the line of commoner dwellings is broken by some large building, either a new house two or three storeys high with bright wood work and walls of burnt brick picked out with cement, or the long blank walls of one of the old mansions. The overhanging irregular wood work, the sharp turns and windings, and the variety in size and style of houses, make some of the streets picturesque in places, and trees planted at the roadsides, or, oftener, hanging from some garden or temple enclosure, give many of the streets a certain greenness and shade. In the western wards the roads are broader, and both there
and in the south-west they are bordered by long lines of garden Walls. Most of the houses are poor, but the lanes are redeemed from ugliness by occasional temples, houses with picturesque overhanging balconies, and magnificent nim, pipal, and banian trees growing in raised circular pavements. The lanes are quiet, with few people and little cart or carriage traffic, with here and there a grain or a sweetmeat shop, and wells with groups of water-drawers. The main streets are called after the days of the week. Only two of them, Aditvar and Shanvar, differ much from the lanes in breadth or in the style of their buildings. Aditvar or Sunday Street and Shanvar or Saturday Street the main lines of traffic, vary from twenty to thirty feet in breadth and have paved footpaths running inside of a covered gutter. The houses vary greatly in size and appearance. A few are one-storeyed little more than huts, the greater number are either two or three storeys high, and some are large four-storeyed buildings. The style of building is extremely varied. The middle-class and commonest house stands on a well built plinth of cut-stone three to four feet high, with a row of square plain wooden pillars along the edge of the plinth, and, resting on the pillars, a deep heavy eave roofed with rough flat Deccan tiles, and a plain wooden plans running along the front of the eave. In these houses the face of the upper storey is sometimes nearly plain with a beam that only very
slightly stands out from the wall and with a very shallow eave. In others the wood work stands further from the wall, is more or less richly carved, and is shaded by a deep upper eave. Some have a balcony with a light balustrade two or three feet high, and a slight shade overhead supported by slanting poles. On both sides of the street the ground-floors are occupied by shops with cloth-blinds hanging about halfway down from the edge of the eaves. The shops are well stored with grain and pulse, with sweetmeats, cloth, stationery, ornaments, and vessels of brass copper and iron. The streets are crowded with carts and carriages. The people are busy, bustling, Well fed, and well dressed; and the number of new houses in almost every quarter of the town, some of them, large and striking even alongside of the old mansions and palaces, gives the city an air of much prosperity. On the whole the city is well shaded. Even in the busiest parts are richly wooded gardens with temples and cocoa-palms and black tapering cypress trees, and along the south-west and south are large areas of enclosed orchards and gardens. The roofs of several of its high mansions command good general views of the city. [Among the best view-points are the pavilions on the roofs of the Purandhare's (27) and Kibe or Mankeshvar mansions in Budhwar ward, and the Bohoras' Jamatkhana (8) in Aditvar ward.] The foreground is of high-pitched house-roofs varying much in size and height but all brown with rough flat Deccan tiles. Here and there parallel lines of roofs mark a street or a lane, but in most places the roofs rise sometimes close together, sometimes widely
apart and almost always without apparent system or plan. Among them, at considerable distances, stand out the high roofs of old mansions, crowned with small flat-topped or tile-covered canopies,
and the lofty gable ends of new dwellings with white cement and
fresh brick and mortar walls. Breaking and relieving the lines
of roofs, over the whole city and especially among the rich garden
lands to the south and south-west, rise single trees and groups
of pipals, banians, nims, and tamarinds, almost all large and well
grown, and many lofty and far-spreading. There are almost no
mosques or domed tombs. But on all sides, from among the trees
and house-roofs, stand out the white graceful spires of Hindu
temples.
Under the Musalmans (1290-1636) the military portion of the town or kasba was enclosed by a wall built, like other Deccan village walls, of mud and bricks on stone and mud foundations. The wall was called the Pandhri or White wall and is now called the Juna Kot or Old Fort (24). It stretched from the younger to the elder Shaik Salla's tomb along the bank of the Mutha river, leaving both the mosques outside of it. From the elder Shaikh Salla's tomb the wall turned south to the north-east corner of the Mandai or Market ground, where was a gate called the Konkan Darvaja or Konkan Gate. The stone steps which led to this gate remain. From the Mandai the wall passed east along the backs of houses on the north side of Dikshit and Pethe streets to Pethe's cistern. It then turned north and continued almost straight to the younger Shaikh Salla's tomb. Midway between Pethe's cistern and the younger Shaikh Salla's tomb was another gate facing east called the Nagar Darvaja or Ahmadnagar gate. The site of the Nagar gate can still be traced, exactly opposite Lakdi street. The Maruti which
belonged to this gate remains. The wall was in the form of an irregular rectangle, the sides being north 280, south 260, west 130, and east 200 yards. It had several bastions and loopholed parapets. Two small gateways which led to the river on the north have only lately disappeared. Flights of steps leading to the river from these gates remain and are known as Purandhare's Steps and Sapindya Mahadev's or the Twelfth Day Funeral God's Steps. On the south, to the east of Moghe's mansion, was another small gate but neither its site nor its name is known. The remains of the wall may be traced all along its course, and in many places the foundations and plinth are unharmed. The wall, which was about fourteen feet high and four feet broad, rested on a plinth of stone and mud sixteen feet high and six feet broad. It was built about 550 years ago by one Barya Jamadar, an Arab, who is said to have been the first commandant of Poona. [Mr. N. V. Joshi's Poona, Ancient and Modern (1868), 5.] The army and its followers with a few Muhammadan villagers were alone allowed to live within the wall. The traders, Brahmans, Hindu cultivators, and others, with the village officers lived outside of the wall to the east. In 1755 the third Peshwa Balaji Bajirav (1740-1761) determined to build a wall round the whole city, and entrusted the work to Jivajipant Khasgivale
who was commandant or kotval. According to the local story Ram Raja (1749-1777) of Satara considered that only villages and not large towns with powerful masters should be walled, and ordered the work to be
stopped. According to Grant Duff, and this is probably the true reason, the Peshwa on second thoughts decided that walls might be a danger as their strength might tempt the head of the state to stand a siege in the city instead of retiring to the strong hill fort of Purandhar. Whatever the reason, the work was abandoned. The unfinished part may be seen near the Nagjhari or Cobra stream which passes north through the east of the city. The wall seems to have been intended to be fifteen feet wide and thirty-five feet high and to be built partly of solid stone and lime masonry and partly of mud and sun-dried bricks. Starting from the north-east corner of the Old Fort, near the younger Shaikh Salla's tomb, the new wall was carried east along the Mutha to where it met the Cobra stream. Near the younger Shaikh Salla's tomb, opposite the present dam or dharan known as the Dagdi Pul or Stone Bridge, a gate called the Kumbhar Ves or Potters' Gate was removed about 1835 when Mr. Forjett was head of the Poona police. The roadway was raised eight feet when the dharan or causeway was built across the river. The little shrine of Maruti, which used to stand at the west end of the gate, may now be seen in the middle of the street. From the Potters' gate to the Cobra's stream the wall, built of mud and sun-dried bricks, went along the high ground forming the Kumbhar ward and the Kagdipura or Papermakers' ward. It contained doorways leading to the river, but no important gates. From the south-east limits of Kagdipura the wall turned to a bend of the Nagjhari and then south along its left bank. It can be traced to a point known as the Baramori or Twelve Sluice gate on the Ganesh ward road. The length of the wall from the younger Shaikh Salla's tomb to the Nagjhari is about 350 yards, and the length from the Nagjhari to the Baramori is 850 yards. Between the Nagjhari and the Baramori were two gates. The chief gate, which was in the street known as Lakdi street, leading from the Nagar gate of the Old Fort, was called the Mali Ves or Gardeners' Gate and was close to the gardeners' rest-house or chavdi. The second gate was on the approach to the present Daruvala's or Powdermaker's bridge; its name is not known.
Wards.
The City is (1884) divided into eighteen wards styled peths, irregular
in shape and varying greatly in size. They are of ancient origin and are maintained for revenue, police, municipal, and other administrative purposes. Some of them were founded by the Muhammadans and had Muhammadan names. In 1791 these names were changed, and, in imitation of the town of Satara, some of them were given the names of the days of the week. The wards or divisions, beginning with the part nearest the railway station on the east of the Nagjhari, are six: Mangalvar or the Tuesday ward next the river, and, working back, Somvar or the Monday ward, Rastia's, Nyahal's, Nana's, and Bhavani's. To the west of the Nagjhari are twelve wards: next the river is the Kasba the oldest part of the city, Aditvar or the Sunday ward, Ganesh, Vetal, Ganj, Muzafarjang's, and Ghorpade's. West of these, next the river, are Shanvar or the Saturday ward, Narayan, Sadashiv including Navi, and behind them, to the east, Budhvar or the "Wednesday and Shukravar or the Friday wards.
The following statement shows for the eighteen wards a total area
of 9,828,000 square yards and an increase in people from 73,209 in 1851 to 99,421 in 1881. The details are:
Poona City Wards, 1851-1881,
|
No. |
NAMES. |
TOTAL AREA. |
AREA UNDER HOUSES. |
PEOPLE. |
|
1851. |
1872. |
1881. |
|
|
|
Square Yards. |
Square Yards. |
|
|
|
1 |
Mangalvar |
485,000 |
340,000 |
1195 |
1742 |
2192 |
2 |
Somvar |
545,000 |
479,000 |
1752 |
2995 |
3808 |
3 |
Rastia |
365,000 |
225,000 |
2533 |
3676 |
4267 |
4 |
Nyahal |
105,000 |
75,000 |
665 |
832 |
1107 |
5 |
Nana |
525,000 |
365,000 |
2866 |
4544 |
5408 |
5 |
Bhavani |
1,235,000 |
672,000 |
3606 |
5204 |
6737 |
7 |
Kasba |
575,000 |
575,000 |
8831 |
10,855 |
11,890 |
8 |
A'ditvar |
325,000 |
325,000 |
7461 |
8928 |
9726 |
9 |
Ganesh |
155,000 |
155,000 |
3612 |
3760 |
3695 |
10 |
Vetal |
195,000 |
195,000 |
3366 |
4293 |
4458 |
11 |
Ganj |
405,000 |
285,000 |
3742 |
4433 |
4969 |
12 |
Muzafarjang |
23,000 |
23,000 |
85 |
34 |
90 |
13 |
Ghorpade |
655,000 |
325,000 |
1936 |
1119 |
1139 |
14 |
Shanvar |
445,000 |
445,000 |
5152 |
7323 |
7786 |
15 |
Narayan |
375,000 |
375,000 |
3646 |
3582 |
3563 |
16 |
Sadashiv |
2,275,000 |
1,209,000 |
7142 |
8015 |
8306 |
17 |
Budhvar |
185,000 |
185,000 |
4518 |
5881 |
6083 |
18 |
Shukravar |
955,000 |
556,000 |
11,701 |
13,130 |
14,137 |
|
Total |
9,828,000 |
6,808,000 |
73,209 |
90,436 |
99,421 |
Mangalvar.
Mangalvar Ward, 800 yards by 600, with an area of 485,000 square
yards and 2192 people, was originally called Shaistepura after its founder Shaistekhan, the Moghal viceroy of the Deccan,[Shaistekhan's governorship lasted from 1662 to 1664. Grant Duff's Marathas, 86-89.] who in 662 was sent to Poona to suppress Shivaji. It has almost no shops and most of the houses are one-storeyed. Except two or three Brahman families of hereditary accountants the people are poor Marathas, Mhars, and Halalkhors. The Marathas are cultivators or labourers, and a few earn their living by making split pulse. The Mhars are chiefly village servants, municipal servants, or labourers, and a few work on the railway. The Halalkhors are chiefly employed as municipal sweepers. The only important road through Mangalvar ward is the approach to the principal fodder and fuel market and cart-stand and to the District Judge's court-house. The other pathways are narrow lanes. The conservancy arrangements are good but there are no proper sullage sewers. The ward is not unhealthy, and the population is scanty. Mangalvar has considerably fallen in importance during the past sixty years. From being the market-place of the old town if has sunk to be the resort of a few pulse-makers. Several ruined mansions bear traces of former prosperity. The only object of note is the fuel and fodder market in the open ground to the north-east of the ward. During the fair season about 500 cart-loads of fuel and fodder are brought in daily and sold.
Somvar.
Somvar Ward, 800 yards by 680, with an area of 545,000 square
yards and a scanty population of 3808, was established in 1755 and was originally called Shahapura. Its chief inhabitants are rich Gosavi jewel-dealers and moneylenders, a few Sali weavers, and some Government servants. The houses are large, have generally upper storeys, and are neatly built though wanting in light and air. Thereare no shops. One large street leads to the railway station. The others are narrow crooked lanes well kept and clean. The water supply is fair and the ward is not unhealthy. It has fallen in importance during the past thirty years, as much of the trade, of which the Gosavis had formerly the monopoly, has passed into other hands. The chief objects of note in Somvar ward are Nageshvar's (17) and Vishnu's temples (38), the latter with a water-lead and a public cistern.
Rastia.
Rastia's Ward, 920 yards by 400, with an area of 365,000 yards and
4267 people, was originally called Shivpuri from a temple of Shiv built by Anandrav Lakshman Rastia, the hereditary head of the Peshwa's Horse. The first occupiers of the ward were Rastia's cavalry. The houses are one-storeyed with small backyards. The people are of all castes, chiefly Mudliars from Madras and Bene-Israel Jews originally from the Konkan. Rastia's ward is one of the healthiest and best laid out parts of the city and has a large number of well-to-do Government servants, civil and military pensioners, and a few tradesmen. The streets are broad and straight and the houses are built with brick in straight lines, back to back, with straight narrow sweepers passages between the backyards. The streets and lanes are clean, the conservancy efficient, and the water-supply abundant from a great water-lead from a stream in Vanavdi about four miles to the south-east. Rastia's ward is the healthiest in the city and is not overcrowded. It has prospered during the past thirty years. The most noteworthy object is Rastia's mansion, an immense building (29). A large fair is held yearly in Shravan or July-August in honour of Shiralshet a Lingayat Vani banker who is said to have flourished about 500 years ago.
Nyahal.
Nyahal's Ward, 360 yards by 280, with an area of 105,000
square yards and 1107 people, is named after Nyahal, a retainer of the
Khasgivale (1755) to whom the third Peshwa Balaji Bajirav entrusted the building of the new walls. It is a small healthy ward. A few well-to-do Prabhus and other retired Government servants have built neat dwellings in it. Most of the other houses are one-storeyed and belong to tailors and weavers in cotton and wool. This ward has no shops. Two streets run through it, both highways from the centre of the city, one to the railway station and the other to the cantonment. The conservancy is good, The ward drains into the Nagjhari stream.
Nana or, Hanuman.
Nana or Hanuman Ward, 1040 yards by 500, with an
area of 525,000 yards and 5408 people, was founded by Nana Fadnavis in 1791 for the use of wholesale grain-dealers by whom it is still chiefly peopled. The houses are partly upper-storeyed in large enclosures, partly small. The grain-dealers are chiefly Marwar and Gujarat Vanis, men of means. A number of Pardeshis have organised a carting business between this ward and the railway station. The large number of country carts which come daily to this quarter of the city give employment to several carpenters and blacksmiths. Many landholders let their enclosures as cart-stands, and also act as brokers or dalals in getting employment for the carts. Since the opening of the railway the carting trade has greatly increased. A number of shoemakers or Mochis, from the North-West Provinces and Oudh, make boots for the European and Native
troops and for the residents of Poona cantonment which borders on Nana's ward. Part of this ward is held by Mhars and Mangs who find employment as grooms and house servants among the residents of the cantonment. It also contains a number of low-caste prostitutes who live in the quarter known as the Lal or Gay Bazar. There is a small municipal meat market. Nana's ward has one leading street which is the main communication between the city and the cantonment bazar. It is broad and straight, like several others in this quarter, which are well made and metalled. The conservancy is good and the water supply from four public cisterns is abundant. The ward has no sewers. The sullage gathers in cesspools and is removed by manual labour. Nana's ward is thriving and new houses are being yearly added. It is not thickly peopled and is healthy. Its chief objects are: the Agyari or Parsi Fire-temple (62); the Ghodepir or Horse Saint (13), where during the Muharram a sawdust and stucco tabut or tomb-image is set on a wooden horse and worshipped; Nivdungya Vithoba's temple (21); and a chapel for the Roman Catholic population of the city and cantonment (22).
Bhavani.
Bhavani Ward, 1500 yards by 825, with an area of 1,235,000
square yards and 6737 people, was also founded by Nana Fadnavis
for the use of traders during the time of the seventh Peshwa
Savai Madhavrav (1774-1795) and called Borban or the Jujube
Copse. It took its name from a temple of the goddess Bhavani
belonging to the Deshmukhs. The chief people of Bhavani ward
are well-to-do Vanis, wholesale dealers in groceries and oilseeds and
general brokers or commission agents, a number of Marwar Vanis who
also deal in old furniture and lumber and many carriers who own
carts specially made for carrying heavy loads from and to the railway
station. One quarter is set apart for Kamathis, another for
Kaikadis, a third the Kumbharvada for potters, a fourth for
Sarvans or Musalman camel-drivers, and a fifth for Malis, vegetable
and sugarcane growers. Almost all of these classes are comfortably
off. Bhavani ward has two main streets running east and west which
meet at their eastern ends and run into the cantonment bazar. The
houses of the upper classes are upper-storeyed and built in lines, and
those of the poorer classes have only one. storey and are irregularly
built. In the east of the ward are several well-built Poona and
Bombay Parsi residences. The conservancy arrangements and water
supply are good. Bhavani ward is less healthy than the north of
the city and less prosperous than Nana's ward. The chief objects are
Bhavani's (7) and Telphala Devi's temples.
Kasba.
Kasba Ward, 800 yards by 720, with an area of 575,000 square yards
and 11,890 people, is the oldest inhabited part of Poona city. It is called Kasba because it was the head-quarters of a sub-division of the district. Compared with the eastern wards the population is dense and the death-rate high. Except a few large old mansions of chiefs and gentry most of the houses are small and poor. There are no shops. Except some high Brahman families the people of Kasba are chiefly craftsmen, papermakers in Kagdipura, potters in Kumbharvada, fishermen in Bhoivada, Mujavars or keepers of the two Shaikh Salla shrines, copper and silver smiths in Kasar Ali
gardeners in Malivada, and Brahman astrologers and Brahman priests in Vevharali. As the ground is rough with ruins the lanes are narrow crooked and broken by dips and rises. Even the main thoroughfare to the District Judge's court is narrow, crooked, and uneven. The conservancy is good. Sewers carry off the
sullage, and the surface drainage is greatly aided by the unevenness of the ground. Kasba ward has remained steady since the beginning of British rule. Its objects are: the Ambarkhana (1), the Purandhare's mansion (27), the elder and the younger Shaikh
Sallas tombs (31), and a temple of Ganpati (12). Under municipal management much has been done to improve this ward.
Aditvar.
Aditvar or Ravivar, the Sunday Ward, 750 yards by 475, with an area of 325,000 square yards and 9726 people, was originally called Malkampura, and was founded in the time of the third Peshwa Balaji Bajirav (1740-1761), by Mahajan Vevhare Joshi. It is thickly peopled and is the richest ward in the city, the business centre of Poona. The houses are large and strongly built, except in one or two poor quarters, all having an upper storey and many two storeys. The houses fronting the main streets have their ground-floor fronts set out as shops, the back parts and upper floors being used as dwellings generally by the shopkeepers. The people of Aditvar ward are mixed and are the richest in the city. The Moti Chauk or Pearl Square, at the north end of the chief street, has Gujarati Vaishnav and Jain banking firms on the upper floors, the ground floors being occupied by wholesale grocers. Further south in Saraf Ali or Moneychangers' Row on the east side are jewellers, on the west side Brahmans Sonars and Kasars who manage the sale of the Poona brass and copper ware, one of the most prosperous industries in the city, the articles being sent chiefly to Berar and Nizam Haidarabad and occasionally to other parts of India. Further south along the street are Bohoras, some dealers in iron and tin ware, others in silk and embroidered cloth, others in stationery and haberdashery ; mixed with the Bohoras are some Jingar or native saddle and horse-gear sellers; still further along are the chief turners who make wooden toys, and a few Marwar Vanis who deal in small brass castings, bells, cups, saucers, and tumblers. The eastern street has the chief establishment for grinding flour in Maide Ali. At the south end is the Kapad Ganj or Cloth Store, where wholesale and retail cloth-merchants live. Further north is the Badhai Row where Badhais or Upper Indian carpenters make and sell wooden toys, boxes, and cots. Beyond the Badhais are a few vegetable shops, then a fish market, and the stores of lime and charcoal makers and sellers. On the south-east and south-west flanks are two meat markets, the south-east market kept by the Municipality. In the eastmost end of Aditvar ward are two horse dealers, and veterinary stables where horses are imported, exchanged, and sold. There is also a grass market in a building known as Durjansing's Paga or the horse lines of Durjansing a Rajput cavalry officer. Among the mixed dwellers in Aditvdr ward a few are Brahmans and most are of the different craftsmen classes. The leading streets are broad, especially in the Moti Chauk or Pearl Square, which is the
handsomest street in the city, with broad paved footpaths, the shops opening on the central cart and carriage road. The conservancy of Aditvar is good; there is abundance of water, and there are underground sewers for sullage and surface drains for flood water. Still the ward is not healthy. The banking firms are said to be on the decline, due to the Government money order system, the greater safety of investment in Government loans or savings bank, and the restriction of currency to silver. Other trades and crafts flourish. The chief objects of Aditvar ward are Phadke's Mansion (26), the Bohoras' Jamatkhana or Meeting-house (8), the Jama or Public Mosque (14), and Someshvar's temple (34).
Ganesh.
Ganesh Ward, 600 yards by 260, with an area of 155,000 square
yards and 3695 people, takes its name from the god Ganesh. The ward was founded by Jivajipant Khasgivale, during the rule of the seventh Peshwa Savai Madhavrav (1774-1795). The houses in Ganesh ward are poor, few except those fronting the main streets having upper storeys. The people are of low caste, labourers, artisans, shoemakers, carpenters, coach-builders, basket-makers, and the like. The chief timber stores of Poona are in Ganesh ward. It has no other industries and no shops. The streets in Ganesh ward are broad, the lanes narrow but straighter than in other parts of the city, and all are metalled or sanded and kept clean. The conservancy is good, but the ward though prosperous is comparatively unhealthy. Its objects are: the Dulya or Rocking Maruti's Temple (11), and the Dagdi Nagoba where a fair is held on Nagpanchmi or the Cobra's Fifth in Shravan or July-August.
Vetal.
Vetal Ward, 800 yards by 240, with an area of 195,000 square yards
and 4458 people, originally called Guruvar or Thursday ward, was founded by Jivajipant Khasgivale in the time of the third Peshwa Balaji Bajirav (1740-1761). It continued to be called Guruvar until a temple was built to Yetal the Lord of Demons. The main street of Vetdl ward is a southerly continuation of the main street of Aditvar and is like it in construction. The houses are closely built with upper storeys, the lower being used as shops and the upper as dwellings, The chief shopkeepers are Jingars originally saddle-makers, or Tambats that is coppersmiths. The best goldsmiths of Poona live in Vetal ward, Kachis or market-gardeners who deal in fruit and vegetables have a quarter of the ward, Dhangars or shepherds have another, and potters a third, and there are a few flower sellers, Gujarat brass and copper dealers, and Momin and other Musalmans, silk weavers and spinners. Most of the craftsmen's houses have no upper storey. Vetal ward is on a high level and is healthy. The water supply is less plentiful than in low-lying wards but it is not scanty, and the conservancy is good. The leading roads are broad metalled thoroughfares and the lanes are broader and straighter than in other parts. At the south of this ward three mansions have been built by three Bombay merchants, Nana Shankarshet, Keshavji Naik, and Trimbakji Velji. Lately, Trimbakji's house has been bought by the Society for the Propagantion of the Gospel and turned into a mission house and school under the
management of missionaries of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. A little colony of Native Christians lives in and round this mission-house. Vetal ward has prospered during the past thirty years. A vegetable, meat, and fuel market is held daily. Its objects are: Shri Parasnath's Jain temple (25), Vetal's temple (37), the Mission House, and the Raje Bagsher's Takya.
Ganj.
Ganj or Store Ward, 900 yards by 450, with an area of 405,000
square yards and 4969 people, takes its name from having been the chief salt store in the city. Most of the houses have only one storey and belong to the poorer classes of craftsmen and labourers, Momin silk-weavers, Sali cotton-weavers, Koshti spinners and weavers, Kunbi Joshis or fortune-tellers, Tumbdivales or Bairagis who change small metal pots for old clothes, Lingayat and Maratha Dalvalas or pulse-makers and salt-sellers, a few Sangar wool-weavers and felt-makers, tanners of the Chambhar Saltangar and Dhor classes, and some Pardeshi masons or Gavandis. Ganj ward is healthy, the conservancy is good, and the water supply though not abundant is not scanty. It is a prosperous ward though almost the whole people are low class. It has no object of interest.
Muzafarjang.
Muzafarjang Ward, 300 yards by seventy-five, with an area of 23,000 square yards and ninety people, is the smallest ward in the city. It is much like Ghorpade's ward. It takes its name from its founder Muzafarjang who is said to have been a leading captain under one of the Ghorpades.
Ghorpade.
Ghorpade's Ward, 900 yards by 725, with an area of 655,000 square yards and 1139 people, was established by Maloji Raje Bhonsle
Ghorpade in the time of the seventh Peshwa Savai Madhavrav (1774-1795) and called by the founder's surname. It was originally occupied by Ghorpade's cavalry. It is now occupied by dealers in skins and hides, tanners, shoemakers, husbandmen, and poor Musalmans. It is the poorest ward in the city. The houses are mostly ground-floor huts. The roads are not regular though broad, the water-supply is scanty, and the conservancy arrangements are fair. It is not prosperous. The Ghorpade family once had a large mansion in this ward but it has fallen to ruin and been pulled down. It has no object of interest.
Shanvar.
Shanvar or Saturday Ward, 750 yards by 600, with an area of 445,000 square yards and 7786 people, was founded about the close of the seventeenth century by the Musalmans and named Murchudabad. As the west end and airiest part of the city it rose to importance under the eighth or last Peshwa Bajirav (1796-1817) when many Brahmans built houses in it. The houses are comfortable, upper-storeyed, strongly made buildings, with more or less large enclosures. There are no shops. The people are chiefly rich high-class Brahmans, some the descendants of old families of position, others of families who have risen to position and wealth in the service of the British Government. The chief vegetable and fruit market of Poona, the Mandai, is hold in Shanvar ward on the border of Kasba ward in the open ground in front of the Shanvar Palace, also called the old Palace, the state residence of the Peshwas (1760-1817). This was styled the Old Palace to distinguish it from the new or later built palace in
Budhvar ward. The whole Shanvar ward has underground sewers in fair order, and the general conservancy of the ward is excellent. Still, especially in the cold weather, it is feverish perhaps owing to its trees and its nearness to the river. Its objects are: Shanvarvada, the Old Palace which was burnt in 1825 and is now the head-quarters of the police (32), the Mandai the chief market-place of the city, Omkareshvar's temple (23), Harihareshvar's temple, Amriteshvar's temple (2), Shanvar Maruti's temple, the Panjarpol or Animal Home (4), and eighteen family mansions. [These are: Sanglikar's, the younger Jamkhandikar's, Rastia's, Natu's, Mehendale's, Gadre's, Gole s, Alibag Bivalkar's, Rayrikar's, Parasnis', Hasabnis',
Chandrachud's, the younger Purandhare's, Shirke's, Thatte's, Rajmachikar's, Bavdekar's and Apte's.]
Narayan.
Narayan Ward, 1130 yards by 325, with an area of 375,008
square yards and 3563 people, is the westmost ward in the city on the
river side. The ward was founded during the time of the fifth
Peshwa Narayanrav Ballal (1773) and named after him. The
streets are broad. Its western position made it a great rice centre
Marwar Vanis sought for houses and gradually brought all the
Mavlis or West Poona rice growers under their power. The Marwars
houses are ill-built, low, and badly aired, and the ground floor fronts
are used as shops. The rest of the people of Narayan ward are
husbandmen, labourers, and shepherds. The south-east quarter
which is called Dolkar Ali, is held by Brahmans who have large
enclosures and well built houses. It is a popular quarter and many
houses have lately been built by Poona Brahmans. The original
Marwari rice market has declined. The streets are metalled and the
conservancy is fair. The west is not so well provided with public
cisterns as the east, but almost every house has its well of whole
some water. As a whole Narayan ward is healthy and prosperous.
Its objects are Modicha Ganpati's temple, Maticha Ganpati's temple,
Ashtabhuja or the Eight-armed goddess's temple, the Gaikwar's
mansion, and Mankeshvar's Vishnu.
Sadashiv.
Sadashiv Ward, 1800 yards by 1275, with an area of 2,275,000
square yards and 8366 people, was founded by Sadashivrav Bhau, cousin of the third Peshwa Balaji Bajirav (1740-1761) on the site of a garden called Napur. The people of Sadashiv ward are chiefly Brahmans and there are some large well built chals or lodgings for the use of the poorer classes who are chiefly paid or hired house servants. The houses are the best built residences in the city two or more storeys high and each in an enclosure. The Brahmans in this quarter are either political pensioners or retired Government servants. A few are moneylenders. When founded this ward was occupied by the military, the streets are consequently broad and the thoroughfares laid out in regular squares. The Peshwas' state prisoners were kept in this ward under the charge of the military force of which Sadashivrav Bhau, the founder of the ward, was the first commander. Under the eighth or last Peshwa Bajirav (1796 -1817) the Sadashiv ward stretched to Parvati and was the most populous part of the city. It declined with the removal of the Maratha soldiery and the market disappeared. Sadashiv ward has the best kept and best made
roads in the city. It has underground sewers for sullage and rain water, a plentiful water supply, and a good conservancy. It is not so healthy as it ought to be, perhaps from the richness with which some of the gardens are manured. Of late years Sadashiv ward has become popular and many good houses have been built. Part of Sadashiv ward is called Navi or new because it was built after Poona passed to the British. Its people are husbandmen, shoemakers, and Mangs. It has some timber fuel and grass stores. The felling of old mansions was at one time a trade in which several people made fortunes. Its objects of interests are: the Lakdi Pul or Wooden bridge now of stone, Vithoba's Murlidhar's and Narsoba's temples (19), Khajina Vihir, Nana Fadnavis' cisterns and water-lead, Vishrambag mansion partly destroyed by fire in May 1879 (40), the Pratinidhi's mansion or Got, Sotya Mhasoba's temple, the Sassoon Infirm asylum (30), Parvati lake (91), Turquand's garden-house where Mr. Turquand of the Civil Service committed suicide, and Nana Fadnavis' garden.
Budhvar.
Budhvar Ward, 460 yards by 400, with an area of 185,000 square yards and 6083 people, is the heart of Poona city. It was founded by the Emperor Aurangzeb in 1690 and was first called Mahujabad. It was afterwards peopled by Govind Shivram Khasgivale in the time of the fourth Peshwa Madhavrao Ballal (1761-1772). It is the most peopled part of the city and has several retail markets. The streets were once very narrow but of late years the leading thoroughfares have been widened. The houses are closely built and have one or two upper storeys. The ground floor fronts as elsewhere are let for shops, the back parts and upper rooms being private dwellings. Beginning from the north end of the ward, the first section of the main street contains grocers' and scent-sellers' or Gandhis' shops. Near the site of the Budhvar Palace (9), which was destroyed by fire in May 1879, are shops of flower-sellers, stationers, and druggists. Near the Tulsi Bag (37) or Basil Garden end of the street a building in the centre of the street, called the Kotval Chavdi (15) was the chief police office in the Peshwas' time. The building has been sold by Government and is now used as a vegetable market. The street running east and west by the site of the Budhvar Palace contains on the west Hindu confectioners' shops, and, further on, snuff-makers' petty grain-Sealers' and flour-sellers' shops. The eastern section contains a few silk weavers who dress ornaments and trinkets in silk, and the leading doth merchants or Shimpis of the city who chiefly sell the produce of local hand-looms. The street is called Kapad Ali or Cloth Row. It once had a well-built pavement and long lines of platforms in the centre on which shops were laid out and a market was held daily called the Men Bazar or Settled Market. The Budhvarvada or Wednesday Palace (9), the favourite residence of the last Peshwa (1796-1817), stood in the centre of this ward and contained all the leading local revenue, police, and judicial offices. In the corner nearest the cross streets was the
Native General Library and Clock Tower presented to the city by the chief of Vinchur in commemoration of the visit of H. R. H. the Duke
of Edinburgh to India in 1872. The palace, as well as the Library pd the Vinchur Clock Tower, were destroyed by an incendiary on the
night of the 13th of May 1879. As it contains the Anandodbhav (3)
and Appa Balvant theatres as well as the chief business centres,
Budhvar ward is a favourite resort in the afternoons and evenings.
The people of Budhvar ward are extremely mixed all being traders and
well-to-do. The water-supply is plentiful, the streets have under
ground sewers and side channels for rain drainage, and the conservancy is good. It is healthy and prosperous though the population
is thick and the houses are badly aired. Its chief objects are: Belbag
temple (6), Bhangya Maruti's temple, the Kotval Chavdi (15),
Tambdi Jogeshvari's temple (35), Kali Jogeshvari's temple, Khanali
Ram's temple, Moroba Dada's mansion (16), Bhide's mansion, Dhamdhare's mansion, Thatte's Rani's temple, and Pasodya Maruti's temple.
Shukravar.
Shukravar Ward, 1750 yards by 550, with an area of 955,000
square yards and 14,137 people, was established by Jivajipant Khasgivale in the time of the third Peshwa Balaji Bajiray (1740- 1761)1 Jivajipant, as kotval or police head of Poona, for many years exercised great magisterial and, revenue powers. He is said to have been intelligent and able and to have taken much interest in the welfare of the city. He founded several wards, regulated public markets and places of amusement, and did much to further the prosperity and welfare of the people of Poona. Shukravar is the largest ward in the city both in area and population. The houses in the leading parts are upper-storeyed, roomy, and substantial. The houses of the poorer classes, in the back and distant parts, have only one floor but they are not closely built and are comparatively roomy. The people are most mixed, belonging to all castes and in every condition of life, from the Pant Sachiv of Bhor a Brahman chief to the day-labourer. Jivajipant Khasgivale, the Kotval of Poona and the founder of the ward, left a residence with a large garden, and temple attached to it. Beginning from his residence, which is at the north-west end of the ward, the main street runs south, and passes through lines of dwellings of rich Brahmans to the site of the Shukravar Palace (33) which was pulled down about 1820 and the Peshwa's Talimkhana or gymnasium where are now the municipal office, and the dispensary established in 1861 by Khan Bahadur Pestanji Sorabj a Parsi gentlem an of Poona. Further south the street passes by the Pant Sachiv's mansion and Panse's mansion to the City Jail (10) which was the head-quarters of the Peshwa's artillery of which the Panses had charge. West of the street is the Kamathi quarter occupied chiefly by people of Kamathi or Telugu castes, who, in the Peshwa's time, were domestic servants of the leading Brahmans and Maratha grandees. Beyond Kamathipura the street passes through houses belonging to Maratha husbandmen and Native Christians. The east street of Shukravar runs parallel to the main street and borders on the Aditvar ward. At the north end of it is a large retail grain market; further south is the Shimpi row held by Shimpi cloth-merchants. Behind the main houses on the east is the Hattikhana or elephants' stable, now filled with
the huts of Chambhars. Further to the south are the Alang or infantry lines occupied chiefly by labourers. Further north-east, along the main street, was the old Gadikhana or Peshwas' stables, now occupied by dwelling houses Further still is the residence of the late Nandram Sundarji Naik, an
enterprising and intelligent Pardeshi Kumbhar, who had a large share in the early municipal management of Poona city after it came under the British Government. Further is the Chaudhari's mansion and then a quarter occupied by a small colony of Pardeshi potters who either work as labouring masons or take jobs as contractors. At the south end of this street is the house of Mr. Bhau Mansaram, another enterprising and active Pardeshi potter, who has amassed a fortune as a contractor in the Government Public Works Department, and is a Municipal Commissioner for the city of Poona. Beyond this are the Malivada and the Jhagdevada quarters occupied by Kunbis and husbandmen. The leading roads of Shukravar ward are broad, straight, and metalled. The lanes are narrow and crooked but have latterly been all levelled and sanded and thrown open where they were previously closed. The water supply is abundant and the conservancy good. Shukravar is one of the healthiest quarters of the city and is prosperous and flourishing. Its objects of interest are: the Tulsi Bag or Basil Garden (36), Lakadkhana, Kala Haud or the Black cistern, Bavankhani, Rameshvar's temple (28), the Peshwa's Gymnasium now the municipal office and dispensary, the City Jail (10), Pant Sachiv's palace, Chaudhari's mansion, Nandram Sundarji's mansion, Bhau Mansaram's residence, the Hirabag or Town Hall and garden, and a temple of Parasnath.
Streets.
The chief streets run north and south. The three leading
streets are the Ganj, Ganesh, and Mangalvar street; the Vetal, Aditvar, and Kasba street; and the Shukravar and Budhvar street. All of these are broad metalled roads with stone-built slab-covered side-gutters. When metalled roads were first made, a convenient width, varying from eighteen to twenty-four feet, was taken for the clear carriage roadway, and spaces meant for footpaths were left on the sides. These, before municipal times, were encroached on by bouse-owners or covered with low unsightly verandas with sloping tiled roofs. No through streets run east and west, and the broken streets of which there are some, have also been encroached on and narrowed by veranda-building. It has been one of the chief aims of the Municipality to widen the streets and open them as opportunity offers. Much has been done in this way, but a great deal remains to be done. The streets are generally of irregular width and winding. Where they have not been encroached on, the streets of the newer parts of the city, as in the Rastia Nana and Sadashiv wards, are broad, straight, and regularly laid out. The handsomest street in the city is the Moti-chauk or Pearl Square in Aditvar ward. Between lines of closely built high buildings this street has a carriage-way twenty-four feet wide in the centre, then covered side-gutters three feet wide on each side, and next paved footpaths fifteen, feet wide, raised about a foot above the carriage-way. All the streets in the city have metalled carriage roads, varying from sixteen to forty feet in breadth, and side-gutters covered with slabs where the traffic is great and open in other places. Where available the
spaces between the gutters and the lines of houses have been and are being planted with trees and laid out in gravelled walks. The city
has now thirty-two miles of metalled road. The lanes vary in
breadth from six to sixteen feet. They are crooked and used to have many ups and downs. They have lately been levelled and gravelled and, where possible, widened and opened. The whole length of lanes within city limits is fourteen miles. Under the Marathas some of the streets and lanes were paved, the pavement sloping from the houses to the centre which formed a gutter for storm-water during the rains. The centres of the broader thoroughfares used then to be occupied by lines of stalls on raised platforms. Almost every street and lane had gates which were closed at night. The pavement, shop-platforms, gates, and other obstructions have now been removed and the ventilation of the city improved. The streets are now named, swept clean once a day, watered during the dry weather to lay the dust, and on dark nights lighted with 572 kerosine lamps.
Bridges.
Poona City has the Mutha river on the west and north. The oldest
crossing of the Mutha is by the Kumbhar Ves Dharan or Potters' Gate Causeway in Kasba ward, near the younger Shaikh Salla's tomb (31) and about 600 yards above the railway bridge. The Maratha causeway gave way soon after the beginning of British rule and was renewed between 1835 and 1840 at a cost of about £3000 (Rs. 30,000) partly met by Government and partly by contributions. The causeway, which is of solid stone masonry, is 235 yards long and seven yards broad. It has twelve nine-feet sluices which are closed in the dry season to store water. During floods the causeway is covered and impassable. At the north-west end of the city, about a mile and a quarter above the Potters' Gate dam, the Maratha wooden bridge across the Mutha gave way in 1840 and was replaced by a stone and brick masonry bridge which is still known as the Lakdi or wooden bridge. The present bridge has nine forty-eight-feet arches built of brick on stone piers which have sharp cut, waters to break the force of the floods. Large round holes are made high up on the spandrels between the arches through which water passes during the highest floods. The roadway over the bridge is eighteen feet wide. The bridge cost £4700 (Rs. 47,000) of which Government paid £3600 (Rs. 36,000). Before the railway was made the Lakdi bridge was the outlet to Bombay and carried much traffic. It is still largely used chiefly in bringing supplies of wood and provisions into the city. The second and chief bridge over the Mutha is the Wellesley Bridge named after General Arthur Wellesley in honour of his Deccan victories. The old bridge was built in 1830 entirely of wood. In 1839 it was replaced by a strong masonry bridge at a cost of £11,093 (Rs. 1,10,930), and a fresh bridge was built also of stone in 1875. The bridge keeps its original name of Wellesley or Vasli in Marathi. The Nagjhari stream which passes through the city from the south is crossed by six bridges. Beginning from the north, the Jakat or Toll bridge of cut-stone masonry with three twelve-feet wide vents, twenty-four yards long and with a roadway of twenty feet, joins the Mangalvar and Somvar wards on the east or right bank with the Kasba ward on the west or left bank. It was built by the British Government between 1836 and 1840. It is called the Toll bridge because it is on the the of the Peshwas' chief toll. About four hundred yards south, joining the Somvar Rastia and Nyahal wards on the east with Aditvar ward
on the west, is the Daruvala's bridge, the largest across the Nagjhari, of cut-stone masonry fifty-eight yards long and over thirty-two feet broad, with four twelve-feet vents. It was built by the Municipality in 1870 at a cost of £1500 (Rs. 15,000). It gets its name from being near the firework-makers' quarter. About 300 yards south of Daruvala's bridge, joining Ganesh ward with Rastia ward, a footbridge called the Parsi bridge, a stone causeway impassable in floods, is six feet wide and has three five-feet vents. It was built in 1830 by the family of the Parsi high-priest or Dastur. About 150 yards south of the Parsi bridge, the Ganesh ward bridge, of cut-stone with twenty-feet roadway and three arches of sixteen feet each, joins the Ganesh and Nana wards. It was built by the British Government in 1835. About 400 yards south of Ganesh ward bridge the Burud or Basketmakers' bridge, of cut stone masonry with eighteen-feet roadway and four nine-feet arches, joins the south end of Aditvar ward on the west to Bhavani ward on the east. It takes its name from the basket-makers in whose quarter it lies. It was built by a Badhai or Upper Indian carpenter between 1840 and 1845 as a work of charity. About 300 yards south of the Burud's bridge, Ghasheti's bridge, of solid stone masonry, twenty feet broad and with three eighteen-feet arches, joins Bhavani ward on the east with Ganj and Vetal wards on the west. It was built as a work of charity in 1845 at cost of £180 (Rs. 1800) by a dancing-girl named Ghasheti. The Manik stream, which forms the eastern boundary of the city, is crossed by three bridges. Beginning from the north, about 150 yards from its meeting with the Nagjhari, where the bed of the Manik is at times impassable from backwater from the river, the Halalkhor bridge, a massive masonry structure sixty-eight yards long and eighteen feet wide with three five-feet vents, joins the Somvar ward on the south with the Halalkhor section of the. Mangalvar ward on the north. It was built by the British Government between 1835 and 1840. About 500 yards in a direct line south-east of the Halalkor bridge is the Gosavi bridge. It is a double masonry bridge, both portions skew to the line of the stream, of two single arches of twenty-two feet span, the roadway over the one being twenty-four and over the other thirty-two feet wide. It was built in 1870 by the Municipality at a cost of £300 (Rs. 3000). About 350 yards south of the Gosavi bridge, the Bhatti Gate bridge, a small culvert of two seven-feet vents, opens Rastia ward into the Civil Lines quarters. It was built by a public works contractor in 1845 and took its name from the brick and tile kilns near it.
Houses.
The municipal statements divide the houses of the city into five
classes: large mansions or vadas, how rarely built and becoming fewer costing £2000 to £6000 (Rs. 20,000 - 60,000) to build and £5 to £7 10s. (Rs.50 -75) a month to rent; second class houses, of which the number is growing, costing £800 to £1500 (Rs. 8000 -15,000) to build and £2 to £4 (Rs. 20 - 40) a month to rent; third class houses, of which the number is growing, costing £100 to £300 (Rs. 1000-3000) to build and 8s. to £1 (Rs.4-10) a month to rent; fourth class houses costing £20 to £50 (Rs. 200 - 500) to build and 2s. to 4s. (Rs. 1 - 2) a month to rent; and fifth class houses or huts costing £2 to £5 (Rs. 20 - 50) to
make and 6d. to 9d. (4-6 as.) a month to rent. The poorest classes have rarely houses of their own, but lodgings or chals are being made for them in different parts of the city, neater and better-planned than their former huts. According to the municipal returns for 1883, of 12,271 houses, 85 were of the first class, 631 of the second class, 2699 of the third class, 4197 of the fourth class, and 4659 of the fifth class. The details are:
Poona Houses, 1883.
|
No. |
WARD. |
CLASS. |
|
1st. |
2nd. |
3rd. |
4th. |
5th. |
Total. |
1 |
Mangalvar |
-- |
1 |
19 |
80 |
200 |
300 |
2 |
Somvar |
2 |
25 |
89 |
166 |
122 |
404 |
3 |
Nyahal |
-- |
7 |
23 |
49 |
15 |
94 |
4 |
Rastia |
2 |
24 |
98 |
223 |
130 |
477 |
5 |
Nana |
-- |
40 |
133 |
197 |
248 |
618 |
6 |
Bhavani |
4 |
26 |
133 |
254 |
521 |
938 |
7 |
Kasba |
3 |
50 |
268 |
582 |
593 |
1496 |
8 |
A'ditvar |
36 |
263 |
468 |
370 |
319 |
1456 |
9 |
Ganesh |
-- |
12 |
133 |
159 |
166 |
470 |
10 |
Vetal |
3 |
23 |
172 |
238 |
257 |
693 |
11 |
Ganj |
-- |
2 |
86 |
257 |
528 |
873 |
12 |
Muzafarjang |
-- |
-- |
2 |
2 |
7 |
11 |
13 |
Ghorpade |
-- |
-- |
-- |
28 |
284 |
312 |
14 |
Shanvar |
-- |
22 |
174 |
258 |
128 |
582 |
15 |
Narayan |
-- |
2 |
86 |
181 |
239 |
508 |
16 |
Sadashiv |
-- |
25 |
194 |
369 |
200 |
788 |
17 |
Budhvar |
19 |
67 |
196 |
225 |
63 |
550 |
18 |
Shukravar |
16 |
52 |
425 |
559 |
649 |
1701 |
| |
Total |
85 |
631 |
2699 |
4197 |
4659 |
12,271 |
Poona houses have little beauty or ornament; even the finest are plain, massive, and monotonous. The plinth is of close-joined blocks of polished stone. The posts and beams are massive but short. The ceilings are made of smaller closely fitted beams sometimes ornamented with variegated geometrical figures and flowers made of small chips or slits of gaily painted wood or ivory. If width is wanted it is secured by two or three rows of wooden pillars joined together by ornamental ogee-shaped cusped and fluted wooden false arches. The pillars, which generally spring from a carved stone or wood pedestal, have shafts carved in the cypress or suru style and lotus-shaped capitals. The eaves are generally ornamented with carved plank facings and project boldly from the walls. The roofs are either terraced or covered with flat tiles. The staircases are in the walls, and are narrow and dark. At present in house-building more attention is paid to light and air, the staircases are improved, and ornamental iron or wood railings are coming into use for balconies landings, and staircases. Most houses stand on stone plinths. They are generally wooden frames filled with brick or mud and covered with a tiled roof. Some are substantially built of brick and lime others are wholly of brick and mud. The centre rooms are generally dark and close, but the upper storeys are airy and well lighted. The walls of some are painted with Puranik war scenes and deities. The houses of the better-off have two and some have three to six rooms one of which is the cook-room or sayampak-ghar, another if there a one to spare is set apart as the god-room or devghar, one or more an used for sleeping, one large room as the majghar for dining and sitting
and one, which is generally open on one side, as a reception room or osri. Most of the rooms are badly aired. Houses of this class rarely have upper storeys. Their long slopes of tiled roofs and low slender wooden posts give them a mean poverty-stricken look. Middle-class houses have generally an upper floor over part of the basement. Open spaces or yards called angans are left in front and behind. Sometimes, over the entrance gate, is a hall or divankhana which is used on great days and family ceremonies. Under this hall stables, cattle-sheds, and privies, open on the road. Each house has generally a well, and sets apart the room nearest the well for cooking, and the next room for dining. A room is set apart for the women of the house and the front room is used for visitors. The side-rooms are used as god-rooms and store-rooms. The upper rooms, which are well aired, serve as sleeping rooms. The centre rooms on the ground floor are generally ill-aired and so dark that, even by day, lights have to be used during meals. The walls and floors are cowdunged or mud-washed and kept clean. The houses of the upper classes are upper-storeyed in two or three quadrangles or chauks surrounded by rooms. The paved back quadrangles, where there is generally a well, are used for washing and bathing. The distribution and general arrangement of the rooms is the same as in middle-class houses. The open rooms on the basement near the entrance are used as stables, cattle-sheds, and servants' rooms. Almost every Hindu house, from the poorest hut to the richest mansion, has a few plants near it among which the sacred basil or tulsi is the most prominent and stands in an ornamental earthen pot on a stone or cement pedestal. Near the place where the waste water gathers are generally a few plantain trees or a small bed of alu or caladiums as they are believed to suck in and to clean stagnant water. The houses of the poorer classes have generally one room eight to ten feet square with a small door shaded by an open veranda four to six feet wide, a part of which is enclosed for a bath-room or nhani.
Population.
The earliest record of Poona population is for 1780 when it is roughly estimated to have numbered 150,000 souls. During the eight years (1796-1803) of unrest in the beginning of Bajirav II.'s reign, the population fell considerably, chiefly through the depredations of Daulatrav Sindia his father-in-law Sarjerav Ghatge and Yashvantrav Holkar, and
then rest scarcity of 1803. At the beginning of British rule the estimated population varied from 110,000 to 150,000; and in 1825 Bishop Heber puts down the number at 125,000. The first reliable record is for 1851 when it numbered 73,209. The opening of the railway in 1856 raised the number to 80,000 in 1864, and since then there has been a steady advance to 90,436 in 1872 and 99,622 in 1881. [The figures for 1872 and 1881 do not include the population of Poona and Kirkee cantonments which was 28,450 in 1872 and 37,381 in 1881.] Of the 1872 total, 80,800 were Hindus (including 587 Jains), 9013 Musalmans, 262 Christians, and 361 Others. Of the 1881 total 87,874 were Hindus, 10,519 Musalmans, 562 Christians, 206 Parsis, and 461 Others.
Priests.
Priests numbering 1062 are mostly Hindus and a few Musalmans.
The Hindu priests, who are almost all Brahmans live mostly in
Brahman quarters in the Budhvar, Kasba, Narayan, Sadashiv,
Shanvar, and Shukravar peths; but the most popular wards are
the Sadashiv and Shukravar peths. Most of them are hereditary
priests and are fairly off, but not so well off as they were some
fifty years ago. Of late they do not command respect, and crave
favour and cringe for patronage. Their number is falling off, and
only one or two members of priestly families take to priesthood.
They are thrifty, well-behaved and shrewd, but rather idle. Their
wives mind the house and do no other work. They send their boys
to school, and as priesthood does not pay them much, some of them
teach their boys English. Like Hindu priests, Musalman priests
are not much respected, and are fairly off. Besides Hindu and
Musalman priests there is one Parsi priest, who is respected well-paid
and is comfortably off.
Lawyers.
Lawyers numbering 126, of whom ninety-six hold sanads or
certificates and thirty are allowed to plead without sanads, are mostly
Brahmans. They are well-behaved, respectable, shrewd, and thrifty.
Most of them are men of means and lend money. Their wives do
the house work generally with the help of servants, and their boys
go to school and learn English.
Government servants.
Government servants live in all parts of the town. They are Brahmans, Prabhus, Marathas, Hindus of other castes, Musalmans,
Parsis, Christians, and Jews. Of the Brahmans Chitpavans or
Konkanasths Deshasths and Shenvis are largely in Government
service. Chitpavans came to Poona during the supremacy of the
Peshwas who were themselves Chitpavans. Deshasths are old
settlers, and Shenvis, most of whom are Government clerks, are
mostly new-comers. Some Brahmans hold high places in the revenue
judicial and police branches of the service, others are clerks, and a
few messengers and constables. The Prabhus, who are of two
divisions Kayasths and Patanas, are chiefly clerks and a few hold
high revenue and judicial posts. The Kayasths came from the
North Konkan during Maratha rule and some of them are settled
in the town. Patanas mostly went from Bombay with the English
and except a few are not permanently settled. The Marathas are
constables and messengers and a few clerks. With the exception
of a few who are clerks, Hindus of other castes are constables and
messengers. The Musalmans are constables and messengers, a few are
clerks, and some hold high posts. The Parsis Christians and Jews
are mostly clerks. Of Government servants Hindus are thrifty and
others love good living and spend much of their income. Of both
Hindus and others only those in high position are able to save.
Their wives do nothing but housework, and all but a few messengers
and constables send their boys to school.
Practitioners.
Besides the Government medical officers and teachers of the
Medical School, Poona medical practitioners include graduates in medicine, retired subordinate employes of the Government medical department, Hindu vaidyas, and Musalman hakims. The graduates and pensioners of the medical department are Brahmans, Kamathis, Marathas, Musalmans, Parsis, and Christians. They prescribe European medicines and a few of them keep dispensaries. They get fixed fees for visits and charge separately for prescriptions dispensed in
Medical Practitioiners their dispensaries. Except Kamathis and Marathas who are more or less given to drink, most of them, especially the graduates, are hardworking thrifty and respectable. They get good practice and save. Their wives do nothing but house work and they send their children to school. Vaidyas or Hindu physicians are mostly Brahmans and live in the Brahman quarter. They prescribe native drugs and are generally called to attend women who often refuse to take English medicines. Hakims or Musalman physicians live in the Musalman quarter, and practise among Musalmans. The vaidyas and hakims get no fixed fees and often bargain to cure a certain disease for a certain sum of money. They are fairly off and do not save much. Besides these regular doctors, there are midwives and Vaidus or wandering drug-hawkers. The Vaidus mostly came from the Nizam's country and settled near Poona in the times of the Peshwas. Except a few leading men, who study their Sanskrit books written on palm leaves, most of them receive oral instructions, hawk drugs in streets, and prescribe and bleed among the low classes. They hardly earn enough to maintain themselves and are badly off. Besides minding the house their wives hawk drugs and make and sell quartz powder for drawing traceries on house floors. They teach their boys their craft and do not send them to school.
Landlords.
Landlords include inamdars or estate-holders, large landowners,
and house-owners. Inamdars are mostly Brahmans and Marathas. Partly from the number of dependants and partly from the large sums they spend on marriages and other ceremonies men of this class, especially Marathas, are badly off and most of them are in debt. They send their boys to school and some of them, especially Brahmans, have risen to high posts in Government service. Large landowners are men of all castes. They are well-to-do and educate their children chiefly for Government service and as pleaders. House-owners are Brahmans, Gujarat Vanis, Bohoras, and Musalmans. For the last twenty years houses have been in great demand and house-building has become a popular form of investment. Like large landowners they are well-to-do and send their children to school.
Pensioners.
On account of its cheap living, good climate, and the facilities it affords in educating their children, Poona is becoming a favourite place with pensioners. There are about 240 civil and about 250 military pensioners, the civil pensioners living mostly in the Sadashiv, Shanvar, Shukravar, and Rastia wards and the military pensioners mostly in the Rastia, Nana, and Bhavani wards. They are well-behaved and thrifty, and most of them have some money which they lend on security. They take great care in educating their boys.
Moneylenders.
Of 297 moneylenders the chief are Brahmans, Marwar and Gujarat Vanis, living mostly in the Sadashiv, Shukravar, Narayan, Budhvar, and Kasba wards. Brahmans lend money on the security of ornaments; and Gujarat and Marwar Vanis lend on credit and charge high rates of interest. They, especially Gujarat and Marwar Vanis, are very shrewd and careful in businses.
Moneychangers.
Moneychangers numbering 310 are chiefly Deshasth Brahmans who live mostly in the Shukravar, Kasba, Ravivar, and Bhavani
wards. They sit by the roadside, buy copper coins on premium from, retail sellers and give copper for silver coins without charge. They give small loans to retail dealers at heavy interest and are not very scrupulous in their dealings. They have their own little capital, get brisk business, but are not well-to-do. They teach their boys to read and write Marathi.
Grain Dealers.
Grain Dealers, including about fifteen brokers, number about 200
and live mostly in the Bhavani and Nana wards. They belong to two classes wholesale and retail dealers. The wholesale dealers numbering about forty are chiefly Gujarat and Marwar Vanis. They sometimes act as brokers, and are hardworking, shrewd, and well behaved. They are rich, bringing large quantities of grain chiefly wheat and bajri or spiked millet from Vambhori in Ahmadnagar, Indian and spiked millet from Sholapur, and rice from the Mavals in the west of Poona and from Kalyan in Thana. Of 160 retail dealers 108 are Marathas, forty-seven Marwar Vanis, and five Lingayats. They buy grain from wholesale dealers and brokers. They have no capital of their own and have to borrow at nine to twelve per cent on the security of their stock. They are orderly hardworking and thrifty, and have credit with moneylenders. "Wives of poor grain-dealers clean and winnow grain, arrange shops, and act as saleswomen. They teach their boys to read and write Marathi.
Vegetable Sellers.
Vegetable Sellers including brokers number 652, chiefly Kachis and Malis, living mostly in the Ravivar, Kasba, Budhvar, Shanvar,
Bhavani, Vetal, Shukravar, Mangalvar, Nana, and Sadashiv wards. The Kachis came from Bundelkhand and Rajputana. Vegetable-growers bring vegetables to the market and sell them to the retail dealers. Sometimes the retail dealers buy the standing crop and bring it to the market in required quantities. Besides the local business, brokers make large purchases for Bombay vegetable-dealers and send consignments of vegetables to Bombay on commission. As a class they are hardworking, orderly, and thrifty. They are fairly off, and their women, who act as saleswomen, do more work than the men. They are not careful to send their children to school.
Grocers.
Grocers, including forty brokers, number 745 and belong to two
classes, wholesale and retail grocers, living chiefly in the Ravivar, Vetal, Kasba, Budhvar, Bhavani, Somvar, Ganesh, Nana, Shanvar, and Narayan wards. Brokers and wholesale grocers are chiefly Lingayat Vanis, and a few Gujarat Vanis and Marathas. Retail grocers are chiefly Gujarat Vanis, a few being Lingayat Vanis, Marathas, and Brahmans. They deal in sugar, clarified butter, spices, honey, and salt. Formerly salt was sold by a body of Lingayat Vanis, who lived in separate quarters called Mithganj or the salt market. Brokers and wholesale grocers are rich and retail grocers are well-to-do. They are hardworking, orderly, shrewd, and thrifty. In poor families, in the absence of men, women act as saleswomen. They send their boys to school.
Milk and Butter Sellers.
Milk and Butter Sellers numbering 315 are local Gavlis or cowherds, living chiefly in the Shukravar,
Sadashiv, Ravivar, Kasba,
Narayan, and Shanvar wards. They are Lingayats and Marathas. They keep ten to twenty-five she-buffaloes and about three or four
cows. During the rainy season much butter is brought by Mavlis from the Mavals or West Poona hills. Gavlis are idle, quarrelsome, and thriftless. They have no capital, live from hand to mouth, and are often in debt. Their children graze cattle and their women hawk milk, curds, whey, and butter.
Liquor Sellers.
There are seventeen liquor shops in the city, ten country liquor shops and seven European liquor shops. Country liquor is sold by Maratha servants of the liquor contractor, and European liquor shops are kept mostly by Goanese Native Christians.
Cloth Sellers.
Cloth Sellers numbering 483 are chiefly found in the Budhvar, Ravivar and Shukravar wards. They are Hindus and Musalmans. The Hindus are chiefly Marwar Vanis and Shimpis and a few Bralimans and Marathas; and the Musalmans are mostly Bohoras. The Marwar Vanis live in Ravivar and are the largest traders. They do business both wholesale and retail and almost exclusively in the handmade cloth. They supply the rich. The Shimpis mostly live in Budhvar and chiefly sell bodicecloths. They also deal in poorer kinds of handwoven cloth. They supply the middle and low class demand. The Brahmans and Marathas, who mostly deal in handmade cloth, have their shops in Ravivar. The Bohoras live in the Bohoriali in Ravivar, and sell all kinds of European piece-goods as well as the produce of the Bombay mills. Kinkhabs or embroidered silks and coloured China and European silks are also sold by Bohoras. All the leading cloth merchants of Poona are men of capital and do a large business. Minor dealers work with borrowed capital. The profits vary greatly according to individual dealings, perhaps from £1 to £40 (Rs. 10-400) a month. Their women mind the house and their boys learn to read and write.
Shoe Sellers.
Shoe Sellers are all Chambers. Details are given under the head of Shoemakers. There are also some Pardeshi shoe sellers.
Ornament Sellers.
Ornament Sellers numbering 32S are mostly Gujarat Vanis,
Sonars, Jingars, Kasars, Manyars, Lakheris, and a few Brahmans.
Bralimans, Gujarat Vanis, and Sonars sell smaller silver and gold ornaments and have about fifty shops in Motichauk street in Aditvar. They are not men of capital, but their business yields them a comfortable living. Their women mind the house and their boys learn to read and write. Jingars make and sell queensmetal ornaments for the lower classes. Kasars and Manyars sell glass bangles and Lakheris make and sell lac bracelets and mostly live in the Kasba, Rastia, and Budhvar wards. The rich bangle sellers import China bangles from Bombay and sell them to retail sellers. They are well-to-do, their wives mind the house and their boys learn to read and write. Of the retail sellers, some have shops and some hawk bangles in streets. They are fairly off. Besides minding the house their women sometimes hawk bangles and their boys often learn to read and write. The Kasars are Jains and Marathas, and the Manyars are Musalmans of the Hanafi school. Lakheris, who seem to have come from Marwar during the time of the Peshwas, dress and speak like Marwar Vanis. They prepare lac bracelets for wholesale dealers by whom they are paid ¾d. (½ a.) the hundred. Some of them make bracelets on their own account and sell them at
6d. to 10½d. (4-7 as.) the hundred. Their women and their children after the age of fifteen help in the work. The more expensive jewelry, pearls, diamonds, and other precious stones are sold by individual jewellers who have not regular shops but whose houses are well known.
Animal Sellers.
Animal Sellers numbering 110 mostly live in the Bhavani
Sadashiv and Vetal wards. The Poona cattle market is held in open ground at Bhambhurda village close to the west of the city. It is held on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons. Bullocks, buffaloes, cows, ponies, sheep, and goats are the animals dealt in. Although the chief, Dhangars are not the only, class who deal in cattle, neighbouring villagers and all men who have to sell their animals bring them to the markets.
Furniture sellers.
Except Jains, Kasars, and a few Brahmans and Sonars who sell but do not make brass and copper vessels, almost all the
sellers of articles of native furniture, earthen pots, boxes, bedsteads, stools, carpets, and mats are makers as well as sellers. The brass and copper vessel sellers numbering 263 mostly live in the Ravivar, Ganj, Vetal, and Shukravar wards, and most of them have their shops in Ravivar. They buy from Tambats or employ Tambats to work for them. They are a shrewd, hardworking, and a prosperous class. Their wives do nothing but house work and their boys go to school. On Sundays and Wednesdays a market is held in the afternoon to the south and east of the Shanvar palace at which old furniture, books, pictures, clothes, lamps, glassware, and lumber are sold by dealers from the cantonment bazar. Besides these markets in the Bhavani ward a number of Marwar Vanis deal in old furniture and lumber, and are comfortably off.
Miscellaneous Sellers.
The chief miscellaneous sellers are Bohoras who chiefly deal in hardware, stationery, and haberdashery, a few making and selling
tin lanterns and tinpots and iron oil and water buckets. They
have their shops in Ravivar. They earn £20 to £50 (Rs. 200 -500)
a year and are comfortably off. They are neat, clean, hardworking, thrifty, and honest. Their wives mind the house and their
boys go to school.
Husbandmen.
Husbandmen numbering 1636 are chiefly Kunbis and Malis, living
mostly in the Kasba, Shukravar, Ganj, Mangalvar, Sadashiv, Shanvar,
and Bhavani wards. Some till their own lands and some rent lands
mostly belonging to Brahman landholders, They are sober and
hardworking. Their women and children work with them in their
fields.
Pulse Sellers
Pulse Sellers or dalvalas numbering 118 belong to two castes
Marathas and Pardeshis. Maratha pulse-sellers numbering sixty-seven do not differ from Maratha grain-dealers. Pardeshi pulse-sellers numbering fifty-one came from Upper India to Aurangabad and from Aurangabad to Poona about sixty years ago. They buy pulse grain from wholesale pulse-grain dealers, prepare pulse, and sell it to retail dealers or private customers. They have no capital, and their own and have to borrow on the security of their stock. They spend as much as they earn. Their wives help them and their boys sometimes go to school.
Grain Roasters.
Grain Roasters numbering 223 mostly live in the Ravivar, Ganj, Bhavani, Vetal, Kasba, and Shukravar wards. They are chiefly Maratha and Pardeshi Bhadbhunjas. The Maratha Bhadbhunjas do not differ from Maratha husbandmen in appearance customs or way of living. The Pardeshi Bhadbhunjas are said to have come fifty years ago from Cawnpur, Lucknow, and Mathura in Upper India. They are proverbially dirty but hardworking. They buy the grain and pulse from grain-dealers, and after parching it sell it at a profit of twelve to twenty per cent. Their women and their children from the age of ten or twelve help them in their calling, sitting in the shop and soaking and drying grain. In spite of their help a grain-roaster's family does not earn more than £1 to £1 10s. (Rs. 10-15) a month. They send their boys to school. Competition among the different classes of grain roasters is said to be reducing their earnings.
Flower Sellers.
Flower Sellers or Phulmalis numbering eighty-nine have their shops in the Budhvar, Ravivar, and Vetal peths and in the Moti-chauk. Garden-owners let out beds of flower plants to Phulmalis. Women and children gather flowers and carry them in large shallow baskets to their shops where men string them into garlands and bouquets. Almost every Phulmali undertakes to supply certain families with flowers for house-god worship for which he is paid 6d. to 1s. (4-8 as.) a month. The flowers for house-god worship are of different kinds, are tied in small bundles in plantain leaves, and are taken to the houses of the customers in the evening by their women. The shop is arranged on wooden boards covered with a wet cloth. The Phulmali squats in the middle with an earthen water-pot on his left hand, baskets of flowers on the right hand, and ready-made garlands and nosegays arranged on wet cloth or hung in his front. The shop is about six feet wide and six feet long, and opens to the road. The flowers that remain after the day's sale are sold to perfume sellers who extract scents from them. The flower supply of Poona is so great that large quantities are sent to Bombay and as many as 1000 garlands and 3000 nosegays can be had at a few hours' notice.
Sweetmeat Sellers.
Sweetmeat Sellers numbering 234 mostly live in the Ravivar,
Budhvar, Kasba, Shanvar, Vetal, Nana, Ganesh, and Shukravar wards.
They are divided into Ahirs, Jains, Lingayats, Marathas, Marwar Vanis, Pardeshis, Shimpis, and Telis. The well-to-do have their shops and the poor hawk sweetmeats in streets. Their women help them in their work and their boys learn to read and write. They are hardworking, thrifty, and sober.
Oil Makers.
Oil Makers numbering 221 chiefly live in the Mangalvar, Ravivar, Sadashiv, Nana, and Vetal wards. They are mostly Marathas and Lingayats. The Maratha oil-makers are the same as cultivating Marathas and look and live like them, though they do not marry with them. The Lingayat oil-makers do not differ from other oilmen. They are said not to work on Mondays. They are hardworking, thrifty, sober, and strongly made, and their women are proverbially fair and well-featured. They extract oil from cocoanut, sesame, Karla Verbesina sativa, kardai Carthamus tinctorius, undi or
oilnuts, groundnuts, and hemp seed. Their women help them and
their boys from the age of twelve or fourteen. They earn 3d. to 1s.
(2-8 as.). They suffer from the competition of kerosine and other
imported oils and are falling to the position of labourers. Some of
them send their boys to school.
Butchers.
Butchers numbering 131 mostly live in the Shukravar Rastia,
Ganesh, Ravivar, Bhavani, and Nana wards. They are chiefly
Musalmans called Sultani Lads. They are descended from local
Hindu mutton butchers and ascribe their conversion to Haidar Ali
of Maisur (1763 - 1782). They are hardworking thrifty and sober
and some are rich, and spend much on marriage and other ceremonies
They marry among themselves and have a separate class union
under a headman called the chaudhari. They have no connection
with other Musalmans and eschew beef. They hold aloof from beef-butchers who are only found in small numbers in the cantonment
of Poona. They offer vows to Brahmanic gods and hold the usual
Brahmanic festivals. The only specially Musalman rite is circumcision. None but the old women who sell the smaller pieces of
mutton help the men in their work. They do not send their boys to
school and take to no new pursuit. Except in Khatikali or Butcher's
Bow near Subhansha in Ravivar ward, which is the oldest mutton
market in the city and where they have their private stalls or sell in
front rooms of their dwellings, butchers sell in one of the remaining
five markets in Kasba, Vetal, Nana, and Bhavani wards and in
Durjansing's Paga.
Fishermen.
Fishermen numbering 211 mostly live in the Kasba, Mangalvar,
and Narayan wards. They are chiefly Bhois, of three divisions Kadus, Kamathis, and Marathas, of whom Kadus and Marathas eat together but do not intermarry. They are hardworking and thrifty but dirty, and the women are quarrelsome. A few send their boys to school, but as a class they are poor and show no signs of rising. The three fish markets are to the south of the Shanvar palace and in Aditvar and Vetal wards. In the open ground to the south of the Shanvar palace stalls are kept daily by Bhoi women for the sale of dry Konkan fish. The Aditvar ward fish market is chiefly used for the sale of salt fish, with fresh fish in the evening. In the Vetal ward fish market fresh fish and a little dry fish are offered in an open plot. Women of the Bhoi caste are the chief fish-sellers and Kunbis from the neighbouring villages are the chief consumers.
Stonecutters.
Stonecutters numbering seventy-six live in small numbers in all
wards except in the Rastia and Muzafarjang, varying from one in
Nyahal ward to eleven in Shukravar. They are Kamathis, Marathas,
and Telangis; they do not eat together nor do they intermarry.
They are clean, hardworking, thrifty, and orderly. They are stone
masons and carvers and make excellent images of gods and of
animals, handmills, grindstones, and rolling-pins. As foremen or mestris they draw £1 10s. to £2 (Rs. 15 - 20) a month, and as
day-workers 6d. to 1s. (4-8 as.). Their women do not help in
their
work, but boys of fifteen to twenty earn 14s. to 16s. (Rs. 7-8) a
month. Some of them send their boys to school and on the whole
they are a steady class.
Potters and Brick and Tile Makers.
Potters and Brick and Tile Makers numbering 291 live mostly in the Kasha, Nana, Narayan, Vetal, Ravivar, Bhavani, and Ghorpade wards. They are divided into Maratha and Pardeshi Kumbhars. Their houses can be known by pieces of broken jars, heaps of ashes, and the wheel. They make water vessels, grain jars, children's toys, bricks and tiles. Bricks are sold at 10s. to 18s. (Rs. 5-9) and tiles at 6s. to 10s. (Rs. 3-5) the thousand. Their women sell the smaller vessels and children's toys. They are hardworking, quiet, and well behaved. They do not send their boys to school and are poor.
Carpenters.
Carpenters numbering 598 mostly live in the Shukravar, Ravivar, Sadashiv, Kasba, Nana, Rastia, Somvar, Bhavani, and Ganesh wards. They are chiefly Badhais who are said to have come upwards of a hundred years ago from Jalna in the Nizam's country and from Burhanpur in West Berar. They are mostly Pardeshis from Upper India, and look like Pardeshis and speak Hindustani both at home and abroad. They are carpenters, and make boxes and cots and repair cupboards tables and chairs earning 1s. to 1s. 6d. (8-12 as.) a day. In Ravivar ward a street is called Badhaiali after them where they have their shops in which they sell boxes cots and children's toys.
Blacksmiths.
Blacksmiths numbering 358 mostly live in the Ravivar, Nana, Shukravar, Sadashiv, Kasba, and Bhavani wards. They are chiefly Maratha and Panchal Lohars and a few Ghisadis. Maratha Lohars say that they came, during the Peshwas' supremacy, from Ahmadnagar, Bombay, Khandesh, and Sholapur. They dress and look like Marathas. They are hardworking but thriftless, quarrelsome, dirty, and drunken. Their women do nothing but house work and their boys begin to learn at twelve; they are not helped by their women. The boy-workers are paid 1½d. to 6d. (1-4 as.) a day. The Panchal Lohars do not differ from Pannchal coppersmiths in food, drink, dress, and customs. They are hardworking but fond of liquor and not very thrifty. Ghisadis make horse-shoes and field tools, but are chiefly employed as tinkers. As a class they are hardworking, quarrelsome, dirty, thriftless, and fond of drink. Besides the blacksmith shops Poona city has twenty-seven iron pot factories in Aditwar ward, ten of which belong to Kunbis and ten to Malis, four to Telis or oilmen, and three to Bohoras. The workmen are chiefly Kunbis and Musalmans and a few Brahmans. The workers make little more than a living, most of the profits going to the dealers. Their women and children do not help the men in their work.
Bricklayers.
Bricklayers numbering 494 mostly live in the Budhvar, Nana, Sadashiv, Kasba, Shanvar, and Vetal wards. They are Gujarati, Jat, Kamathi, Lingayat, Pardeshi, and Musalman Gavandis. They are hardworking, even-tempered, sober, and thrifty. They are masons and contractors and the Hindu Gavandis also make clay images of Ganpati and other clay figures. Few send their boys to school. Some of them are rich and the rest are well-to-do.
Lime Burner.
Lime Burners numbering thirty-three mostly live in Shukravar ward. They are chiefly Lonaris who do not differ from Marathas in appearance, language, dwelling, food, or dress. They buy lime
nodules from the neighbouring villages of Hadapsar, Mahammadvadi,
Phursangi, and Vadki at Is. 6d. to 2s. (Re.¾ -1) a cart. They burn
the nodules, mixing them with charcoal and cowdung cakes in
circular brick kilns which take three to six days to burn. As the
work requires strength their boys do not help them till they are
sixteen. They send their boys to school. They complain that their
calling is failing from the competition of well-to-do Parsis and
Brahmans and of Mhars and Mangs.
Thatchers.
Thatchers numbering 118 mostly live in the Nana, Shukravar
Muzafarjang, and Ganesh wards. They are chiefly Rajputs from Upper
India, who came about a hundred and fifty years ago in search of
work. The men dress like Marathas and the women wear a bodice
a petticoat and a robe rolled round the petticoat with one end drawn
over the head. They are quiet, hardworking, and orderly. They
make thatch of sag or teak leaves hay and bamboos. The women sell
firewood and cowdung cakes. Their calling is declining as Government do not
allow thatched roofs to remain during the dry season.
They do not send their boys to school and are a poor class.
Painters.
Painters numbering twenty-nine mostly live in the Ravivar
Shukravar, and Budhvar wards. They are chiefly Jingars, who do not differ in food, drink, or dress and living from other Jingars.
Weavers.
Weavers are chiefly of two classes, cotton weavers and silk weavers.
Poona city has about 500 cotton hand-looms, of which 450 belong to Hindus 300 of them Koshtis and 150 Salis, and the remaining fifty Musalmans. Most Hindus weave women's robes and Musalmans weave turbans. Cotton hand-loom weavers are chiefly found in the Somvar, Vetal, Bhavani, Rastia, and Shukravar wards. Hindu weavers are said to have come about three generations ago from Paithan, Yeola, Sholapur, Indapur, and Narayan Peth in the Nizam's country. The Musalman weavers came to Poona only four or five years ago from Malegaon in Nasik where they form a large colony. All live in one or two-storeyed houses, fifteen to twenty of which belong to the occupants, and the rest are hired. The robes woven by the Hindus and the turbans woven by the Musalmans are generally coarse and cheap. The Hindus work from seven to eleven and again from one to sunset; the Musalmans work almost the whole day except a short time for their meals which they generally cook in the same shed or room in which they weave. Both Hindu and Musalman cotton-weavers get great help from their women in reeling, dyeing, warping, and sizing. Some Hindu women even weave. With all this help cotton-weavers barely make a liveing. The average daily earnings of a cotton-weaver's family are said ti range from 6d. to 7½d. (4-5 as.), and during the rains they are often short of work. All the yarn used in the Poona hand-loom is steam-made partly from the Bombay mills and partly from Europe. To buy the yarn most weavers have to borrow at two per cent a month. The local demand, especially during the marriage season will probably keep up hand-loom cotton-weaving for some time Still it seems probable that in a city where the price of grain and the cost of living is high compared with most parts of the Deccan the hand-loom weavers of robes will be driven out of a living by
steam-made fabrics. Hand-loom turban-weaving will probably last longer, as, so far, it has been free from machine competition.
Silk-weaving in Poona city is flourishing. Of 700 to 800 looms nearly two-thirds are owned by Momin and Julaha Musalmans who have settled at Mominpura in the Ganj ward. The Hindu silk workers are found in Kachi Ali and near Someshvar. Musalman silk workers belong to two sections Momins proper and Julahas, and the Hindu workers to three sections Khatris, Koshtis, and Salis. According to their own account most of the Musalmans came about three
generations ago from Haidarabad, Dharwar, Narayan Peth, and Gulmatkal in the Nizam's country, and the Hindu workers, according to their own account, came from Paithan and Yeola three or four generations ago. As a class both Hindus and Musalmans are mild hardworking and sober, the Hindus being more hardworking and thriftier than the Musalmans. The demand for silk is growing and the workers are well-to-do. Their women and children over ten help the men in sorting, reeling, and sizing. Since the 1876-77 famine about twenty Kamathi Koshti families have come from Narayan Peth in the Nizam's country and settled at Poona. They own about 100 silk looms and are hardworking and more successful than the local workers. The only silk used is China silk. The Poona silk workers either borrow money from Shimpi and Marwar Vani silk dealers and buy silk yarn and gold thread, or they work as labourers, receiving the materials from Shimpi and Marwar Vani silk dealers and being paid by the piece. When money is advanced the silk dealers do not charge interest but get 1¼ per cent on the sale proceeds of the fabrics.
Gold and Silver Thread Makers.
Gold and Silver Thread Makers mostly live in the Shukravar and Aditvar wards. They are chiefly Lad Sonars, Konkani Sonars, Khandesh Sonars, Adher Sonars, and Vaishya Sonars, Lads proper, Marathas, and Pardeshis. About twenty-five families are Patvekaris or bar-makers, seventy-eight are Tarkasas or thread-drawers, and seventy to eighty families are Chapdyas or wire-beaters. There are also about 200 Valnars or thread-twisters mostly women. All Patvekaris or bar-makers are Sonars. Of the thread-makers or Tarkasas, the thread-beaters or Chapdyas and the thread-twisters or Valnars most are Ladds. The name Lad seems to point to a South Gujarat origin. But according to their own account they came to Poona from Aurangabad and Paithan in the Nizam's country. The Lads say their forefathers worshipped Parasnath and Balaji and afterwards, they do not know how long ago, they forsook the Jain faith for the worship of the goddess of Tuljapur. The rest are Kunbis and other classes, including a few Deshasth Brahmans, who took to thread-making because it was flourishing. They are a contented and hardworking class. They live generally in one-storeyed houses, some their own others hired. The different divisions of workers dress like other men of their own castes. As a class they are well-to-do. Except in twisting, gold and silver thread-makers get no help from their women nor from their children till they are over twelve. Most of the gold and silver used in making the thread is brought to Poona from Bombay
by Marwar Vani and Shimpi dealers. There are about a hundred
and fifty tape weavers. They are chiefly Ravals who have come
from Mohol and Sholapur. They are permanently settled in Poona
and visit their homes every year generally during the rains. In
Poona they live in a part of the Ganj ward which is known as the
Raval quarter. They look like Lingayats and worship Shiv but do
not wear the ling. Tape-weaving requires little skill. Most
weavers are in debt to the tape-dealers, and they keep hardly any
holidays. Besides them as many as 150 Musalman women weave
narrow tape in their leisure hours earning a shilling or two a month.
Tailors.
Tailors numbering 481 mostly live in the Shukravar, Kasba,
Budhvar, Ravivar, and Ganj wards. They are chiefly Namdev Shimpis, Konkani Shimpis, Jain Shimpis, and Pancham Shimpis who do not eat together nor intermarry. Most of the Namdev Shimpis dress like Brahmans and their women are proverbially handsome. They are hardworking, quiet, sober, and hospitable. They sew the clothes of their customers and also keep ready-made clothes in stock. They are helped by their women and by their children of fifteen and over. They send their boys to school but only for a short time. The use of sewing machines has much reduced the demand for their work; still as a class they are fairly off.
Leather Workers.
Leather Workers numbering 594 mostly live in the Nana. Ghorpade, Shukravar, Ganj, Bhavani, and Ravivar wards. Except a few Jingars
or saddlers who sell horse-gear in Aditvar, they are chiefly Maratha Chambhars and Pardeshi Mochis. Maratha Chambhars live in one-storeyed
houses with mud walls and tiled roofs. They are hardworking, dirty, and drunken.
They work in leather, cut and dye skins, and make shoes, sandals, and
water-bags. They sell shoes at 1s. to 3s. (Rs.½ -1½) and mend shoes at ⅜d. to 3d. (½-2 as.) a pair. Their women help them. Some of them send their boys to school till they are about twelve when they become useful is their calling. They complain that they are growing poor because people are taking to wearing English-shaped boots and shoes still they are a steady if not a rising class. Pardeshi Mochis from the North-West Provinces and Oudh mostly live in Nana's ward. They make boots for the European and Native troops and for the residents of Poona cantonment which borders on Nana's ward, They are hardworking, dirty, and drunken but hospitable. They make and sell boots with elastic sides at 3s. to 10s. (Rs.1½-5) the pair and shoes at 1s. 6d. to 3s. (Rs. ¾-1½) the pair. They buy hides from Dhors. They earn 6d. to 1s. (4-8 as.) a day. Their women help by twisting thread. Their boys are skilled workers at fifteen or sixteen and earn 3d. to 4½d. (2-3 as.). They are said to be suffering from the importation of European shoes which are better and stronger than those they make.
Skin Dyers.
Skin Dyers numbering 124 mostly live in the Ravivar, Ganj, Nana
and Bhavani wards. They are chiefly Hindu Dhors and Musalman Saltankars. The Hindu Dhors generally live in one-storeyed dirty houses and are known by their red fingers stained by the dye they
use in making leather. As a class Dhors are dirty, hardworking orderly, thrifty, good-natured, and hospitable. Their principal and
hereditary calling is tanning hides which they buy from Mhars.
The women help the men in their work. In spite of good earning
most of them are in debt. Some send their boys to school where
they remain till they are able to read and write. The Musalmans,
who are said to have been descended from local Hindus of the
Chambhar caste, trace their conversion to Aurangzeb. Both men
and women are dirty and untidy and their women help the men in
their work. They are hardworking and thrifty, and some of them
are well-to-do and able to save. They buy goats' skins from butchers
and dye them. Of late years rich hide and skin merchants, Mehmans
from Bombay and Labhes from Bombay and Madras, through agents
spread all over the country, buy and carry to Bombay the bulk of
the local outturn of skins. This rivalry has ruined the Saltankars'
calling, and most have given up their former calling. They have
taken to making the coarse felt-like woollen pads which are used as
saddle pads and for packing ice. They eschew beef and hold aloof
from regular Musalmans. They do not send their boys to school.
Ornament Makers.
Ornament Makers numbering 683 mostly live in the Shukravar,
Ravivar, Sadashiv, Kasba, Shanvar, and Ganesh wards. They are
chiefly Deshi Sonars, Konkani Sonars, Ahir Sonars, and Panchals. The Deshi and Panchal Sonars are old settlers. The Konkani Sonars or Daivadnyas came from the Konkan and claim to be Brahmans. The Ahirs according to their own account came from Nasik about a hundred and fifty to two hundred years ago. All Sonars dress like Brahmans. They are clean, hardworking, even-tempered, and orderly, but have rather a bad name for not returning things ordered from them at the proper time. They are often accused of mixing gold and silver given to them for making ornaments. They make and mend gold and silver ornaments, set gems, and work in precious stones. They work to order and make 10s. to £2 (Rs. 5 - 20) a month. Their wives do nothing but house-work and their boys begin to help after ten or twelve and are skilled workmen at fifteen. They send their boys to school till they are
for to twelve and have learnt a little reading, writing, and counting. As a class they are well-to-do.
Brass and Copper Workers.
Brass and Copper Workers numbering 2320 mostly live in the
Kasba, Shukravar, Vetal, Ghorpade, Budhvar, and Eastia wards. This
number includes 810 Tambats or makers of large articles, 500 Jingars or makers of small articles, fifty Otaris or casters, and 960 Kasars or brasiers. The hereditary copper brass and bellmetal workers of Poona, the Tambats, Jingars, Otaris, and Kasars, are quiet easygoing people. All speak incorrect Marathi and live in one-storeyed
houses of which seven belong to the Tambats, fifty or sixty to the Jingars, and thirty to the Otaris. The Kasars and Tambats dress like Brahmans and the Jingars and Otaris like Marathas. As the demand for brassware is growing, no Tambats, Jingars, Otaris, or Kasars have of late given up their hereditary craft. Within the last fifteen years their numbers have been more than doubled by local Maratha Kunbis whom the high profits of brass-working have drawn from the fields and the labour market, but who so far confine themselves to the rough parts of the work.
Basket Makers.
Basket Makers numbering 304 mostly live in the Nana, Bhavani,
Ravivar, Ganesh, Ghorpade, Mangalvar, and Kasba wards. They
are chiefly Buruds who say they came from Aurangabad, Ahmadnagar
and Satara about two hundred years ago. They are divided into Jats,
Kanadis, Lingayats, Marathas, Parvaris, and Tailangs who do not eat
together nor intermarry. They look like Maratha husbandmen
They are hardworking and orderly but fond of drink. They make
baskets, mats, fans, cane-chairs and sun-screens, the women doing as
much work as the men. Their average earnings are 10s. to 14s
(Rs. 5 - 7) a month, and most families have at least two or three
wage-earning members. They live in fair comfort but are poor
They say their craft is falling as baskets are now made of iron
instead of bamboo. They do not send their boys to school and do
not take to new pursuits.
Barbers.
Barbers numbering 580 live in all the wards of Poona city, their
number varying from seven in Rastia ward to ninety-four in Kasba
ward. They are Nhavis who are divided into Gangatirkar, Ghati
Gujarati, Khandeshi, Kunbi, Madrasi, Marwari, Pardeshi, Tailang
Waideshi, and Vajantri Nhavis. They are a quiet orderly people
hardworking but thriftless, showy, and fond of talk and gossip
Besides being barbers they bleed and supply torches and their women
act as midwives. At marriages they hold umbrellas over the heads
of the bride and bridegroom. Besides this Gangatirkar, Kunbi, and
Wajantri Nhavis act as musicians at marriages and other ceremonies
and Khandeshi Nhavis act as torch-bearers. The rates charged by
barbers of the different subdivisions vary little. A barber makes
14s. to £2 (Rs. 7-20) a month. Their women do not help except by
acting as midwives and attending some rich women. They send
their boys to school for a short time. They are steady and well-to-do, but none have risen to any high position.
Washermen.
Washermen numbering 479 mostly live in the Sadashiv, Shukravar,
Kasba, Ravivar, Narayan, and Shanvar wards. They are Marathi
Pardeshi and Kamathi Parits. They wash clothes. They are helped
by their women and children in collecting clothes, drying them
and giving them back to their owners. They do not send their
children to school and are a steady class.
Labourers.
Labourers numbering 544 live in all the wards of the city except
Muzafarjang. They are chiefly Bhandaris, Chhaparbands
Kamathis, Kalals, Lodhis, Rajputs, and Raddis. When other Work
fails the destitute of almost all classes take to labour.
Field Worker.
Field Workers numbering 569 mostly live in the Bhavani
Shukravar, Sadashiv, and Nana wards. They are chiefly Kunbis
Malis, and a few Mhars and Ramoshis. Some of them are yearly
servants and some are paid every day.
Carriers.
Carriers numbering 483 mostly live in the Bhavani, Nana, Ganesh
Budhvar, and Sadashiv wards and in small numbers in almost all wards. Carriers of bundles are chiefly Kunbis Telis and Musalman There is a special class of carriers known as hamals, who work in gangs, storing grain and unloading carts. They are paid a lump sum and every evening divide the proceeds. There is a considerable demand for labour on the railway and public roads. The workers are chiefly Mhars, Bhils, Kolis, Musalmans, and a few Kunbis.
Housebuilding causes a considerable demand for unskilled labour chiefly in making cement and helping the bricklayer and mason. Both men and women work as housebuilders. Every year, before the rains set in, tile-turning employs a large number of Kunbis and Marathas.
Players.
Players or Vajantris include Guravs, Nhavis, Ghadshis, and Holars
of the Mang caste who play on a flute and a drum held in one hand; Sarangivalas or harpers and Tablevalas or drum-beaters who play for dancing girls, and, if Brahmans, perform in temples when the religious services known as kirtans are going on; and tamashevalas,
Marathas and Brahmans who play the drum called daphtamburi or lute, and tals or cymbals. The only actors are the Bahurupis.
Animal Trainers
Of animal trainers there are the Garodis who go about with serpents, and the Nandivalas who have performing or misshapen bullocks.
Athletes,
Of Athletes, there are Kolhatis or acrobats, and Gopals who
wrestle.
Depressed Classes.
The depressed classes include Chambhars, Dhors, Mangs, and
Mhars. They live in dirty huts outside of the town. They are idle,
dishonest, given to drinking, thieving, and telling lies. Both men and women are of loose morals and husbands and wives are changed at will. Of Mhars some are in the native army, some are domestic servants to Europeans, some are day-labourers, and some are sweepers. Labourers and scavengers begging for remains of dishes served at dinner and for a morsel of food, will remain crying at doors for hours together. Chambhars make shoes, Dhors tan hides, and Mangs make ropes and brooms. They live in abject poverty and have scarcely any bedding beyond a blanket. They go almost naked and have no metal pots in their houses. Their women work as day-labourers and do house work. They cannot read and write and seldom send their boys to the schools which Government have opened for them. To create a desire for learning in them small money and book presents are often made.
Religious Beggars.
Of 1798 beggars of five classes, 527 are Bairagis, 956 Gosavis,
297 Jangams, 15 Nanakshais, and 3 Kanphatas. Of these Gosavis
are the most important class of beggars. They mostly live in Gosavipura, a street called after them where they own large mansions which they call maths or religious houses. They are beggars merely in name, many of them being traders and a few bankers. Except Sonars or goldsmiths, Sutars or carpenters, and other artisan classes and classes below Marathas, they recruit freely from all castes. They admit freely their children by their mistresses and children vowed to be Gosavis. They are divided into gharbaris or householders and nishprahis or celebates who eat together. Most of them are celebates in name and many of them have mistresses. As a class Poona Gosavis are clean, neat, hospitable, and orderly. Formerly Gosavis used to travel in armed bands pretending to seek charity, but really to levy contributions, and where they were Unsuccessfully resisted, they plundered and committed great enormities. Later on (1789) they were first employed by Mahadji Sindia in his
army and afterwards by other great Maratha chiefs. [Grant Duff's Marathis, 7-8, 478-479.] Under the
Peshwas they were great jewellers and shawl merchants and traded
in rarities. In 1832 Jacquemont described them as bankers and
traders all with a religious character. Though vowed to celebacy
they were known to have zananas where their children were killed
at their birth. They had most of the riches of Poona in their hands.
They came chiefly from Marwar and Mewar and had adopted
children of those countries. They had solid brick and stone houses
pierced with a few narrow openings. [Voyage Dans Made, III 573,] Though all call themselves
beggars and some live by begging, many live by trade and service.
Many of them are moneylenders, and, though not so rich as before,
are in easy circumstances and most of them send their boys to
school.
Trade.
The trade of Poona has greatly increased since 1858, when it
became a railway station. According to the 1881-1884 municipal; returns imports of Poona city for the three years averaged 174,497 tons (4,885,922 Bengal mans) valued at £1,259,782 (Rs. 1,25,97,820) and the exports to 20,452 tons (572,642 Bengal mans) valued at £334,645 (Rs. 33,46,450). The following statement gives the chief details:
Poona City Imports, 1881-1884.
|
ARTICLES. |
1881-82. |
1882-83. |
1883-84. |
|
|
Tons. |
£. |
Tons. |
£. |
Tons. |
£. |
|
Grain |
|
|
Gram |
4614 |
22,609 |
4945 |
27,691 |
4447 |
23,347 |
|
Indian Millet |
3927 |
16,494 |
3680 |
15,456 |
3173 |
13,327 |
|
Spiked Millet |
13,936 |
68,280 |
15,682 |
87,822 |
15,560 |
76,245 |
|
Rice |
8859 |
62,014 |
10,023 |
84,190 |
8668 |
78,882 |
|
Wheat |
8130 |
56,910 |
8591 |
72,162 |
8560 |
59.919 |
|
Other Grains |
6142 |
27,844 |
6694 |
29,200 |
4901 |
28,147 |
|
Total |
45,607 |
254,161 |
49,515 |
316,521 |
45,309 |
279,867 |
|
Groceries. |
|
|
Almonds |
23 |
715 |
387 |
10,824 |
39 |
1013 |
|
Arrowroot |
4 |
100 |
32 |
707 |
2 |
49 |
|
Betelnuts |
168 |
3292 |
198 |
6103 |
290 |
9732 |
|
Clarified Butter |
745 |
56,314 |
775 |
60,405 |
873 |
61,110 |
|
Coffee |
14 |
737 |
36 |
6006 |
11 |
614 |
|
Cocoa-kernels |
415 |
8133 |
381 |
10,653 |
419 |
8507 |
|
Cocoanuts |
456 |
3834 |
507 |
4259 |
527 |
4426 |
|
Groundnuts husked & unhusked |
1879 |
12,439 |
2143 |
13,225 |
2255 |
16,236 |
|
Raw Sugar |
5241 |
80,715 |
5135 |
77,249 |
5436 |
76,107 |
|
Sugar |
1005 |
30,939 |
1499 |
48,297 |
1333 |
41,050 |
|
Tobacco |
847 |
16,588 |
873 |
17,111 |
822 |
16,120 |
|
Other Groceries |
175 |
8241 |
167 |
4051 |
192 |
6220 |
|
Total |
10,972 |
222,047 |
12,133 |
258,890 |
12,199 |
241,184 |
|
Miscellaneous. |
|
|
Betel Leaves |
2010 |
28,133 |
2234 |
31,282 |
2235 |
37,549 |
|
Dry Fish |
587 |
6571 |
697 |
7810 |
577 |
6466 |
|
Fruit |
3617 |
10,128 |
3307 |
9259 |
4966 |
13,905 |
|
Vegetables. Green. |
10,140 |
17,745 |
14,145 |
24,753 |
13,240 |
23,170 |
|
Sundries |
599 |
1300 |
319 |
657 |
389 |
837 |
|
Total |
16,953 |
63,877 |
20,702 |
73,761 |
21,407 |
81,927 |
|
Food for Animals Fodder |
33,368 |
23,357 |
29,067 |
20,347 |
29,744 |
20,820 |
|
Grain Husk, Oilcake and Cotton Seed |
998 |
2499 |
1198 |
3284 |
1312 |
3336 |
|
Total |
34,366 |
25,856 |
30,265 |
23,631 |
31,056 |
24,156 |
Poona City Imports, 1881-1884. continue.
|
ARTICLES. |
TOTAL. |
AVERAGE. |
|
|
Tons |
£. |
Tons. |
£. |
|
Grain |
|
Gram |
14,006 |
73,647 |
4669 |
24,549 |
|
Indian Millet |
10,780 |
46,277 |
3593 |
15,092 |
|
Spiked Millet |
45,177 |
232,347 |
15,059 |
77,449 |
|
Rice |
27,650 |
225,086 |
9183 |
75,029 |
|
Wheat |
25,281 |
188,991 |
8428 |
62,997 |
|
Other Grains |
17,737 |
85,191 |
5912 |
28,397 |
|
Total |
140,531 |
850,539 |
46,844 |
283,513 |
|
Groceries. |
|
Almonds |
419 |
12,552 |
149 |
4184 |
|
Arrowroot |
38 |
856 |
13 |
285 |
|
Betelnuts |
656 |
19,127 |
218 |
6375 |
|
Clarified Butter |
2393 |
177,829 |
798 |
59,276 |
|
Coffee |
61 |
7357 |
20 |
2452 |
|
Cocoa-kernels |
1215 |
27,293 |
405 |
9098 |
|
Cocoanuts |
1490 |
12,519 |
497 |
4173 |
|
Groundnuts husked & unhusked |
6277 |
41,900 |
2092 |
13,967 |
|
Raw Sugar |
15,812 |
234,071 |
5270 |
78,024 |
|
Sugar |
3837 |
120,286 |
1279 |
40,095 |
|
Tobacco |
2542 |
49,819 |
847 |
16606 |
|
Other Groceries |
534 |
18,512 |
178 |
6170 |
|
Total |
35,304 |
722,121 |
11,768 |
240705 |
|
Miscellaneous. |
|
Betel Leaves |
6479 |
96,964 |
2160 |
32321 |
|
Dry Fish |
1861 |
20,847 |
620 |
6949 |
|
Fruit |
11,890 |
33,292 |
3963 |
11097 |
|
Vegetables. Green. |
37,525 |
65,668 |
12,508 |
21890 |
|
Sundries |
1307 |
2794 |
436 |
931 |
|
Total |
59,062 |
219,565 |
19,687 |
73188 |
|
Food for Animals Fodder |
92,179 |
64,524 |
30,726 |
21,508 |
|
Grain Husk, Oilcake and Cotton Seed |
3508 |
9119 |
1169 |
3040 |
|
Total |
95,687 |
75,643 |
31,895 |
24,548 |
Poona City Imports, 1881-1884—continued.
ARTICLES. |
1881-82. |
1882-83. |
1883-84. |
|
Fuel. |
Tons. |
£ |
Tons. |
£ |
Tons. |
£ |
Candles |
9 |
786 |
71 |
5991 |
4 |
300 |
Firewood |
31,235 |
32,796 |
27,992 |
29,392 |
29,570 |
41,398 |
Oil |
1254 |
31.610 |
1437 |
40,218 |
1398 |
35,237 |
Oil Seeds |
803 |
4837 |
789 |
4762 |
951 |
5804 |
Soap |
26 |
431 |
26 |
440 |
20 |
339 |
Soapnuts |
45 |
508 |
39 |
354 |
51 |
676 |
Vegetable Charcoal |
2603 |
5466 |
1995 |
4190 |
2784 |
5845 |
Total |
36,975 |
76,434 |
32,349 |
85,347 |
34,778 |
89,599 |
Building Materials. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bamboos |
1188 |
3327 |
1310 |
3667 |
1114 |
3900 |
Bricks and Tiles |
7812 |
3277 |
9185 |
3215 |
9977 |
4365 |
Lime |
3111 |
3539 |
2842 |
2983 |
3229 |
3391 |
Stone, Dressed |
2814 |
1724 |
3782 |
1986 |
3681 |
1932 |
Timber |
4680 |
35,447 |
5252 |
40,100 |
7177 |
54,220 |
Total |
19,605 |
47,314 |
22,371 |
51,951 |
25,178 |
67,808 |
| Drugs and Spices. Drugs |
91 |
1471 |
32 |
1192 |
113 |
2163 |
Gums |
129 |
11,562 |
92 |
5560 |
167 |
13,500 |
Mineral Salts |
168 |
3724 |
156 |
2416 |
169 |
4528 |
Perfumes |
51 |
4143 |
60 |
7674 |
26 |
3782 |
Spices |
2048 |
44,433 |
1875 |
55,347 |
1721 |
35,197 |
Sulphuric Acid |
6 |
960 |
22 |
3786 |
13 |
2154 |
Total |
2493 |
66,293 |
2237 |
75,975 |
2209 |
61,324 |
Textile Fabria of Piece-goods. |
|
Bags |
134 |
6290 |
258 |
11,983 |
264 |
11,366 |
Blankets |
176 |
12,302 |
158 |
11,035 |
142 |
9985 |
Carpets |
21 |
1873 |
27 |
1372 |
20 |
2192 |
Cotton Piecegoods |
1290 |
223,179 |
1142 |
191,760 |
1324 |
227,488 |
Silk Piecegoods. |
57 |
28,494 |
6 |
2970 |
7 |
4068 |
Woollen Piecegoods |
12 |
4188 |
30 |
10,068 |
21 |
6888 |
Total |
1690 |
276,326 |
1621 |
229,188 |
1778 |
261,987 |
Metal
Brass and Copper |
1457 |
120,362 |
2167 |
168,129 |
2209 |
165,332 |
Iron |
1414 |
14,562 |
615 |
5691 |
2037 |
22,196 |
Mercury |
1 |
270 |
4 |
909 |
6 |
1302 |
Other Metals |
232 |
5274 |
129 |
4969 |
318 |
8195 |
Tools and Cutlery. |
11 |
4115 |
12 |
1328 |
12 |
1296 |
Total |
3115 |
144,583 |
2927 |
181,026 |
4582 |
198,321 |
Grand Total |
170,776 |
1,176,881 |
174,220 |
1,296,290 |
178,490 |
1,306,173 |
Poona City Imports, 1881-1884—continued.
|
ARTICLES. |
TOTAL. |
AVERAGE. |
|
Fuel. |
Tons. |
£ |
Tons. |
£ |
|
Candles |
84 |
7077 |
28 |
2359 |
|
Firewood |
88,797 |
103,586 |
29,599 |
34,529 |
|
Oil |
4089 |
107,065 |
1363 |
35,688 |
|
Oil Seeds |
2543 |
15,403 |
848 |
5134 |
|
Soap |
72 |
1210 |
24 |
403 |
|
Soapnuts |
135 |
1538 |
45 |
513 |
|
Vegetable Charcoal |
7382 |
15,501 |
2461 |
5167 |
|
Total |
103,102 |
251,380 |
34,368 |
83,793 |
|
Building Materials. |
|
|
|
|
|
Bamboos |
3612 |
10,894 |
1204 |
3631 |
|
Bricks and Tiles |
26,974 |
10,857 |
8991 |
3619 |
|
Lime |
9182 |
9913 |
3061 |
3304 |
|
Stone, Dressed |
10,277 |
5642 |
3426 |
1881 |
|
Timber |
1709 |
129,767 |
5703 |
43,256 |
|
Total |
67,154 |
167,073 |
22,385 |
55,691 |
|
Drugs and Spices. Drugs |
|
|
|
|
|
236 |
4826 |
79 |
1611 |
|
Gums |
388 |
30,622 |
129 |
10,208 |
|
Mineral Salts |
493 |
10,668 |
164 |
3556 |
|
Perfumes |
137 |
15,599 |
46 |
5200 |
|
Spices |
5644 |
134,977 |
1881 |
44,992 |
|
Sulphuric Acid |
41 |
6900 |
14 |
2300 |
|
Total |
6939 |
203,592 |
2313 |
67,867 |
Textile Fabria of Piece-goods. |
|
|
Bags |
656 |
29,639 |
219 |
9880 |
|
Blankets |
476 |
33,322 |
159 |
11,107 |
|
Carpets |
68 |
5437 |
22 |
1812 |
|
Cotton Piecegoods |
3756 |
642,427 |
1252 |
214,143 |
|
Silk Piecegoods. |
70 |
35,532 |
24 |
11,844 |
|
Woollen Piecegoods |
63 |
21,144 |
20 |
7048 |
Total |
5089 |
767,501 |
1696 |
255,834 |
|
Metal. Brass and Copper. |
5833 |
453,823 |
1944 |
151,274 |
|
Iron |
4066 |
42,449 |
1355 |
14,150 |
|
Mercury |
11 |
2481 |
4 |
827 |
|
Other Metals |
679 |
18,438 |
226 |
6146 |
|
Tools and Cutlery. |
35 |
6739 |
12 |
2246 |
|
Total |
10,624 |
523,930 |
3541 |
174,643 |
|
Grand Total |
523,492 |
3,779,344 |
174,497 |
1,259,782 |
Poona City Exports, 1881 -1884.
ARTICLES. |
1881-82. |
1882-83. |
1883-84. |
TOTAL. |
AVERAGE. |
|
Grain. |
Tons. |
£ |
Tons. |
£ |
Tons. |
£ |
Tons. |
£ |
Tons. |
£ |
|
Gram |
82 |
401 |
314 |
1756 |
295 |
1551 |
691 |
3708 |
230 |
1236 |
|
Indian Millet |
207 |
869 |
1282 |
5382 |
369 |
1551 |
1858 |
7802 |
619 |
2601 |
|
Spiked Millet |
1047 |
5133 |
769 |
4256 |
1307 |
6402 |
3113 |
15,790 |
1038 |
5263 |
|
Rice |
419 |
2931 |
414 |
3478 |
240 |
2183 |
1073 |
8593 |
358 |
2864 |
|
Wheat |
166 |
1164 |
947 |
7952 |
324 |
2265 |
1437 |
11,381 |
479 |
3794 |
|
Other Grains |
33 |
194 |
425 |
1758 |
255 |
1339 |
713 |
3291 |
237 |
1097 |
|
Total |
1954 |
10,692 |
4141 |
24,582 |
2790 |
15,291 |
8885 |
50,565 |
2962 |
16,855 |
|
Groceries |
|
|
Almonds |
1 |
24 |
353 |
9898 |
8 |
196 |
362 |
10,118 |
121 |
3373 |
|
Arrowroot. |
-- |
-- |
25 |
552 |
9/2 8 |
7 |
25 |
559 |
8 |
186 |
|
Betelnuts |
7 |
149 |
44 |
1345 |
78 |
2621 |
129 |
4115 |
43 |
1372 |
|
Clarified Butter |
47 |
3345 |
107 |
8252 |
89 |
6247 |
243 |
17,844 |
81 |
5948 |
|
Coffee |
5/28 |
9 |
14 |
2286 |
1 |
46 |
16 |
2341 |
5 |
780 |
|
Cocoa-kernel |
118 |
2314 |
124 |
3456 |
98 |
1998 |
340 |
7768 |
113 |
2589 |
|
cocoanuts |
12 |
101 |
38 |
321 |
14 |
117 |
64 |
539 |
21 |
180 |
|
Groundnuts husked and unhusked |
6 |
36 |
183 |
1133 |
413 |
3671 |
602 |
4840 |
200 |
1613 |
|
Raw Sugar |
1897 |
29,212 |
3592 |
53,502 |
3953 |
55,345 |
9443 |
138,059 |
3148 |
46,020 |
|
Sugar |
201 |
6192 |
485 |
15,605 |
301 |
9259 |
987 |
31,056 |
329 |
10,352 |
|
Tobacco |
65 |
1266 |
108 |
2122 |
188 |
3686 |
361 |
7074 |
121 |
2368 |
|
Other Groceries |
18 |
285 |
30 |
280 |
23 |
538 |
71 |
1103 |
24 |
868 |
Total |
2372 |
42,933 |
5104 |
98,752 |
5166 |
83,731 |
12,642 |
225,416 |
2414 |
75,139 |
Poona City Exports, 1881 -1884—continued.
|
ARTICLES. |
1881-82. |
1882-83. |
1883-84. |
|
Miscellaneous. |
Tons. |
£ |
Tons. |
£ |
Tons. |
£ |
Betel Leaves |
1200 |
16,804 |
1418 |
19,844 |
1406 |
23,621 |
Dry Fish |
69 |
768 |
62 |
580 |
73 |
812 |
Fruit |
350 |
980 |
177 |
496 |
686 |
1922 |
Vegetables, Green. |
417 |
729 |
722 |
1264 |
714 |
1249 |
Sundries |
155 |
279 |
28 |
39 |
45 |
127 |
Total |
2191 |
19,560 |
2397 |
22,223 |
2924 |
27,731 |
Food for Animals. Fodder |
3285 |
2299 |
3295 |
2306 |
5350 |
3745 |
Grain Husk, Oilcake and Cotton-Seed |
89 |
285 |
103 |
348 |
72 |
163 |
Total |
3374 |
2584 |
3398 |
2654 |
5422 |
3908 |
Fuel. |
|
|
Candles |
3 |
264 |
71 |
5952 |
3 |
285 |
Firewood |
722 |
758 |
494 |
519 |
1210 |
1694 |
Oil |
484 |
12,207 |
573 |
16,054 |
511 |
12,853 |
Oil Seeds. |
19 |
132 |
21 |
130 |
6 |
38 |
Soap |
1 |
10 |
5 |
82 |
2 |
27 |
Soapnuts |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
4 |
59 |
Vegetable Charcoal |
101 |
212 |
82 |
173 |
88 |
185 |
Total |
1330 |
13,583 |
1246 |
22,910 |
1823 |
15,141 |
Building Materiala |
|
|
Bamboos |
4 |
10 |
5 |
14 |
11 |
42 |
Bricks and Tiles |
498 |
242 |
196 |
69 |
523 |
229 |
Lime |
2137 |
2430 |
1585 |
1664 |
2617 |
2748 |
Stone, Dressed |
458 |
281 |
240 |
126 |
324 |
170 |
Timber |
363 |
2883 |
185 |
1469 |
350 |
2875 |
Total |
3460 |
5846 |
2211 |
3342 |
3825 |
6064 |
Drugs and Spices. |
|
|
Drugs |
15 |
179 |
10 |
417 |
9 |
339 |
Gums |
41 |
4152 |
19 |
745 |
62 |
6182 |
Mineral Salts |
39 |
660 |
3 |
41 |
19 |
278 |
Perfumes |
2 |
116 |
15 |
966 |
7 |
1099 |
Spices |
321 |
13,280 |
271 |
19,971 |
278 |
7241 |
Sulphuric Acid |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
1 |
198 |
Total |
418 |
18,387 |
318 |
22,140 |
376 |
15,337 |
Textile Fabrics and Piece-Goods. |
|
|
Bags |
-- |
-- |
11 |
989 |
31 |
1510 |
Blankets |
84 |
5868 |
65 |
4520 |
48 |
3375 |
Carpets |
13/28 |
47 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
Cotton Piece goods |
707 |
118,776 |
471 |
79,242 |
658 |
111,248 |
|
Silk Piece goods |
22 |
10,710 |
-- |
-- |
5 |
2862 |
Woollen Piece-goods |
3 |
1092 |
3/28 |
36 |
2 |
372 |
Total |
816 |
136,493 |
547 |
84,787 |
744 |
119,367 |
Metals. |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
Brass and Copper. |
124 |
10,372 |
159 |
12,446 |
2033 |
152.532 |
Iron |
185 |
2049 |
116 |
1031 |
281 |
3341 |
Mercury |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
5/28 |
35 |
Other Metals |
18 |
436 |
39 |
860 |
43 |
1700 |
Tools and Cutlery. |
4 |
424 |
4 |
452 |
2 |
220 |
Total |
331 |
13,281 |
318 |
14,789 |
2359 |
157,828 |
|
Grand Total |
16,246 |
263,359 |
19,680 |
296,179 |
25,429 |
444,399 |
Poona City Exports, 1881 -1884—continued.
|
ARTICLES. |
TOTAL. |
AVERAGE. |
|
Miscellaneous. |
Tons. |
£ |
Tons. |
£ |
|
Betel Leaves |
4024 |
60,269 |
1342 |
20,090 |
|
Dry Fish |
194 |
2160 |
64 |
720 |
|
Fruit |
1213 |
3398 |
404 |
1132 |
|
Vegetables, Green. |
1853 |
3242 |
618 |
1081 |
|
Sundries |
228 |
445 |
76 |
149 |
|
Total |
7512 |
69,514 |
2504 |
23,172 |
|
Food for Animals. Fodder |
11,930 |
8350 |
3977 |
2784 |
|
Grain Husk, Oilcake and Cotton-Seed |
264 |
796 |
88 |
366 |
|
Total |
12,194 |
9146 |
4065 |
3049 |
|
Fuel. |
|
|
Candles |
77 |
6501 |
26 |
2167 |
|
Firewood |
2426 |
2971 |
809 |
990 |
|
Oil |
1568 |
41,114 |
523 |
13,704 |
|
Oil Seeds. |
45 |
300 |
15 |
100 |
|
Soap |
8 |
119 |
2 |
40 |
|
Soapnuts |
4 |
69 |
1 |
20 |
|
Vegetable Charcoal |
271 |
570 |
90 |
190 |
|
Total |
4399 |
51,634 |
1466 |
17,211 |
|
Building Materials |
|
|
Bamboos |
20 |
66 |
7 |
22 |
|
Bricks and Tiles |
1217 |
640 |
406 |
180 |
|
Lime |
6339 |
6842 |
2112 |
2281 |
|
Stone, Dressed |
1022 |
577 |
341 |
192 |
|
Timber |
898 |
7227 |
299 |
2409 |
|
Total |
9490 |
15,252 |
3165 |
5084 |
|
Drugs and Spices. |
|
|
Drugs |
34 |
935 |
12 |
312 |
|
Gums |
122 |
11,079 |
41 |
3693 |
|
Mineral Salts |
61 |
979 |
20 |
326 |
|
Perfumes |
24 |
2181 |
8 |
727 |
|
Spices |
870 |
40,492 |
290 |
13,497 |
|
Sulphuric Acid |
1 |
198 |
-- |
66 |
|
Total |
1112 |
55,865 |
371 |
18,621 |
|
Textile Fabrics and Piece-Goods. |
|
|
Bags |
42 |
2499 |
14 |
833 |
|
Blankets |
197 |
13,763 |
66 |
4588 |
|
Carpets |
13/28 |
47 |
-- |
16 |
|
Cotton Piece-goods |
1836 |
309,266 |
612 |
103,089 |
|
Silk Piece-goods |
27 |
13,572 |
9 |
4524 |
|
Woollen Piece-goods |
5 |
1500 |
2 |
500 |
|
Total |
2107 |
340,647 |
703 |
113,550 |
|
Metals. |
|
|
Brass and Copper. |
2315 |
175,350 |
772 |
58,450 |
|
Iron |
582 |
6421 |
194 |
2140 |
|
Mercury |
5/28 |
35 |
-- |
12 |
|
Other Metals |
100 |
2996 |
33 |
999 |
|
Tools and Cutlery. |
10 |
1096 |
3 |
365 |
|
Total |
3008 |
185,898 |
1002 |
61,966 |
|
Grand Total |
61,355 |
1,003,937 |
20,452 |
334,645 |
Rice.
Of grains the imports of rice average 9183 tons (257,134 mans) valued at £75,029 (Rs. 7,50,290) a year and the exports average 358 tons (10,013 mans) valued at £2864 (Rs. 28,640), leaving for Poona use 8825 tons (24,127 mans) valued at £72,165 (Rs. 7,21,650). Rice comes chiefly from Bhor and the Mavals or
western hills of Poona. The rest comes from Kalyan and Panvel in Thana. From Bhor and West Poona rice is brought, chiefly by the growers on pack bullocks or in headloads; from Kalyan and Panvel it is brought by rail by local dealers. The chief rice markets are in the Narayan and Shukravar wards. To these markets rice is brought in large quantities especially on Monday and Thursday. Rice markets are held from the early morning till about ten. Rice is sold to Marwar and Maratha retail dealers, generally without the help of brokers. In selling them to the dealers, rice and other grains are always weighed by a third party called measurers or mojnars who are allowed a handful of rice for every 320 pounds (1 palla of 4 mans) weighed. Rice is the staple food of all classes, especially of Brahmans. In years of scarcity rice sometimes comes to Poona from Gujarat, Central India, and Bengal. From Poona rice is sent to Sholapur and Pandharpur, whose traders send agents to Poona to buy.
Bajri.
The imports of bajri average 15,059 tons (421,655 mans) valued
at £77,449 (Rs. 7,74,490) a year and the exports 1038 tons (29,064 mans) valued at £5263 (Rs. 52,630), thus leaving for the city use 14,021 tons (392,591 mans) valued at £72,186 (Rs. 7,21,860). Besides locally from the eastern sub-divisions bajri comes from Vambhori in Ahmadnagar and from Phaltan in Satara. From Vambhori and Phaltan bajri is sent chiefly by the Marwar dealers of those towns. For bajri and other grains except rice the chief market is the broker's market in the Nana ward which is held from seven to ten in the morning. Bajri is sold through Marwari and Gujarat Vani and Maratha brokers who are paid 6d. (4 as.) for every 320 pounds (1 palla of 4 mows) of bajri sold; and the weigher as a rule is a Maratha, who is allowed a handful of bajri for measuring every 320 pounds. Most bajri dealers are Marathas and the rest Marwaris and Lingayats. Bajri is the staple food of all classes. It is ground into flour by women, kneaded with water into dough, and formed into thin circular cakes about twelve inches in diameter and one-eighth to one-third of an inch thick. These are first baked on iron pans, and, when dry, are thrust into red-hot cinders to complete the baking. The cakes are broken into pieces and either eaten in gruel or dry with onions or a relish of chillies, salt, and turmeric. From Poona bajri is exported by brokers. Since the opening of the Dhond-Manmad. Railway in 1878 bajri from Vambhori chiefly comes by rail and in small quantities by carts. In years of scarcity bajri also comes from Gujarat, Khandesh, and Jabalpur.
Indian Millet.
Indian millet or jvari imports average 3593 tons (100,613 mans) valued at £15,092 (Rs. 1,50,920) a
year and exports average 619 tons (17,343 mans) valued at £2601' (Rs. 26,010) leaving for Poona use 2974 tons (83,270 mans) valued at £12,491 (Rs. 1,24,910). The bulk of the jvari is grown locally, the rest conies from Sholapur and Satara. In the same way as bajri, jrari is sold in the broker's market. It is the staple food of the poor. It is ground into flour, kneaded, and baked into cakes like bajri.
Wheat.
Wheat imports average 8428 tons (235,952 mans) valued
at £62,997 (Rs. 6,29,970) a year, and exports average 479 tons
(13,408 mans) valued at £3794 (Its. 37,940), leaving for Poona use 7949 tons (222,544 mans) valued at £59,203 (Rs. 5,92,030). Wheat comes largely from the Baleghat in the Nizam's territory and in small quantities from the northern sub-divisions of Ahmadnagar. From the Baleghat wheat is brought in carts to Dhond by Kharda and Shrigonda in Ahmadnagar; from Dhond it is chiefly brought to Poona in carts and in small quantities by rail. To find work for themselves and their bullocks in the hot season husbandmen generally prefer to bring wheat to Poona in carts instead of sending it by rail from Dhond. From the north of Ahmadnagar the wheat trade centres at Vambhori whence it is sent by local Marwar dealers to Poona. Wheat is occasionally brought by rail from the Berars, Gujarat, Jabalpur, and sometimes from Agra and Benares. Wheat is used sometimes daily but chiefly on holidays by the upper and middle classes and on holidays and great occasions alone by the poor. In the same way as bajri and jvari, wheat is sold in the broker's market through brokers.
Gram.
Gram imports average 4669 tons (130,723 mans) valued at,
£24,549 (Rs. 2,45,490) a year and exports average 230 tons (6448 mans) valued at £1236 (Rs. 12,360), leaving for local use 4439
tons (124,275 mans) valued at £23,313 (Rs. 2,33,130). Except that
it is largely given to horses, the details given for wheat apply to
gram.
Groundnuts.
Of Groceries the imports of groundnuts average 2092 tons
(58,584 mans) valued at £13,967 (Rs. 1,39,670) a year and the
exports average 200 tons (5605 mans) valued at £1613 (Rs. 16,130),
leaving for the city use 1892 tons (52,979 mans) valued at £12,354
(Rs. 1,23,540). Groundnuts are grown locally and come from Satara.
Much of the local produce, about half the imports, is brought in
shells and used by Hindus mostly on fast days. The nuts are baked
in their shell or fried and eaten. Sometimes they are pounded
mixed with raw sugar, and made into balls for eating. From about
two miles round the city groundnuts are brought fresh every day
and sold to retail dealers by Kachis or Malis who buy the standing
crops from the growers. From long distances groundnuts come
unshelled and are sold to Telis or oilmen through brokers in the
same way as grain.
Cocoa Kernel and Cocoanuts.
The imports of cocoa-kernel and cocoanuts average 902 tons
(25,249 mans) valued at £13,271 (Rs. 1,32,710) a year and the exports average 134 tons (3773 mans) valued at £2769 (Rs. 27,690), leaving for Poona use 768 tons (21,476 mans) valued at £10,502 (Rs. 1,05,020). Large quantities of cocoa-kernel and cocoanuts come by rail from Bombay and small quantities in carts from Mahad in Kolaba. Cocoanuts are chiefly sold by Maratha Naralvalas that is cocoanut-sellers and cocoa kernels by Gujarat Vani grocers. The Naralvalas are poor and trade on borrowed capital. The Gujarat Vanis are well-to-do. Besides as a condiment large quantities of cocoannts are offered to the gods and distributed to friends and relations at marriage and other ceremonies. Since the opening of the railway in 1858 the imports of cocoanuts have considerably risen and the price fallen by about twenty-five per cent.
Betelnuts.'
The imports of betelnuts average 218 tons (6120 mans) valued at £6375 (Rs. 63,750) a year, and the exports average forty-three tons (1207 mans) valued at £1372 (Rs. 13,720), thus leaving for Poona use 175 tons (4913 mans) valued at £5003 (Rs. 50,030). Betelnuts are imported by Gujarat Vani grocers from Bombay, Belari, and Dharwar. Betelnuts are offered to the gods and to friends and relations on a visit they are served by way of courtesy. After a meal all Hindus generally chew betelnut either with betel-leaf or tobacco.
Raw Sugar.
Raw sugar or gul imports average 5271 tons (147,583 mans) valued at £78,024 (Rs. 7,80,240) a year, and exports average 3148 tons (88,139 mans) valued at £46,020 (Rs. 4,60,200), leaving for Poona use 2123 tons(59,444 mans) valued at£32,004(Rs. 3,20,040).[These returns must be increased by about ten per cent to represent the local produce which is not taxed,] Raw sugar comes in large quantities from the neighbourhood of Poona and from Satara, Poona, Kolhapur, and the Southern Maratha Country or the Bombay Karnatak. From Satara the growers themselves bring the raw sugar to Poona. From Kolhapur and the Bombay Karnatak the trade centres at Kolhapur whence the dealers send raw sugar to Lingayat brokers in Poona. In Poona the brokers either sell it to local Gujarat Vani dealers or consign it to Gujarat and up-country stations,to which the bulk of the exported sugar goes. At present (1884) all raw sugar comes in carts. After the opening of the West-Deccan or Poona-Londa railway, probably in 1889, this raw sugar, instead of going through Poona, will be sent direct to Gujarat and other places and Poona imports and exports will considerably fall.
Sugar.
Sugar imports average 1279 tons (35,814 mans) valued at £40,095
(Rs. 4,00,950) a year, and exports 329 tons (9205 mans) valued at £10,352 (Rs. 1,03,520), leaving for Poona use 950 tons (26,609 mans) valued at £29,743 (Rs. 2,97,430). Sugar is chiefly brought from Bombay by local Gujarat Vani dealers. Coarse sugar is also brought in small quantities from Kolhapur and the Bombay-Karnatak. The well-to-do and middle classes generally use sugar and the poor raw sugar.
Clarified Butter.
The imports of clarified butter average 798 tons (22,336 mans) valued at £59,276 (Rs. 5,92,760) a year, and the exports average 81 tons (2272 mans) valued at £5948 (Rs. 59,480), leaving for Poona use 717 tons (20,064 mans) valued at £53,328 (Rs. 5,32,380). Besides locally from the Mavals or western hills, clarified butter comes from Barsi in Sholapur, Athni in Belgaum, and the Sangli State. From the west the cattle owners themselves bring clarified butter to Poona, and from other parts it is chiefly imported by local Gujarat Vani dealers. The export is small.
Tobacco.
Tobacco imports average 848 tons (23,733 mans) valued at £16,606
(Rs. 1,66,060) a year, and exports average 121 tons (3378 mans) valued at£2358 (Rs. 23,580), leaving for Poona use 727 tons (20,355 mans) valued at £14,248 (Rs. 1,42,480). Tobacco comes in carts chiefly from
Belgaum, Dharwar, Kolhapur, and Miraj. Poona has two or three Lingayat merchants who import large quantities of tobacco and sell it to retailers and makers of snuff. Tobacco is smoked made into snuff and chewed with betelnut and leaves. Before it is exported, tobacco is partly pounded into snuff by Brahman dealers and partly cut dressed and spiced for chewing by Brahman and Lingayat dealers. Poona snuff finds a market in Northern India, as far as Benares, and the dressed tobacco for chewing goes all over the Bombay Presidency. Of the total exports of 727 tons (20,355 mans) valued at £14,248 (Es. 1,42,480), about 121 tons (3393 mans) valued at £2341 (Es. 23,410) go as snuff and 606 tons (16,962 mans) valued at £11,907 (Es. 1,19,070) go as dressed tobacco for chewing. As the tobacco is either pounded into snuff or dressed for chewing before it is sent from Poona, it is probable that the trade will increase after the opening of the West Deccan Railway.
Vegetables.
According to the city octroi returns, for the three years ending
1883-84, the imports of green vegetables averaged 12,508 tons, (350,233 mans) valued at £21,890 (Es. 2,18,900), and the exports averaged 618 tons (17,295 mans) valued at £1081 (Rs. 10,810). To this must be added at least an equal amount of imports and exports of vegetables, which, being grown within municipal limits and carried in headloads, are free from the municipal tax. Green vegetables and fruits are grown in about 2000 acres of garden land within five miles of Poona. The growth of green vegetables and fruits has largely increased since the opening of Lake Fife and the Mutha Canal (1875-1879). The vegetable growers are Kachis and Malis who sell standing crops to wholesale dealers, chiefly Kachis, Marathas, Malis, and Bagvan Musalmans. To retail dealers vegetables are sold through Maratha and Mali brokers called dalals or dandivalas, who, besides a handful of vegetables, are paid 1½d.to 6d. (1-4 as.) on every sale of 320 pounds (1 palla of 4 mans) Vegetables are eaten daily by all classes. The exports, which date from the opening of the railway in 1858, are almost all to Bombay.
Betel Leaf.
Betel-leaf imports average 2160 tons (60,470 mans) valued
at £32,321 (Es. 3,23,210), and exports average 1342 tons' (37,555 mans) valued at £20,090 (Es. 2,00,900), leaving for Poona use 818
tons (22,915 mans) valued at £12,231 (Es. 1,22,310). The growers
of betel-leaves are mostly Tirgul Brahmans and a few Marathas, and
the sellers, who are called Tambolis, are mostly Musalmans and
few Marathas. A betel-leaf shopkeeper offers for sale betel-leaves
betelnuts, slaked lime, catechu, and tobacco. Betel-leaf is eaten by
all classes as a dessert after food. A couple of leaves with a little
lime rubbed on with the finger to the back of each leaf, a quarter of
a betelnut, and catechu are chewed together, and in addition to the
some chew tobacco. The leaves are cured before being eaten
Poona is known as having the best cured leaves in the Deccan.
Fresh leaves are harsh and bitter. To remove the harshness the
leaves are kept closely packed till the sap dries when the leaf grows
soft and gets a shining yellow. Betel-leaf is largely sent to Bombay
Fish.
Imports of dry and salted fish average 620 tons (17,373 mans)
valued at £6949 (Rs. 69,490). Of this, as an article of trade only
sixty-four tons (1900 mans) valued at £720 (Rs. 7200) are sent to Bhor. Of the rest about 556 tons (55,737 mans) valued at £6229 (Rs. 62,290) are locally sold in small quantities to the people of the Mavals or western hills, and as much is used by the city people. Fish is imported from Bombay and the Konkan, mostly by two large traders, and in small quantities by a few local Bhois. The retail sellers are Bhoi and Musalman women. Fish is eaten by Musalmans and by all flesh-eating Hindus.
Fooder.
Of food for animals, fodder imports average 30,726 tons
(860,334 mans) valued at £21,508 (Rs. 2,15,080) a year, all of which is used in Poona. 3977 tons (111,344 mans) valued at £2784 (Rs. 27,840), shown under exports in the above statement, are fodder passed free of duty from Government grass-lands or kurans for Government cattle and horses. Of fodder grass comes from Government forest and pasture reserves and neighbouring villages, and millet and other straw from a distance of twenty-four miles round Poona. The chief fodder markets are held in the north and west of the city where the growers sell fodder through Maratha brokers who are paid 6d. (4 as.) for every cart-load.
Chaff.
Imports of chaff oil-cake and cotton seed average 1169 tons (32,737 mans) valued at £3040 (Rs. 30,400) a year, and exports average eighty-eight tons (2468 mans) valued, at £265 (Rs. 2650), leaving for Poona use 1081 tons (30,269 mans) valued at £2775 (Rs. 27,750). Of these chaff and husks come from West Poona or the Mavals where rice is largely grown; oil-cake comes from the east from Sirur and latterly from Gujarat; and cotton seed comes from the south and east. Generally the growers bring these articles to Poona where they are bought by milkmen and other consumers. The exports are chiefly to neighbouring villages by well-to-do people who keep milch cows and buffaloes.
Firewood.
Of fuel and lighting materials firewood imports average 29,599 tons (828,771 mans) valued at £34,529 (Rs. 3,45,290) a year; this import is all used in Poona. About 809 tons (22,646 mans) valued at £990 (Rs. 9900), shown under exports in the statement, are the firewood used in the cantonment which lies outside of municipal limits. The main imports of firewood are babhul wood from the east and the poorer classes of trees chiefly from Government forests in the west of the district and from the Bhor state. The firewood of the Government and Bhor state forests is yearly leased by wholesale Maratha timber dealers of Poona who sell it to Maratha petty dealers in the city. From other parts standing trees are bought by Maratha petty dealers and sometimes by Mhars who fell and bring the wood to the city. During the last twenty years, as the supply is short of the demand, the price of firewood has steadily risen.
Charcoal.
Charcoal imports average 2461 tons (68,899 mans) valued at £5167 (Rs. 51,670, a year. The exports are small. The charcoal dealers are Lonaris who buy wood in the forest, make it into charcoal, and import the charcoal into the city on hired pack bullocks, mules and ponies. Charcoal is largely used by blacksmiths coppersmiths and other metal-workers. During the last twenty-five years, as the district is bare of forests, the price of local
charcoal has so greatly risen, that the large metal factories have to use coal and coke.
Trade
Imports of oilseeds average 848 tons (23,737 mans) valued at £5134 (Rs. 51,340) a year. Oilseeds come chiefly from the Poona district and are sold in the same way as bajri and other grains. The exports are small.
Oil.
Imports of oil other than kerosine average 1363 tons (38,164 mans) valued at £35,688 (Rs. 3,56,880) a year, and exports average 523 tons (14,632 mans) valued at £13,704 (Rs. 1,37,040), thus leaving for the city use 840 tons (23,532 mans) valued at £21,984 (Rs. 2,19,840). Imports of kerosine oil roughly average 810 tons (22,650 mans) valued at £7930 (Rs. 79,300) a year. Groundnut safflower and sesame oil is brought from Indapur and Sasvad in Poona, from Barsi in Sholapur, and from Satara; and cocoanut oil and kerosine from Bombay. Large quantities of oil are pressed in Poona by Hindus of the Teli caste.
Bricks.
Of building materials imports of bricks and tiles average 8991tons (251,758 mans) valued at £3619 (Rs. 36,190) a year. Bricks and tiles are made by local potters in the outskirts of the city.
Stone.
Imports of cut-stone, chiefly quarried in the neighbouring hills,
average 3426 tons (95,922 mans) valued at £1881 (Rs. 18,810) a year.
Lime.
Imports of lime, which is baked in the outskirts of the city,
average 3061 tons (85,696 mans) valued at £3304 (Rs. 33,040), and;
exports, which are chiefly to Kirkee, average 2112 tons (59,162 mans) valued at £2281 (Rs. 22,810).
Timber.
Timber imports average 5703 tons (159,673 mans) valued at
£43,256 (Rs. 4,32,560), and exports which are chiefly to neighbouring villages and Kirkee average 299 tons (8378 mans)
valued at £2410 (Rs. 24,100). Of timber Maulmain teak comes
from Bombay. Of local teak the large logs come from Nasik and the
rafters from Thana; junglewood comes from the Mavals or West;
Poona hills and Bhor, and babhul wood from twenty-four miles,
round Poona. The large trade with Bombay and Thana is in the hands
of Konkan and Cutch Musalmans who trade on their own capital
Other petty timber dealers are Marathis who trade on capital
borrowed at high interest.
Bamboos.
Bamboo imports average 1204 tons (33,716 mans) valued
at £3631 (Rs. 36,310) a year. Split bamboos fit for roofs an
brought from Bombay by large Musalman timber dealers; and
green bamboos fit to make baskets and matting are brought from the Mavals or western sub-divisions by villagers and sold either the
Maratha timber dealers or to Buruds or basket-makers.
Drugs and Spices.
Imports of drugs and spices average 2313 tons (64,762 mam valued at £67,867 (Rs. 6,78,670) a year. Drugs and spices are chief
brought by Gujarat Vani grocers from Bombay.
Piece Goods.
Piece-goods imports average 1696 tons (41,497 mans) valued
at £255,834 (Rs. 25,58,340) a year, and exports average 702 tons (19,667 mans) valued at £113,550 (Rs. 11,35,500). Of handmade cotton cloth coarse waistcloths or dhotars and robes or sadis are brought from Sholapur by Shimpis, and fine waistcloths and robes are brought by Marwar Vanis from Nagpur and Dharwar or Narayan Peth in the Nizam's territories and sometimes from Benares in North India, and Salem and other parts of Madras. Steam-made cotton piece-goods, both of English and of Bombay make, were formerly brought by Bohoras and are now also brought by Brah-mans and Marathas. Of late the use of Bombay-made cloth has greatly increased. Foreign silks, brocades, and woollen cloth are brought by Bohoras from Bombay, and country blankets are brought by Sangars from Sholapur. Besides these imports a large quantity of coarse cotton robes and waistcloths and richly embroidered silk cloths are locally woven. The exports are consigned direct, chiefly to Satara and other southern districts. After the opening of the Poona-Londa Railway this export trade, instead of probably passing through Poona, will go direct and the Poona trade will fall considerably.
Metal
Metal imports average 3541 tons (99,157 mans) valued at
£174,643 (Rs. 17,46,430) and exports average 1002 tons (28,067 mans) valued at £61,966 (Rs. 6,19,660). The exports include only metal sheets and do not include the brass and copper vessels which, average about eighty per cent of the metal sheets imported. The imports have been steadily increasing. In 1882-83 they were about twenty per cent above the average or worth £250,000 (Rs. 25 lakhs). The working into vessels adds about twenty-five per cent to the value of the metal. So that the value of the exported ware may be roughly estimated at £240,000 (Rs. 24 lakhs). During the last twenty-five years the metal trade of Poona has steadily grown. Poona has displaced Ahmadnagar which used to be the chief metal mart in the Deccan, and supplies are now sent not only over the whole Deccan, but also to the Berars, Khandesh, and the Nizam's territory. The finer vessels of Nasik and Sangli are rivalled by the Poona wares. Even in the finer articles, in a few years Poona will probably displace Nasik and Sangli. Of metals Europe-made copper, brass, and iron are largely brought from Bombay by Gujarat Vanis. To make vessels Gujarat Vanis employ local Kasar Tambat and other craftsmen. The making of brass and copper vessels gives work to about 3000 men who are paid either monthly or by the piece. The original workers came from Ahmadnagar. Lately, owing to the thriving trade, many Marathas and others have taken to this craft and several Gujarat Vanis have grown rich.
Cotton.
Of articles freed from municipal taxes, cotton imports for
1882-83 were 124 tons (680 mans) valued at £884 (Rs. 8840) and exports were 213 tons (5974 maws) valued at £7766 (Rs. 77,660). The imports are chiefly from the south-east of the district where cotton is grown. Most of the cotton dealers are Gujarat Vanis.
Dye Roots.
Imports of dye roots, barks, and other colouring materials
for 1882.-83 were 131 tons (3670 mans) valued at £367 (Rs. 36,700)
and exports were 315 tons (8818 wans) valued at £882
(Rs. 8820). These articles are gathered in the forests and brought
to the market by the hill people of West Poona and sold to Gujarat
Vani grocers. In this trade the grocers make a cent per cent profit.
Dried Fruit
Imports of dried fruit for 1882-83 were 680 tons (19,028 mans) valued at £15,222 (Rs. 1,52,220) and exports 461 tons (12,900 mans) valued at £10,318 (Rs. 1,03,180). Of dried fruit, dried plantains are brought from Bassein in Thana by Gujarat Vanis and dried figs, pomegranates, grapes, and other fruits are brought from Arabia, Persia, and Kabul by Baluchis and Kabulis. The exports are chiefly to Ahmadnagar, Sholapur, Satara, and the Bombay Karnatak.
Glass.
Imports of glassware and glass bangles for 1882-83 were 272
tons (7604 mans) valued at £3820 (Rs. 38,200), and exports were thirty-one tons (854 mans) valued at £427 (Rs. 4270). European glass-ware is brought from Bombay by Bohoras. Of bangles China-made cut bangles come from Bombay, and country bangles from the village of Velu on the Poona-Belgaum mail road about twelve miles south of Poona. The bangle-sellers are Kasars. The exports are chiefly to neighbouring villages.
Hides and Horns.
Imports of hides and horns for 1882-83 were 134 tons (3574, mans) valued at £4485 (Rs. 44,850), and exports were 622 tons
(17,427 mans) valued at £20,909 (Rs. 2,09,090). Hides and horns are brought by village Mhars from neighbouring
villages and sold to Saltankars and Dhors. From Poona Saltankars and Dhors export; hides and horns to Bombay. Three or four unsuccessful attempts have been made by Bombay merchants to start tanneries at Poona, and the tanneries which were built are now in ruins.
Salt,
Salt imports for 1882-83 were 429 tons (12,010 mans) valued at,
£3002 (Rs. 30,020) a year. Little is exported. Salt is brought by
Gujarat Vani grocers from Bombay.
Stationery.
Imports of stationery for 1882-83 were 189 tons (5286 mans)
valued at £52,860 (Rs. 5,28,600) and exports were 85 tons (23911 mans) valued at £23,900 (Rs. 2,39,000). Stationery is brought
from Bombay by Bohoras, Marathas, and lately by Brahmans.
The exports do not change hands in the city, but pass through Poona
on the way to Satara and other southern districts.
Twist.
Imports of machine-made twist for 1882-83 were 472 tons
(13,210 mans) valued at £2642 (Rs. 26,420). Twist is brought
from Bombay by Marwar Vanis and is generally sold to local weaves
Large quantities are used in thread-making factories lately started
by Brahman capitalists and worked by Maratha boys.
Smoking Hemp.
Of intoxicating articles imports of smoking hemp or ganja for
1882-83 were twenty tons (560 mans) valued at £406 (Rs. 4060)
and exports were six tons (170 mans) valued at £120 (Rs. 1200)
Smoking hemp comes from Ahmadnagar and Sholapur. The right
to sell it is yearly farmed to one dealer. Ganja is smoked chiefly by
Gosavis and ascetics. The exports are chiefly to neighbouring
villages.
Opium.
Opium imports for 1882-83 were two tons (seventy mans) valued
£5530 (Rs. 55,300). Opium is supplied by Government to the farmer
to whom the right of selling opium is yearly sold. Opium is smoked and eaten chiefly by Musalman Fakirs or ascetics.
Country Liquor.
Imports of country liquor for 1882-83 were 495 tons (13,870 mans) valued at £55,480 (Rs. 5,54,800), and exports were 127 tons (3570 mans) valued at £14,280 (Rs. 1,42,800). This liquor is supplied by the central distillery established at Mundhave about eight miles east of Poona. The right of selling country liquor is yearly sold to the highest bidder. The exports are chiefly to neighbouring villages.
European Liquor.
Imports of European liquor for 1882-83 were 610 tons (17,090 mans) valued at £102,540 (Rs. 10,25,400), and exports were fifty-one tons (1432 mans) valued at £8592 (Rs. 85,920). European liquor is brought from Bombay by Parsis and Europe shopkeepers. It is chiefly used by Hindus in the city and by Christians and Parsis in the cantonment. The exports go chiefly to Satara and the Bombay Karnatak.
Crafts.
Of about 25,000 craftsmen about half the number are capitalists
and the rest work as labourers. The chief Poona city crafts are the making of copper and brass vessels, the weaving of silk and cotton cloth, the making of gold and silver threads, glass bangles, ivory combs, clay figures, iron pots, felt and paper, tape-weaving, and wood-turning. As Poona city is the great centre, almost the only seat of these crafts and industries, the details have been given in the chapter on trade and crafts.[ See Part II. pp. 173-210.]
Markets,
Poona City has twenty-six markets. Of these five are vegetable
markets, six are mutton markets, three are fish markets, one is a fuel market, two are fodder markets, and nine are grain markets. The five vegetable and fruit markets are, the Mandai or market to the north of the Shanvar Palace, the Kotval Chavdi or police office in Budhvar ward, and three Bhajialis or vegetable rows one in Vetal ward and two in A'ditvar ward, a larger near Durjansing's Paga, and a smaller to the east of Moti Chauk or Pearl Square. In addition to these, on a suitable site in the Shukravar ward, a large central market is (1884) being built.
Mandai.
The largest and most popular market in Poona is the Mandai,
the fruit and vegetable market to the north of the Shanvar Palace. It is held in an open space 166 yards by 45 which was originally set apart for the retinues of the Peshwas and their nobles in state or festive gatherings. This space and the narrow belt all round the palace wall between its bastions have been levelled and sanded and laid out in paths and rows of stalls. The stalls are four to six feet square and the paths six to ten feet wide. A road running north and south divides the Mandai proper, that is the large space to the north of the palace into an eastern and a western half. The eastern half has been set apart for fruits and green vegetables, and the western half for fruits, vegetables, root vegetables, and miscellaneous articles. The northern third of each half is set apart for brokers and wholesale dealers, and the two southern thirds are
allotted to petty stall keepers. From four to seven in the morning Kunbi and Mali carts laden with vegetables, lemons, figs, oranges, groundnuts, potatoes, and other field and garden produce come from the villages and gardens round Poona to market and are ranged in rows on the ground set apart for wholesale dealers.
The wholesale dealers, who are Kachis or market-gardeners of Upper Indian origin and Marathas, buy the daily arrivals soon after they come to market and dispose of them in small lots to retailers who carry them to their stalls and sell them to users. The market hours are six to eleven in the morning. Among the middle classes home supplies are bought by the male heads of families. Among the lower classes the women generally come and the higher classes send their servants to buy supplies. As soon as their morning wholesale purchases are over, the wholesale dealers daily send in wicker baskets large quantities of potatoes, onions, chillies, and leaf vegetables, the produce of gardens within twenty miles of Poona, to Bombay, Sholapur, and the Nizam's country. These dealers have agents in Bombay, or are themselves agents to Bombay dealers, to whom they consign the produce. Besides the wholesale dealers another class of middlemen, the brokers or dalals, bargain for buyers and sellers and weigh the articles for a fee. The scale on which the wholesale traders deal varies greatly, some of them being large traders and men of capital. The brokers make 2s. to 4s. (Rs. 1-2) a day and spend all their earnings. The retail sellers, who seldom have capital, borrow 4s. to 10s. (Rs. 2-5) from moneychangers for the day at an interest of ½ anna the rupee, make their purchases, and, after selling them retail, return the lender his money with interest. Their daily profits vary from
6d. to Is. (4 - 8 as.). When the retail stallholder has bought his day's supplies, he or she, for as many women as men sell, spreads on the ground a mat or a piece of sacking, and, on the sacking, lays the articles either in baskets or in heaps and sits among the baskets with a pair of scales close at hand. These retail dealers are chiefly Kachis and Malis who are Hindus, and Tambolis who are both Hindus and Musalmans. The Kachis chiefly sell fruit, the Malis both fruit and vegetables, and the Tambolis seldom anything but betel-leaves and tobacco. On the east side of the Palace gateway, between the bastions, in a row next the road, Musalman Atars deal in the coloured powders which are used in making brow-marks, and in incense and perfumery. They arrange their wares in small heaps on metal plates laid on wooden stools. Over their wares, as a sunshade, they open a large umbrella or stretch a cloth on poles. They bring their stores daily to market on their heads and carry back what remains unsold. They make their goods at home from raw materials which they buy from grocers. Behind the Atars two rows of Maratha Vani women sell three varieties of grass-seeds, devbhat rajgira and vari, groundnuts raw sugar, salt, and articles eaten on fast days.[ The botanical names of two of the three grass seeds or early that is primeval grains are rajgira Amaranthus polygamus, and vari Coix barbata.] Behind these stalls, in a row against the Palace wall, sit a few grocers or Nestis
whose chief wares are assafaetida, cinnamon, cloves, cocoanuts, coriander, cumin-seed, pepper, sesame, spices, and turmeric. To the east of the perfumers and grass-seed sellers sit a few Malis and Brahmans who sell plantain-leaf dining plates; further east a few Gurav or priestly Maratha women sell patravals or dry leaf platters, of six or ten leaves of the palas, banian, and other large-leafed trees stitched together round a centre leaf. Behind the Gurav platter-sellers are cocoanut-sellers or Naralvals. The shroffs or moneylenders and changers, all Deshasth Brahmans, sit with a heap of copper coins and cowrie-shells piled on a small cloth stretched before them. They squat in threes and fours as near the retail sellers as possible. Besides the interest on daily cash advances to petty dealers they earn 6d. to 9d. (4-6 as.)
a day from changing copper for silver and shells. In all transactions under ⅜d. (¼ a.) cowrie or kavdi shells are used, eighty to ninety-six shells going to the quarter anna. The shells are counted with notable speed in sets of four. The ground between the bastions to the west of the eastern gate is held by a row of vegetable dealers fronting the road, chiefly Malis who sell their garden produce retail instead of parting with it wholesale in the morning. Behind the Malis are two rows of garlic tamarind onion and other relish sellers; and behind these again, touching the wall, sit dealers in chillies who are specially kept to this out-of-the-way place to avoid the nuisance which chillies cause when exposed to the sun and wind. The wholesale dealers carry on their business in the open air and generally finish their work before the sun gets strong. The retail dealers either open a large umbrella or stretch a cloth over their stalls to shelter themselves and their wares from the sun and rain. The dealings in green vegetables are carried on under the shade of one or two large banian trees in the north-west of the open space. The narrow strip of ground along the east of the palace wall, between the first two bastions from the north-east corner, is occupied by a front row of dealers in haberdashery; by a middle row of dealers in tobacco and spices; and in the space close under the wall by rope-selling Mangs. The space between the bastions further south is allotted to basket-makers, potters, dealers in old iron, old brass and copper vessels, and old furniture. The basket-makers or Buruds live in the houses across the road from their stalls. The potters store their wares in rented houses. Most of the dealers in ironware are Bohoras. On the south side of the palace, on the strip of ground to the east of the centre bastion, shoemakers and fisherwomen of the Bhoi caste sit in two lines facing each other. Only dry fish brought from the Konkan are sold here; fresh river fish are sold from door to door. The space to the west of the centre bastion is empty and is set apart as a carriage stand. On the west side of the palace, the strip of land to the south of the centre bastion is the grass market where bundles of green and dry grass and stalk fodder are stored. The trade in stalk fodder and, dry grass is brisk, the dealers making 1. to 2s. (Re. ½ -1) a day. Green grass is brought by villagers-from twelve miles round in head-loads and is offered for sale at 2¼d. to 4½d. (1½ - 3 as.) a load. The strip of land to the north of the centre bastion is held by dealers in firewood and cowdung-cakes about ten inches across and one inch thick. The firewood is cut in thirty pound
(¾ man) faggots worth 6d. to 1s. (4 -8 as.). The cowdung-cakes are
piled in small heaps and sold at ⅛d. to 1/16d. each (3-6 for ¼ a.). A few
timber-dealers buy trees in the villages round Poona, cut them, and dispose of
the fuel in the city at a large profit. On an average fairweather day in 1882, of all kinds of produce 185 cart-loads weighing
about seventy-nine tons (2220 mans) and worth about £210 (Rs. 2100)
were brought to the Mandai. Of the whole amount sixty cart-loads
weighing about twenty-six tons (720 mans) and worth £90 (Rs. 900)
were vegetables; twenty cart-loads weighing about nine tons (240 mans) and worth £60 (Rs. 600) were fruit; ten cart-loads weighing
about four tons (120 mans) and worth £5 (Rs. 50) were firewood;
eighty cart-loads weighing about thirty-four tons (960 mans) and
worth £40 (Rs. 400) were fodder; and fifteen cart-loads weighing about
six tons (180 mans) and worth £15 (Rs. 150) were miscellaneous.
On holidays and fast days specially large quantities of sweet potatoes
or ratalas and earthnuts or bhuimugs are generally sold. Oil
Sundays and Wednesdays a market is held in the afternoon to the
south and east of the Shanvar palace at which old furniture, books,
pictures, clothes, lamps, glassware, and lumber are sold by dealers from
the cantonment bazar. On these days also villagers from the country
round bring poultry and eggs, and carpenters bring stools, churns or ravis, pestles or musals, and two varieties of dishes called kathvats
and padgas. Upto 1862 the space to the north of the palace was used
for the half-weekly' cattle-market which is now held in the village of
Bhamburda across the Mutha to the west of the city. The Mandai
market is open every day in the year. Holidays are busier rather
than slacker than other days. The market is over by noon when the
municipal sweepers and water-carts come and sweep and water the
ground for next morning. Of the four smaller vegetable and fruit
markets, that held in the Kotval Chavdi or police office in Budhvar
ward is in a large building once the property of Government which in
1845 was sold to a private person. The three Bhajialis or vegetable
rows, one in Vetal ward and two in Aditvar ward, are open markets
where the dealers squat at the side of the street or in house verandas.
All these four smaller markets are open throughout the day. The
dealers, who are Kachis and Malis, buy their stocks at the Mandai
market in the early morning and sell at their stalls to consumers.
Mutton.
Of the six mutton markets, one in Kasba ward has twelve stalls, one
in Khatikali or Butchers' row near Subhansha in Ravivar ward has fourteen stalls, one in Durjansing's Paga in Ravivar ward has forty-eight stalls, one in Yetal ward has sixteen stalls, one in Bhavani ward has six stalls, and one in Nana ward has sixteen stalls. The mutton markets in Kasba, Yetal, Nana, and Bhavani wards have been built by the Municipality since 1877. The market in Durjan-sing's Paga is a large quadrangular private building hired by the Municipality and let to butchers. Butchers' row near Subhansha is the oldest mutton market in the city. Here the butchers have their private stalls or sell in the front rooms of their dwellings. They have a common slaughter-house. The Bhavani ward mutton market, is a private building fronting the main road leading to the cantonment bazar which is temporarily licensed by the Municipality for the sale of meat The municipal mutton marketsare built on a standard plan with detached
slaughter-houses. The stalls are arranged facing each other in a covered building on two feet high plinths with a central passage under the ridge. The side walls, which form the backs of the stalls, are carried to within two feet of the post plate and eaves of the roof. Each stall is six feet wide and seven feet long. It opens on the central passage and is separated from the next stalls by the posts which bear the roof. The whole of the inside stalls, as well as the passage, are paved and are washed daily. The slaughter-houses are paved and walled enclosures with an open entrance in one corner covered by a screen wall. Inside the pavement slopes to a gutter which drains into a cesspool dutside, the contents of which are removed daily. The private markets are ordinary sheds or chals with earthen floors and detached slaughter-yards. The number of animals daily slaughtered varies from sixty to 180 and averages 120, three-fourths of them sheep and one-fourth goats. The slaughtered animals are hung up to poles in the slaughter-houses, skinned, and dressed, and the mutton is carried to the market and hung by ropes from hooks in front of the stalls. The butcher sits on a piece of sacking or mat on the floor of the stall with the meat hanging in front of him and a block of wood resting against his legs. The customers stand outside or below the stall where they are served. Mutton sells at 2¼d. to 3d. (1½ - 2 as.) a pound. A butcher kills daily one to three sheep or goats according to demand. Buyers generally keep to one butcher and those that use meat daily settle accounts once a month. The butchers are Marathas and Muhammadans. Most animals are slaughtered by Musalman priests or mullas
who are paid ⅜d. to ¾d. (¼-½ a.) an animal. Musalmans kill animals the killer facing west with the animal's head to the south and the legs to the north. Jews, Bohoras, and some Marathas have peculiarities in the way of slaughtering animals and have compartments allotted to them at the slaughter-houses. The Bohoras do not kill the animals on the stone pavement but on wooden platforms. Some Marathas first offer the animal to the goddess Bohai and after killing it offer its head to the goddess. Jews have a special butcher and have compartments allotted to them at the different slaughter-houses.
Fish.
The three fish markets are to the south of the Shanvar palace and
in Aditvar and Vetal wards. In open ground to the south of the Shanvar palace forty or fifty stalls are kept daily by Bhoi women for the sale of dry Konkan fish. A well-built private fish market with twenty-four stalls arranged in rows in Aditvar ward back street is used chiefly for the sale of salt fish, with a few fresh fish in the evening. A third fish market is held in Vetal ward where fresh fish and a little dry fish are offered in an open plot. Women of the Bhoi caste are the chief fish-sellers and Kunbis from the neighbouring villages are the chief consumers.
Fuel.
The chief fuel of the upper and middle classes is firewood which is
brought in carts and sold at 8s. to 10s. (Rs.4-5) the cart-load. Cowdung-cakes are the main fuel of the bulk of the townspeople. A cart-load of about 500 cakes costs 4s. to 6s. (Rs. 2 - 3). Retail sales of firewood and cowdung-cakes are made at the Mandai under the west wall of Shanvar palace and in many private enclosures. The only market where a month's supply or other large quantity can be
bought is the Gadetal or Cart Stand in the north-east of Mangalvar
ward. This tal or stand is an open field, let only during the fair season,
where about 175 cart-loads of cowdung-fuel and 250 cart-loads of
firewood are daily brought and sold. Two large fodder markets are
open only during the fair season, the Cart Stand or Gadetal which is
also used as a fuel market and the sandy bed of the Mutha under
the Lakdi bridge to the north-west of the city. Kadba, that is
Indian millet or jvari stalks, is the chief fodder used in the city.
About 200 cart-loads, containing 100 to 200 bundles and selling at 8s. to 12s. (Rs. 4 - 6), are brought daily to the Gadetal and sixty
cart-loads to the Lakdi bridge market. Besides in these two chief
markets millet stalk and fodder can be bought retail in the Mandai
and in several other places in different parts of the city. Hay or grass
is stacked in large quantities beyond the Lakdi bridge and in the out
lying yards on the west of the Sadashiv ward. Hay is rarely used in
the city. Most of the dry grass goes to the military cantonment
where large quantities are used as horse-fodder. Fuel and fodder
are brought to the city markets by villagers in their own carts and
sold either to wholesale dealers or to consumers.
Grain.
The city has nine grain markets: Adte or Commission Agents' row in Nana ward, Dane or Grain row in Narayan ward, Dane row in Shukravar ward, Dane row in Budhvar ward, Dane row in Vetal ward, a rice market in Shukravar ward, pulse rows or Dalalis in Mangalvar Bhavani and Ganj wards, and a Maide or flour row in Aditvar ward. The chief food grains used in Poona are bajri, jvari, rice, and wheat, and of pulse tur and gram. Besides supplies from the villages round, bajri is brought from Vambhori a market town in Ahmadnagar,jvari from Sholapur, rice from West Poona and Thana and wheat and gram from the Upper Hills or Baleghat to the north-east of Sholapur. In special seasons grain comes from much greater distances. During the 1876-77 famine quantities of grain poured in from Central and Northern India and from Gujarat In ordinary years the grain merchants of Poona import only for local use; during the 1876-77 famine Poona became the chief grain centre for the Bombay Deccan. The chief market for wholesale grain dealings is the Adte Ali or Agents' row in Nana ward. About forty of these dealers, chiefly Marwar and Gujarat Vanis, have large houses with front and rear enclosures and grain stores in neighbouring streets. Imports by country carts are brought to market in the morning and sales are negotiated at once. Imports by rail are brought at noon and in the afternoon and are sold off next morning. Grain is generally bought and kept in stock in 200 pound (2½ mans) bags which are opened only when the grain has to be measured out. During the fair season large heaps of grain-bags lie in front of the shops or in the open enclosures. The grain-dealers either buy on their own account or act as agents for the purchase or sale of supplies for others in distant districts charging a three to five per cent commission. Residents in Poona who can afford it, buy their year's supply of grain at once. Bajri and jvari are bought in January and February, rice in November and December, and wheat and pulse in March and April. Except some retail grain-dealers of Narayan ward all retailers in the city buy in
the wholesale market of the Nana ward. They either buy a year's stock at the proper season or. as they sell off their stock according to the means at their command. The wholesale dealers are men of capital, the retail dealers borrow money and trade on the security of their stocks. The Narayan ward dealers are Marwar Vanis of small capital, and as many of them have money dealings with the landholders of West Poona, they buy direct from the villagers. Narayan ward has about thirty retail grain shops, and in the grain row in Shukravar ward, which is the leading retail grain market in the city, are about 105 grain shops. Vetal ward has fifteen shops and Apa Balvant street in Budhvar ward has forty. In the wholesale markets grain is measured and sold as it comes. In the retail markets it is dried in the sun, winnowed in the breeze, cleaned, and laid out, if the quantities be large in bags, and if small in baskets, in the shops, at the street sides, or on the shop boards. All retail grain-dealers are Marathas. They keep their shops open all day, but most business is done in the evening. They earn 2S. to 6s. (Rs. 1-3) a day. The Mavlis or West Poona landholders bring their rice to market in head-loads or on ponies generally in November and December and only on Mondays or Thursdays. They go to the grain row in Shukravar ward, where each retail-grain dealer has his own west highland villagers who go only to his shop. The dealers either sell on commission on account of the growers who bring their produce to market, or they buy wholesale from the growers on their own account and sell afterwards.
Pulse Splitting.
In Poona the making of gram, tur, and other pod-seeds into pulse is a distinct calling carried on by Pardeshi or North Indian and Maratha dalvalas or pulse-splitters. The beans are soaked in water in large earthen pots for an hour or two, and laid in the sun to dry, which helps to separate the husk from the seed. When the beans are dry they are lightly ground in large stone handmills, the upper piece of which is balanced on a pivot and lowered or raised at will so as to keep the two pieces far enough apart to split without crushing the beans. After being split the beans are winnowed and sifted and the split pulse is ready for sale. The husk or phol and the refuse or chun are sold as food for milch-cattle. Pulse-makers work and sell in three parts of the city: in thirteen shops in pulse row or Dal Ali in Mangalvar ward, in forty-five shops in Dal Ali in Bhavani ward, and in sixty shops in Dal Ali in Ganj ward. During the hot season, when only they work, the pulse-dealers make 2s. to 4,s. (Rs. 1 - 2) a day. All are well-to-do.
Flour Grinding,
A part of east Aditvar street is held by Maratha flour-grinders or maidevalas. In making flour, as in splitting pulse, the grain is soaked in water and dried in the sun, and is then ground as fine as possible. The flour is afterwards sifted through a sieve, the fine flour being separated from the coarse flour or rava. The coarse flour, which is valued the most, sells at 1¼d. (5/6.) a pound, while the fine flour sells at 1d.(2/3 a.) the pound. The refuse is not used for human food. Both the first and the second flours form the chief part of all festive Hindu dainties. Flour-grinders, of whom there are nine grinding-houses and twelve shops in Maide or Flour row, make about 4s. (Rs. 2) a day in the busy marriage season and 2s. (Re. 1) a day at other times,
Grocery.
Retail grocers' shops are scattered all over the city. Almost every
street has one or more. The chief centres of the grocery trade are four:
in Bhavani ward, in Adte or Agents' row in Aditvar, in Moti Chauk
or Pearl Square, and in the main street of Vetal ward. The Adtes
or commission agents of Bhavani ward are Lingayat and Dakshani Vanis who receive consignments from Bombay and up-country
merchants and sell them locally or send them to Bombay or other large markets. In no case do these agents keep goods in Poona more than a few days and they do business only on commission. The chief articles which pass through their hands are gul or raw sugar, oil, tobacco, ghi or clarified butter, and refined sugar. Their business is brisk both just before and just after the rains. During the rainy season, from June to October, they are almost idle. The grocers of the Aditvar and Vetal wards deal in all kinds of grocery, importing from Bombay and up-country trade centres but selling only in Poona. They have retail shops as well as large warehouses at which they do wholesale business. All are Gujarat Vanis chiefly Vaishnavs and are men of capital. Their yearly dealings average £10,000 to £15,000 (Rs. 1 - 1½ lakhs) and their yearly profits £200 to £500 (Rs. 2000-5000). Retail grocers, most of whom are Gujarat Vanis and a few are Brahmans, have capitals of £50 to £500 (Rs. 500 - 5000), most of it their own, and make £2 to £5 (Rs. 20 - 50) a month. A grocer sits on a box or on a raised mud platform, keeps his articles arranged round him in baskets or bags, those most in demand within arm's length, oil in a leather jar, and costly articles and rarities hung overhead in bags with labels. Dry goods are served in waste paper or green leaves, and liquids in pots and bottles which the customer brings with him. Grocers look greasy and dirty and are slovenly in their business.
Metals.
An account of the Poona metal work, which is one of the
chief industries of the city, is given in the Craft chapter. [See Part II pp. 174-185.] Poona has three leading metal marts in the main street of Aditvar ward south of the Pearl Square or Moti Chauk, further south near Subhansha's house, and in the main street of Vetal ward. The dealers are Kasars who do all the local business. The export of brass and copper vessels is carried on by Marwar and Gujarat Vanis, who are more pushing than the Kasars. The Pearl Square Kasars sell ready-made cooking and water pots. The Marwaris near Subhansha's tomb confine themselves mostly to the making of bells, small cups, lotas, saucers, and other castings, while the Gujaratis in Vetal Peth chiefly make large vessels. The vessels are arranged in tiers in the shops, the smaller articles being. hung from the roof in bundles. Two branch streets, both called. Taveali or Ironpan row, are given entirely to the making and sale of iron pots and pans of English sheet iron. The pots are made and sold in the same place, the shops and workhouses being in the same building. The business is in the hands of poor Marathas who borrow capital at twelve to twenty-four per cent a year, and, though they make a fair profit, generally spend all their earnings. Copper
brass and iron sheeting is brought into Poona in large quantities. It is worked into all the forms and sizes of pots required by Hindus and other classes for house use. The vessels are sent to the Nizam's dominions, the Berars, and the Bombay Karnatak. The export trade and the bulk of the profits are almost exclusively in the hands of the Marwar and Gujarat Vanis, the Kasar and Maratha workmen not making more than a comfortable living out of their calling. Metal sheets are sold only in the main street of the Vetal ward.
Cloth.
Poona City has three cloth markets: the Kapadganj or Cloth Store in
the Aditvar ward, the Bohori-ali also in Aditvar ward, and the Kapadali and Cholkhan-ali or Bodice-row in Budhvar ward. The dealers in the Aditvar ward Kapadganj are all Marwaris. Those in Bohori-ali are chiefly Bohoras, with a few Marathas and Brahmans. The cloth-sellers in Budhvar ward are chiefly Shimpis. The Marwaris of the Aditvar Kapadganj are the largest traders. They do business both wholesale and retail and almost exclusively in hand-made cloth. The chief marts from which cloth is brought are Nagpur Ahmadabad and Dharwar for the finer cotton-goods, Yeola and the local looms for silks and embroidered cloth, and Sholapur for the rougher waist-cloths and robes used by the poorer classes. The Shimpis of Budhvar ward also deal in the poorer kinds of hand-woven cloth. They supply the middle and low class demand, and the Marwar Vanis supply the rich. The Bohonis and other dealers of the Bohori-ali sell all kinds of European piece-goods as well as the produce of the Bombay mills. Kinkhabs or embroidered silks and coloured China and European silks are also sold by the Bohoras. The Shimpis of Cholkhan-ali or Bodice-row sell nothing but the variegated cloth of which Hindu women make their bodiees. There is more variety in the colour, making, striping, and bordering of bodicecloth than of any other cloth. A cloth-merchant's shop generally consists of an outer or shop room and an inner room used as a godown or store. The shop is scrupulously clean, and cushions are spread round the foot of the walls for customers to sit on and lean against. The goods are kept in shelves along the walls. The shop fronts are shaded by red curtains which keep off the glare and dust and by causing a mellow ruddy light show articles, especially coloured goods, to advantage. All the leading cloth merchants of Poona are men of capital and do a large business. Minor dealers work with borrowed capital. The profits vary greatly according to individual dealings perhaps from £1 to £40 (Rs. 10 - 400) a month.
Jewelry.
Small silver and gold articles of personal decoration are sold in
Moti Chauk or Pearl Square street in Aditvar ward by Sonars, Gujarat Vanis, and a few Brahmans. Old ornaments are also bought, re-made, cleaned, and sold. The more expensive jewelry, pearls diamonds and other precious stones, are sold by jewellers who have no regular shops but whose houses are well known. They generally sell at their own houses, but when required carry articles to their customers. Moti Chauk has about fifty shops, in which necklets anklets bracelets, and ear and nose rings are shown on stools, and the richer ornaments in glass cases. The shopkeepers squat on cushions and their shops are always neat. Trade is brisk during the
marriage season. They are not men of capital, but their business yields them a comfortable living.
Timber.
At two markets in Poona City building timber is sold. One is in
the west end of Sadashiv ward, the other is in Pangul row in Ganesh ward, the main and east streets on the borders of the Nagjhari
stream. Timber is sold in logs as brought from the forest. Except heavy logs which are laid flat on the ground, the timber for sale is set on. end in lines in large enclosures leaning against walls or on poles stretched on supports. Teak is the chief timber. As no local teak of any size is available, Maulmain or Malabar teak is brought by rail from Bombay. The Maratha timber-dealers of Sadashiv ward deal only in local teak and old timber. The timber-dealers of Ganesh ward are Konkan Musalmans who deal both in imported and in local teak. Timber is generally sold by the piece or log, the cubic measurement being taken only in dealings with Government. About forty-seven timber-dealers make £50 to £200 (Its. 500 -2000) a year.
Snuff and Tobacco.
Poona has the largest snuff and tobacco market in the Deccan. About seventy-five tons (2108 Bengal mans) of tobacco are brought
every year from the Kanarese and Deccan districts. It is cured, cat,;
dressed, and spiced for chewing or ground into snuff. The Tambakhu
row in Shukravar ward and the two Tapkir rows in Budhvar and
Shanvar are entirely given to the caring of tobacco. Large quantities
of tobacco are used in Poona, the better classes who do not smoke chewing
tobacco. Poona-made snuff is sent in large quantities to all
parts of India. A tobacco or snuff shop differs little from a groeer's
shop except that the curing and dressing of the tobacco or the pounding,
into snuff is carried on in the shop itself. The leading tobacco
dealers are Lingayat Vanis and Brahmans, the Brahmans confining
themselves chiefly to snuff-making. The Lingayats do more business
than the Brahmans and earn £40 to £80 (Its. 400 - 800) a year.
The Brahman snuff-makers make £20 to £40 (Its. 200 - 400). All
classes take snuff, especially Brahmans and elderly women of other
castes.
Stationery.
Poona has two markets for the sale of stationery, one in Budhvar
main street and the other in the Bohori-ali of Aditvar main street.
These shops sell a mixture of stationery, peddlery, and haberdashery.
The business was formerly wholly in the hands of Bohoras, but of late
a number of Brahmans have opened stationery and haberdashery shope
as being easy to manage and requiring little training. Stationers show
their wares in cases, cupboards, or shelves, or hang them from the
shop-roof. They make £1 10s. to £5 (Its. 15 - 50) a month.
Spice Sellers.
In the main street of Budhvar ward are the shops of Gandhis who sell
scented oil, incense, perfumes, and preserved fruit. The oils are kept in leather jars and sold in small Indian-made glass phials shaped like wine decanters. Dry perfumes are served wrapped in paper, and peaches and other preserved fruit are kept in lacquered earthen jars Gandhis make high profits in proportion to their capital, but their business is small and is confined almost entirely to festive times. About twenty-six Gandhis make £2 10s. to £7 10s. (Rs. 25 - 75) a month.
Flower Sellers.
The Flower Sellers, for which Poona is famous, have two regular
markets. In an open veranda with a boarded floor the Phul-malis,
generally the men, sit with baskets of flowers, according to the season,
around them and a wet cloth spread in front of them. With a needle
and thread they keep stringing garlands, nosegays, and bouquets,
and attend to customers as they call. In the gardens round the city plots of flowering plants are regularly grown and let to Malis for the season's flowers. The Mali's wife and children pluck the flowers in the evening before they are fully open and carry them homo in baskets covered with green leaves, generally plantain leaves as plaintain leaves keep flowers cooler than other leaves. Next morning the Mali carries the baskets to his shop, strings them into garlands and wreaths, and sells them to customers. The flower-man is always busy at festive times. Of the two flower markets, one is in Budhvar ward opposite the site of the late Budhvar palace, the other is in Vetal ward which is known as Flower Square or Ful-chauk. About twenty-three Malis have flower shops in the two markets and earn £1 to £1 10s. (Rs. 10-15) a month.
Animals.
The Poona Cattle Market is held in open ground at Bhamburda
village close to the west of the city. It is held on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons. The animals sold are bullocks, buffaloes, cows, ponies, sheep, and goats. About 100 bullocks, 40 buffaloes, 25 ponies, and 90 goats are brought to market on each market day. Bargains are made through dalals or brokers.
Management.
The details regarding the management of the city come under four heads civil, criminal, police, and municipal. The civil work is managed by three sub-judges, a Small Cause Court, and an arbitration court. The criminal work is managed by two stipendiary magistrates, one of the first and one of the second class, and three honorary magistrates, one of the first class and two of the third class, who hold their courts twice a week. The city police consists of one inspector, three chief constables, forty-two head constables, two mounted police and 198 constables. [Details are given above under Justice pp. 1-40.]
Municipality.
The Municipality was established in 1856-57 and the management of its affairs entrusted to a committee of thirty members, nine of whom were ex-officio Government officials and twenty-one non-official nominated members. In 1874 the number of the committee was raised to thirty-six of whom nine were ex-officio Government officials and twenty-seven were nominated members. In April 1883 the number was fixed at twenty-eight members, twelve elected, seven nominated, and nine ex-officio Government officials to be ultimately reduced to five, when the committee will consist of twenty-four members. The executive administration is entrusted to a managing committee of seven elected members. The managing body elect one of their members as chairman who holds office for one year. The general body holds four quarterly meetings and the managing committee meets once a week. The municipality has an executive salaried staff of four, a secretary, an engineer with fourteen subordinates, a health officer with nine subordinates, and a
superintendent of octroi with seventy subordinates. The monthly establishment charges amount to about £226 (Rs. 2260). The following table shows the municipal income, its sources, and incidence from 1858
Poona City Municipal Revenue, 1858-1883.
|
YEAR. |
DIRECT TAXATION. |
INDIRECT TAXATION. |
REMARKS. |
|
Amount. |
Incidence. |
Amount. |
Incidence. |
|
|
£. |
S. |
S. |
d. |
£. |
s. |
8. |
d. |
|
1858-59 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
(a)2573 |
14 |
0 |
6 ⅞ |
(a) Toll established. |
1859-60 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
2970 |
2 |
0 |
8¼ |
1860-61 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
3263 |
16 |
0 |
8 ⅝ |
(b) Government contribution being residue of municipal funds. |
1861-62 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
3110 |
12 |
0 |
8¼ |
1862-63 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
3145 |
16 |
0 |
8 ⅜ |
1863-64 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
2815 |
6 |
0 |
7 ⅝ |
1864-65 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
2730 |
2 |
0 |
7¼ |
1865-66 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
3191 |
14 |
0 |
8 ⅜ |
1866-67 |
(c)2503 |
18 |
0 |
6 ⅝ |
3571 |
0 |
0 |
8 ⅝ |
(c) House tax imposed. |
1867-68 |
2553 |
10 |
0 |
6¾ |
4620 |
0 |
0 |
11¾ |
1868-69 |
2946 |
4 |
0 |
7¾ |
4350 |
0 |
0 |
11½ |
1869-70 |
1737 |
14 |
0 |
4 ⅝ |
(d)10,801 |
0 |
2 |
4 ⅞ |
(d) Octroi substituted in place of toll. |
1870-71 |
1965 |
0 |
0 |
5⅛ |
11,418 |
0 |
2 |
5⅛ |
1871-72 |
742 |
14 |
0 |
2 |
9130 |
0 |
2 |
¼ |
1872-73 |
1364 |
8 |
0 |
3 ⅝ |
8087 |
16 |
1 |
9 |
1873-74 |
2767 |
10 |
0 |
7 ⅜ |
8010 |
0 |
1 |
8¾ |
1874-75 |
2096 |
8 |
0 |
5½ |
7810 |
0 |
1 |
8½ |
1875-76 |
(e)2943 |
14 |
0 |
8 ⅛ |
9252 |
10 |
2 |
⅜ |
(e) Water rate imposed, |
1876-77 |
(f)3286 |
16 |
0 |
8¾ |
10,687 |
6 |
3 |
¼ |
(f) Wheel tax imposed. |
1877-78 |
3238 |
16 |
0 |
8½ |
8546 |
8 |
1 |
10¼ |
1878-79 |
(g)4294 |
8 |
0 |
11 ⅜ |
9944 |
10 |
2 |
2 ⅛ |
(g) Privy cess imposed. |
1879-80 |
5651 |
6 |
1 |
1 ⅝ |
9721 |
6 |
2 |
1 ⅛ |
(h) Poudrette manufacture established. |
1880-81 |
6348 |
6 |
1 |
3 ⅜ |
9949 |
12 |
2 |
0 |
1881-82 |
6680 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
12,383 |
0 |
2 |
5¾ |
1882-83 |
6030 |
16 |
1 |
2¼ |
12,698 |
8 |
2 |
6½ |
continued..
|
YEAR. |
MISCELLANEOUS. |
TOTAL. |
REMARKS. |
|
Amount. |
Incidence. |
Amount. |
Incidence. |
|
|
£ |
s. |
s. |
d. |
£ |
S. |
8. |
d. |
|
1858-59 |
226 |
16 |
0 |
⅝ |
2800 |
10 |
0 |
7 ⅛ |
(a) Toll established. |
1859-60 |
197 |
4 |
0 |
½ |
3167 |
6 |
0 |
8 |
1860-61 |
(b)1241 |
16 |
0 |
3 ⅝ |
4505 |
12 |
0 |
11 ⅜ |
(b) Government contribution being residue of municipal funds. |
1861-62 |
270 |
12 |
0 |
⅝ |
3381 |
4 |
0 |
8¾ |
1862-63 |
185 |
8 |
0 |
½ |
3331 |
4 |
0 |
8 ⅜ |
1863-64 |
263 |
2 |
0 |
¾ |
3078 |
8 |
0 |
8 ⅝ |
1864-65 |
418 |
18 |
0 |
1 |
3149 |
0 |
0 |
8 ⅜ |
1865-66 |
696 |
10 |
0 |
2 ⅝ |
3788 |
4 |
0 |
9½ |
1866-67 |
531 |
8 |
0 |
1¼ |
6006 |
6 |
1 |
4¼ |
(c) House tax imposed. |
1867-68 |
371 |
6 |
0 |
⅞ |
7444 |
16 |
1 |
7 |
1868-69 |
506 |
10 |
0 |
1¼ |
7802 |
14 |
1 |
8 |
1869-70 |
444 |
2 |
0 |
1 ⅛ |
12,982 |
16 |
2 |
8¼ |
(d) Octroi substituted in place of toll. |
1870-71 |
712 |
6 |
0 |
1¾ |
14,095 |
16 |
2 |
9 ⅛ |
1871-72 |
882 |
6 |
1 |
3¼ |
10,755 |
6 |
3 |
5½ |
1872-73 |
861 |
16 |
0 |
2 ⅛ |
10,314 |
0 |
2 |
3½ |
1873-74 |
671 |
12 |
0 |
1¾ |
11,449 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
1874-75 |
763 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
10,669 |
12 |
2 |
4 ⅜ |
1875-76 |
838 |
6 |
0 |
3 ⅞ |
13,034 |
10 |
2 |
10¼ |
(e) Water rate imposed, |
1876-77 |
839 |
18 |
0 |
2 ⅛ |
14,814 |
0 |
3 |
11 ⅝ |
(f) Wheel tax imposed. |
1877-78 |
820 |
10 |
0 |
2 ⅛ |
12,605 |
14 |
2 |
7½ |
1878-79 |
1125 |
18 |
0 |
2 ⅞ |
15,364 |
16 |
3 |
3¼ |
(g) Privy cess imposed. |
1879-80 |
(h) 688 |
12 |
0 |
3 ⅞ |
16,961 |
4 |
3 |
6½ |
(h) Poudrette manufacture established. |
1880-81 |
1999 |
0 |
0 |
4¾ |
18,296 |
18 |
3 |
8 ⅛ |
1881-82 |
4118 |
14 |
0 |
9 ⅞ |
23,181 |
16 |
4 |
7 ⅞ |
1882-83 |
4574 |
16 |
0 |
11 |
23,304 |
0 |
4 |
8 ⅛ |
The 1858-59 income began with £2800 (Rs. 28,000) chiefly from
tolls. In 1860-61 it rose to £4505 (Rs. 45,050) chiefly from a
Government contribution of £1242 (Rs. 12,420). In 1860-67 a
house-tax yielding £2504 (Rs. 25,040) was imposed and the income
rose to £6606 (Rs. 66,060). In 1869-70 octroi took the place of tolls
and the income rose to £12,983 (Rs. 1,29,830). In 1875-76 a water-rate was imposed and the farming system, which had brought down
octroi from £10,801 to £7810 (Rs. 1,08,010-Rs.78,100) in 1874-75
was abolished. The water-rate was imposed to meet a new liability
of £1000 (Rs. 10,000) which the municipality incurred by entering
into a contract with Government for water from the Mutha canal
which had just been opened. In 1876 the proceeds of a wheel-tax
and the departmental collection of octroi brought up the income
to £14,814 (Rs. 1,48,140). In 1878-79 a privy cess was imposed
and a poudrette manufacture started in 1879-80. From £16,961
(Rs. 1,69,610) in 1879-80 the income rose to £23,304 (Rs. 2,33,040)
in 1882-83 the chief increase being from octroi and poudrette, the
income from poudrette alone being £4574 (Rs. 45,740) as the demand
for manure rose greatly with the increase in wet cultivation due
to the opening of the Mutha canal. Since 1882-83 the price of
molasses has fallen, sugar cultivation has decreased, and with it the
demand for poudrette.
The municipality maintains four fire engines, contributes yearly £500 (Rs. 5000) towards the cost of the city police and lights the city roads at a yearly cost of £1000 (Rs. 10,000). Tie city conservancy
is done by manual labour. The streets are daily swept by women sweepers and the garbage and house refuse are gathered in 300 dust-bins placed at convenient distances along the streets. From the bins the sweepings are partly sold to potters and partly carted to a store half a mile to the south of the city, where they are piled in heaps and burnt to ashes. The potters remove the rubbish to their kilns on their own donkeys and pay the municipality £500 to £000 (Rs. 5000 - 6000) a year. The ashes prepared at the store are carted to the poudrette works. The municipality maintains 150 road sweepers and twenty-five dry rubbish carts for road sweepings and garbage which they cart at a cost of £140 (Rs. 1400). At a yearly cost of £3500 (Rs. 35,000) the municipality employs 280 scavengers to collect nightsoil from 7800 private privies and fifty-four public latrines with 286 seats, and twenty-eight iron barrel carts to remove the nightsoil to the poudrette works. The nightsoil and ashes are mixed in. open beds at the works and exposed to the sun to be dried. The deposit is daily raked up and a little fresh ashes are added at each raking. When dry, the mixture becomes inoffensive to smell or sight. The proceeds of the poudrette, of which about 6000 tons are yearly turned out, amount to £360p (Rs. 36,000) against a total conservancy charge of £5000 (Rs. 50,000).
The municipality has moved thirty-six potters' kilns and twenty-eight tanneries outside municipal limits, and has placed under control dyers butchers and others who practise the less offensive trades and
has confined them to particular places. Six slaughter-houses and meat markets have been built in convenient places; three burial grounds are provided on three sides outside municipal limits, and two burning grounds have been built on the Mutha bank one for Brahmans near the Omkareshvar temple, and the other for Marathas and others near the Lakdi Pul to the south-west of the city. The old burning ground was near the meeting of the Mula-Mutha. Within the city are seventy-two partly used burial grounds. Most of them are used by Muhammadans, five or six by low caste Hindus, and two by Christians. It is hoped that these burial grounds may be closed by degrees. The registration of births and deaths has been made compulsory, and the registers showed a death-rate in 1882-83 of twenty-four to the thousand. About 3000 children are yearly vaccinated by two municipal vaccinators.
Drainage.
Two-thirds of the city, including the nine wards to the west of the Nagjhari stream, have under-ground sewers into which house and privy drains carry the sullage and liquid discharges. The sewers empty into an intercepting drain 2½ feet broad and 4½ feet deep arched over on the top. The intercepting drain called the Gandha Nala is carried along the river bank from one end to the other of the city where it discharges into the river. One sewer discharges into the Nagjhari stream itself. The sewers are faulty in shape and material and do not work well. They are either mere rectangular cuts or channels in the ground varying from six to eighteen inches in size, lined with stone without cement, and covered with loose slabs or irregular blocks of stone. The sewers have often to be opened and cleared of the solid deposit which continually
gathers in them and oozes into the adjacent ground. The eastern
third of the city has no sewers. A new drainage scheme designed
on the latest scientific principles is now under the consideration of
the municipality.
Where there are no sewers, the sullage is gathered outside each house in a pit, and removed to gardens outside municipal limits. The
sewers were built with the aqueducts about 1782 by Madhavrav the
seventh Peshwa (1774 -1795).
The natural drainage of the city is good and the surface of the
streets and gullies is completely washed every rainy season. This
yearly washing adds greatly to the cleanness and healthiness
of the city. The city has a fall from south to north of about
seventy feet, being fifty feet a mile. The westmost part slopes west
into the Ambil Odha stream which runs south-east to north-west
a long the western limits of the city. In the heart of the city the
Nagjhari stream, which rises in the hills 1 ½ miles to the south of the
city, runs through it from south to north, and drains both banks for
half a mile on either side. The eastern half mile of the city drains
into the Manik stream which runs south to north and forms the
eastern boundary of the city.
Roads.
The city has thirty-eight miles of made roads fifteen to forty feet
wide, and sixteen miles of lanes and alleys varying from six to fifteen
feet wide. The roads are metalled, the chief roads yearly, and the
others as they wear out every second third or fourth year. The yearly
cost of maintenance is £2000 (Rs. 20,000). The chief alleys are
gravelled every year, and the minor lanes every second year at a
yearly cost of £200 (Rs. 2000). The chief streets are watered from
the beginning of February to the end of June at a yearly cost of
£300 (Its. 3000). All the streets and lanes are lighted on dark
nights at a cost of £1000 (Us. 10,000) with 660 kerosine lamps placed
about 120 yards apart.
Water Supply.
The city has an abundant water-supply. It has 1290 wells, but
except some in gardens and in the outskirts of the city, though used more or less for washing and bathing, all are brackish and unfit for drinking. The Mutha,
which skirts the city for two miles on its north and west boundaries, is also
largely used for washing and bathing and affords almost the only water for cattle. Since the opening of the Mutha canal along the high ground to the south of the city the Nagjhari stream which crosses the city, and the Manik stream which forms its eastern boundary, hold water throughout the year and are largely used for washing and bathing. Where within reach the runnels from the canal are also used for washing and bathing.
The drinking water comes from four private aqueducts and from the Mutha canal. It is now pretty evenly distributed over the city though parts of Shukravar, Vetal, Ganj, Ghorpade, Bhavani, Nana, Rastia Nyahal, Somvar, and Mangalvar wards have a scantier supply than the low-lying southern and northern wards. The water is delivered in to dipping wells, and, where abundant, is used for bathing and washing The city has eighty-four dipping wells and seventy-five stand-pipes and 1150 houses have water laid on to them. The four private aqueducts are the Katraj with a daily supply of 650,000 gallons, the
Chaudhari aqueduct of 50,000 gallons, the Nana Fadnavis aqueduct of 100,000 gallons, and the Rastia aqueduct of 50,000 gallons. The Mutha canal gives a supply of 650,000 gallons, making a total daily supply of 1,500,000 gallons that is a daily average of fifteen gallons a head.
Aqueducts.
The Katraj aqueduct was built about 1750 by the third Peshwa Balaji Bajirav (1740-1761). The source of the aqueduct is in two ponds impounded by masonry dams in the Katraj valley four miles south of the city. The two ponds, which lie one below the other, the upper feeding the lower, are fed by the drainage of the valley through sluices. The water of the first floods is carried off by diverting channels cut along the pond sides and only the water of the latter rains is taken. The supply of the ponds does not wholly depend on the impounded water, as much of it comes from springs in the pond beds. The springs are caught in a masonry duct at the bottom of the lower pond and let into the channel of the aqueduct. The water of the ponds passes into the aqueduct by six-inch openings in the dam, the openings being two feet apart along the dam face. The aqueduct is an arched masonry work about 2' 6" wide, six feet high, and over four miles long. It is large enough for men to walk through and work in when removing silt or making repairs. The line of the duct is intercepted at about every 100 yards by seventy wells sunk four to ten feet below the level of the bottom of the duct, and raised a few feet above the surface of the ground. The wells act as air shafts and settling ponds where the silt is laid and the pure water allowed to pass into the duct. In every fourth or fifth well, the outlet of the duct is blocked with masonry, the discharge of the water being regulated through holes three to six inches in diameter. The aqueduct has a greatest discharge of a water volume of a sectional area of about 144 square inches, and ordinarily of six to 7½ square inches or three gallons a second. As a break of head occurs at each intercepting well the flow of water is small. As much of the channel is cut to a considerable depth below the ground, it taps numerous small springs along its course, and in three or four places has water let into it from independent wells by its side. As a feeder to the Katraj aqueduct and a place of recreation and ornament, Balaji Bajirav the third Peshwa (1740-1761) built in 1755 the Parvati lake at the south-west corner of the city, by scooping out and enlarging the Ambil Odha stream and clearing for the lake a space measuring 550 yards by 225 containing twenty-five acres. [Details are given below under Parvati Lake (91).] The Ambil Odha stream has been dammed and diverted, and sluices
provided in the dam to fill the lake from the floods of the stream, Three smaller lakes are formed in the old channel, where the lotus plant is largely grown for its flowers. The surplus discharge from, the Katraj aqueduct finds an outlet into the Parvati lake which also serves as a feeder to the aqueduct when the Katraj lake or aqueduct is under repair.
The Nana Fadnavis aqueduct was built about the year 1790 by Nana Fadnavis. It is a small work and supplies only two dipping
wells and the Vishrambag palace(40). The aqueduct is brought from a well in Narhe Ambegaon village six miles south of the city, and is built in the same style as the Katraj aqueduct, but smaller, consisting of nine-inch tiles embedded in masonry. The Rastia and Chaudhari aqueducts are built like the Nana "Fadnavis aqueduct. Both rise from springs in Kondva village seven miles south-west of the city, and are led to public dipping wells near the Rastia and Chaudhari mansions. The date of both is somewhat later than that of Nana's duct. The municipality maintains only the Katraj aqueduct. The three other ducts are maintained by the descendants of Nana, Rastia, and Chaudhari.
Mutha Canal Supply.
The [Contributed by Mr. W. Clerke, M.Inst. C.E.] Mutha canal supplies both the city and the cantonment
of Poona with drinking water. There are two distinct systems of
supply, one for the city the other for the cantonment. The supply for the city is taken off one mile to the east of Parvati hill, strained through filter beds of sand and charcoal and distributed in iron pipes throughout the city.
The chief part of the cantonment supply of drinking water is drawn from the canal about 200 yards east of St. Mary's church (109). The water-supply arrangements include four parts: (1) a water wheel which furnishes the motive power; (2) a system of pumps by which the water from the canal is pumped into the settling ponds and the filtered water is pumped about 770 yards south into the middle, and about 450 yards further south into the upper service, reservoirs; (3) settling ponds and filter beds with distributing mains; and (4) middle and upper service reservoirs with distributing mains. The water wheel, of about fifty horse-power, is of the form known as Poncelet's undershot wheel. It is sixteen feet in diameter and thirteen feet broad. It stands in the bed of the canal which at this point is given a drop of 2.75 feet to-obtain the necessary head of water. The pumps, which consist of a set of three centrifugal pumps and a pair of three throw force pumps are placed in a corrugated iron shed on the left hand of the canal; the power is passed from the wheel to the pumps by a system of spur and bevelled gearing and belting. The centrifugal pumps send the water from the canal into the settling ponds and the filtered water from- the dispense cistern into the middle service reservoir. The force pumps are used for sending the filtered water about 1200 yards south into the upper service reservoir which is too high to be reached by the centrifugal pumps. In the shed with the pumps a horizontal steam engine of about twenty-five nominal horse-power is also fitted up which can be geared on to work the pumps if any accident happens to the water wheel or the canal. The settling pond and filter beds are about twenty yards from the canal on its right bank. They consist of two settling ponds built of rubble masonry each 100 feet long by eighty feet broad and eleven feet deep, into which the water from the canal is forced by the centrifugal pumps through main pipes laid across the canal. The filter beds, which are on the north or canal side of the settling ponds, are two rubble masonry cisterns each 100 feet long by seventy broad and seven
deep to the top of the filtering material, a four feet thick bed of sand and charcoal. The water is led from the settling ponds by an arrangement of pipes and valves into each of the filter beds through a semicircular haud or cistern the lip of which is level with the top of the filter bed. The water passes through the sand and charcoal of the filter bed and is gathered in porous pipe drains and led into the dispense cistern (100' x 20') which lies between the two filter beds. From the dispense cistern the filtered water is drawn off by two mains, one of which conveys water for distribution to the lower part of the cantonment and the other carries the filtered water to the pumps by which it is pumped about 770 yards south to the middle and about 450 yards further south to the upper service reservoirs. The middle service reservoir at the Vanavdi Barracks (116), about 770 yards south of the filter beds, is built of rubble masonry in the form of a regular pentagon each side 100 feet long. Its flooring is of concrete and the depth of water is ten feet; in the centre is a masonry pillar from which wire ropes stretch to the sides, and over the wire ropes is laid a corrugated iron covering. From the reservoir the water is led by a nine-inch main pipe for distribution in the higher parts of the cantonment not commanded by the dispense cistern. The upper service reservoir is about 450 yards further south near the Military Prison (85), and, except that its sides are only fifty feet long, it is in every respect like the middle service reservoir. From the upper service reservoir the water is led by a six-inch main for distribution in the Vanavdi Barracks and in a few parts of the cantonment which are too high to be commanded by the middle service reservoir. In addition to these arrangements water is drawn direct from the canal near the end of East Street into a settling pond (120'X 60'x 8') from which it is passed through a filter and drawn off by a twelve-inch main for distribution in the lower parts of the Sadar Bazar. The daily city consumption from both the canal and the aqueducts is during the cold weather (1884) about 500,000 gallons and in the hot weather about 600,000 gallons. The existing arrangements are capable of meeting a daily demand of about 1,000,000 gallons. The municipality pays £1000 (Rs. 10,000) a year to Government for the canal water, provided the daily quantity drawn does not exceed 750,000 gallons. Excess water is paid for at 4½ d. (3 as.) the thousand gallons.
Medical Institutions.
Poona [Compare above Chapter XII. pp. 66-67.] has six medical institutions where medical aid is given free
of charge. Two of them the Civil Hospital (101) beyond municipal limits and the Lunatic Asylum are Government institutions; two are municipal dispensaries in the Shanvar and Nana wards; and two, the Khan Bahadur Pestanji Sorabji Charitable Dispensary and the Sassoon Infirm Asylum (30) are works of private charity. Of private practitioners according to the English system of medicine three medical licentiates have dispensaries and several, chiefly retired Government servants, give medical advice, the medicine being obtained from three dispensing shops, two in Budhvar and one in Aditvar ward. The city has many practitioners of native medicine six- of whom, one of them a Musalman, enjoy large practice. The Civil Hospital is in a building near the railway station called after the late
Mr. David Sassoon who contributed largely towards its construction. It has a senior and a junior surgeon, a resident apothecary, a matron, and two assistant surgeons, lecturers to vernacular medical classes attached to the hospital and in charge of in-door patients. The daily average attendance at the hospital is 162 of whom ninety-four are in-door patients. The Civil Surgeon is also in charge of the Lunatic Asylum which is in a Government building within municipal limits, and has a resident hospital assistant. It has an average of sixty lunatics. The Khan Bahadur Pestanji Sorabji Charitable Dispensary, endowed by the gentleman whose name it bears, is maintained by Government and is in charge of an assistant surgeon. The daily attendance averages 115. The two municipal dispensaries in the Shanvar and Nana wards take no in-patients. The daily out-door attendance is 120 in the Shanvar
ward and eighty in the Nana ward dispensary. The Sassoon Infirm Asylum (30),
started by the late Mr. David Sassoon and managed by a committee, has sixty-five inmates. It is maintained from the interest of a fund of £5500 (Its. 55,000) mostly contributed by Mr. Sassoon and a yearly municipal contribution of £120 (Rs. 1200).
Educational Institutions.
Poona City has 116 educational institutions, twenty-four of them Government and
ninety-four private. Of the twenty-four Government institutions four are colleges and twenty are schools. Of the four colleges one is an Arts College with 140 pupils and a daily average attendance of 122; one is a Science College in three divisions with 138 pupils and a daily attendance of 118; and two are vernacular Training Colleges, one for boys with 127 pupils and a daily average attendance of 106, and the other for girls with forty-six pupils and a daily average attendance of thirty-one. Of the twenty schools one is a High School with 597 pupils and a daily average attendance of 588; one is the Bairamji medical school with sixty-two pupils and a daily average attendance of fifty-nine; one is a female practising school with sixty-nine pupils and a daily average attendance of fifty-three; one is a Marathi preparatory school with 277 pupils and a daily average attendance of 227; five are vernacular girl schools with 301 pupils and a daily average attendance of 215; two are Hindustani schools with fifty-three pupils and a daily average attendance of thirty-seven; one is a low caste primary school with thirty-three pupils and a daily average attendance of twenty-two; and eight are Marathi schools with 1522 pupils and a daily average attendance of 1366. Of the ninety-four private institutions, except one Arts college started in January 1885 all are schools, eighty-five of them Native and seven Missionary, of the eighty-five Native schools two are High schools, one the Native Institution with 197 pupils and a daily average attendance of 155 and the other the New English School with 1200 pupils and a daily average attendance of about 1000; one is a high school for native girls and ladies with about seventy pupils started in January 1885; one is ' a drawing or Arts' school with about ten pupils and a daily average attendance of seven; fifteen are registered primary schools with 1079 pupils and a daily average attendant of 882; and sixty-seven are purely private primary schools with 3990 pupils and a daily average attendance of 3500. Of the seven
Mission schools five belong to the Free Church Mission and two to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Of the Free Church Mission schools one is a high school with 170 pupils and a daily average attendance of 158; one a vernacular school for boys with 172 pupils and a daily average attendance of 106; two are vernacular girls schools with 137 pupils and a daily average attendance of seventy-six; and one is an orphanage anglovernacular school with ten pupils and a daily average attendance of five. Of the two S. P. G. Mission schools one is a vernacular school with thirty-eight pupils and a daily average attendance of twenty-eight, and one an industrial school with fourteen pupils and a daily average attendance of eight.[ Details are given above in Chapter XI. pp. 55-61.]
Museum.
A museum was started in Poona by subscription about 1875 but
was abandoned after a few years. The present museum has 1650 articles chiefly specimens of geology, chemistry, and Indian arts and manufactures. Exhibitions of local arts and manufactures are held every second year and the surplus proceeds in cash and articles are transferred to the museum. The municipality contributes £20 (Rs. 200) a year towards its maintenance.
Library.
The Native General Library, maintained by private subscriptions and
donations, has about 100 subscribers whose monthly subscriptions amount to about £6 (Rs. 60). The library had 5700 works worth £2500 (Rs. 25,000), which were burnt in the Budhvar Palace fire of 1879. Subscriptions have been raised and a fund formed for a new building to which the municipality has largely contributed. A book fund has been started to which also the Municipality has contributed £50 (Rs. 500). Attached to the library is a reading room. The city has two other small reading rooms.
Newspapers.
Nine newspapers are published in Poona, two of which are daily English, one Anglo-Vernacular half-weekly, and six weekly one English one Anglo-Vernacular and four Marathi.
Objects.
The city has, within municipal limits, forty objects chiefly palaces
and mansions from a hundred to three hundred years old.
Ambarkhana (1).
[Contributed by Rav Saheb Narso Ramchandra Godbole.] The AMBARKHANA, literally the Elephant-carriage house, in Kasba
ward, originally known as Lal Mahal or the Red Mansion, was built
in 1636 to the south of Poona fort by Shahaji for the use of his wife Jijibai and her son Shivaji (1627-1680) then a boy of twelve. It was strongly built and had many under-ground rooms, some of which remain. Shivaji and his mother lived for several years in this mansion under the care of Shahaji's manager Dadaji Kondadev who had charge of Shivaji's education. The name Ambarkhana or Elephant-car House was given to the palace under the Peshwas when it was turned into a store-house for elephant cars or ambaris.
Amriteshvar's Temple (2)
AMRITESHVAR'S TEMPLE, close to the Mutha river in the Shanvar
ward was built by Bhiubai wife of Abaji Baramatikar and sister
of Bajirav Ballal the second Peshwa (1721-1740). The temple is a
solid stone building raised twelve to twenty feet to keep it above the river floods. It is reached by a flight of steps on the east. The
shrine has a ling and a bull outside. On one side, overlooking the river, is a hall which is used for meetings. The temple enjoys a monthly grant of £1 10s. (Rs. 15) from the Parvati temple revenue.
Anandodbhav Theatre (3)
The ANANDODBHAV or Gaiety Theatre, in Budhvar ward, was built in
1863-64 by a Sonar named Krishnashet son of Narayanshet. The site elonged to the mansion of the great Tambekar bankers. The last of
the Tambekar family pulled down the house and sold the materials and
the site. The site was bought by the present owner and the theatre was built at a cost of £950 (Its. 9500). It was the first theatre in Poona, and, being in a central position, is largely used. Public meetings are also occasionally held in it. The building, which has room for 800 people, is approached by a narrow path from the main Budhvar road and has two other approaches from a side alley. The building is square with a sheet iron roof resting on a wooden frame work. It consists of a stage 792 square feet in area and a pit covering 928 square feet. The pit holds 150 chairs and has three tiers of galleries on its three sides each of which holds 200 seats.
Animal Home or Panjarpol (4)
The ANIMAL HOME or Panjarpol in Shanvar ward was founded in 1854
from subscriptions raised by the chief city merchants. The immediate
cause of the founding of the home was a police order to catch stray bulls
and kill stray dogs. The Gujarati inhabitants of the city formed a committee and took charge of all stray cattle and dogs, and since then the home has become a permanent institution. All animals, healthy, maimed, diseased or old, are received, though the rule is to attend only to the disabled and unserviceable. Except to the poor, admission fees are charged at the rate of £2 10s. (Rs. 25) on horses and 6s. (Rs. 3) on oxen cows and buffaloes. Birds are taken free of charge but any amount paid on their account is accepted. When necessary a Muhammadan farrier is called in to treat sick horses. The other animals are treated by the servants of the home. Healthy animals are given grass and the sick are fed on pulse and oilcake. Healthy animals are made to work for the home. After recovery animals are given free of charge to any one who asks for them and is able to keep them. The home has two meadows or kurans near the city, one for which a sum of £26 (Rs. 260) a year is paid, and the other which is mortgaged to the home for £250 (Rs. 2500) the home getting the grass as interest. The average expenses of cutting, carrying, and stacking the grass in each field amount to £20 (Rs. 200) a year. The produce of these two meadows suffices for the wants of the home. In 1879 the home had about 200 head of cattle and 100 birds. In May, when most of the cattle and two deer were away at the grazing grounds, the home had ten horses, one nilgay, a black buck, and an antelope in a stable about twenty peafowls in a square railed off at the end of the stable, three or four monkeys with running chains on a pole under a large. tree, two foxes, a hare, two rabbits, and a number of pigeons, some fowls, and a turkey. Besides these the home had one or two cows, a few goats, some bullocks, and sheep. Since 1879 neither the number nor the class of animals has materially changed. The home is managed by a committee of six of whom in 1879 four were Hindus and two were Parsis. The staff includes a secretary on £5 (Rs. 50) a month, two clerks on £1 10s. (Rs. 15) and £1 (Rs. 10) a month, and five or six servants each on 12s. (Rs. 6) a month. Two mesengers are kept to watch the fields, and during the rains two
extra men are engaged. The home has a yearly revenue of about £150 (Rs. 1500) chiefly from cesses on groceries at 1½d. (1 a.) a bag, on jewelry sales at ¼ per cent, on bills of exchange at 5/32 per cent, and on grain at 1/64 per cent. The average yearly cost of the home is about £300 (Rs. 3000). Except in very good seasons the surplus expenditure of £150 (Rs. 1500) is partly met by a yearly contribution of £70 (Rs. 700) from the Bombay Animal Home and the rest by local yearly subscriptions amounting to £80 (Rs. 800). The home buildings consist of long lines of roofed stables along the walls of an open square yard. The stables are wide and railed off, and the office rooms are on either side immediately within the entrance gate. Servants and clerks live on the premises in small out-houses.
Aryabhushan Theatre (5)
The ARYABHUSHAN or Arya-ornament Theatre in Ganesh ward, was
originally built as a rest-house on the borders of the old city near Dulya
Maruti's temple. The theatre is close to and On the city side of the
Nagjhari stream which forms its eastern boundary. A water cistern or dipping well was also built near the rest-house for wayfarers. The building was afterwards used by the Peshwas for their periodical dinners to large gatherings of learned Brahmans. On the overthrow of the last Peshwa the building became the property of the state and, between 1818 and 1820, Captain Robertson, the Collector of Poona, gave it as a residence to his accountant a Mr. Houston. Until very lately the building was occupied by Mr. Houston's widow, who, in 1874, sold it for £105 (Rs. 10,500) and a further sum of £700 (Rs. 7000) was spent in turning it into a theatre. The front of the building is in three compartments, one behind the other, with an upper floor. The halls fronting the road are now used for a school. The two inner compartments form the stage with dressing and retiring side-rooms. At the back was a courtyard with open ground floor halls on three sides. The courtyard has been covered with a high tiled roof and forms the pit, while two storeys have been added to the side halls and they have been turned into galleries. The building is a plain wood and brick structure with a ground area of about 11,700 square feet. It holds an audience of 1200 and is the largest and most substantial of the city theatres.
Bel-Bag Temple (6)
BEL-BAG, in Budhvar ward, is a temple of Vishnu built by
Nana Fadnavis (1764-1800). It was begun in 1765 and finished
in 1769 at a cost of over £2500 (Rs. 25,000). The site, originally a garden known as Manis Mala, was used by the Peshwas for stables. Nana Fadnavis obtained the site for his temple, and, in 1779, secured the grant to the temple of the four villages of Vagsai in Poona, Galegaon in Ahmadnagar, and Pasarni and Vanegaon in Satara. In addition to these four villages Nana Fadnavis assigned to the temple some lands of his own. The income from these endowments, amounting to £500 (Rs. 5000) a year, was attached by Bajirav the last Peshwa from 1804 to 1818, and the management was entrusted to one Devasthale. Mr. Elphinstone restored the property and management to Nana's widow Jivabai in 1818 and the temple is now managed by her descendants. The temple is a small vaulted cut stone building covering not more than 1156 square feet with a conical spire and a small wooden hall with a terraced roof. In front an open yard of about 2000 square feet is used for special gatherings, when the yard is covered with
canvas. On the other side of the yard is Garud on a small raised
platform under a valuted canopy. On each side of the temple are
two small shrines for Shiv and Ganpati. The open ground round
the temple is laid out in garden plots for growing flowering shrubs
and the basil or tulsi plant for the worship of the idol. Attached
to the temples are houses for the priest and the manager. Nana
Fadnavis, the founder of the temple, laid down strict and minute rules
for its management, and every item of ordinary and extraordinary
expenditure has been fixed. His directions have been followed with
the greatest strictness.
Bhavani's Temple (7).
BHAVANI'S TEMPLE in Bhavani ward,was built about 1760 by public
subscription at a cost of about £500 (Rs. 5000). The temple has the
usual solid stone-built idol chamber or shrine with a portico and
spire and a wooden hall or sabhamandap. Attached on one side is
a rest-house. Except from offerings the temple has no income. A
fair is held in the Navratra holidays in Ashvin or September-Ocetober.
Low class Hindus revere Bhavani more than Brahmans do, and
offer goats and sheep in fulfilment of vows.
Bohoras' Jamatkhana (8).
The BOHORAS' JAMATKHANA or Meeting House in Aditvar ward
was built about 1730 by subscription at a cost of £1600 (Rs. 16,000).
The buildings, which have since from time to time been enlarged and
improved at a great cost, are large and fill four sides of a spacious
quadrangle. The courtyard is entered by a massive door with a well
carved wooden roof, and in the middle of the yard is a large cistern or haud with a central fountain. On the left is a large hall with
plain square wooden pillars used for dinners on public feast days
To the right is the mosque, a flat roofed hall, very closely hung
with lamps and chandeliers. Above the mosque the building rises
four storeys high, with steep stairs in the walls. This bunding is
never- used except by the high priest or mulla of the Bohoras when
he visits Poona. [He is generally the deputy of the Mulla Saheb or chief Pontiff whose head-quarters
are in Surat. Of the Bohoras, who seem to be of part Gujarat Hindu and part
Arabic origin and belong to the Ismaili sect of Shias, an account is given in the
Population chapter, Part I.] On the roof two pavilions with tiled roofs
command one of the best views of the city. The upper floors
forming the residence of the mulla or high priest, overhang a thorough-fare, on the other side of which are public cisterns fed by the Katraj
water-channel.
Budhvar Palace (9).
The BUDHVAR PALACE in Budhvar ward, which was burnt down on 13th May 1879, was a three-storeyed building (150'X 140') with
one large and one small court or chauk. It was built for public offices by Bajirav the last Peshwa about 1813. The woodwork of the palace was very strong and the beams were broad enough for a man to sleep on with comfort. The large court was a handsome quadrangle surrounded by cloisters of carved wooden pillars. From 1818 the Government public offices were held in this palace, and since its destruction the municipality have laid out a small public garden on the site. Attached to the palace was a building of two chauks or quadrangles with one upper floor throughout and a second floor over a part called the Faraskhana where tents and horse and elephant gear were
kept. It escaped the fire and is used as a police office and lock-up. Government have recently granted the palace site and the Faraskhana to the Deccan Education Society for their New English School and Fergusson College buildings, the foundation stone of which was laid on the 6th of March 1885 by His Excellency Sir James Fergusson, Bart. K.C.M.G., G.C.S.I., C.I.E.
City Jail (10).
The CITY JAIL in Shukravar ward was the head-quarters of Bajirav
Peshwa's artillery and was in charge of the Panse family who held the hereditary command of the artillery. It was turned into a jail in 1818. The building was surrounded by a high fortified wall and a ditch which is now filled. Lines of cells, on the usual radiating plan, with a central watch-tower have been built and accommodation provided for the guard, the hospital, the office, and the jailer's residence, the last outside the entrance gate. Workshops and a garden are attached to the jail. The female prisoners have very recently been placed in an isolated ward. The water-supply of the jail is from the Katraj aqueduct. This jail will shortly be abolished and the prisoners transferred to the central jail at Yeravda.
Dulya Maruti's Temple (11).
DULYA or ROCKING MARUTI'S TEMPLE is in Ganesh ward near the
Nagjhari stream on the eastern boundary of the old city. This
Rocking Maruti is one of the guardians of Poona, who gets his name because he rocked or swayed with grief while the Marathas were being destroyed on the fatal field of Panipat (1761).[The chief approaches to all villages and towns have temples of Maruti to guard the town against evil.] The first temple of Dulya Maruti was built about 1680 by Naro Anant Natu who also built Someshvar's temple in Aditvar ward. The building was repaired and enlarged about 1780 by Rakhmabai Johari a Brahman lady. A second temple of Balaji facing Maruti's was added about this time by Makna a Badhai or cabinet maker. About 1830 at a cost of £150 (Rs. 1500) both the temples were renewed and joined together by subscription among the people of Ganesh ward. The temple has a monthly grant of 8s. (Rs. 4) from the Parvati temple revenues and additional contributions are yearly raised in the ward for its support. The temple is in three compartments, the two shrines joined by a central audience hall or sabhamandap. The shrines are about twenty feet square and are built of solid cut stone. Each has one entrance door and paved platforms all round for the circuit or pradakshina. The roofs are vaulted and surmounted with conical spires about thirty feet high. The hall, including a central nave and side aisles, is a wood and brick structure with a tiled roof (35'x 24') and galleries over the nave for women to hear readings from holy books and sermons and song recitals.
Ganpati's Temple (12).
GANPATI'S TEMPLE in Kasba ward is said to have been a rude
stone enclosure, first built by cowherds who saw a large piece of rock
shaped like Ganpati and daubed it with redlead. When, about 1636, Shahaji built a palace at Poona, his wife Jijibai built a small stone temple to Ganpati close to the east of the site of the Ambarkhana palace (1). The temple is a small dark room covered with a roof which shelters barely the image and the worshipper. The god gradually rose in public esteem, and came to be and still is locally regarded as one of the town guardians whose blessings should be
asked on all religious and social ceremonies and celebrations. A hall or sabhamandap. was added to the temple by the athghares or first eight Brahman families of Poona. [The first eight Brahman families in Poona are Bharange, Dharmadhikari, Dhere, Kalange, Kanade, Nilange, Thakar, and Vaidya.] The hall is a dark chamber with a small entrance at one end. The walls and roof are like those of the first temple, built of solid stone plastered with cement. The Lakde family added a pavement all round the temple and a long upper-storeyed open shed on one side as a rest-house or place for caste dinners and gatherings. Mr. Gajananrav Sadashiv Dikshit, a Deccan Sardar, added another hall in continuation of the old hall. The new hall is entirely open, rests on plain wooden pillars, and has a tiled roof. In 1877 a public cistern was built in the temple yard. The temple enjoys a monthly allowance of 10s. (Es. 5) from the Parvati temple revenues, and the expenses of the yearly celebration of Ganpati's festival on Ganesh Chaturthi the bright fourth of Bhadrapad in August-September are also paid from the Parvati grant.
Ghodepir (13).
GHODEPIR or the HORSE SAINT in Nana Peth is a life-size horse
of sawdust and paste plastered over with fine clay. A Musalman bier
or tabut is built every year on the back of the horse. The horse is
worshipped by low class Hindus when in trouble, and babyless women
and mothers with sick children come and vow offerings and penances.
Nana Fadnavis had a Muhammadan attendant named Nathubhai.
After Nana's death, to preserve his master's name Nathubhai made
a small clay horse which still remains and raised a bier calling it
Nana's bier in Nana's ward outside a house known as Vanavle's.
The horse gradually rose in public favour, and subscriptions came
in and a site for the Horse Saint's house was bought. Nathubhai after
wards became a trooper in the Southern Maratha Horse and such was his regard for
his old master that he spent all his yearly earnings on the yearly bier. On Nathubhai's death, the people of Nana
ward, with one Padval as their manager, subscribed to maintain the
horse his house and his yearly mind-feast. The offerings at the
shrine grew so large that no subscriptions were needed, and Padval
remained in charge. The present yearly income from offerings is
£150 (Rs. 1500) and the shrine is managed by the descendants
of Padval. Two small shops have been built facing the horse, whose
rents go towards the maintenance of the shrine. The present shrine,
which is called the asurkhana or spirits' house, a plain tiled structure (50' x 24' x 25') of wood and brick, was built about 1845.
Jama Mosque (14).
The JAMA MOSQUE in Aditvar ward, the chief Muhammadan place of worship in the
city, was built about 1839 by public subscription at a cost of about £1500 (Rs. 15,000). Since then from time
to time additions have been made. The mosque consists of a large
stone hall (60' x 30') with a dome. The back wall has a niche with a
step against it, and is covered with texts from the Kuran. In front
of the mosque is a well sanded yard with a fountain in the middle
On one side is a washing cistern or hand. Attached to the mosque is
a Persian school, a rest-house, and some dwellings whose rents go to
the mosque fund. All Muhammadan social or religious meetings are
held in this mosque.
Kotval Chavdi (15).
KOTVAL CHAVDI in Budhvar ward, in the middle of the main street
which runs all round it, was the Peshwas police office. It is a one-storeyed house, the upper storey for offices and the ground floor for
cells. The building was sold by auction for £110 (Rs. 1100) and
is now made into stalls where a small market is held, and fruit,
vegetables, grain, stationery, and groceries are sold. The building is
now worth about £3000 (Rs. 30,000).
Moroba Dada's Vada (16).
MOROBA DADA'S MANSION in Budhvar ward was built by Moroba
Dada Fadnavis, sometime prime minister of Savai Mdahavrav (1774-1795) the seventh Peshwa. It is a spacious mansion with six quadrangles or chauks. Opening on to the quadrangles or chauks instead of walls is ornamental wooden trellis work. Two of the quadrangles have water cisterns and until lately one was covered by a high wooden canopy. All the pillars are carved in the cypress or suru pattern, the intervening spaces being filled by cusped panel arches of thick wood. The mansion has throughout a wooden ceiling, and all the roofs are terraced. On the third floor is an ivory hall or hasti-danti divankhana, with ivory let into the ceiling and other parts of the room. The whole mansion is still in order and worth a visit.
Nageshvar's Temple (17).
NAGESHVAR'S TEMPLE in Somvar ward is believed to be the oldest
temple in Poona, though neither its date nor its founder's name is known.
Its style and the ornament on its tower seem to show that it belongs
to Muhammadan times perhaps to about the end of the sixteenth century. The temple proper is a small close room of solid stone, with one door and a conical tower with embossed stone figures. The ling, which is said to be a natural rock, is about four feet below the outside level. Attached to the temple is the hall or sabhamandap open on three sides, a massive imposing building on wooden columns with a neatly finished wooden ceiling. A large space round the hall is enclosed and paved and rest-houses and a residence for the temple priest are built along the walls. The temple priest receives a monthly allowance of 11s.3d. (Rs. 5⅝) from the Parvati temple revenues. Large additions and changes, including a new smaller temple of Vishnu, were made about 1780 by one Aba Shelukar, and in 1878 by Mr. Raghupatrav Aurangabadkar who built public cisterns within and outside of the temple enclosure.
Narpatgir Temple (18).
The NARPATGIR TEMPLE in Somvar ward was built by Narpatgir
Gosavi at a cost of £5000 (Rs. 50,000). The temple has a cistern
and a fountain.
Narsoba's Temple (19).
NARSOBA'S TEMPLE in Karkolpura in Sadishiv ward, in the south- west corner of the city, was built about 1788 by one Ganu Joshi.
The temple has a stone shrine with a spire and a wooden hall. On the doorway is a drum-house or nagarkhana. The object of worship is Narsinh or the man-lion the fourth form of Vishnu. The image has a lion's mouth and is shown tearing in pieces the demon Hiranya-Kashipu who lies in its lap. This form of Vishnu is seldom worshipped. The temple has a yearly income of about £40 (Rs. 400) chiefly from offerings. Vows of walking a number of times round, the shrine, usually a hundred thousand times, are made by women to get children or to get cured of evil spirits and bodily ailments.
New Market (20).
The NEW MARKET is a large central vegetable and fruit market
now (August 1884) being built by the Poona Municipality in the heart of the city on a site of eight acres between the Tulsibag and Rameshvar temples in Shukravar ward. The main building is to be an octagonal tower in the middle, forty feet across, with radiating lines. The central tower is to have stalls on the ground and upper floors and its height to the pitch of the roof will be eighty feet. A clock tower 120 feet high is to be attached to the market. It is proposed to build ranges of stalls round the main building.
The site has been bought for £5000 (Rs. 50,000) and the cost of the main building is estimated at £15,000 (Rs. 1,50,000), while the extensions are estimated to cost about £20,000 (Rs. 2,00,000). The whole market when finished will have cost £40,000 (Rs. 4,00,000). It will be a handsome and substantial building. The roof is to be of machine made tiles, supported on teakwood frames and cast-iron columns. The main building will hold about 250 stalls, and the extensions about 350 more. Water is being laid on the building in iron pipes from the Khadakvasla canal.
Nivdungya Vithoba's Temple (21).
NIVDUNGYA VITHOBA'S TEMPLE in Nana ward was built by a
Gosavi and rebuilt about 1830 by a Gujarati banker named Purshottam
Ambadas at a cost of £3000 (Rs. 30,000). The image is called
Nivdungya because it was found among prickly pear or nivdung
bushes. The temple is very spacious and includes a cut-stone shrine
with a spire and a wooden hall. Round the temple is a garden with
a large public water cistern. Along the enclosure wall are cloister
used for caste dinners. On the south side are some rooms fitted for
dwellings and let to tenants. On the north is the residence of the
priest. Over the gateway is a drum-house or nagarkhana. Outside
the enclosure on the west is an open shed which is used as a rest-house by wandering beggars. On the south are ranges of shops and
houses, the rent of which, amounting to about £50 (Rs. 500) a year,
goes to the temple.
Nossa Senhora da Conceicao's Chuech (22).
NOSSA SENHORA DA CONCEICAO'S CHURCH in Nana ward is a
brick building. It was opened on the 10th of July 1853 at a cost of about £950 (Rs. 9500), and has room for about 600, and a congregation
of about 1950 mostly Portuguese medical practitioners, clerks,
shopkeepers, tailors, and house servants. The church has a font, a
harmonium, and three altars, a high altar dedicated to the Immaculate
Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and two side altars one
dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the other to St. Francis
Xavier. Attached to the church is an Anglo-Portuguese day school
with sixty pupils.
Omkareshvar's Temple (23).
OMKARESHVAR'S TEMPLE, on the bank of the Mutha in Somvar ward to the north-west of the city, was built between 1740 and 1760
by one Krishnaji Pant Chitrav from funds raised from public subscription. Bhau Saheb or Sadashivrav Chimnaji contributed £100 (Rs. 1000) a month towards the cost for about six years while the work was in progress. The temple faces east and is reached by a large and imposing gateway in the middle of a high and massive fortified wall built in the Saracenic style. Over the gateway is a small music hall or nagarkhana. The gateway leads to a large paved courtyard with side ranges of brick-vaulted rooms, some open and some with doors in which live religious beggars and
ascetics. In the centre of the courtyard is the main temple dedicated to Omkareshvar Mahadev with a small shrine in front, not far from the gateway, containing the bull Nandi a seated life-size stone figure. The temple has a main chamber in the centre vaulted on the top in which is set the ling about three feet under-ground. Over the vaulted top of the shrine rises a plain conical pinnacle. Round the main chamber is a space covered by eight small brick vaults. Two flights of steps or ghats, one from, the main temple and the other from outside the main gate, run north to the river bed. The sandbank between these two flights or ghats is used as a burning ground for Brahmans. The temple is held in great veneration. The levels of the different temple doors are so arranged that the water of the river when in flood, just enters and fills the courtyard and the shrine. Unless the ling is flooded once at least in the year, the rains are regarded as scanty. In seasons of drought, Brahmans are paid to carry water on their shoulders and fill the shrine, when it is believed Shiv will send torrents of rain. The hom or sacrificial offerings of cooked rice and clarified butter with pieces of sacred wood are offered once every year at the temple on a permanent stone altar specially built for the purpose. Attached to the temple on the west is a small garden, formed by reclaiming ground from the river bank by a heavy retaining wall of stone masonry. The temple expenses are met from the income of the garden and a monthly grant of £2 10s. (Rs. 25) from the Parvati temple revenues. The cost of the yearly sacrificial offerings or horn is met by a yearly Government grant of £100 (Rs. 1000). The size and solid massiveness of this temple, together with its nearness to the burning ground, make the name Omkareshvar greatly feared by the people of Poona.
Pandhri or Juna Kot (24).
PANDHRI KOT or the White Fort, also called Juna Kot or the Old Fort, is said to have been built by Barya an Arab commandant after Poona was made a Musalman military station in the fourteenth century. The fort stretches from the Dhakta or younger to the Thorla or elder Shaikh Salla [See below Shaikh Salla (31).] along the river bank on the north, and from the Thorla Shaikh Salla to the Mandai market on the west. From Mandai it ran south parallel to the river bank, and a line run from the causeway near the Kumbhar gate eastward to join the southern boundary. A pipal tree named Baloba which is still fresh is said to date from early Musalman times. On the break up of the Bahmani kingdom near the close of the fifteenth century Poona fell with most other parts of Poona district to Ahmadnagar.
It continued under Ahmadnagar till in 1630 Murar Jagdevrav, a Bijapur minister, is said to have passed a plough drawn by asses over the fort wall and to have fixed an iron rod in the ground meaning that the town was never again to be peopled. About 1636, after it had remained desolate for six years, Mahmud Adil Shah (1626-1656) of Bijapur raised Shahaji Bhonsla to the command of 12,000 troops and granted him Poona and other villages. In the same year one Malthankar whom Shahaji had appointed his deputy at Poona, passed a golden plough over the fort wall, removed the iron bar, and, to keep off evil, performed a shanti or soothing ceremony. These ceremonies are believed to mark the beginning of good luck to Poona.
Parasnath Temple (25).
In Vetal ward is a group of four temples to the twenty-fourth
Jain saint PARASNATH, close to each other, two of them in one enclosure.
The oldest of Parasnath's temples lay in Kalevavur to the south-west
and outside of the city, as the Peshwas would not allow a Jain temple
to be built within the city. About 1750 the Jati or high priest of
the Jains and Shankaracharya the Brahmanical pontiff happened to meet in Poona. After a long discussion it was agreed, it is said by
bribing the Shankaracharya, that a Jain temple might be built in a quarter where Brahmans did not live. The Peshwas granted the site of the present main temple, where two buildings one for Chidambari or Whiteclothed and one for Digambari or Skyclad Jains were built both by public subscription. Of the two sects the Chidambaris or white-robed are the stronger. Both worship naked images but the Chidambaris dress their images with clothes, flowers, and ornaments, while the Digambaris leave the body of their image naked and lay all offerings at the toes of the image's feet. The first two temples were enclosed by a high strong wall and strong gateways which were kept always shut that the noise of the temples might not reach Brahman ears. No spires were allowed as their sight would have polluted orthodox Hindus. The temple of the Humbad or Digambari sect is now in the same state in which it was originally built; but the temple of the Chidambari sect, which is dedicated to Godi Parasnath, proved too small, and the form of the temple, which was more like a private house than a public place of worship, was changed. Encouraged by the religious freedom they had enjoyed since the Peshwa's overthrow in 1818, between 1830 and 1834 the Jains raised subscriptions and built a temple to Rishabhdev the first of the Tirthankars at a cost of £300 (Its. 3000). Since then they have kept adding out-houses to the temple from year to year. The buildings as they now stand contain a chief entrance facing north and two side entrances facing west, one of them leading to the Digambari temple. Over the main entrance is a drum-house or nagarkhana and open porticoes or devdis are built inside the two other entrances. The main door leads to a long line of upper-storeyed rooms on the left, each of which is a separate temple. The original Chidambari temple, which has now fallen to be a secondary temple is in the middle of these rooms. On the right is the wall of the Digambari temple. Fifty yards more of an open paved passage leads to the enclosure of the main temple which is entered by a door in the north-east corner leading to an open paved courtyard in the middle of which is the main temple. The image chamber or shrine is a solid cut-stone and vaulted room about fourteen feet square and contains five white crosslegged and handfolded marble images set in a row against the back wall, the chief image being Rishabhdev the first Tirthankar. Outside the image chamber, but joined with it, is an octagonal portico, also built of solid stone and vaulted, the inside of the vault lined with small mirrors. The floor is of white marble with a thick black marble border. The octagon has four side doors one leading to it from the sabhamandap, a second coated with brass leading to the shrine, and, two side doors which open on the courtyard. Niches are made in the remaining four sides of the octagon, the two nearest the shrine having small images and the other two having
shelves. Outside of this octagonal portico is the wooden hall or sabhamandap (40' X 20') with a carved wood ceiling and built on a high
atone plinth. At the far end of the hall in a small railed space are
two marble elephants. Over the shrine doors and the octagonal
portico are rooms with more images reached by narrow stone steps
built round the sides of the octagon. Above the rooms side by side
are the three symbolical spires of a Jain temple. Behind the temple
courtyard is another yard with arrangements for bathing including
warm water, for no worshipper may touch the idol until he has
washed and dressed in wet clothes. The Jains have a curious mode
of raising money for the maintenance of their temples. On holidays
and great days when the community meets for worship they put to
auction the right of applying saffron or keshar to the images and the
highest bidder buys the right of first applying it. In this way
large sums are raised.
The second temple of Adishvar to the west of the first was begun in 1851 and finished in 1854 at a cost of £1400 (Es. 14,000). The consecration ceremony on the 8th of May 1854 was attended by about 10,000 Shravaks. It is a two-storeyed brick and lime building carved in wood on the exposed parts and surmounted by a treble spire. Each storey has four rooms one behind the other. The ground floor is set apart for daily services at which a priest or guru reads and explains the Jain scriptures. On the first floor is the image of Adishvar, and on the second floor are smaller images. The back rooms of all the floors are used as dwellings by the guru who must be a bachelor or Brahmachari. The temple has been and is being added to from year to year. The third temple is like the second but much smaller. All four temples are gaudily painted and decorated with coloured chandeliers of various shapes and quaint glasses, globes, and other ornaments. Each is managed by a firm of merchants of long standing and established reputation. The monthly cost of all the temples amounts to about £25 (Rs. 250). The jewels and the gold and silver coatings of the chief images are worth about.£300 (Rs. 3000) and the cash balances in hand amount to about £500 (Rs. 5000). The Jain holy months are Chaitra or March-April, Shravan or July-August, Kartik or October-November, and Phalgun or February-March when fairs are held. A car procession takes place on the full-moon of Kartik or October-November.
Phadke's Vada (26).
PHADKE'S MANSION, in Aditvar ward, was built between 1794 and
1799 by Haripant Phadke the commander-in-chief under Madhavrav
the seventh Peshwa (1774-1795). The mansion is now more like a small village than a single house as the present owner has turned it into small rented tenements together yielding about £150 (Rs. 1500) a year. The first floor front of the mansion has for more than twenty years held the Free Church Mission Institution. The mansion is two-storeyed with many halls and seven quadrangles or chauks two of them large. It is built of massive stone and timber and is said to have cost about £170,000 (Rs. 17,00,000). Water from the Katraj aqueduct is laid on in the back quadrangle.
Purandhare's Vada (27).
PURANDHAKE, a school friend of Balaji Vishvanath the first Peshwa
(1714-1720), was made his minister, and was granted a site in the fort
for a house. In 1740 his heir Mahadaji Abaji Purandhare built a
mansion in the fort at a cost of £5000 (Rs. 50,000) with two large and two small quadrangles. The descendants of the Purandhare family still live in the mansion which is now the only important house in the old fort. The line of the fort walls may still be traced.
Rameshvar's Temple (28).
RAMESHVAR'S TEMPLE in Shukravar ward was built by Jivaji
Pant Anna Khasgivale the founder of the ward at a cost of £3500 (Rs. 35,000). The temple has the usual shrine with portico
and spire and a wooden hall or sabhamandap. The hall was enlarged and rebuilt about 1870 by a rich public works contractor. In 1878 a railway contractor rebuilt the doorway and over it raised a music hall or nagarkhana. The contractors paved the whole enclosure including a large well whose top they covered with iron rails and beams of wood. This temple is held in great veneration. Its great days are Shivratra in January-February and the bright half Kartik or October-November.
Rastia's Vada (29).
RASTIA's MANSION in Rastia ward is one of the largest remaining mansions in the east of the city. It is surrounded by a high
thick wall. The chief entrance is by a plain but handsome square gateway with massive woodwork over which rises a two-storeyed building. Round the inside of the enclosure runs a row of cloisters originally the stables of Rastia's cavalry retinue, now either open or built in and let as rooms to poor families. In the centre of the enclosure is the mansion which consisted of two three-storeyed buildings the mansion and a store-house or Kothi, since burnt, with plain thick walls, built round two rectangular court-yards. The mansion with two quadrangles remains and attached to it is a large garden and a Mahadev temple to which a temple of Ram was added in 1882 by the widow of the last Rastia. The temples are stone-built shrines and open porticos surmounted by spires. The Rastias were the hereditary heads of the Peshwa's cavalry and lived at Wall in Satara. The mansion was built between 1779 and 1784 at a cost of £90,000 (Rs. 9 lakhs) by Anandrav Bhikaji Rastia in the reign of Madhavrav the seventh Peshwa (1774-1795). An aqueduct brought from a spring in the hills of Vanavdi village four miles south-east of Poona was built by Anandrav immediately after
wards at a cost of £20,000 (Rs. 2 lakhs) to supply water to the mansion and public cisterns outside.
Sassoon Asylum (30).
The SASSOON ASYLUM, or Poor House, in Narayan ward on the, river Mutha above
the Lakdi bridge, is. a home for the aged, infirm, and diseased poor of all
classes. It has at present (1883) about sixty five inmates. The asylum was
established in 1865 from funds raised by a public subscription amounting to
£10,717 (Rs. 1,07,170), the greater part of which was given by the late Mr.
David Sassoon whose name the asylum bears. £3457 (Rs. 34,570) were spent on
buildings and of £7260 (Rs. 72,600) which were deposited in the Bombay Bank
only £1301 (Rs. 13,010) were recovered on the failure of the bank in
1869-70. Further subscriptions were collected and the fund was raised to
over £5000 (Rs. 50,000) which is now invested in Government securities. The
asylum is managed by a committee of life members of whom the District
Collector is the President. The working body is a managing committee
nominated by the general committee with two secretaries. The Poona Municipality contributes £10 (Rs. 100) a month to the asylum. The spacious site of the building was given free by Government. The building stands on a high plinth raised above the flood line and has eleven detached wards, each 33' x 18', with a cooking and dining room (123' x 27'), an office room (43' x 34'), and latrines and out-houses. A medical attendant looks after the health of the inmates, the diseased being kept in different wards to avoid contagion. Of the (1883) sixty-five inmates, seventeen men and eleven women are unable to earn a living from old age; six men and five women are blind; and twenty men and six women are lepers.
Shaikh Sallas Tombs (31).
The two SHAIKH SALLAS, THORLA or the elder and DHAKTA or
the younger, are two Musalman shrines or dargahs on the river bank
in Kasba ward. They stand on the site of two Hindu temples of
Narayaneshvar and Puneshvar. According to the local tradition, in 1290, Syed Hisa Mohidin Khalal and four other Musalman ascetics came from Delhi, desecrated the two temples, threw away the lings, and turned the temples into shrines or dargahs. The temple of Puneshvar [The Puneshavar ling is said to have been taken to the foot of Purandhar fort where a temple still remains which was built for it.] became known as Shaikh Salla-ud-din's or the younger Shaikh Salla's shrine and the Narayaneshvar temple as Shaikh Hisa Mohidin's or the elder Shaikh Salla's shrine. The two Poona villages of Yerandvane and Kalas, whose revenues had been enjoyed by the temples, were continued to the shrines. According to another story the temple priests asked the Bijapur government to restore them the villages. The Bijapur authorities refused unless the Brahmans undertook the saints' worship. On this one of the Brahman priests embraced Islam, was appointed mujavar or ministrant of the shrines, and passed down the office to his family by whom it is still held.
Dhakta Shaikh Salla's Tomb.
A pointed arched stone gateway reached by a flight of steps leads
to a large enclosure, whose centre is shaded by a vigorous old
tamarind tree under whose branches are several small tombs. To the left and right near the outer gateway are rest-houses with strong plain wooden pillars and opposite the door is another higher and more modern rest-house all built of wood. Some chambers to the right have a row of pillars with outstanding deep-cut brackets stretching from their capitals to the roof. In this row of buildings a door, whose posts are thickly covered with old horse shoes, opens into an inner courtyard with several tombs. The tombs to the right are of little size or interest. But opposite the doorway a larger monument, of no great elegance, with some open trellis windows, is said to be the tomb of a grandson of Aurangzeb who is said to have been buried here for a year and to have been then carried to Aurangabad. Further to the left the large dome with the gilt crescent is the tomb of Shaikh Salla, and still further to the left is a mosque on the site of the Puneshvar temple, whose images are said to he buried under the floor of the mosque. The mosque bears marks of its Hindu origin in three doorway pillars, two of which are old Hindu work, square at the bottom, then rounded, then octagonal, and again square. The door is also Hindu with a Ganpati niche in the
lintel. On the left in an open place under a wooden roof are some tombs. Some broken pillars plainer than those at the doorway lie scattered among the graves on the left. Behind the mosque a flight of steps led from Puneshvar's temple to the river bed. In the front courtyard to the left is a tiled building where a bier or tabut is kept and where congregations are held for prayer.
Thorla Shaikh Salla'e Tomb.
The THORLA or ELDER SHAIKH SALLA'S SHRINE on the site of
the Narayaneshvar temple, and containing the tomb of Shaikh Hiss Mohidin, lies on the Mutha below the Mandai market. The tomb, which has a plain doorway, is approached by a flight of steps. The space inside is very uneven and is now a regular burial ground with numerous graves round the central tomb which is a circular domed room. To the east and south-west are remains of old rest-houses. Outside the main entrance and facing the river side is along building of plain wood work. On the other side are the residences of the tomb ministrant or mujavar, and in the middle an open courtyard. A flight of steps leads down the inner enclosure through an archway under the enclosure wall to the river. The ruins of the original Narayaneshvar temple are still scattered about to the south-west of Hisa Mohidin's tomb. They consist chiefly of stone columns and lintels, some in their places and others strewn over the ground. The columns and lintels and the form of the old temple are in the old Hindu style. The villages granted to the tombs are now encumbered and not in the hands of the ministrant family who are badly off.
Shanvar Palace (32).
The SHANVAR PALACE in Shanvar ward, probably at that time (1730 -1818) the finest modern palace in the Deccan, was the chief
residence of the later Peshwas. It was so destroyed by fire in 1827 that all that remains is the fortified enclosure wall about 200 yards long by 150 yards broad and twenty feet high. The lower five feet of the wall are built of solid stone and the upper fifteen feet of brick. The wall has eight bastions and five gateways in the Musalman-style the gates with high pointed arches. Of the eight bastions, all of which are of stone below and brick above, four are at the corners and four in the middle of each face the north one having the main gateway. The wall has five gateways. The main entrance in the centre of the north wall is called the Delhi gate as it faces Delhi. The huge wooden door remains thick-set with iron spikes to ward off elephants. The gateway is flanked by large twelve-sided cut-stone bastions with turrets. Above the main entrance is a large hall now used as a record room. Inside the enclosure are lines for the city reserve police and a garden and parade ground On the north to the east of the main entrance is a smaller gate the name of which is not known. Two small gates in the eastern wall are called the Ganesh and Jambhul gates, the Ganesh called after an image of Ganpati on one side of it and the Jambhul after a jambhul or Eugenia jambolana tree which grew near it. The fifth gate is in the south wall at the western end. It is called the Mastani gate after Mastani
the beautiful Muhammadan mistress of Bajirav the second Peshwa (1721-1740) who used to pass in and out of the palace by this gate. Mastani was brought by Chimnaji Apa from Upper India and presented to the Peshwa. She was a noted beauty and the Peshwa was extremely
fond of her. Large landed property and buildings were granted to her and a garden in the city still goes by her name.
The site of the Shanvar palace was chosen by the second Peshwa
Bajirav Ballal (1721 - 1740), who, according to the well worn story,
when riding, saw a hare turn on a dog and thought that
a house built on that site would never be taken. The site,
which is about 4½ acres, was cleared of Koli and other huts and the foundation stone was laid by Peshwa
Bajirav on the new moon of. the Musalman month of Rajab in 1729. Part of the foundation-laying ceremony is said to have been the burial of a live Mang. Shahu (1708-1749) of Satara told the Peshwa not to put the main entrance to the north as it would mean a war with Delhi, the Moghal capital, of whose ruler Shahu always considered himself a vassal. In deference to Shahu's wishes the building of the gate was stopped and it was not completed till after Shahu's death (1749) by the third Peshwa Balaji Bajirav (1740-1761). The palace was a six-storeyed building with four large and several smaller courts or chauks. The courts were called either from the objects for which they were set apart or the persons who occupied them. One was called Phadacha Chauk or the Granary and Stores Court, a second Tak Chauk or the Dairy Court, a third Mudpak Chauk or the Kitchen Court, a fourth Pakvanna Chauk or the Sweetmeat Court, and two others Savitribai's and Yamunabai's Chauks after two ladies of the Peshwa's family. The halls or divankhanas of the palace had names taken either from their decorations or from their uses. One was called the Gokak Divankhana, because it was embellished with toys and decorations from Gokak in Belgaum; another the Nach Divankhana where dancing parties were given; a third the Kacheri Divankhana or audience hall, where statesmen and strangers were received; a fourth the Hastidanti Divankhana or ivory hall because of an ivory ceiling and other decorations; the fifth the Ganesh Divankhana where Ganpati was yearly worshipped in Bhadrapad or August-September: a sixth the Arse Mahal because its walls and ceiling were covered with mirrors; and a seventh, Narayanrav's Mahal because it was specially built for the fifth Peshwa Narayanrav (1772 -1773). These and other halls were in the form of a standish or kalamdan with a central main hall with square ceiling, and side compartments with sloping ceilings like the aisles of a church. The pillars supporting the main halls were of wood cut in the cypress or suru pattern and were joined together on the top by thick cusped arches. The ceilings were covered with beautiful wooden tracery in different patterns. The wood work was painted with figures of trees and men or scenes from the Purans in enamel and gold. The stone work inside the courts was throughout finely chiselled and polished. Most of the important courts had central fountains. [The seventh Peshwa Madhavrav II.(1774- 1795) threw himself from the uppermost floor on one of the-fountains, broke both his legs, and died after two days' illness.] The height of the palace is not known. It is said that the spire of Alandi temple twelve miles north of Poona was seen from the uppermost terrace. All round the palace thick iron chains were hung on the walls to ward off lightning and other evil spirits. A
retinue of Brahman servants was maintained at the palace at a monthly cost of £150 (Rs'. 1500). From a cistern in the palace water was raised to the seventh storey and carried to the Mudpak court, Tak court, and other parts of the palace. The fountain in Phad court was famous for its size and beauty. The story is told that, while the palace was building, no one thought of the water-supply except a skilful mason who stealthily built a duct under the wall and made a reservoir near the Ganesh gate. When the palace was finished and the Peshwa was arranging to bring water from the Katraj aqueduct into the palace he saw no way except by pulling down a part of the enclosure wall with the building on it. The mason showed his duct and was rewarded for his foresight by the grant of a village near Ahmadnagar where his descendants still live. In 1755 stone towers were built over the gateways. In 1788 the Phad court was rebuilt under the superintendence of Nana Fadnavis. In 1811 an Asmani Mahal or Sky Hall built by Bajirav the last Peshwa (1796-1817) was burnt down. In 1827 on Thursday the bright sixth of Phalgun or March-April the palace- caught fire, and continued burning about a fortnight. In spite of all efforts, almost the whole of the palace was destroyed. Among the parts saved was the Mirror Hall which has since been removed. The palace site is now used for the reserve force of the Poona city police.
Shukravar Vada (33).
The SHUKRAVAR PALACE in Shukravar ward was built by Bajirav the last Peshwa in 1803-4. It was partly burnt in 1820 and the
ruins were sold by Government. No trace but the bare walls remains. This was a small building with two courts and two upper storeys. It was Bajirav's private residence.
Someshvar's Temple (34).
SOMESHVAR'S TEMPLE in the Aditvar ward was built by Narayanrav Natu about 1830. It has become a great resort for wan
dering Gosavis. The temple is now (August 1884) being rebuilt
by public subscription among the Marwari shopkeepers in the
Kapadganj market who have already given about £3000 (Es. 30,000)
The body of the temple is being built of polished trap with marble
columns and terraced windows. The original image chamber is
preserved and is being lined with masonry. The hall will be
built of carved wood. A public cistern has been built in the
yard and a small garden has been made at the back. Along the
sides are rest-houses for Gosavis. The doorway with a small drum-house or nagarkhana over it has been recently rebuilt. The ling
of this temple is a natural knob of rock like the Omkareshvar ling and is held in high veneration. The great day of the temple is
Mahashivratra in February-March. The temple expenses are met
by subscriptions among the traders of Kapadganj.
Tambdi Jogeshvari's Temple (35).
JOGESHVARI was one of the oldest guardians of the city and had a
temple about a mile to the north of the town when it consisted of about a dozen huts. The goddess, who is now painted red and called
Tambdi or Red Jogeshvari, is formally asked to all marriage and other important family ceremonies. The temple is very plain and built of solid stone with a shrine and a small hall in front. On the sides are platforms with images of Vithoba, Mahadev, and Ganpati. The holy days of the temple are the Navratra in September
-October.
Tulsibag Temple (36).
TULSIBAG TEMPLE in Budhvar ward, was built in 1761 by order of the third Peshwa Balaji Bajirav (1740 -1761). The temple stands on the site of a garden of basil or tulsi. Close to the garden a stream now dry passed by the Red Jogeshvari's temple. A trace of the stream remains in a woman's tomb behind the Tulsi Garden which must once have been on the bank of the stream. The building of the temple was superintended by Naro Appaji who was also made the temple manager. The Tulsibag is about one acre in area and is entered by a small door. It contains three temples, one of Ram in the middle, of Ganpati on the right of Ram, and of Shiv on the left. Ram's temple consists of a cutstone and vaulted shrine with a spire and an arcaded portico with a marble floor. Ganpati's and Mahadev's temples are also of cutstone but smaller and without the portico. In front of the temple a yard laid out in flower beds is crossed by paved footpaths which lead to the different temples. Behind the temples are two detached halls beyond one of which is a basil pillar. Below the pillar is a four-armed stone image of Vishnu lying on the serpent Shesh. In front of Ram's temple is a third large hall about twenty feet high with a wood-carved ceiling and a fountain. Ram's temple has three white marble images of Ram Sita and Lakshman. In front of Ram in a small stone shrine is a black-stone standing image of Maruti with folded hands. Over the north and south gateways are two drum-houses or nagarkhanas where drums are beaten daily at morning evening and midnight and in addition at noon and afternoon on Saturdays, the day on which Poona passed to the Peshwas. Additions and alterations, at a cost of about £3000 (Rs. 30,000), have lately been made to the temple by Mr. Nandram Naik. A very elegant new conical cement spire 140 feet high and ornamented with figures foliage and niches has been built; and the third hall or sabhamandap (60' X 40' x 20') has been rebuilt of massive wood. Tulsibag is the most frequented temple in Poona. It enjoys a grant for the maintenance of the drum-house from the Parvati temple revenues and has shops and houses whose rents go towards its expenses.
Vetal Temple (37).
The temple of VETAL or the Ghost King in Vetal ward, is an
ordinary looking and popular temple with a shrine, a chamber, and
an outer hall. Round the outside of the temple runs an open air passage about six feet wide, and round the outside of the passage is a row of rough undressed stones about six inches high covered with whitewash and tipped with redlead. The north and west walls of the" temple are also marked with great patches of redlead and whitewash. Near the entrance door is a small altar where a lamp burns and where are impressions of Vetal's feet and a small Nandi or bull. Low caste people do not go further; they bow beside the feet and look at Vetal. From the roof of the shrine or chamber at the west end of the hall hangs a bell, which, according to the temple ministrant, one of the Peshwas presented to Vetal in fulfilment of a vow that he would offer Vetal a bell if the casting of a certain cannon was successful. The god is a red block about three feet high and three feet round. The top is roughly made into the shape of a man's face with large eyes and a blacks moustache. It is thickly encrusted with redlead. On the top of the head is a small wreath of chrysanthemums. From the roof hangs a garland of bel or Egle marmelos and custard apple leaves and marigold flowers, and across the door is a string of dry mango leaves. The god is washed every day, but no light is burnt near him. Friday is his big day. The god is a pillar of cement built over a round undressed stone, which, about ninety years ago, a Maratha brought from the village of Bapgaon in the Purandhar sub-division. His great-grandson is the present ministrant or pujari. All classes of Hindus, Brahmans as well as other people, worship this Vetal. Vetal is worshipped in the same way as Bahiroba and other Maratha gods. Goats are sacrificed to him in fulfilment of vows; cocks are not offered. Vetal's chief worshippers are athletes and sorcerers.
Vishnu Mandir(33).
VISHNU MANDIR or Vishnu's temple in Gosavipura in Somvar ward is one of three charitable works built in 1846 at a cost of £13,000
(Rs. 1,30,000) by a wealthy Gosavi named Bava Narpatgir Guru
Kisangir who died in 1859. To remedy the deficient water-supply of
Gosavipura Bava Narpatgir laid a branch from the Katraj aqueduct
and built public cisterns, this temple, and a rest-house. [In reward for his public spirit Government presented the Bava with a gold
bracelet.] The work was
begun in 1846 and finished in 1850. The temple consists of a small
solid stone room about twenty feet square with a vault surmounted
by a conical tower. The objects of worship in the room are images
of Vishnu and Lakshmi. The tower is richly ornamented with
foliage, niches, and mythological figures in stucco. In front of the
room is an arched stone portico. Touching the portico on a lowers
level is a large wooden hall or sabhamandap open on the north.
The hall has a central nave and aisles. To the north of the
temple is a paved quadrangle surrounded by open wooden pillared
halls. To the north of the first quadrangle is a second with
rooms and halls on the sides. The first quadrangle has a neat little
fountain and outside the temple premises are two large public cistens
Bava Narpatgir has endowed the temple cisterns and rest-house with
lands yielding £50 (Rs. 500) a year.
Vishnu's Temple(39).
VISHNU'S TEMPLE in Shukravar ward was built by Jivajipant Anna Khasgivale. Behind the temple is a water cistern or haud from
which Brahmans alone are allowed to draw water. Beyond the cistern was a garden belonging to Khasgivale with a dwelling surrounded by fountains. The garden, dwelling, and fountains have been removed and the site taken by the Poona municipality for the central market.[See above pp. 337-338.] The temple is in two parts, a shrine and a portico, both built of solid stone and vaulted with a spire. In front is an open wooden hall or sabhamandap with a tiled roof where Purans are read every evening to large numbers of people.
Vishrambag Palace(40).
VISHRAMBAG PALACE in Sadashiv ward, now used for the Government High School, is a large one-storeyed mansion, 260 feet long and 815 feet broad. The palace has three quadrangles or chauks each
with open halls on all sides on the ground-floor and enclosed rooms with numerous windows on the upper floor. The chief supports on the ground-floor are all of wood, cut square and placed on stone pedestals. The beams and girders are also of wood, cut and dressed
square. The columns of the upper floor are also of wood carved in the cypress or suru form. The columns have a square base and rounded top. The shafts are round but bulge out a little at starting and taper at the head. The entablature is nearly the same as the base inverted though smaller. Above the entablature the column runs square and receives the square post plate and over it the beams. The space between the post plate and the entablature is filled by a false wooden arch. The arch is cusped and horse-shoe shaped, the centre raised in a point by turning up the ends of the two uppermost cusps of the arch. The shafts are carved with the stalk and leaves of creepers and the base and entablature are enriched with foliage. The arches start from the stem which carries the flower and fruit of the creeper. The palace roof was originally a terrace, but it has been lately made into a tiled roof. The quadrangles or chauks are well paved squares with ample room for lectures and other meetings. The hindmost quadrangle contains three small cisterns placed in a line in the centre and fed by the water of the Nana Fadnavis aqueduct. Outside the palace is a large public cistern called Pushkarni. The palace was built as a residence by Bajirav the last Peshwa between 1803 and 1809 at a cost of £20,054 (Rs. 2,00,540). The aqueduct and cisterns cost a further sum of £850 (Rs. 8500). The palace was furnished at a cost of £1400 (Rs. 14,000), and an establishment at a monthly cost of £40 (Rs. 400) was kept to guard it and attend the Peshwa when he lived there.
On the recommendation of Mr. Chaplin, Commissioner of the Deccan (1818-1821), Government set apart £2000 (Rs. 20,000) out of the Dakshina Fund,[Details of the Dakshina Fund are given above under Instruction pp.48, 62. 64.] to maintain a college for the study of the Vedas and Shastras. The college or Pathshala was started in this palace in 1821. About 1842 the study of the Vedas was stopped and classes for teaching English were substituted, with the late Major Candy, the author of the Marathi Dictionary, as the head of the college staff. The study of the Shastras was stopped in 1856 and the first Deccan College was formed with a preparatory school attached. In course of time (1868) the very handsome Deccan College buildings now in use were completed. The preparatory school which then became the High School has since remained in the Vishrambag palace. In May 1879 the front quadrangle of the palace was burnt down by incendiaries. Public subscriptions, aided by municipal contributions, were raised and the buildings restored somewhat to their original appearance. It is intended to make the restoration complete.
Miscellaneous.
Besides the above the following buildings may be noted. In Aditvar ward, Ghorpade's mansion with a large public cistern and a jalmandir or water-house that is a house built on pillars in water. In Budhvar ward Mankeshvar's palace now owned by the Kibe banker of Indore, and Thatte's temple of Ram; in Ganj ward Raje Bagsher's mosque; in Kasba ward Nana Fadnavis mansion where the Peshwas' records are kept; in Narayan ward the Gaikvad's mansion the Lakdi bridge and Vithoba's temple; in Shanvar ward Appa Balvant Mehandale's mansion, Chandrachud's
mansion, Gadre's mansion owned by the Dowager Rani of Baroda and now occupied by the New English School, Harihareshvar's temple, Holkar's mansion, Jamkhandikar's mansion, Sanglikar's mansion, and Shirke's mansion. In Shukravar ward Bara Imams' or the Twelve Saints' mosque, Bhau Mansaram's mansion built by a rich contractor Bhau Mansaram in 1869, and Nandram Naik's mansion built in 1859 both favourite resorts of Maratha chiefs visiting Poona on business or pleasure, and the Pant Sachiv's mansion; and in Vetal ward Chaudhari's mansion now in possession of Rav Saheb Bhajekar, and the S. P. G. Mission house and church.
Cantonment.
The Cantonment, the eastern section of Poona, has an area of
about 425 square miles, about 30,225 people, and during the five years ending 1883, an average yearly cantonment revenue of about £6664 (Rs. 66,642).[The details are: Rs. 21,635 in 1879-80, Rs. 24,840 in 1880-81, Rs. 85,507 in 1881-82 Rs. 1,08,394 in 1882-83, and Rs. 92,837 in 1883-84.] It is a rectangular plot of land about 2.72 miles from north to south and varying from 1.36 to l.62 miles from east to west. It is bounded on the north by the Peninsula railway, on the east by Bahiroba's stream, on the south by a line drawn from the Vanavdi Hay stacks past the back of the Military Prison (85) to the cemetery on the Satara road (59), on the south-west and west by the Bhavani and Nana wards of the city, and on the north-west by the line of the Council Hall road which separates it from the suburban municipality.
Divisions.
Almost along its whole length to the Right Flank Lines in the
extreme south, the central belt of the Military cantonment, with an
area of 130 acres, is kept open for parade and other military
purposes. Beyond this central open belt to the north-east are the
Ghorpadi Lines and Barracks, to the south-east the Vanavdi Lines,
to the south the Right Flank Lines so called because they are on
the right flank of the cantonment, to the south-west the Neutral
Lines and the Petty Staff Lines, to the west the Native Infantry Lines
and behind them the Sadar Bazar, to the north-west the Ordnance
Lines and behind them the Staff Lines. Beyond the natural limits
of the cantonment, but under the control of the Cantonment
Magistrate, in the extreme north-east on the right bank of Bahiroba's
stream, between the Peninsula railway and the river, are the Native
Cavairy Lines.
Aspect.
The land in the cantonment forms two parts, the central belt most
of it of poor soil and rock, bare of houses, and with few trees except those that line the roads which cross and encircle it; and the groups and lines of residences chiefly of European civil and military officers in the Ghorpadi lines in the north-east, in the Vanavdi Lines in the south-east, in the Right Flank Lines in the south, and in the Neutral, Native Infantry, and Staff Lines in the west and north-west. All of these quarters or lines are well provided with excellent roads some of which have road-side trees and riding paths. Most of the houses are in enclosures of half an acre to two acres fenced with brick walls or low cactus hedges. Many of the enclosures are bare of trees. Others, especially during the rains, are shady gardens well
stocked with shrubs, roses, geraniums, and flowering plants and
creepers. With a few exceptions the houses are one-storeyed
buildings, on plinths two to five feet high with stone and cement walls and tiled roofs. A few are owned and held by wealthy Natives
but most are owned by Natives of Poona and let to Europeans, chiefly
Civil and Military officers at monthly rents of £5 to £15 (Rs, 50-
150) or £80 to £120 (Rs. 800 - 1200) for the rainy season. Each
house has its line of stables and servants' quarters generally of brick.
Besides these lines the cantonment limits include two lines of small
houses with small front gardens and paying rents of £2 10s. to £7
10s. (Bs. 25 - 75) a month. These are the Ordnance Lines to the
north-east of the Native Infantry Lines and the Petty Staff Lines to
the south-west of the Neutral Lines. The residents of these lines
are chiefly European and Eurasian pensioners and Government
servants. The nine lines within cantonment limits have 4451 people
of whom 981 are Europeans and the rest (3470), chiefly their servants,
Goanese, Musalmans, and Hindus.
Sadar Bazar.
To the left of the Native Infantry lines is the Sadar Bazar or chief market a town (1883) of 2491 houses, 705 shops, and 17,813 people, which has sprung up since the beginning of British rule. The main thoroughfare is a fine broad street with open paved gutters, broad footpaths lighted with kerosine lamps, and shops shaded by fine trees.
Houses.
Some of the houses are small and poor with low front walls. Most are two-storeyed many of them built on a plinth, with a receding ground floor and pillars at the edge of the plinth supporting an overhanging upper storey with projecting beams generally without carving. In other houses the ground floor comes to the edge of the plinth and in the upper storey is an overhanging balcony. Besides these single and two-storeyed houses are handsomer buildings three or four-storeys high, with fronts of rich strong wood work with fine rounded pillars and deep overhanging balconies and verandas with iron railings.
The owners of the Sadar Bazar houses are Hindu traders chiefly Gujarat and Marwar Vanis, Shimpis, Telis, and Kamathis, and of the poorer dwellings domestic servants to Europeans. Next in number to the Hindu houseowners come Muhammadans, Mehmans, Bohoras, mutton and beef butchers, dealers in poultry, Government pensioners, and domestic servants to Europeans. Parsis, who come next in number, own the best dwellings and are the chief traders. The Portuguese who are chiefly Government clerks own some well built though small dwellings. They are principally medical practitioners druggists and shopkeepers. Goanese and Native Christians chiefly bakers also own houses and live in them. Monthly house rents in the Sadar Bazar vary from 2s. (Re. 1) for a hut to £1 10s. to £2 (Rs. 15 - 20) for an ordinary dwelling. Shop rents vary for small shops from 10s. to £1 10s. (Rs. 5-15) a month and for large shops rise to as much as £5 (Rs. 50). Single lodgings or rooms are usually let at about 2s. (Re. 1) month. During the past few years rents hare risen and are now (1885) high.
Shops.
In 1883 the Sadar Bazar had 705 shops of which 114 were
grocers, fifty-five Bohora cloth sellers, forty-nine mutton butchers,
forty-six retail country liquor sellers, forty-five shroffs or money
lenders, thirty-eight beef butchers, thirty-five vegetable sellers,
thirty-five betelnut sellers, thirty-five tailors, thirty cloth sellers,
twenty-seven goldsmiths, twenty-four fruit sellers, twenty-two wholesale Europe liquor sellers, eighteen carpenters, fifteen retail
bakers, thirteen palm-liquor sellers, thirteen glass bangle-sellers, twelve wholesale bakers, twelve fish
sellers, nine sodawater and lemonade sellers, five private dispensaries, five bookbinders, four perfume sellers, four cigar sellers, four ironsmiths, four watchmakers, three salt-meat sellers, three booksellers, two tent-makers, two glaziers, two workers in tin, two photographers, and one ice-seller. Besides the five private dispensaries which were owned by Portuguese and Hindus, a charitable dispensary for medical advice and treatment is maintained at the cost of the cantonment fund. As regards the caste or race of the different classes of shopkeepers the photographers and the ice-maker were Parsis, the tailors and tent-makers Maratha and Kamathi Shimpis, the boot and shoe makers chiefly Pardeshi and Telangi Mochis, the glaziers and carpenters Parsi Hindu and Musalman carpenters, the palm-liquor sellers Parsis Marathas and Kamathis, the grocers chiefly Gujarat and Marwar Vanis, the cigar-sellers Goanese and Madras Hindus, the Atars or perfume sellers Muhammadans, the wholesale Europe liquor sellers chiefly Parsis, the bakers almost all Goanese, the goldsmiths Pardeshi Maratha Gujarati and Telangi goldsmiths, the sodawater and lemonade sellers mostly Hindus, the cloth-sellers chiefly Mehmans Gujarat Vanis and Shimpis, the beef and mutton butchers Muhammadans, the vegetable sellers Hindus and Muhammadans, and the fish sellers, some of whom import fish from Bombay in ice, Parsis and Hindus, in addition to these 705 ordinary shops are eleven large shops, one a branch of a joint stock company, six owned by Europeans, one by a Hindu, two by Parsis, and one by a Musalman. [The branch of the joint stock company is Treacher and Co. 's general merchants chemists and druggists; the six European-owned shops are Badham Pile and Company clothiers, Mrs. Hunt and Mrs. Taylor milliners, Mr. J. Farbstein hair cutter, Marcks and Company watchmakers, Phillips and Company chemists, and Watson and Company general merchants; the one Hindu-owned shop is Morgan and Balkrishna chemists druggists commission agents and auctioneers; the two Parsi-owned shops are Cooper and Company booksellers and stationers, and Orr and Hirjibbai saddlers boot and shoemakers commission agents and auctioneers; and the one Musalman-owned is Ludha Ibrahim and Company general merchants and auctioneers.]
During the south-west monsoon that is between June and October several European and native tailors, milliners, and dress makers come from Bombay to Poona. Of liquor shops in the Sadar Bazar twenty-two sell wholesale Europe spirits wine and beer, and forty-six shops retail country liquor and thirteen shops retail palm liquor or toddy. Country liquor is distilled by a contractor at a distillery, which is under Government supervision, about four miles east of the cantonment. Palm liquor is brought from the neighbourhood of Poona by a contractor who pays Government a
certain sum for the monopoly of the sale within a certain area. The country spirits are chiefly distilled from moha or Bassia latifolia flowers and sugar. The tavern keepers are Parsis, Hindus, and some Muhammadans. The business is brisk and lucrative.
Population.
Except [Contributed by Mr. S. Kyte, Police Inspector, Poona.] a few poor European pensioners the Sadar Bazar is peopled by Natives. They are of two classes outsiders and locals. The outsider classes are chiefly Parsis from Bombay, Bohoras from Gujarat, Mehmans from Cutch, and Vanis from Gujarat and Marwar. The chief local classes are Brahmans, Buruds, Chambhars, Kamathis, Malis, Marathas, Mochis, Shimpis, and Sonars. The outsiders are rich and prosperous, the locals are chiefly craftsmen who, though well-to-do, have not risen to wealth.
Outsiders.
The first Parsis who settled in the Sadar Bazar came from Sirur in East Poona in 1818 when the bulk of the British troops were moved from Sirur to Poona. They opened four Europe shops in thatched huts. The first to build a permanent shop was one Mr. Motabhai and the others followed his example. The richest of them was Bejanji Canteenvala the maternal grandfather of the present mail contractor Mr. Framji Ardeseer who built a large shop in the Sadar Bazar and at Kirkee. The Parsis now form a prosperous community. They live in Main street and deal chiefly in European liquor, oilman's stores, and groceries. Others are watchmakers, carpenters, bookbinders, coach-builders, house-painters, hotel-keepers, and clerks. A few are men of property who live on the rents of lands and houses. The traders order almost all their stores from England and the continent of Europe. Their chief patrons are Europeans and Eurasians. Bohoras, Shia Musalmans chiefly of Gujarat origin, came to the Sadar Bazar soon after it became a British camp. They are said to have begun by selling raw cotton. They now deal in piece goods, oilman's stores, crockery, hardware, and glass. They never sell liquor or lend money. The Mehmans, who are Sunni Musalmans of Cutch, settled in the Sadar Bazar in 1835. They had traded with Europeans in Cutch and, finding them profitable patrons, followed them to Bombay and from Bombay to Poona. They began as hawkers seling piece goods muslins and woollens. Later on they dealt in oilman's stores, and they now sell English millinery, harness and saddlery, plated ware, crockery and glass, piece goods, furniture, and horses and carriages. They do not sell liquor or lend money. Some live on incomes drawn from land and house property. They deal direct with England and the continent of Europe. Vanis or Banias were the first settlers in the Sadar Bazar and are now the largest body of traders. They are of three classes, Gujarat Marwar and Lingayat Vanis, all hardworking and moneymaking. The Lingayats have the best name for fair dealing; the Gujaratis and Marwaris are hated for their hard greedy ways. Most of all three classes deal in grain and pulse. Others trade in piece-goods both European and local, and a few mostly Gujaratis do nothing but lend money. Borrowing from these Vanis leads many Eurasian youths to ruin. Grain dealers buy wholesale from city traders and sell retail in the
cantonment. Besides dealing in grain they generally sell tea, coffee, sugar, tobacoo, and kerosine oil which they bring from Bombay. The piece-goods dealers bring most of their goods from Bombay. They sell to Europeans and Eurasians, but their chief customers are low class Hindus. Lingayat and Gujarat Vanis generally begin life by taking service with a dealer or shopkeeper of their own class. They save and lay by and start on their own account. A Marwari generally begins by carrying a sack of parched grain which he barters for old iron and broken bangles. He is a great child-tempter giving children parched grain and sometimes a copper or two for any little article they may pilfer from their parents' houses. After a time the Marwari opens a small shop and saves by the practice of the strictest thrift.
Local Classes.
Of the nine local classes Brahmans, most of whom are Deshasths, are a small body. Shrinking from risk spoils them as traders. Craft and thrift are their two leading money making traits. Most are clerks in Government and private service Buruds or bamboo workers, who live chiefly in Main street, make wicker and basket work and matting. The women earn as much as the men, who, though orderly and hardworking, are given to drink. Chambhars or Leather workers are a poor Marathi-speaking class. They make chaplas or sandals, and Deccan Brahman shoes called jodas. Their women help by lining the upper part of Brahman shoes with silk. They are poor, partly because they have a caste rule against making English boots and shoes. Kamathis are a class of Telugu-speaking craftsmen and labourers who live chiefly near Malcolm's pond. They are of many castes but the largest class are Kamathi flower gardeners or Phul Malis who do not grow flowers but work chiefly as masons and contractors. The men though active and clever are often careless and dissipated, sometimess kept by their wives who are excellent workers. A few Kamathis have risen to be clerks. Malis, who belong to the Phul Mali or flower gardener division, do nothing but grow flowers. Though poor they are frugal and live within their means. Marathas are a large but poor class. Some are petty shopkeepers selling mutton liquor and betelnut and tobacco. Many are husbandmen and market gardeners, and this section has greatly prospered since the opening of the Khadakvasla canal. But many, perhaps one-half, are idle and debauched. Mochis or Shoemakers are are of two classes Madrasis and Pardeshis. The Madrasis, whose home tongue is Tamil, are excellent workmen both as boot and shoe and as harness makers. Chiefly through their skill Poona made European boots are in demand all over the Deccan and in Bombay. They are highly paid and might have constant employment, but they are idle and given to drink. Most of them always spend some drunken days after getting their wages. They eat flesh, including beef, daily, and have lately taken to coffee drinking. Pardeshi Mochis from Bengal speak Hindustani at home and are generally single. They are clever workmen making boots and shoes for Mehmans, who send them to Bombay and other parts of the Presidency. They eat flesh except beef, and drink liquor. Shimpis or Tailors are of two main classes Namdevs and Jains, and
among Namdevs are two divisions Marathas and Telangis. The Namdevs and Jains are bitter rivals according to the Namdev saying ' Spare a serpent, not a Jain Shimpi.' Most of them live in Main street. They are hardworking and careful but given to drink. Their chief business is selling cloth and clothes. Sonars or gold and silver smiths, some of whom are Panchals or anti-Brahman Sonars and others ordinary Maratha Sonars, live chiefly in Main street. They have good employment both from Europeans and Natives and are well-to-do.
Streets.
The Cantonment has eight principal streets, East, Main, Centre,
Grain Market, West, Sachapir, Dadabhai Bhootee, and Sholapur and Bhavani Peth Roads. East street, 4200 feet long, contains the principal shops for the supply of Europe goods and articles of dress and clothing. Main, street, 4680 feet long, contains 347 houses. The larger Bohoras' shops and tailoring establishments and sellers of Europe spirits wines and beers are established in this street. Centre street, 2280 feet long, contains 239 houses with shops of Vani grocers. Grain Market street, 480 feet long, contains twenty-eight houses chiefly occupied by grain dealers. West street, 3420 feet long, is a great thoroughfare to the west of the Sadar Bazar running from north-west to the south of the bazar, beginning at the Jamsetji fountain and terminating south of the Malcolm pond. Sachapir street 1800 feet long and containing, eighty-one houses is one of the approaches to Poona city from the cantonment. Dadabhai Bhootee street, called after its chief resident Mr. Dadabhai Bhootee, is 1980 feet long and contains thirty-two houses. The large Gavlivada in the old Modikhana quarter lies to the north of the street. Sholapur road 2040 feet long has the Government Bakery and the large business buildings of Messrs. Morgan and Balkrishna, auctioneers and merchants. To the south of the road near Messrs. Balkrishna's premises is a neat row of buildings used as residences and shops. Bhavani Peth road, 720 feet long, contains twenty-six houses chiefly occupied by Marwar moneylenders.
Management.
The management of the cantonment is in the hands of a cantonment committee of thirteen members, nine official and four non-official, under the presidency of the Officer Commanding the Station and with the Cantonment Magistrate as Secretary. [The official members are: The Collector and District Magistrate, the Divisional Deputy Surgeon General, the Executive Engineer, three officers in monthly rotation Commanding Regiments stationed at Poona, the Civil Surgeon, the Executive Engineer for Irrigation, and the Cantonment Magistrate.] Subject to rules passed by Government this committee at monthly or more frequent meetings fixes the strength and the pay of the cantonment staff. Under the control of the committee, the Cantonment Magistrate as executive head manages the conservancy and sanitation of the cantonment which for conservancy purposes has been divided into eleven wards. The conservanoy staff clean private latrines and remove nightsoil from private houses at a monthly charge of 6d. to 1s. (4-8 as.) from each house. [The strength of the conservancy staff is 103 road sweepers and 96 nightsoil men, supervised by twelve supervisors or mukadams and two inspectors.] In all parts of the
cantonment, not in the charge of regimental or other special
establishments, the cantonment conservancy staff remove all filth
and rubbish from the public roads and streets, from public latrines
slaughter-houses and other places, from receptacles provided for
filth and rubbish, and from public and private premises to the
committee manure yard about half a mile east of the Sholapur
bridge and north of the Sholapur road beyond the new cemetery (60).
From the cantonment fund the Sadar Bazar and other parts of the
cantonment are kept clean. The Sadar Bazar streets are lighted
by 456 kerosine lamps, the posis made of iron in Bombay and the
lanterns, also of iron, in Poona. The streets are provided with surface
drains which are twice flushed daily to carry off house sullage, the
water draining into the Manik watercourse or nala. Eight large
public cisterns for free drinking water, three stand-pipes two at
Ghorpadi and one at Vanavdi, and large sheds of fourteen blocks
containing 428 stalls, five containing 144 stalls in Sholapur Bazar
and nine containing 284 stalls in Old Modikhana near Dadabhai
Bhootee street for milch cattle, have also been provided. There are
two slaughter houses, one for bullocks and cows, the other for sheep
and goats. The buildings are close to the Government slaughteries
south of the Military Prison (85) on the road to Kondva village. The
daily average of animals slaughtered is, in the fair season, sixty-five
sheep and goats and eighteen cows and calves; and in the monsoon
120 sheep and goats and eighteen to twenty cows and calves. In
the west and north-west the roads are daily watered during the dry
months, and the most frequented roads are, in dark nights, lighted
by 456 kerosine lamps. ID 1883-84 the cantonment had, including a
balance of £6797 (Rs. 67,970), an income of £16,081 (Rs. 1,60,810),
and an expenditure of £15,907 (Rs. 1,59,070). The chief sources of income are octroi duties and property rates, licenses, and fees and
passes; the main charges are under conservancy, public works, and
lock-hospital.
Garrison.
The normal strength of the Poona garrison is 4620 of whom 1165 are Europeans and
3455 Natives. The accommodation for troops in Poona provides for a garrison of
two European Infantry regiments, one Mountain Battery, one Native Cavalry Regiment, and
three Native Infantry Regiments. Of these troops the two European
Infantry Regiments are in the Ghorpadi and Vanavdi Barracks, details
of which are given below under Objects (70 & 116). The Mountain
Battery is in the old Horse Artillery Lines about half a mile
south-east of the Vanavdi Barracks. The Native Cavalry Regiment
is in the Native Cavalry Lines about three quarters of a mile north-east of the cantonment (109). The three Native Infantry Regiments
are in the right flank, centre, and left flank lines between the
Vanavdi and Ghorpadi European Barracks. There are also, besides
Commissariat buildings, the Transport Lines about three quarters
of a mile west of St. Mary's church (109), For the treatment of
European troops there is one Station Hospital in the Vanadi
Lines and one small Staff Hospital. Each of the Native Regiments
has its own hospital. There is also a first class Lock Hospital
with a medical officer in charge and 224 registered prostitutes.
The Lock hospital rules are in force within three miles of the cantonment. [Benson's Compendium of Information regarding Poona, 15-16, 22-23, 26,43.]
History.
The [Contributed by Mr. A. H. Plunkett.] Poona cantonment dates from the battle of Kirkee and the
capture of Poona city on the 5th and the 17th of November 1817.
After the capture of the city the troops were encamped in tents on
the spot now called the Ordnance Lines. The troops were attended
by Vani grain dealers and other traders whose two lines of thatched hats, now in Main and Tabut streets, were the beginning of the Sadar Bazar. As has been noticed under population the next additions were Parsi traders from Sirur and Bohora Musalman traders from Poona soon after the market was started, and Mehman Musalmans from Cutch about 1835. The Sholapur Bazar, about 500 yards south-east of the Sadar Bazar, was started at the same time (1818) by the Madras Pioneers whose camp was on the site of the present Transport Lines. The break up of the Queen's Bazar on the site of the Vanavdi Ball Alley further strengthened the Sholapur Bazar. The Vanavdi Bazar was established about 1825 near the site chosen for an encampment of a brigade of Artillery. About this time Bishop Heber mentions the cantonment as lying on raised ground to the east of the city. The streets were wide and the cantonment well arranged and handsome. There was a good station library for soldiers and another for officers, regimental schools, and a spacious and a convenient church but in bad architectural taste. [Narrative, II. 208 - 209.] The Ghorpadi Bazar was started in 1844 on the spot where the Ghorpadi hospital stands. It was afterwards moved east to its present site. Behind the Council Hall (52), on the site afterwards held by the Sappers and Miners, a native cavalry regiment was stationed and a bazar sprang up. All traces were cleared away in 1882 when the Sappers were moved to New Jhansi (88) in Kirkee. Barracks were built at Ghorpadi in 1842, 1849, and 1880, and large double storeyed barracks at Vanavdi between 1861 and 1872.[The details are given below under Objects (70 and 116).] The first houses for regimental officers were built on the site of the present Native Infantry lines. The houses at first were temporary thatched buildings made by Parsis and other traders in the Sadar Bazar. With the increase in the number of troops rows and groups of residences have been built first at Vanavdi, then at the Neutral Lines, and then at Ghorpadi. From the growing importance of Poona as one of the head-quarters of Government, the demand of civil and military officers for houses and offices has steadily increased and has led to the building of the staff lines to the north of the cantonment in the direction of the railway and the river.
Kirkee Cantonment.
The cantonment of Kirkee on the right bank of the Mutha, about
four miles north-west of the Poona Cantonment, includes an area of about 2709 acres. It is bounded roughly on the north and east by the Mula, on the south by a line drawn from the old Government
gardens to the top of the ridge on the parade ground, and on the west by a line from the parade ground ridge to the Mula river. It is a flat plain except close to the river where it is scored with water
courses. To the north and west much of the land is barren and
rocky growing little but grass and a few stunted trees. To the
north-east are patches of rich soil watered by a canal from Lake
Fife and growing rich crops of sugarcanes. Much of the south
is closely covered with young babhul trees. Most of the roads are
well shaded. There is only one Europe shop, and the houses
are almost all small, with large trees round the enclosures, within
which however there are few shrubs or flowers.
Kirkee is the principal Artillery station in the Bombay Presidency
and is the head-quarters of the Bombay Sappers and Miners. The
garrison of Kirkee includes the Bombay Sappers and Miners, one
battery of Royal Horse Artillery, two Field Batteries, one company
of European Infantry, and one company of Native Infantry. The
presence of the Powder Works (72) and the Small Arms Ammunition
Factory (104) give Kirkee a special military importance.
The Kirkee Bazar was established in 1822 by the 4th Light
Dragoons who came here from Kaira in Gujarat. Kirkee Cantonment
has thirty-three bungalows owned by Parsis and Hindus, and rented
by the military officers stationed at Kirkee, and by the subordinates
of the Gunpowder and Small Arms Ammunition Factories. In a
market place or bazar are 464 houses generally single storeyed, the
walls of burnt brick or stone, and the roofs of 432 tiled and of
thirty-two thatched. Besides the troops and the European and other
mechanics employed in the Small Arms and Gunpowder Factories,
the population consists of servants of officers and their families,
and grasscutters, butchers, cowkeepers, grainsellers, woodsellers,
petty traders, and others usually found in a large regimental bazar.
The cantonment has one palm liquor, one country spirit, one opium,
and two European liquor shops.
The cantonment has one Muhammadan burying ground, and a
Hindu burning and burying ground to the north of the bazar, and
two Christian graveyards, one, now closed, at the corner between the
main road and the north end of Holkar's Bridge (75), and the other,
now in use, to the right of the road from Holkar's Bridge to the
Gunpowder Factory.
The income of the Kirkee Cantonment Funds for 1883-84 was, including a balance of £424 (Rs. 4240), £1337 (Rs. 13,370) and the expenditure £1072 (Rs. 10,720). The chief sources of income are a grazing fund, fees, passes, taxes, and licenses, and they chief heads of expenditure are a Lock Hospital and conservancy. The Cantonment is managed by a committee composed of the Commanding Officer at Kirkee as the permanent President, and eight members, the Collector and District Magistrate, the Senior Regimental Officer,the Senior Medical Officer, the Officer Commanding the Sappers and Miners, the Executive Engineer Poona and Kirkee, the Medical Officer in charge Kirkee Lock Hospital, the Cantonment Magistrate Poona and Kirkee, and the Station Staff Officer. The commitee meets monthly for the transaction of business. A military officer is secretary to the Kirkee Cantonment committee, and is the executive head of the establishment maintained from Cantoment funds. The Cantonment Magistrate, Poona, has charge of the
magisterial work of the cantonment. All criminal cases arising at Kirkee are either sent to Poona for trial or are tried at Kirkee by the Cantonment Magistrate, Poona.
The New Jhansi lines in which are the Sappers and Miners, have lately been built to the south-east of Kirkee. The bazar attached to the new lines is small, including about fourteen houses which are chiefly occupied by the followers and petty dealers attached to the corps. For cantonment purposes the New Jhansi lines are included in the station of Kirkee.
Suburban Municipality.
The Civil Lines or Suburban Municipality, started on 12th February 1884, includes an area of about one and three quarters of a square mile lying to the north-west of the Poona cantonment. This area is divided by the railway into two nearly equal sections. The south-railway section has a length from the railway south to the Synagogue (113) of about 1200 yards, and from about the same breadth in the north, from the west end of the railway station (97) to the Council Hall (52), it gradually narrows to about 300 yards in the south. The north-railway section is a rectangular block about 1200 yards from north to wrath from the railway to the river, and about 1500 yards from east to west from the Koregaon road to a line running from the east end of the railway station to the river. Most of the north section, especially towards the river, is rich black soil cropped and well wooded. It contains the Bund Gardens (47) in the north and four groups of houses, the four houses or Char Bungalows parallel to and about a hundred yards to the west of the Koregaon road; houses on both sides of the Bund Garden road which crosses the section from its south-west to its north-east corner; and in the west Sir A. Sassoon's bungalows in the extreme north-west of the Civil Lines, that run north from the east end of the railway station. Except in the west, where is rich cropped land, most of the south-railway section is like the cantonment of poor soil and the style of houses and gardens is much the same as in the west parts of the cantonment.
For conservancy purposes the Suburban Municipality is divided into three wards, one, including the parts on the north of the railway line up to the river; the second the part south of the railway line up to the city limits; and the third the parts along Kirkee road from the railway overbridge near the Sangam (99) to the Kirkee Cantonment boundary near the shop of Messrs. Cursetji and Sons.
The suburban municipal limit includes 184 houses, 135 of them bungalows with a total population of 2597 and during the rains of about 3000. The chief residents are European Government officers and some Native gentlemen. Near the railway station are some livery stables, a mixed shopkeeping native population forming the suburban municipal bazar. The lands included within suburban limits are under the management of a committee of sixteen, of Whom, besides the Collector and District Magistrate who is President, five are official and ten are non-official. The income, which is drawn from octroi, house-tax, conservancy-rate, and license fees, amounts to about £800 (Rs. 8000). The monthly charges, estimated at about £26 10s. (Rs. 265), are chiefly under staff and conservancy. At present the chief conservancy duties are sweeping roads, taking rubbish from houses and gardens, and carting away nightsoil.
Within suburban limits are sixteen objects of interest of which
details are given later on. These are the Bund Gardens on the
river bank about a mile and a quarter to the north of the post-office;
the Collector's Office about a quarter of a mile west of the post
office; the Boat-house of the Poona Boat Club on the river bank
west of the Bund Gardens; the FitzGerald Bridge across the Mula-Mutha at the east end of the Bund Gardens about a mile and a
quarter north of the post office; Gar Pir's tomb about 150 yards
south of the post office; a graveyard with old European tombs
(1819-1822) about 200 yards south of the post office; the Jamsetji
Bund across the Mula-Mutha to the north of the Bund Gardens;
the Military Accounts Offices about 100 yards west of the post office;
the Photozincographic Office about fifty yards west of the post office; the
Poona Hotel about 150 yards east of the post office; the Post Office near the
centre of the south-railway section; the Railway Station about 650 yards
north-west of the post office; the Royal Family Hotel close to the railway
station; the Sassoon Hospital about 500 yards west of the post office; St.
Paul's Church about fifty yards south of the post office; and the Synagogue
about 500 yards south of the post office. The [From materials chiefly
contributed by Colonel W. M. Ducat, R. E. Much help has also been received from
Colonel C. D. U. LaTouche and Major Benson's Compendium
of Information regarding Poona.] following are the accounts, alphabetically
arranged, of the chief objects of interest outside the Poona City municipal
limits
Objects
Albert Edward Institute(41).
The ALBERT EDWARD INSTITUTE is in East Street Sadar Bazar.
The institute, which consists of a reading room and a library with sixty-one members, was built to commemorate the visit of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to Poona in November 1875. The
building cost about £1500 (Rs. 15,000) and was opened by His
Excellency Sir James Fergusson, Bart. Governor of Bombay, on the
12th of September 1880. The institute is open daily from 6 A.M. to
9 P.M. The library contains 1000 volumes.
Arsenal(42).
The ARSENAL, with a notable masonry tower about 1000 yards
south-east of the post office, covers an area of about 160 yards by 100
on the high ground to the north of the Club of Western India in
the north of the Native Infantry lines. The Arsenal was built in
1822 and various additions have since been made. The charge of the
Commissary of Ordnance at Poona has been reduced from an Arsenal
to an Ordnance Depot for which some of the old Arsenal buildings
are now used. Others of the buildings are used by a branch of the
Gun Carriage Factory. The buildings represent a value of £5634
(Rs. 56,340) on the books of the Executive Engineer Poona and
Kirkee.
Band Stands(43).
There are two BAND STANDS or places where military bands play. One of these is in the Soldiers Gardens, to the east of the Race Course
in cantonment limits, the other is at the Bund Gardens in suburban
municipal limits.
Baptist Chapel(44).
The BAPTIST CHAPEL, of brick and mortar, was built in 1858 at a cost of about £2000 (Rs. 20,000) most of which was contributed by
General Havelock. The chapel has room for 500 people and morning
services are held on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday and an evening service on Sunday. It has a baptistry, a vestry, a library, and a school in the city. In the beginning the building was chiefly used for Havelock's men, Highlanders, and other British soldiers. Of late the congregation has become almost entirely native.
Bhamburda(45).
BHAMBURDA village, with about 3120 people, lies on the left
bank of a the Mutha, 1.83 miles west of the post-office and a
quarter of a mile north of Poona city, with which it is joined by the Lakdi bridge and a causeway or dharan. A large cattle market is held every Wednesday and Sunday, at which 100 to 150 bullocks, twenty to thirty cows, ten to fifteen buffaloes, fifty to eighty sheep, and as many goats, are usually offered for sale. From A'shvin or October -November to Margshirsh or December-January the number of cattle is larger, being at the highest thrice the number given above. Large stores of grass, millet stalks, and fuel are kept in the village for the use of Poona city. Within the village limits are several European residences and the old rock-cut temple of Panchaleshvar of which details are given under Panchaleshvar (90). In 1801 Vithoji Holkar was captured in a house in Bhamburda village, and by order of Bajirav Peshwa to please Sindia, was dragged to death at the foot of an elephant through the streets of Poona. It was Yashvantrav Holkar's rage at his brother's murder that led to the flight of Bajirav from Poona and the treaty of Bassein (30th December 1802).[Grant Duffs Marathas, 554.]
Botanical Gardens(46).
The BOTANICAL GARDENS, about half a mile north of Government
House Ganeshkhind and 52 miles north-west of the post office, are
under the management of a superintendent who is under the control
of the Collector of Poona and the Commissioner Central Division. These gardens have now (July 1884) been transferred to the Soldiers' Gardens in the east of the cantonment. Details of their past working are given in the Agricultural chapter. [Part II. pp. 77 - 80.]
Bund Gardens(47).
The BUND GARDENS, on the right bank of the Mula-Mutha river
about a mile and a quarter north-east of the railway station,
close above the FitzGerald bridge, take their name from the
Jamsetji Bund or Dam which there stretches across the river. The
gardens measure about 180 yards from east to west by about eighty
yards from north to south. They were opened in 1869 when the
FitzGerald bridge was finished to which they form the approach
from the Poona side. They were designed and made by the
late Colonel Sellon, R. E. whose taste and skill turned an unsightly
plot of waste into a pleasing and varied garden. The grounds
are laid out in terraces to which flights of handsome cut-stone steps
lead, the lowest terrace overlooking the river being faced by a
massive wall about thirty feet high. In the centre of the garden is
an ornamental marble fountain, and, on the west, near the carriage
stand, is a bandstand where a military band plays two or three times
a week. These gardens are beautifully planted and kept in careful
order and are the favourite resort of the people of Poona of all
classes.
Chatarshingi Hill (48).
CHATARSHINGI HILL, about three miles north-west of Poona, has
a temple of Chatarshingi Devi. According to a local legend
Dullabhshet, a rich banker, who in 1786 coined the two-barred copper corns known as dudandi or shivrai, used to go every year to the temple of Saptashringi about thirty miles north of Nasik.
When he grew old, the goddess took pity on him, and coming
to the Chatarshingi hill, told him in a dream that he might
worship her at Chatarshingi hill and need not in future go the
Saptashringi. The temple stands on the hill slope on a site made
partly by cutting into the rock and partly by banking soil with
a high retaining wall. The main temple is a small room with an
open porch, a vault, and a conical spire, all of stone. Beyond, on a
lower level, is the wood and brick hall or sabhamandap with a tiled
roof. A fair is held at the temple during the nine navratra days
before Dasara in Ashvin or September-October to which people come
in large numbers from the city and have merry picnics. The
ascent is by a rude flight of steep stone steps. The temple enjoys
a small allowance from the Parvati temple revenues. Offerings of
goats are made to the goddess during the fair days and vows of
goats are common throughout the year. A hom or sacrifice of
clarified butter, cooked rice, and pieces of holy wood is performed on
an altar during the navratra holidays.
Club of Western India (49).
The CLUB OF WESTERN INDIA, at the north end of Elphinstone street about a mile and a quarter south-east of the railway station, stands
in an enclosure about 200 yards long and 150 yards broad. The
Club-house is a one-storeyed building, entered from a large porch
flanked by a lavatory and the Honorary Secretary's office room.
Inside is the drawing room (45' by 18' by 18'). To the left, opening
out of the drawing room by wide archways and almost forming
part of the room, are two recesses one used as a card room the
other as a magazine room. To the right are smaller recesses lined
with book shelves. Including these recesses the size of the drawing
room section of the club is about forty-five feet square. Beyond the
drawing room and occupying the centre of the building is an octagon
room seventeen feet each way, devoted to the newspapers of the day
and to subscription lists. To the left of the octagon is the writting
room. To the right, an open porch or veranda (45' by 30') used as a
reading and smoking room, projects into the garden. Beyond the
octagon, and flanked north and south by verandas, is the coffee room
or dining room (60' by 30' by 24'). Beyond the coffee room, and
connecting the main building with the billiard room, is a roofted
gallery (54' by 36') in which the members of the club dine in the
hot weather. The billiard room (50' by 25' by 15') completes the
main range of the club buildings.
To the north of this range are the club chambers, built in 1866, a one-storeyed block of five sets of rooms which are let unfurnished and cannot be engaged for a shorter period than one month. North of the club chambers is a two-storeyed block built in 1875 and containing eight sets of apartments known as the new bed rooms.
These are furnished and cannot be engaged for more than fourteen days in the season (1st June-31st October) or a month at other times of the year. Behind the club is the original range of bed rooms built in 1866 and now known as the old bed rooms. This range contains seven sets of rooms which are let on similar terms to the new bed rooms. Behind the chambers, and close to the eastern boundary of the club enclosure, is a covered racket court built of stone in 1868. Behind the line of main buildings, chambers, and new bedrooms, the north and south ends of the club enclosure are occupied by servants' quarters, stables, and other outhouses. The club buildings were formerly in two enclosures and were bought from their former owners when the club was started in 1866. The bungalow, which formed the nucleus of the club-house, was owned by Mr. Padamji Pestanji and was last occupied by Colonel D'Oyly Compton. It was long known as the Sholapur or Sholapur thatch bungalow, tradition says because it used to be thatched in a fashion common at Sholapur but uncommon at Poona. The enclosure in which the chambers and new bedrooms stand was the property of Nandram Naik a wealthy contractor and house proprietor. At present (July 1884) large additions are being made to the club-house and grounds.
Collector's Office(50).
The COLLECTOR'S OFFICE, in suburban municipal limits about 700
yards south of the railway station and about 400 yards west of the
post office, includes several detached buildings in one enclosure. These buildings are divided into seven parts, the Collector's office, the treasury, the bookbinders' shed, the Registrar's office, the treasury record room, the stamp paper room, and the treasury guard room. All are old buildings to which additions have been made from time to time. A witness shed and record room were added in 1881 at a cost of £648 (Rs. 6480). Designs have been
prepared by Colonel, now General, St. Clair Wilkins, R. E. for a Collector's office agreeing in style with its near neighbour the Sassoon Hospital.
Convent(51).
The POONA CONVENT, near the centre of the Sadar Bazar
about 550 yards west of the Club of Western India, is set apart
for the education of the orphan children of British soldiers. A day school for girls and a free school for the poor complete the establishment which is managed by the Religious Ladies of Jesus and Mary. The convent is a pretty little cutstone building in grave Gothic style with a roof of Mangalore tiles. It was built in 1865 from public subscriptions, Government doubling the amount subscribed. The entire cost, including a home for destitute women added in 1872, was £8000 (Rs. 80,000).
Council Hall.(52).
The COUNCIL HALL, a large two-storeyed building with central
tower, is on the west border of cantonment limits about half a mile
south-east of the railway station and about 700 yards north-east of the post office. It was originally bought by Government for £5087 10S. (Rs. 50,875), and has Been almost entirely rebuilt and greatly enlarged. It is a double-storeyed building nearly rectangular in plan, 183' by 53' and 40' to the top of the walls. It is in the Venetian-Gothic style of ornamental coloured
brickwork. The porch in the middle of the west face is surmounted by a
tower or campanile 76' high with low-pitched tiled roof. The original building, which was bought by Government as a Council Hall, is so small a part of the present hall that the present building may be looked on as new. On the ground floor at the north end and stretching above the first floor to the roof is the Council Hall, 80' by 40' and 40' high. It is surrounded on three sides by a gallery six feet wide supported on light iron cantalevers. The Council Hall is painted white picked out with gold and the planked ceiling is treated in the same way. At the south end are two rooms, each 30' by 20' with an archway between and enclosed on the outside by a cloister 12' wide. These are used as a picture gallery and contain numerous portraits chiefly of Indian Princes and Chiefs. Opposite the centre is an entrance hall 17' by 17' beyond which is the staircase. On the first floor, over the picture rooms, are two similar rooms, one used by the Governor and the other by his Private Secretary. These, like the rooms below them, are surrounded by cloisters with open stone mullioned windows. The hall was designed and built by Major, now Colonel, Melliss then Executive Engineer, Poona, and was completed in 1870 at a cost of £12,294 (Rs. 1,22,940) including some small outhouses, and exclusive of the cost of the old building.
Deccan College (53).
The DECCAN COLLEGE stands on rising ground about half a mile back from the left bank of the Mutha river, 2.93 miles north of the post
office and about five miles north-east of Poona between Poona and
Kirkee cantonment. It was completed in 1868 at a cost of £24,596
6s. (Rs. 2,45,963) of which £12,500 (Rs. 1,25,000) were contributed
by Sir Jamsetji Jijibhai Bart. It is in the Gothic style of
architecture, designed by Captain, now General, St. Clair
Wilkins, R. E., and built of gray trap with high-pitched red
iron roof. It is a double storeyed building, two wings (each
154' by 26') forming with the main building (242' by 524') three
sides of a quadrangle to which there is a vaulted, carriage entrance
beneath the tower close to the north-west angle. All three of the
inner faces are arcaded on both storeys, the arcades being 10½' wide.
At the north-west corner of the main block is a masonry tower 106
feet to the top of its high pitched roof. The whole of both wings are
occupied by quarters for the students, including thirty-one rooms
below (each 10' by 6') and twenty rooms above (each 21' by 104'). The
main building contains in its lower storey two class rooms 20' by 20',
two 24½' by 16½', and a laboratory 24½' by 34'. In the upper
storey are the large College Hall (70 by 25' and 24'high)used as a
library as well as on public occasions, and four other class rooms two
of 20½' by 20½' and two of 21¾' by 20½' besides the Principal's room
(16½' by 16½') under the tower. The out-buildings include a block of
eight rooms with a cook-house for Hindu students; a block of three
sets of two rooms each with cook-room for Dakshina Fellows [Details of the Dakshina fund are given above under Instruction, pp. 48,62-64. ]; and
a Parsi cook-house and wash-house.
European East Street Graveyard (54).
East Street has an OLD EUROPEAN CEMETERY, in the form of a trapezoid, with an area of 1.54 acres. It is situated between the
Main street of the sadar Bazar and East Street, the houses in the former standing close to the compound wall. The cemetery contains
231 masonry monuments and headstones, many of which are in good condition, but several are falling to decay. The dates on the inscriptions range from 1823 to 1846. Two tombs bear the date 1855 and one 1856. A Government gardener under the orders of the Chaplain of St. Paul's church looks after this cemetery and the one near St. Paul's church; and the compound enclosure is kept in good condition by the Public Works Department.
European Garpir Graveyard (55).
About 200 yards to the south of the Collector's office, and close
to the north of the Musalman Garpir graveyard, in a small
enclosure surrounded with a brick wall and containing two old
tamarind trees and some young nims and Mellingtonias, is an old EUROPEAN BURYING GROUND with seventeen tombs. One is a beautifully built cut-stone canopy supported by pillars on a cut-stone plinth. The rest, some of stone and others of cement-covered brick, are plain tombs about eight feet long by three wide and three or four high. The large canopy tomb has no date or inscription. It is said to mark the grave of a French officer in the Peshwa's service. But as the last Peshwa had no French officers this tradition is apparently inaccurate. [According to another account (Chesson and Woodhall's Miscellany, VII. 59) the tomb is of a lady named Mrs. Virges, whose husband, who was Deputy Paymaster of the Poona Pi vision, went to Calcutta to bring her statue but never returned nor sent the statue.] The inscriptions on the other tombs vary in date from 1819 to 1822.[ One to Captain John Lewis of the Poona Auxiliary Horse is dated 10th August 1819, another to Captain Samuel Halifax, Bombay European Regiment and Deputy Adjutant General, is dated 26th January 1820.]
European Ghorpadi Barracks Graveyard (56).
The EUROPEAN GRAVEYARD at Ghorpadi lies about 300 yards beyond
the north-east boundary line of the Cantonment, and is intended for
the interment of troops dying while quartered in the Ghorpadi
Barracks. It is a square piece of ground, with an area of 1.86 acres,
surrounded by a masonry enclosure wall; one-half of the cemetery is alloted for the Church of England community, and the other half is allotted between Roman Catholics and Nonconformists. There are 233 graves in the Church of England portion, 189 in the Roman Catholic portion, and twenty in the Nonconformists portion, or 442 in all. The earliest date on any of the tombs is 1864. The cemetery is well planted with trees and shrubs, and is looked after by the authorised, establishment.
European Sangam Graveyard (57).
On the right bank of the Mula from 300 to 400 yards west of
'The Sangam' is an oblong enclosure twenty-four yards long by
twenty-one wide. The enclosure contains twenty-one tombs one of
them high and surmounted by a monumental urn. Except one tomb, inscriptions have disappeared from all and cavities remain to mark which of them contained inscription stones. The tomb with the inscription has a cavity for an inscription stone at the other end of the grave, which shows that more than one person is buried in the same grave. The inscription' Sacred to the memory of Mrs. Caroline Lodwick who departed this life January 29th 1819, leaving a husband and three daughters to deplore their irreparable loss.
[Mr. T. M. Filgate.]
European Kirkee Battle Graveyard(58).
This cemetery is also known as the "BATTLE
of KIRKEE GRAVEYARD" where the bodies of some of the slain in that battle were buried. It was originally the Residency cemetery, the old Residency standing where the Judge's house now stands. [ Mr. T. M. Filgate.]
European Satara Road Graveyard(59).
The EUROPEAN SATARA ROAD GRAVEYARD lies on the south-west
boundary of the cantonment near the Lal-bag, 205 miles from the
Poona post office. It is an irregularly shaped piece of ground with an area of
5.07 acres, and is surrounded by a masonry compound wall
The cemetery is divided into three portions, one for the Church of
England with an area of 3.09 acres, one for the Church of Scotland with an area of 0.74 acre, and one for Roman Catholics with an area of 1.24 acres. A masonry wall divides the Church of England from other portions; and the Roman Catholic and Church of Scotland portions are divided from each other by a range of boundary stones. There are about 2000 graves in the cemetery, of which 1265 are in the Church of England portion, 505 in the Roman Catholic portion, and 250 in the Church of Scotland portion. The dates on the tombs range from 1845 to 1883. There are many well grown trees in the cemetery and numerous plants and shrubs, which are taken care of by the Government gardener under the Chaplain of Poona. The cemetery is very thickly filled with graves in several parts and has been closed. [Benson's Compendium, 43.]
European Sholapur Road Graveyard (60).
The NEW POONA CEMETERY lies about a quarter of a mile beyond
the Cantonment eastern limits on the Sholapur road and3.07 miles from
the Poona post office. The enclosure wall out-buildings and approach
were finished in 1882, and £900 (Rs. 9000) have been spent in the planting of trees, construction of roads and paths, and in improving the water-supply of the cemetery, which is from three draw-wells, each provided with a Persian wheel for raising water. The cemetery has only one entrance gateway, which is surmounted by a neatly moulded Gothic arch, gabled and coped with cut-stone. A cleanly cut and appropriately designed cut-stone cross rests on the apex of the gable, and adds much to the appearance of the entrance. The out-buildings, consisting of two burial sheds, two chaplain's rooms, and watchmen's quarters, are of coursed rubble masonry, with a Mangalore tiled roof constructed in Gothic pitch, gabled at either end in front of the two burial sheds, and finished with ornamental eaves and large boards. The total area of the cemetery is 12.82 acres, which will afford space for 5291 graves. One-half of the cemetery is allotted for the Church of England community and the other half divided between the Roman Catholics and Presbyterians, allowing the former double the space allotted to the latter. The portions for the different denominations are merely separated from each other by paths. [Benson's Compendium, 44.]
European St.Paul's Church Graveyard (61).
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH GRAVEYARD near St. Paul's church, is an old
European graveyard, a rectangular plot of ground with an area of
9890 superficial feet, surrounded by a good masonry wall with a neat
iron gate. The cemetery is kept very clean; but only seventeen
graves are at present visible, and these are marked by masonry
tombs, on four of which only inscriptions now remain, and these bear the dates 1819, 1820, 1821 and 1822.[Benson's Compendium, 43.]
Fire Temples (62).
Poona has two FIRE TEMPLES. One of these in the north of Nana ward in the west of the city, was finished on the 6th of August 1824 by Mr. Sorabji Ratanji Patel a Sardar of the Deccan and was rebuilt in 1877 by Khan Bahadur Dastur Nasarvanji Jamaspji. The second fire temple is in the Camp close to the office of the Poona Observer paper. It was finished on the 29th of November 1844 by Sir Jamsetji Jijibhai. To the east of the temple, in the centre of a three-cornered plot, is a fountain called the Jamsetji Fountain.
FitzGerald Briedge (63).
The FITZGERALD BRIDGE, better known as the Bund bridge from its
position on the Mula-Mutha river, close below the Jamsetji Bund or
Dam, is a handsome as well as a substantial structure carrying the Poona and Ahmadnagar road across the river. It consists of thirteen elliptical arches each of 60' span with a rise of 15½ and an arching 2' 9" thick. The roadway, which is 28' wide including a 6' side walk, is carried at a height of 48 above the deepest part of the river bed, and is enclosed by handsome open work cutstone parapets 4' high. The bridge was designed and built by Captain R. S. Sellon, R. E. Executive Engineer Poona District, and completed in 1867 at a cost of £24,180 (Rs. 2,41,800).
Free church Mission Church (64).
The FREE CHURCH MISSION CHURCH is a plain stone and brick building in early English style built about 1870 at a cost of £1500
(Rs. 15,000). The church has room for a congregation of 180
Europeans Eurasians and Natives. The church has an organ and holds services twice a week. There are sixty communicants and sixty adherents and a Sunday school attached.
French Tombs (65).
To the east of the Ghorpadi Lines, in a grove of babhul trees, on
the left bank of Bahiroba's stream, is a small enclosure with one large
and several small Christian tombs. Some have inscriptions which the weather and the rain-drip from the trees have made unreadable. The only name that can be read is that of Madame Dud(f?)rencque, perhaps the wife of the DudFrenec whom Grant Duff mentions as a general in Tukoji Holkar's army in 1794.[Marathas, 498, 501.] The other tombs are believed to belong to French officers, probably of Sindia's and Holkar's armies, who died in Poona towards the close of the last century. A tablet in the graveyard bears these words, ' Madame DuFrencque. Officers and others buried here up to A.D. 1817. Put in order 1876.'
French Tombs (66).
On the south of the road from Poona Cantonment to Parvati's
temple, close to the west of Shankarseth's bridge, 2.53 miles from
the Poona post office, stand four tombs supposed to be of French officers in Sindia's or Holkar's service in the latter part of the eighteenth century. On one of the tombs is an upright cross backed by a stone slab. In the niches formed by the arms of the cross with the slab, lamps are placed by the neighbouring cultivators and by the R.C. priests of Panch Haud. At the foot of another tomb, consisting of a mass of stone about eight feet long and two feet high,
some Hindus make offerings to Mari the cholera goddess, in whose honour the blood of a goat is poured on the ground before the tomb and small red stones are propped up against its sides. Of the two other tombs only one remains, an obelisk about fifteen feet high. On its pedestal is an inscription of which only the word memor can be read.
GaneshKhind Caves (67).
On the Bombay road, from near the south entrance to Government
House, Ganesh khind, where there is a modern temple to Chatarshingi
Devi, 4.08 miles from the Poona post office, the Bhamburda hills
bend to the west and come back in a horseshoe curve to about the
same position as the Chatarshingi Hill. At this point, about forty
feet from the foot of the hill, approached by a rough path, is a
small rock temple about 20' by 15' and 10' high. It was formerly
bare and empty, but an ascetic or Bava has lately taken up his
quarters in the cave and made a ling in the centre and rudely cut
images of Vithoba and Lakshmi in the back wall. The Bava lives in
a small corner of the cave which he has walled off. About forty
yards to the west, and twenty feet up the hill side, are two cells and
about forty yards further and a little lower is a dry water cistern.
A fair is held every Friday at Chatarshingi, and on that day and on
the last of the Navratra days in September-October people come to
the temple of the Devi and go from it to the cave and breakfast
there. The Chief of Jath is said to have consulted this Bava as to
his chance of regaining the management of his estates, and has
been at the expense of digging a large step-well which is still
unfinished and of building a wall to strengthen the platform in front
of the cave door.
Garpir Graveyard (68).
GARPIR, or the Quartz Saint Graveyard, is a Musalman graveyard
about 150 yards south-east of the Collector's office and 250 yards west of St. Paul's church. It is across the road from the small Garpir European graveyard (55). In the Musalman Garpir graveyard, which is a large plot of ground with several old tamarind trees, are a few poor houses belonging to the guardians or mujavars of the tomb and many graves. It is entered by a poor gateway in the west wall. Passing south on the right is a large masonry well with flights of stone steps said to have been built by a Rani of Satara. A few paces to the south in the open air, surrounded by an open ruined trellis work, is the grave of the Quartz Saint, who, according to the ministrant, was one of the first Musalmans to settle in Poona and lived at the time (1290) of the two Shaikh Sallas. The saint's grave is a rough low cairn of the handsome blue white and pink quartz crystals which are found in the Sahyadris. When the saint died he left orders that no masonry tomb should be built over him; he was to lie in the open air under a pile of loose quartz stones. The Hindu worship of quartz, perhaps because it is a fire-holder, suggests that this place of worship is older than the Musalmans. [The object of worship in one of the Pandharpur temples is a quartz ling or Garicha Mahadev. Powdered quartz called rangoli ia also sprinkled on door-steps and round dining places as lucky'or spirit-scaring. Details of the use of this quartz are given in the Dharwar Statistical Account, 821-822. With the quartz ling and the lucky quartz powder compare the conical masses of white quartz found in burial mounds in Inverary and Dundee in Scotland and in Letcombe Castle and Maiden Castle in
England and the white quartz stones found in graves in the Hebrids and the Isle
of Cambrae (Miss Gordon cumming, in the Hebrids, 45-46). The objects of putting
white and fire-Yielding, and therefore spirit-scaring stones in the graves seems
originally to have been to overawe the ghost of the dreaded dead, and, at a
letter stage, to the scareevial spirits from the bones of the beloved dead.] The head-stone
which peeps out from the crystals is also curiously like a ling. The crowded graves in the ground near show how highly the saint is respected. A few paces to the south is a small poor mosque. About eighty yards to the east of the mosque is a flat stone tomb with a loose headpiece. On the flat stone the following inscription is carved:
In memory of Allah Baksh valad Aisan Oomeranu Beeluch,
for many years the faithful friend and servant of Sir Bartle
Frere, K.C.B. Governor of Bombay. He died 20th July 1865
and was buried here. May God be merciful to him.
Formerly Garpir was important enough to give his name to the whole tract in the neighbourhood of St. Paul's church. In 1803 General Wellesley chose Garpir as the cantonment of the British force which was left to guard Poona, and this continued the cantonment till the final breach with Bajirav Peshwa in 1817. It was then found that the hedges and enclosures that ran close to the lines offered easy concealment either for the Peshwa's emissaries who wished to corrupt the British troops or for such of the troops as were inclined to desert. The bulk of the force was accordingly moved to Kirkee, a few days before the battle of Kirkee (5th November 1817). In the afternoon of the 5th of November, before the Peshwa's troops began to move from Poona, the rest of the troops were withdrawn to the Sangam and from the Sangam to Kirkee. [Details are giren below under Kirkee Battle-field, pp. 376 - 377.]
Ghashiram's Mansion (60).
To the west of the reservoir that lies to the west of St. Mary's
church is a two-storeyed building of cut-stone with ornamental stone
arches and pillars, and, in the west wall, an overhanging stone
window with pillars and canopy. It was the gateway of the mansion of Ghashiram Kotval (1742-1791). All traces of the house have been removed and the yard is used as a commissariat store.
Ghashiram was a Kanoj Brahman of Aurangabad who rose to be the head of the Poona police by giving his daughter to be the mistress of Nana Fadnavis. Ghashiram used his power with great cruelty and injustice. On one occasion (30th August 1791) he confined a number of Telang Brahmans in a cell so small and so unwholesome that during the night twenty-one of the prisoners died of suffocation. Next morning, when news of these murders got abroad, the city rose and threatened to destroy the Peshwa's palace unless Ghashiram was executed. To quiet the mob the Peshwa gave up Ghashiram who was stoned to death by the castefellows of the murdered men. [Moor's Hindu Pantheon, 372-373. Details are given below in the History of Poona city.]
Ghorpadi Barracks (70).
The GHORPADI BARRACKS form the front or westmost part of the
Ghorpadi lines in the north-east section of cantonment limits. They
consist of a number of single storeyed buildings with room for 652
rank and file besides Serjeants. Three sets of barracks have been built at different dates. The oldest, completed in 1842, includes
twelve separate buildings, each containing a barrack room (97' x 24' X
12') to hold twenty-two men with a Serjeant's quarters at the end
consisting of two rooms each 114'x 114'. The whole is surrounded
by a veranda eight feet wide, open but protected from rain by
weather-boards. About the same date (1842) were built the
Patcherries or married men's quarters in four blocks of twenty
quarters each. In 1849 a second set of twelve blocks was added.
Each block contained a barrack room (113' X 24' x 18') to hold
twenty-six men with a Serjeant's quarters (114' X 24'). Surrounding
the whole was a veranda, 12' 6" broad, enclosed on the west from
the monsoon by a dwarf wall surmounted by Venetians and glazed
windows. The latest set of barracks, which was completed in 1880,
consists of six blocks each containing a barrack room (166'x 25'x 20')
with a Serjeant's quarters consisting of two rooms and a bath room,
with a separate entrance, at the end. The whole is surrounded by a
veranda 12' 6" broad enclosed on the west by strong Venetians.
The last barracks with their outhouses are built after the latest
sanitary rules. The plinths are high, the floors are of cut-stone
paving, and ventilation is secured by an opening along the ridge
covered inside by wire gauze and protected outside by an iron shield.
The barracks have clerestory windows and the fanlights over the
doors revolve. The space allowed for each man is 2400 cubic feet
and 120 square feet of floor space. With their lofty open teak-planked roof and numerous glazed doors these barrack rooms look
very spacious and airy. The lavatories and latrines are in detached
buildings and have all the latest sanitary fittings. The barracks
include all the buildings for work and recreation mentioned in the
description of the Vanavdi Barracks and a chapel in addition. [See below Vanavdi Barracks (116).] The
whole barracks have been built by successive Executive Engineers
of Poona at a total cost of £68,378 (Rs. 6,83,780).
Government House(71).
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, GANESHKHIND from June till October the residence of His Excellency the Governor of Bombay, stands 4.36
miles north-west of Poona post office on rising land in the centre
of a bleak rocky plain broken towards the south by low bare hills. The grounds round the house are well clothed with trees and shrubs. The House is in the centre of 512 acres of waving land, which have been laid out in roads and planted with trees to form ornamental grounds, and to give sites for the subsidiary buildings and houses for the staff. It was begun in 1864 during the governorship of Sir Bartle Frere and was finished in 1871. The main building is in the Italian-Gothic style of the local gray trap rock and was built by Mr. Howard C. E. from designs by Mr. Trubshawe. Its length of 300 feet run-ning north and south is broken into two double-storeyed wings connected by a lower central portion. The northern and larger wing carries a tower 100 feet high. The south wing and centre contain on their ground floors the public rooms consisting of a Darbar or drawing room (80'by 30'), a large dining room (60' by 30') with arches on both sides, the back arcade opening into a large conservatory handsomely decorated in white and gold. On the upper storey are bed rooms. The north wing contains the Governor's office and rooms forming his private residence. Besides the outbuildings
in more immediate connection with the house (which comprise a fine range of stables and coach-houses) the grounds contain four staff bungalows, a guard room with ornamental clock-tower, and very complete European barracks for the Governor's band. About a mile to the west are lines for His Excellency's Native Cavalry Bodyguard, consisting of seventy sabres. The cost of the main building was £106,227 (Rs. 10,62,270) and of the whole in round numbers £160,000 (Rs. 16 lakhs).
Gunpowder Factory (72).
The [Contributed by Lieut.-Colonel Wake, R. A.] GUNPOWDER FACTORY lies 4.88 miles north-west of Poona post Gunpowder
office and about 1½ miles north of Kirkee. The factory occupies a space
of about 100 acres and, in order to guard against complete destruction from an explosion, the buildings used for the manufacture and storage of gunpowder are isolated. For the same reason about 500 acres of land round the factory are kept private.
Buildings.
The factory buildings include a number of store-rooms to hold the
ingredients from which gunpowder is made and stores for working the engines and other machinery; a large repairs workshop worked by an eight horsepower engine; a building with machinery for making gunpowder barrels worked by a twenty-five horsepower engine; a number of houses for the various processes of powder-making, and, attached to them, engine and boiler houses with five engines two of twenty-five horsepower, one of twelve horsepower, one of eight horsepower, and one of six horsepower; a saltpetre refinery; a sulphur refinery; and a charcoal-burning house. Outside the factory near the Mula river is a twenty-five horsepower engine for pumping water into the factory in case of a failure of the regular water-supply and quarters for Europeans and Natives. The regular water-supply is brought by pipes from the Pashan reservoir near Ganeshkhind. The water is stored in large reservoirs for the various engines. Stand-pipes are scattered about whence a strong head of water may be drawn in case of fire.
Powder Verieties.
Five varieties of powder are made for Government Pebble powder lor heavy guns, R. D. G. 3-powder for medium guns, It. L. G. 2-powder for field guns, R. L. G. 2-powder for Martini-Henry rifles, and R. F. G. powder for Snider rifles. Powders for pistols and mealed powder for laboratory purposes are also made. The monthly outturn of the powders, which depend on the length of time they are incorporated, are pebble, R. L. G. 3, and R. L. G. 2 together about 45,000 lbs., R. F. G.-2 15,000 lbs., and R. F. G. 25,000 lbs. [These powder outturns give, for £1560 (Rs. 15,600) the total monthly cost of the factory, a rate of about 9d. (6 as.) a pound for the first three varieties of pebble, R. L. G. 3 and R. L. G. 2., of 2s. 2½ d. (Re. 1-1-8) a pound for R. F. G. 2, and of 1s. 4d. (102/3 as.) a pound for R. F, G.] Each variety is made for a special purpose and has certain peculiarities. In regulating the peculiarities, the chief object aimed at is to obtain apowder which shall drive a projectile with the greatest rapidity without straining the cannon or small arm for which the powder is, intended.
Ingredients.
Gunpowder is made of three ingredients, saltpetre sulphur and charcoal, in the proportion of seventy-five parts of saltpetre, ten parts. of sulphur, and fifteen parts of charcoal. Saltpetre called
grough in its
crude state, is brought by contract from Cawnpur in Upper India.
Before it is used saltpetre is refined to get rid of impurities which
would affect the keeping qualities of the powder, and especially to
ensure freedom from particles of stone or grit which would be an
element of danger in the process of powder-making. Sulphur in its
crude state is bought by contract and comes chiefly from Sicily.
To get rid of stone and grit, before use, sulphur is refined by
distillation. Charcoal is obtained by burning the stalks of the Cajanus
indicus or tur plant. The wood is brought ready peeled from
contractors who get it from the tur fields of the Konkan and Gujarat [Other woods have been tried at the factory but for small arms powder none
produce such good charcoal as tur wood. Sevri or Jointi, Bombax malabaricum, wood
which is much grown about Poona in gardens and sugarcane fields, is likely to be
useful in making common powders.]
The monthly establishment charges of the factory amount to
£540 (Rs. 5400). The daily hours of work are 6-30 A.M. to 2-30
P.M. and two hours more for the incorporating mills.
Gymkhana(73).
The present Poona GYMKHANA or sport club was formed in 1879
by the union of the Badminton, Lawn Tennis, Croquet, Polo, and Golf
clubs with the old Gymkhana which had provided for cricket
pigeon-shooting sky-races and sports. The union of these clubs
was agreed to at a meeting held in 1879 under the presidency of Sir
Richard Temple, then Governor. The managing body of the
Gymkhana includes a President and nine members, the secretaries for
Cricket, Tennis, Badminton, Pigeon-shooting, Golf, Polo, and Sky
Races, a General Secretary and Treasurer, and two other members. The
badminton and lawn tennis courts are in the open space to the south
of the Council Hall. The tennis courts occupy the site of the old
croquet grounds the last of which was turned into a lawn tennis court
in 1881. The courts, of which there are seven, are formed of a layer
of murum or crumbled trap over a layer of road metal the whole
carefully levelled and kept in order by constant rolling and watering
The badminton courts are in a thatched building near the southern or
Lothian Road end of the same open space. Till 1881 the building
was in the form of a cross of four equal limbs lying north, south,
east, and west, each limb forming a badminton court and leaving a
square space in the centre for on lookers. In 1881 a new court was
formed by lengthening the northern limb, and the western limb was
turned into dressing rooms. Cricket is played on the open ground
to the east of the Ordnance Lines. The cricket ground is a rectangular
space of about 200 yards by 150 enclosed by posts and chains. At
the middle of the west side is the pavilion including a central
room with dressing rooms at the south end and the buffet, store room,
and cook-room at the north end. The Gymkhana race course, of
which the winning post was in front of the pavilion, has fallen into,
disuse and Gymkhana races are now run on the regular Race Course
(95). Pigeon-shooting is carried on in the open ground behind the
Ordnance Lines about 300 yards north of the cricket pavilion. Polo
is played on the ground bounded by the Rest Camp, the old Sapper's
Lines, on the Koregaon road, and the Staunton road. The Golf course
is partly over the Polo ground and partly on the ground to the east
stretching to the Ghorpadi Barracks.
Objects.Gymnasium(74).
The GYMNASIUM, which is one of the finest in the Bombay Presidency,
is between St. Andrew's church and the Soldiers' Institute about 450
yards east of St. Mary's church. It was built by Government in
1872 and was opened early in 1873. The building is eighty feet long
by fifty-two wide and has two wings (50' by 30') one for a school of
arms and the other a recruits' gymnastic drill room. It has also dressing rooms for officers and men and an office. The institution is solely for the use of soldiers and military officers. The staff includes, besides the Inspector of Gymnasiums in the Bombay Presidency, one serjeant-major as chief instructor, and two assistant instructors. All officers, non-commissioned officers, and men sent for instruction to the Poona Central Gymnasium have to pass a gymnastic course. The ordinary course lasts three months and a special gymnastic instructor's course lasts eight months. The chief appliances in the gymnasium are a horizontal bar, parallel bars, vaulting horse, vaulting bar, bridge ladder, rope ladder, inclined ladder, ladder plank, trapezium, shelf, octagon, prepared wall, mast, jumping stand, row of rings, pairs of rings, slanting poles, vertical poles, climbing ropes, vertical ropes and poles, horizontal beams, turning pole, elastic ladder, and dumb and bar bells. Every year about four officers and 700 non-commissioned officers and men are taught gymnastics, and ten officers and twenty non-commissioned officers and men are taught fencing. The voluntary yearly attendance averages thirty officers and 11,594 non-commissioned officers and men. Men attending the gymnasium are taught to swim in a swimming bath attached to the gymnasium.
Holkar's Bridge(75).
HOLKAR'S BRIDGE, 498 feet long by 16' 3" broad, spans the Mutha
between Poona and Kirkee east of the Deccan College, 3.54 miles from
the Poona post office. The bridge is carried by nineteen arches varying in span from 12' 8' to 22' 5'. The height of the roadway above the river bed is thirty-three feet. The side protections of the bridge are modern and consist of teak railings carried on corbets against the face of the spandrils of the arches to leave the full width of the bridge roadway clear for
traffic. [Colonel Ducat, R. E,]
Holkar's Temple (76).
About sixty yards south-west of the south end of Holkar's Bridge,
and 3.45 miles from the Poona post office, in an oblong enclosure
(90' by 70'), is a temple raised to Vithoji Holkar and his wife who committed sati in his honour.
It is now called the temple of Mahadev. It is an oblong courtyard enclosed by a nine feet wall with a shrine (15' by 15' by 10') at the south-west end of the courtyard. The shrine has the usual anteroom with side niches and a recess containing two lings surmounted by a cupola about nine feet high. In front of the shrine is a low stone platform with a small stone bull or Nandi and a slab carved with footprints. Other objects in the courtyard are a small basil stand, an Egle marmelos or bel tree, and in a corner the pedestals of the two lings which are in the shrine and originally stood on the Nandi platform. The temple was built by one of the Holkars, and is maintained by the present Holkar.
Jamsetji Bund (77).
The JAMSETJI BUND is a masonry dam across the Mula-Mutha about
one and a half miles north of the post-office. Its length is 853 few
and the width of its paved top 16½ feet. The lower side is vertical
with a greatest height of 17 feet above the rocky bed of the river. In
the centre of the dam are four sluices, consisting of arched openings
in the masonry 6¼' by 7½' with semicircular tops, closed by planked
doors sliding vertically in grooves cut in the masonry. On the
upstream side, except in front of the sluices, a paved slope, at one in
twelve, stretches from the crest of the dam to the river bed. The object
of this gentle slope appears to have been to prevent the lodgment of silt
above the dam, an object more effectually gained by the use of sluice
gates. The dam formed part of a system of works for supplying the
cantonment with water, which was drawn from above the dam
through a tower inlet and filter beds, whence it was pumped,
originally by bullocks, and afterwards by steam, through iron pipes
leading to the cantonment. These have now been superseded by the
Khadakvasla water works. These water Works and the dam were
completed in 1850 by Captain Studdert, R. E. at a cost of £25,750
(Rs. 2,57,500) of which £l7,305 (Rs. 1,73,050) were contributed by
Sir Jamsetji Jijibhai. Bart, after whom, the dam was named.
Jews' Graveyard (78).
Within suburban municipal limits, on the right bank of a small
stream that runs north, about five hundred yards east of the Koregaon
railway crossing, is a rectangular walled enclosure. A wall divides it inside into two unequal parts, the western half belonging to the Konkan Jews or Bene-Israels, and the eastern half to other Jews.
Near the Native Infantry Lines are some old tombs of Bene-Israel Jew soldiers and Native officers. The site has been long unused.
Kirkee Barracks (79).
The KIRKEE BARRACKS, 3.86 miles from the Poona post office, have been built at various times. The present main barracks are seven hand-some 'stone-built two-storeyed buildings, each with room for forty-six
men. These barracks, with their cook-rooms wash-rooms and out-houses, were built in 1870-71 at a cost of £114,353 (Rs. 11,43,530).
In addition to these seven main barracks, three old single-storeyed
barracks are used as a gymnasium, coffee shop, and reading and
prayer rooms. A canteen was built in 1827 and a library in 1866-67.
A hospital was built in 1830, containing six wards with beds for
seventy-six male patients and a hospital for fourteen female patients.
The Royal Artillery Riding School (154'x54') was built in 1849.
These barracks have tile-roofed gun-sheds for three batteries, and
stabling built between 1864 and 1871. The gun-sheds and stabling
consist of two iron-roofed stables, each housing thirty-four horses,
built in 1864-65; two iron roofed stables, each housing fifty horses,
built in 1866-67; and four iron roofed stables, each housing sixty
horses, built in 1870-71.
Kirkee Battle Field (80).
KIRKEE [This account is chiefly compiled from Grant Duff's Marathas, 634-635, 654; Pendhari and Maratha War Papers, 119-128; and Blacker's Maratba War Memoir 64 - 69. Since the account was written, Mr. Elphinstone's description of the battle with a map has been published in Sir T, E, Colebrooke's Life, I, 382-386.] PLAIN is famous for the defeat of the army of the last Peshwa Bajirav (1796 -1817) by a small body of British troops on the 5th of November 1817.
For more than a year the relations between the British
Government and the Peshwa had been strained. In July 1816, the
murder of Gangadhar Shastri, the Gaikwar's agent, when under
British special protection, the favour shown by the Peshwa to
Trimbakji Denglia, Gangadhar's murderer, the Peshwa's failure,
in spite of ample means, to provide his contingent of troops, and his
intrigues with Sindia, Holkar, the Raja of Nagpur, and the
Pendharis, determined the Marquis of Hastings, then Governor General, to make such an agreement with the Peshwa as would prevent him from defeating the object of the treaty of Bassein (Dec. 31, 1802). In April 1817, before concluding any agreement, the Governor General insisted that the Peshwa should promise to give up Trimbakji Denglia. For weeks the Peshwa evaded the Resident's demand, till, on the 8th of May, Poona was surrounded by British troops. Then, under the influence of Moro Dikshit, one of his Brahman advisers, who strongly opposed a breach with the English, the Peshwa issued a proclamation offering a reward for the capture of Trimbakji Denglia, and, as a security for his good faith, handed to the British the hill-forts of Purandhar, Sinhgad, and Raygad. The new treaty was then considered, and, in June, after long discussion, the Peshwa agreed to the terms which had been drawn up by Mr. Elphinstone according to the Governor General's instructions. Under this treaty the Peshwa admitted that Trimbakji was Gangadhar's murderer, and promised to show him no favour and to do his best to have him seized and handed to the British. He engaged to have no dealings with any court except through the British Resident, and, instead of the contingent of troops which he had always failed to furnish, he undertook to make over to the British, lands yielding revenue enough to support a force of 5000 cavalry 3000 infantry and a due proportion of ordnance. This treaty, which is known as the treaty of Poona, was concluded on the 13th of June 1817, In accordance with the treaty, after a slight delay, the Peshwa's share of Gujarat, the North Konkan, the fort of Ahmadnagar, and the territories of Dharwar and Kushgal, were made over to the British, the strength of the Peshwa's cavalry was reduced, and, except a battalion about 500 strong kept in the Peshwa's pay, the brigade which had been raised by the Peshwa in 1813 and drilled and officered by Englishmen was placed under British control and called the Poona Auxiliary Force. [This brigade was chiefly composed of men from the Company's districts in Hindustan. On entering the battalion the men took an oath of faithfulness to the Peshwa, but, of their own accord, they added the proviso, so long as the Peshwa continues in alliance with the British Government.] In July the Peshwa went on a pilgrimage to Pandharpur and from Pandharpur to Mahuli the sacred meeting of the Yenna and the Krishna near Satara. At Mahuli he was visited by Sir John Malcolm, the Governor General's Agent for the Deccan. The Peshwa complained of the harshness of the recent treaty. At the same time he professed so warm a regard for the British, and so fully admitted his dependence on British support, that Sir John Malcolm was satisfied that whatever his feeling might be, interest would force him to remain friendly. He advised the Peshwa to show his goodwill to the English by joining with them in putting down the Pendharis. Nothing, Bajirav declared,
would give him more pleasure than to take part in this work, and, with this object, Sir John Malcolm allowed him to enlist fresh troops. Mr. Elphinstone had no faith in Bajirav's promises, and, by the help of two friends, Yashvantrav Ghorpade a Maratha, and Balajipant Natu a Brahman, was kept informed of Bajirav's plans. Bapu Gokhle was made chief minister and nearly a million sterling was given him to ensure the support of the Maratha chiefs and nobles. Bhils and Ramoshis were enlisted and special missions were sent to Nagpur and to the camps of Holkar and Sindia. On the 5th of September the Governor General, informed by Mr. Elphinstone of the Peshwa's designs, wrote to the Directors: ' We cannot rely on the fidelity of the Peshwa except when it is ensured by the immediate sense of our power. The persevering perfidy of his attempts, after the most solemn assurances of contrition for the past, and of scrupulous good faith for the future, forbid any reliance on him. [Pendhari and Maratha War Papers, 114, 115.]
On his return to Poona, at the end of September, the Peshwa continued to push on his preparations for war. His army 'was strengthened, his forts were repaired stored and garrisoned, and orders were issued to make ready his fleet. Of two parts of the scheme the Peshwa took personal charge, the Resident's murder and the bribery of the British troops. Gokhie opposed Mr. Elphinstone's murder and the attempt was put off till the arrival of Trimbakji Denglia and his Bhils. Great efforts were made to shake the loyalty of the British troops. The families of some whose homes were in Ratnagiri were seized and their destruction was threatened unless the men came over to the Peshwa. Large sums were spent in bribery. One native officer was offered £1000 (Rs. 10,000) and £5000 (Rs. 50,000) were advanced to an agent in the hope that he might corrupt some of the British officers. At their last meeting, on the 14th October, the Peshwa complained to Mr. Elphinstone of his loss of power. He still professed friendship for the British and promised to send his troops against the Pendharis as soon as the Dasara was over. On Dasara Day, 19th October, Bajirav held a great review. He treated the Resident with marked discourtesy, and during the review allowed a body of horse to dash down on the British force as if to attack it. After the Dasara, instead of sending his troops against the Pendharis, he kept increasing their strength by summoning fresh parties from all sides.
Mr. Elphinstone was satisfied that the Peshwa would attack him before many days were over. Messages were sent to hurry on the European regiment on its march from Bombay, and to General Smith, who was at Ahmadnagar, to keep a force ready at sirur Besides Mr. Elphinstone's escort of two companies of Bengal Native Infantry at the Residency and the Peshwa's battalion [The details were: about 500 infantry, a few cavalry, and three six-pounder guns.] of the poona Auxiliary Force under Major Ford at Dapuri, the British forces consisted of about 1200 men of the Sixth and Seventh Regiments of Native Infantry [The details were: second battalion I. Regt. N. I., second battalion VI. Regt.
N. I., and first battalion VII. Regt. N. I.] and two guns under the command of Colonel Burr,
who were camped at Garpir on the right bank of the Mutha river. This position, which is near the Collector's office close to the northern outskirts of Poona, had been chosen in 1803 by the Duke of Wellington to guard the town. It was well suited for guarding the town, but, with an unfriendly force in the city, the position was far from safe. High-hedged gardens coming close to the lines gave assailants an easy approach and the disaffected a safe escape. On the 25th and two following days bodies of horse camped round the British lines, a strong corps of Gosavis took a position on the Vanavdi uplands to the east, and the Vinchurkar's horse with some infantry and guns posted themselves to the west between the Residency and Bhamburda village. The Maratha commanders were eager for an immediate attack. On the night of the 28th their guns were yoked, their horses saddled, and their-infantry ready to advance. But the Peshwa wavered and the night passed in consultation. Next day (29th) Mr. Elphinstone sent to the Peshwa complaining that his troops were pressing on the British lines and asking him to order them to withdraw. The message caused great excitement. Gokhle was for instant attack. But again the Peshwa was undecided. The work of winning over the British troops was not yet completed and every day was adding to the Maratha strength. Another night passed in consultation and next afternoon. A forced march of about thirty miles brought the European regiment into the Garpir cantonment On the first of November, leaving a company to guard Garpir and 250 men to strengthen the Resident's escort, Colonel Burr's force, about 800 European Infantry and 1200 Native Infantry with six guns. [The details were: The Bombay European Regiment, two battalions I. Regiment N. I., two battalions VI. Regiment N. I., and one battalion VII. Regiment N. I. Of the six guns two were iron twelve-pounders, the four were apparently six-pounders. See Blacker's Maratha War Memoir, 64.] crossed the Mutha and marched three miles north to Kirkee. North of Poona, across the Mutha river, with the Bhamburda hills on the west and the Mula winding along the north and east, stretches a slightly rolling plain. Except a belt of arable land on the left bank of the Mutha and a fringe of watered and fenced gardens along the right bank of the Mula, the plain is bare and open. Beyond the end of the Bhamburda hills a low ridge stretching north-east rises slightly to the village of Kirkee, driving the Mula north in a deep bend that half surrounds the village. The camp was pitched in the low land to the east of the village, the left resting on Holkar's Bridge (75) and the right on the rise of Kirkee village, the site of the Powder Magazine. This rising ground commands the plain, which, With one or two slight dips and rises, falls south to the line of the Poona-Bombay road. Behind the road to the right stretch the Bamburda or Ganeshkhind hills, and, to the left, beyond the Mutha valley, rise the sharp temple-crowned peak of Parvati and the distant Sinhgad hills. About a mile and a half west of the Kirkee camp, on the left bank of the Mula, lay Dipuri, the head-quarters of Major Ford's battalion; about a mile to the east was Holkar's Bridge; and nearly three miles to the south, long the right bank of the Mula, lay the Residency with a garrison
of about 400 men. The straight road from Kirkee to the Residency passed along the right bank of the river, but there was a second path over Holkar's Bridge along the left bank of the Mula and across a ford just behind the Residency. On the first and second of November Colonel Burr prepared a post at Kirkee for his stores and munition and Mr. Elphinstone examined the ground near Kirkee, fixed a ford for the passage of the Dapuri guns, and impressed on the commanding officers that if matters came to a crisis, the two British detachments should march out, join, and attack the Marathas. The withdrawal of the British from Garpir to Kirkee greatly encouraged the Marathas. Garpir was plundered; Lieutenant Shaw, an officer of the Bombay army, on his way to Bombay was attacked, wounded, and robbed in open day by one of Bajirav's personal followers; the ministers spoke of the British with contempt, British officers were insulted, and Maratha troops pushed forward close to the Residency. Mr. Elphinstone warned the Peshwa that if they advanced further the Maratha troops would be treated as enemies, and ordered the light battalion and the auxiliary horse at Sirur to march into Poona. On hearing that the Sirur troops had been sent for, the Peshwa determined to wait no longer. He ordered the Residency to be destroyed and all the British killed except Dr. Coats, whose medical skill had once saved his life, and Major Ford, the commandant of the subsidiary force, if he agreed to stand neutral. Moro Dikshit, who was attached to Major Ford, visited him and tried to persuade him to remain neutral. But Major Ford refused to desert his countrymen and withdrew from Poona to his camp at Dapuri.
On the morning of the fifth, the din of preparation rose from the city, the Maratha troops drew closer to the Residency, and a battalion took ground between it and the company which had been left at Garpir. Mr. Elphinstone sent a message to the Peshwa calling on him to keep to his promise and lead his troops against the Pendharis. About two in the afternoon one Vithoji Naik Gaikwar came from the Peshwa. He told Mr. Elphinstone that his master had heard that the Resident had sent for reinforcements, that he feared that, as had happened in June, Poona would again be surrounded by British troops, and that if Mr. Elphinstone did not send away the European regiment, reduce the strength of the native brigade, and move the cantonment to a place to be named by him, the Peshwa would leave the city. Mr. Elphinstone replied that the Peshwa had no right to demand and that he had no power to order the British troops to be moved. Vithoji Naik complained and threatened and left warning Mr. Elphinstone that if he did not do as the Peshwa wished evil would come. As soon as Vithoji left Mr. Elphinstone called in the guard from Garpir, and sent Mr. Grant, afterwards Captain Grant Duff, along the ridge that stretches west to Bhamburda to watch what went on in Poona. Infantry were gathering on the slopes of the Bhamburda hills, and filling the space between the Recidency and Ganeshkhind, and south towards the city, where it was not covered with corn, the lowland was full of horsemen. On Vithoji's return Bajirav was seen to withdraw to Parvati. For an hour the city was still. Then, about three o'clock, in spite of the
ill-omened breaking of the staff of the Golden Streamer, Bajirav, satisfied of Parvati's favour, gave the order to attack. The masses of troops in front of the town began to move, and with the trampling and neighing of horses, the rush of riders, and the rumble of gun-wheels, endless streams of horsemen poured from every outlet of the town. From the fields between the city and the Residency, scared by the uproar, antelopes bounded away, husbandmen fled, and bullocks broke from their yokes and gallopped off. The moving wall of horsemen, with a roar like that of the Cambay tide, sweeping all before it, crushed the hedges and the standing corn, and, laying every barrier low, filled the valley from the river to the hills, To defend the Residency against such a host was hopeless. Messengers were sent to Colonel Burr at Kirkee and to Captain Ford at Dapuri directing them to move out, join their troops, and advance to meet the Marathas. Mr. Elphinstone and his escort of about 500 men forded the Mula behind the Residency, and, passing along the left bank of the river, crossed again by Holkar's bridge. They had hardly left the Residency when the Marathas dashed into the enclosure, tore up the trees, and setting fire to the buildings, burnt them to ashes, destroying Mr. Elphinstone's books and papers and everything he had except the clothes on his back.
At Kirkee, Colonel Burr, leaving his camp standing, and sending part of the second battalion of the Sixth Regiment and two twelve-pounder iron guns to guard the post at Kirkee, marched about a mile towards Poona. Here he was joined by the Resident with his guard. The Bombay European Regiment, the Resident's escort, and a detachment of the second battalion of the Sixth Regiment were placed in the centre, the first battalion of the Seventh Regiment with two guns on the left, and the second battalion of the First Regiment with two guns on the right. It was now about four o'clock, and after a short pause, as Major Ford's force was seen drawing near, Colonel Burr advanced to the attack.
The Marathas held a strong position about a mile and a half in front of the British. On the Maratha left the Vinchurkar's and Moropant's horse with the Golden Streamer held the base of the hill in front of Ganeshkhind, a line of infantry and fourteen guns filled the centre, and on their right towards the Residency lay a large body of infantry and cavalry, their front strengthened by a rivulet and walled gardens. Behind, back to the bank of the Mutha, the plain was full of horsemen line after line as far as the eye could see. As the British advanced, the fire of their right infantry caused much loss among the Maratha skirmishers and damped the Marathas' spirit as they had believed that the British sepoys would not fight. At Parvati the fainthearted Peshwa, seeing the ready advance of the British, lost courage, and sent word to Gokhle that he was not to fire the first gun. Gokhle, as he was riding up and down the tanks chiding and cheering his men, caught sight of the Peshwa's messenger, and, knowing what message he was likely to bring, opened a battery of nine guns, moved a strong corps of rocket camels to his right, and pushed forward heavy masses of cavalry, which,
advancing at speed, swept over the plain nearly surrounding the small
body of British troops. Major Ford was still about 1000 yards to
the west of the British line, when Moro Dikshit and one of the
Rastias, at the head of a large body of horse, eager to show that
the Peshwa's suspicions of their loyalty were unfounded, charged
Ford's battalion. Ford threw back his right wing, and, waiting till the
enemy were close at hand, met them with so deadly a fire that, with
the logs of their leader Moropant, they wheeled, to the left and
passing on were finally scattered by the heavy iron guns posted at
Kirkee. When Ford joined the main line two guns were moved from
the right to the centre and the light company of the Seventh Regiment
was sent to the rear to keep off the Maratha horse. Meanwhile, on
the left, 3000 trained Arabs and Grosavis, under a Portuguese named
De Pinto. [According to some accounts the Portuguese tomb to the north of Garden Reach
marks De Pinto's grave. This seems to be a mistake as De Pinto is mentioned (Pendhari
and Maratha Wars, 129) after the battle of Kirkee as taking charge of Hunter and
Morrison, two English cornets, who were captured by the Marathason the Bombay
road. See below, Uruli.] passing from the centre of the Maratha line along the
enclosures and watered land near the Mula, reached the open plain,
apparently near the ruined water-channel behind Rose Hill house,
and formed in front of the first battalion of the Seventh and the
second battalion of the Sixth Regiments. At sight of their red coats
and colours the English sepoys pushed forward, and, in their
eagerness to close, broke from the line. Gokhle saw the disorder, and,
raising the Golden Streamer, followed by several of his highest
officers and a picked body of 6000 horse, charged from the right
along the British line. Seeing the danger Colonel Burr took his
post with the colours of the Seventh, a regiment he had formed
and led for years, stopped the pursuit of De Pinto's battalion, and
called on his men to keep their fire and show themselves worthy of
his training. As he passed along the line Gokhle's horse was wounded
and he was forced to retire. Other officers took his place and they
were dashing into the broken British line, when, close in front, the
foremost horses floundered in a deep morass, and rolling over disordered
the ranks behind and offered an easy aim to the British fire.
About 300 horsemen struggled through the morass and attacked
the British flank, but were forced to retire before some companies
of Europeans who pushed on to support the Seventh Regiment. [The account in the text, perhaps, explains the apparent discrepancy between
Grant Duff's 6000 Maratha horse (653) and Blacker's (Maratha War Memoir, 65) 300
resolute Marathas, Neither side knew of this morass, It was probably due to the
very heavy late rains. Grant Duffs Marathas, 653.]
As the British line advanced, the Maratha centre and left withdrew
driving off their guns. The strong body of infantry on their right
sheltered by the stream bed and garden enclosures, for a time galled
the British left. But skirmishers were thrown forward and they were
forced to give way. The English now held the Maratha position,
and as night was falling and the enemy were broken and scattered,
pursuit was stayed and the British troops returned, Colonel Burr's
brigade to Kirkee and Major Ford's to Dapuri, reaching their
camps about eight at night.
The British loss was eighty-six killed and wounded, fifty of whom Were sepoys and one, Lieutenant Falconer, a European officer. [The details are: Artillery, two laskars wounded; Bombay European Regiment, one private killed, one wounded; second battalion First European Regiment, one private killed, one Lieutenant (Falconer) died of his wounds, one havaldar, one naik, one waterman, five privates wounded; second battalion VI. Native Infantry, killed four privates, wounded ten privates; first battalion VII. Native Infantry, killed one havaldar, one naik, one drummer, nine privates; wounded one havaldar, three naiks, theirty-four privates. Major Ford's Battalion, killed one private; wounded one jamadar, one havaldar, five privates. Colonel Burr, Pendhari and Maratha War Papers, 125.] Of the Marathas 500, including the minister Moro Dikshit, were killed and wounded.
Two thousand eight hundred infantry, several of them disaffected and only 800 of them Europeans, broken into two bodies, almost without cavalry, and with only seven six-pounder and two twelve pounder guns, in an open plain covered by the enemy's horse,
had marched against and scattered and army of 20,000 cavalry and 8000 infantry armed with fourteen guns. [Besides this force, the Peshwa had 5000 horse and 2000 foot at Parvati. Grant Duff's Marathas, 654 note 1.]
Of the British troops the Marathas of Major Ford's subsidiary force deserted, and part of his newly raised horse were allowed to withdraw. But, of the regular sepoys, in spite of the Peshwa's bribes and threats, not one left the British colours. Colonel Burr, the commanding officer, though crippled' by paralysis, laid his plans with wise care and in the thickest of the fight remained firm and cool. [Two of Colonel Burr's attendants were shot by his side, a ball grazed his horse's head and another went through his hat. Grant Duffs Marathas, 653 note 2,] The victory was mainly due to Mr. Elphinstone who had secured the presence of the European regiment, freed the troops from the dangers of their former camp, planned the meeting of the two divisions of the force, insisted on an advance in spite of the openness of the plain and the doud of Maratha horse, and throughout the day inspirited the troops by his brilliant gallantry.
Kirkee Catholic Church(81).
Vincent de Paul's ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH building, 107' 6" long
by 42' 3" broad, is 120 yards north-east of the Kirkee Artillery
Mess and 362 miles from the Poona post office. It was originally a Protestant church.
Kirhee Christ Church(82).
CHRIST CHURCH in the Artillery Lines at Kirkee and 3.75 miles
from the Poona post office is 150 feet from east to west and seventy-five feet broad at the chancel. It was consecrated by Bishop Carr
in1841 and has seats for 600 persons. A brass is let into the floor in front of the west entrance and over it are two regimental colours. The brass bears the inscription:
In commemoration of the past history of the 23rd Regiment, Bombay Native Light Infantry, the above colours, are, by permission, placed in this church, 1870.
In front of the reading desk is another handsome brass to the
memory of Captain Arthur Carey, of the Royal Horse Artillery.
The church has several handsome tablets erected by regiments to
officers and men of their corps who died during service in India.
There is a tablet to three officers of the Fourth Queen's Own Light
Dragoons, who died in Sind in the Afghan campaign of 1838, and
one to thirty officers of the 14th King's Light Dragoons, who died
between 1841 and 1859, twenty-five of them killed in action.
A third tablet is to ninety non-commissioned officers of the same
regiments, who died or were killed during the same campaigns,
three of them in action at Ramnagar in the North-West
Provinces. There are two other tablets to officers of the same
regiments.
Lakdi Bridge Lake Fife (83).
LAKDI BRIDGE. See above Bridges (pp. 284-285).
LAKE FIFE [Contributed by Mr. J. McL. Campbell, C. S.] can be most easily reached by the Poona and Sinhgad road. The dam, which is at the end of the lake nearest Poona,
is about ten miles south-west of St. Mary's church (109). Between Parvati hill (90) and Khadakvasla village the road thrice crosses the Right Bank Canal. On nearing Khadakvasla the great masonry dam 3687 feet long and ninety-nine feet high, rises above the village and over a fine grove of young babhul trees in the old river bed. The lake itself does not show till the dam is almost reached, when the lowest stretch, about two miles long and three quarters of a mile broad, comes into view. From the first stretch the lake winds about eleven miles up the valley, nowhere broader than three quaters of a mile, like a broad river rather than a lake. In sailing up the lake, on the south, beyond a level belt of cropped land, stands the mass of Sinhgad, its lower teak-clad spurs and ravines rising into bare slopes with patches of hill tillage, crowned by the lofty wall-like scarp of the fort; to the west Torna tops the nearer ridges; and to the north bare slopes with a few stunted teak trees lead to the groups of rounded hills of which Bhanbava is the centre. The banks of the lake are bare. No weeds or reeds fringe the margin, and, except a patch of mangoes and babhuls on the south bank near the dam, the upper slopes are treeless. Following the windings of the lake, about eight miles from the dam, the village of Sangrun and a large banian tree mark the spot where the Mutha from the north joins the lake almost at right angles. When the lake is full an arm stretches about three quarters of a mile up the Mutha, and the main body passes up the Musa valley narrowing and winding between steep lofty banks. Four miles beyond Sangrun, at the village of Kuran, on the north bank of the lake, is the meeting of two streams both of which bear the name of Musa. When full the lake passes a little more than a mile up the northern Musa and a mile up the southern Musa. Both of these branches are very narrow as, at its greatest height, the lake does little more than fill the river beds. About the end of May, when the lake is at its lowest, its water does not pass up the Mutha and not more than a mile and a half up the Musa beyond Sangrun. From singhad even when it is full Lake Fife makes little show. The broad lower reach near the dam is seen, but many of the upper windings are hidden by spurs of the hill and by the high banks of the lake. Except a few watercourses and spits of soft soil, the hard bare banks of
Lake Fife offer neither food nor cover for birds. There are no weeds rashes or other water plants, no islands, and no part-sunk trees and bushes, only a broad unbroken expanse of deep blue water washing a clean, bare, and hard shore.
Such [Contributed by Mr. H, Wenden, C. E.] a lake can have no large number either of resident or of migrant birds. During the hot season, until the end of September, hours may be spent on the lake without seeing a dozen different kinds of birds, and even during the cold weather, when the number of kinds greatly increases, considering the vast sheet of water and the wide range of bank, the number of birds on or by the lake is very small. The few moderately large flights of coots duck, and teal that, at suitable seasons, appear on the lake seem to resort to it only as a safe midday resting place when they cannot remain andisturbed in the neighbouring watercourses and other feeding
grounds. Fifty-five kinds of birds have been noted: The Bald Coot Fulica atra, the Blackbacked Goose Sarkidiornis melanonotus, the Whistling Teal Dendrocygna javanica, the Ruddy Shieldrake Casarca rutila, the Shoveller Spatula clypeata, the Spottedbilled Duck Anas pacilorhyncha the Gadwall Chaulelasmus streperus, the pintail Duck Dafila acuta, the Wigeon Mareca penelope, the common Teal Querquedula crecca, the Bluewinged Teal Querquedula circia, the Redheaded Pochard Fuligula ferina, and the Tufted Duck Fuli-gula cristata. Occasionally on a muddy spit or bank may be seen a small group of Flamingos Phoenicopterus roscus, some Spoonbills platalea leucorodia making a short halt in their migration, some Pelican Ibis Tantalus leucocephalus, and Shell Ibis Anastomus oscitans. The mournful whistle or the sight of the Curlew Numenius lineatus is rare, and, though so numerous by other Deccan lakes, the Demoi-selle Crane kalam or Anthropoides virgo is only occasionally seen. The Black and the White Storks Ciconia nigra and C. alba are rare visitants. The Night Heron Nycticorax griscus is not common. The Whitenecked Stork Melanopelargus episeopus, the Blue Heron Ardea cinerea, the Large the Smaller and the Little Egrets Herodias torra H. intermedia and H. garzetta, the Cattle Egret Bubulcus coromandus, the Pond Heron Ardeola grayii, the Small Swallow Plover Glareola lactea, the Indian Ringed Plover Egialitis curonicus, the Redwattled Lapwing Lobivanellus indicus, the Yellowwattled Lapwing Lobipluvia malabarica, the Little Stint Tringa minuta, the Spotted Sandpiper the Green Sandpiper and the Common Sandpiper, Actitis glareola A.ochrophus and A. hypoleucus, the Greenshanks and the Little Greenshanks Totanus glottis and T. stagnatilis, and the Stilt Himantopus candidus are all fairly common. Here and there may be seen clusters of the Little Cormorant Phalacrocorax pygmaeus, and more rarely the Little Grebe Podiceps minor and the Indian snake-bird Plotus melanogaster. Three specks of Kingfishers Halcyon smyrnonsis, Alcedobengalensis, and Ceryle rudis, are fairly common, as are the Small Marsh Tern Hydrochelidon hybrida, and the Black-bellied Tern Sterna melanogastra. The Gullbilled Tern Gelocheli- don angliea is less common. Of Snipe, the shores of the lake have practically none but a very few of four species, the Pintailed the Common and the Jack Gallinago sthenura, G. gallinaria, and
G. gallinula, and the Painted Snipe Rhynchoea bengalensis, together
with a few specimens of the Pheasant-tailed Jacana Hydrophasianus
chirurgus, the Water Hen Gallinula chloropus, and the White-breasted Water Hen Erythra phoenicura, frequent the reedy patch
of marsh and pool which lies close below the great dam. Close
below the dam, in the early morning and evening when they are in
flight to and from their feeding grounds a few duck and teal, and, by
beating, a few snipe may be shot. At several points along the canal
between the Lake and Parvati are marshy patches which occasionally
hold snipe and teal. Still on the whole, even with the and of a boat
on the lake, little sport can be had at Lake Fife.
Of the eighty-six kinds of shore and water birds which are known
to frequent the Deccan these fifty-five have been noted at Lake Life.
The list is not exhaustive as the locality has not been closely studied
The knowledge of the lake is also incomplete.
Twenty-one species of fish have been taken and noted. These
are Ambassis nama gande-chiri, Gobius giuris kharpa, Mastacembelus
armatus vambat or bam, Ophiocephalus striatus dakhu, Ophiocephalus
leucopunctatus maral, Macrones seenghala and M. cavasius singhhala
or shengal and shingti or shingata, Rita pavimentata ghogra, Pseudentropius taakree vaidi or vayadi, Callichrous bimaculatus gugli,
Wallago attu shivada or pari, Discognathus lamta malavya, Cirrhina
fulungee loli, Rasbora daniconius danalan, Barbus sarana kudali or
pitule, Barbus nexastichus khadchi, Barbus malabaricus kavla, Barbus
kolus kulis or kholashi, Barbus ambassis bhondgi, Rohtee vigorsii
phek, Lepidocephalichthy thermalis chikani, Nemacheilus savona mura, Notopterus kapirat chalat or chambaree.[Some of these identifications are doubtful. Mr. H. Wenden, C. E. ]
Of these twenty-one species the writer has taken only two with
rod and line, the pari Wallago attu up to nineteen pounds in weight
and the fish he supposes to be Barbus malabaricus up to twelve
pounds. The best way of fishing is trolling from a boat with spoon
or natural bait on what is known as the Thames snaptackle, with at
least forty yards of line out and with a sinker between the trace and
running line. The great secret is to fish deep. The boat on the
lake can usually be secured through the courtesy of the Executive
Engineer for irrigation and men to row it can be hired from the
village of Khadakvasla.
Military Accounts Offices(84).
The MILITARY ACCOUNTS OFFICES, a large two-storeyed stone building, is in suburban municipal limits about 650 yards south-east of the
railway station. The original main block of this building was built
by a Mr. Mervanji Jamsetji for a hotel, but in 1835, before it
was finished, on the recommendation of a committee, it was bought
for Government for £35,000 (Rs. 3,50,000). It stands on the
Government books at a value of £43,129 18s. (Rs. 4,31,299). In
this building are the offices of the Controller of Military Accounts,
the Military Accountant and Compiler, the Examiner pay
Department, the Examiner Ordnance Department, the Examiner
Medical Department, the Examiner Commissariat Accounts, the
Judge Advocate General, the Commissary General, and the Military
Fund Office.
Objects Military Prison (85).
The MILITARY PRISON is the Central Military Prison of the
Bombay Presidency for offenders among the European troops. It
is a group of substantial masonry buildings along a rocky ridge to
the south of the cantonment and near the Vanavdi Barracks.
Except the warders' quarters all the buildings are within an
enclosure 700 by 1125' surrounded by a fourteen feet masonry wall.
The prison has room for fifty prisoners in two blocks, each of
twenty-five solitary cells. Two more blocks, each with twenty-five cells, were built in 1881. The ventilation and sanitary arrangements are on the most approved modern principles. Besides the four blocks, with twenty-five cells in each, the prison buildings include a cookhouse, a work-shed, a chapel library and school, a hospital with out-houses, apothecary's quarters, a guard-house, and a lavatory with a detached block of eight quarters for warders. The prison was built by Colonel A. U. H. Finch, R. E. Executive Engineer Poona, and designed, by him chiefly from standard plans. It was completed in 1876, and with the additions has cost £17,682 (Rs. 1,76,820).
Musalman Graveyard (86).
Details of the MUSALMAN GRAVEYARD to the south of the Collector's office are given above under Grarpir the Quartz Saint (68).
Napier Hotel.
The NAPIER HOTEL on Arsenal Road built in 1868 is now the property of a Joint Stock Limited Liability Company. It is an
upper-storeyed building in four blocks with large porches and a garden over 300 yards long with four fountains. The roof is flat and the tops of the walls are cut in the form of battlements. The hotel has room for fifty-five to sixty visitors with a drawing room (42'x30'), dining room (20'x50'), billiard room (36'xl6'), and forty-five bed rooms some of them double rooms for families, including a sitting room, a bed room (18' x 16'), two bath rooms, and a dressing room. It is also provided with large stables.
New Jhansi Barracks (88).
The NEW JHANSI BARRACKS in Kirkee, 3.27 miles from the Poona
post office, consist of sixteen blocks each with room for twenty-four men. Besides the barracks the buildings contain quarters for a sergeant-major, conductor, schoolmaster, and quartermaster sergeant, married men's quarters for twelve, a school-room, a quarter-guard store-room and lock-up, work-shop, pontoon shed, armourer's shop, solitary cells, and latrines. Attached to the barracks is a hospital with eight out-houses.
PanchaleshvarTemple(89).
Beyond the College of Science, about 400 yards south-east, where
the Ganeshkhind road crosses the railway, 1.95 miles from the Poona
post-office, is a knoll topped with trees and white Musalman buildings. At the north foot of this rising ground a path to the right leads down a cutting between side walls of rock, six to eight feet high, into a rectangular enclosure which has been cut out of the rock. In the centre of the enclosure, part of the rock about twelve feet high has been left, and hewn into a circular porch or pavilion with a bull in the centre. Four massive square central pillars support the roof. But several of an outer circle of pillars with parts of the roof have fallen. From the porch a short passage leads to a rock-hewn temple of Mahadev. It is a large hall with little ornament and several rows of large square
pillars. In a shrine opposite the door is a ling which is known as PANCHALESHVAR. The walls and the pillars are covered with modern paintings of the Pandavs and of some of the wonders worked by
Mahadev. When visited in 1882 the temple was inhabited by a band of Gosavis or Bairagis who had made several small modern shrines and prevented the details of the cave being examined.
Parvati Hill (90)
PARVATI HILL, 3.23 miles from the Poona post office, is the bold temple-topped rock which, with bare stony sides rises 2111 feet above mean sea level or 261 feet above the city between it and the lofty
line of the Sinhgad hills. It is about 500 yards south of the city limits and by the Sinhgad road 3.23 miles south-west of the post office. Up the cast face of the hill runs a broad paved stairway with steps about a foot high and two or three feet wide and on the left a wooden rail. At the foot are two small stone monuments, one a pillar about a foot high and two feet round called Nagoba or Father Cobra. At the top of the pillar a circle of hooded snake-heads surrounds a central cobra whose head has been broken off. The other monument, a square stone pillar about four feet high, raised to mark a Sadhu or holy-man's grave, has its eastern face ornamented with the image of a man on horseback. About halfway up the hill a little altar on the left with several foot-prints carved near it, marks the spot of the last widow-burning in Poona. According to the Brahmans of the hill this sacrifice took place in 1832. The woman's name was Parvati and her husband was Madhavrav one of the temple Brahmans. At the top of the paved stairway the north-east crest of the hill is crowned by a high building, the under part of cut-stone, and the two upper storeys of plain brick. The southern crest of the hill is crowned by a long line of roofless square-windowed buildings three storeys high, the ruins of a palace which was begun by the last Peshwa Bajirav (1796-1817). It was never finished and the completed parts were destroyed by lightning, it is said, in 1816 the year before the battle of Kirkee (5th November 1817).
On entering the main temple, on the north-east corner of the hill, to the right is a two-storeyed brick building, the ground floor with plain square teak pillars used as a rest-house and the upper floor as a drum-room or nagarkhana. The gate on the left opens on an eight-sided courtyard surrounded by a brick and cement wall about sixteen feet high. In this wall are a row of rest rooms, large niches or open chambers about four feet deep and eight long with pointed arched ceilings. On the top of the wall, with a broad parapet on the east and west sides, runs a passage with an outer battlemented wall about four feet high provided with loopholes. In the centre of the enclosure is the chief temple of Shiv, a rather handsome building in the ordinary modern Hindu style with a spire and gilt top, on a plinth about a foot above the general level. At each corner of the plinth is a small domed shrine, to the Sun in the south-east, to Ganesh in the south-west, to Parvati or Devi in the north-west, and to Vishnu in the north-east Under a stone canopy between the temple and the east entrance gate sits a large black bull. In a separate enclosure to the west of the main temple is a smaller temple to Kartik Svami. To the south is a third temple to Vishnu. All three are in much the same style, in no way different from ordinary modern Hindu temple architecture. Round the southern and south-west crest of the hill are the remains of Peshwa Bajirav's palace which seems to have been planned to surround the crest of the southern half of the bill with a
circle of buildings, three storeys high and one room deep. The
palace was never completed and what was finished was destroyed by
lightning. The north face of the chief temple wall, from which it is said
Bajirav watched the battle of Kirkee (5th November 1817), commands
a complete view of Poona and its neighbourhood. [To follow the battle Bajirav mast have used a telescope. Perhaps he used the very telescope presented to him from the East India Company by Lord Valentia in 1803, See Valentia's Travels, II. 128.] To the north,
beyond the bare rocky slopes of Parvati hill, dark-green clusters of
mango trees and golden-green patches of sugarcane are broken by
house roofs and the gray stone towers of Garden Reach. To the
north-west are the trees and houses of Bhamburda and further off
the bare Ganeshkhind upland. To the north wind the tree-fringed
banks of the Mutha and the Mula, and, from the woody Kirkee plain
beyond, stand out the English and the Catholic churches, the Artillery
Barracks, and the Powder Works. Beyond Kirkee stretches a
bare plain with broken irregular hills the chief peaks being
Khandeshvar in Khed and the flat-topped range of Chaskaman.
Towards the north-east, behind Parvati lake with its rich mangoes
and cocoa-palms, rows of roofs stretch, thick and brown, shaded by
trees, and here and there broken by high house-tops and white
Hindu spires. The railway and Wellesley bridges span the Mutha,
and across the Mula stands the Deccan College, and still further,
on the border of the bare plain, the Yeravda jail. To the east,
beyond thick house roofs, from among the trees of the Civil Lines
and Cantonment, rise the towers of the Sassoon Hospital and the
Council Hall, the red tower and spire of the Synagogue, the gray
belfry of St. Paul's and the Arsenal water tower, and the white spires
of St. Mary's and St. Patrick's churches. To the east, along the
line of the Mutha canal, beyond rich orchards and sugarcane fields,
a bare stony belt leads to the high ground on which stand the
Vanavdi European Infantry Barracks and the Military Prison. To
the south-east and south the woods in the foreground are thinner and
more stunted and the land rises in a bare low ridge on which, among
a few trees, stand the Parsi Towers of Silence. To the south, the
ground, without houses and thinly wooded, rises to bare uplands,
and behind the uplands stretches the long range of the Sinhgad-Bhuleshvar hills ending westwards in the bold scarp of Sinhgad fort.
To the south-west, green with tillage and timber, lies the valley of
the Mutha with the waters of Lake Fife brightening the distance.
Behind the lake stands the lofty crest of form and to the west the
bare Bhamburda hills rise to the central peak of Bhanbava.
Close to the north of Parvati hill, between the foot of the hill and the bank of the Khadakvasla canal, on the northern outskirts of Parvati village is one of the circles of rude stones which, over most of the Bombay Deccan, are set up in honour of Vetal, the Ghost King or Demon Lord. A rectangular space, about thirteen yards broad by sixteen long, is marked by a ring of undressed stones most of them roughly conical. They vary in height from about six inches to a foot and are three to four feet apart. All are coated with whitewash and tipped with redlead. In the middle is a rough plinth about twelve feet square and two feet high, and in the middle of the plinth are two undressed stones about two feet high and between two and
three feet round. The central stones are Vetal and Mhasoba who is properly the brother of Vetal, though the Parvati people seem to consider them the same. The outside ring of stones are Vetal's guards or sepoys. Twice a month, on the full-moon day and on the no-moon day, the village Mhar paints the stones with whitewash and tips them with redlead. On Friday evening a Teli or oilman comes and offers flowers betel-leaves and a cocoanut. No animal is sacrificed except an occasional goat in fulfilment of a vow. The stone dwellings for Vetal and this circle of guards are said to have been put up by the Mhars when Parvati village was founded. [This circle of Vetal stenes does not differ from the Vetal circles found near many
Deccan villages. The circles are generally outside of the village and near the houses
of one of the early or depressed classes, the Mhars or the Ramoshis. This Poona
circle has the interest that it has been figured in Colonel Forbes Leslie's Early
Races of Scotland, who suggests a connection between these circles and the stone
circles found in England, Western Europe, and other parts of the world. Though
they seem to have no direct connection it may be suggested that the original object
both of Indian and of English stone circles, as well as of the Buddhist rail round
burial mounds, is the same, namely to keep off evil, that is evil spirits, from the
central stone or mound. A guardian circle is equally wanted whether the object
to be guarded is a stone in which a spirit or god lives, a tomb in which the relics
(and the spirit) of the dead remain, or a stone of judgment or an altar stone both
of which probably in most cases were also Bethel's or guardian's houses. That
during his crowning, when he is especially open to the attacks of the evil eye and
other evil influences, the king sits on the holy or guardian-possessed Scone stone
suggests that the origin of the old British judgment stones may have been guardian-possessed seats for the elders of the tribe. In this connection the value of the Vetal
circle is that it keeps fresh the early guardian idea. The centre stone is the god's
house; the stones in the circle are the houses of the god's watchmen. Apparently
Vetal's guards have no names. The only one of Vetal's guards who is known by name
in the Deccan is Bhangya Bava. Whenever offerings are made to Vetal in fulfilment
of a vow a chilim or hubble-bubble filled with hemp is offered to Bhangya Bava who
takes his name from bhang or hemp-water of which he is said to be very fond. The
other guards seem to be chosen by chance out of the hosts of bhuts and pishachs, that is ghosts and spirits of whom Vetal is the lord and leader. The fact that Vetal is
shown holding a cane, Vet or bet, as a sceptre, and that sometimes a cane, which is
the exorcist's great spirit-scarer or bhut-lord, stands for Vetal, suggest a connection
between the words vet and Vetal. Twice a month at midnight on the full-moon
and on the no-moon, like the Furious Host of early Europe (compare Stallybrass in
Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, 918-950), Vetal, followed by crowds of spirits each with
a torch in one hand and a weapon in the other, passes in ghostly state, clad in
silver and gold, with richly trapped elephants horses and litters. Lucky is the
man who sees the host, though he generally falls in a swoon, and still luckier the
man who, trusting to some spell, walks to the god's litter and asks his favour.
Vetal is human in shape, a man of a fierce and cruel countenance. He wears a
green dress and holds a cane in his right hand and a conch shell in his left. He
also holds in his hands a rosary of twenty-one beads of the rudraksh Eleocarpus
lanceolatus, a piece of burnt cowdung, and some flowers of the rui Calotropis gigantea,
a bush which he usually fastens to his right wrist and of which like the monkey god
Hanuman he is very fond. Vetal dislikes women and never possesses them. A man
whom Vetal possesses is held lucky and his advice is sought in all troubles. Though,
as has been coticed above (p. 348) in the account of Vetal's temple in Vetal ward,
some Vetals rise to a good social position and are worshipped by Hindus of all classes
high class Hindus, as a rule, hold the ordinary Vetal worship discreditable, and
except stealthily, seldom perform it. The lower orders believe in Vetil, worship him
and pay him vows. His devotees are mainly of two classes sorcerers and at hltes
Vetal is the sorcerers' god, because sorcerers wish him to give them some of his
power over spirits; he is the athlete's god apparently because of the strength and
activity shown by a man into whom Vetal has entered.
That both in the Deccan and in the Konkan special offerings are made to vetal
by his votaries on the Mahashivratra Day, that is the big day of the god Shiv; that
Vetal like Maruti, whom Hindus admit to be an incarnation of Shiv or Mahadev
is specially fond of rut Calotropis gigantea flowers; that like Mahadev he is fond of
bhasm or ashes and of the rudraksh or beads of the Eleocarpus lanceolatus; that like
Mahadev he is the king of spirits; and the belief of some Konkan votaries of vetalthat be is an incarnation of Mahadev suggest that Vetal is an early form of Mahadev
or the great god.
Intermediate between Vetal and Mahadev, higher in phase than Vetal and lower than Mahadev, comes Ganpati or Ganesh, who, as his name shows, like Vetal and like Mahadev, is the lord of spirits. Though the ideas that surround Vetal and Ganpati fare ruder and earlier than those of which Mahadev is the centre, it is worthy of note
that, like all the gods of modern Brahmanism, all three phases have risen from the
early destructive to the more modern guardian stage. In his character of guardian, to each phase of the Ghost Lord, one of the chief healers or spirit-scarers has been added, the
cane to Vetal, the elephant to Ganesh, and the ling to Mahadev.]
In the Konkan, where his worship is more general among the middle-classes than in the Deccan, Vetal's great day is Mahashivratra in February; in the Deccan special offerings are made on that day also, but his chief times appear to be Holi in March - April and Dasara in September - October. At these times Vetal's stone is whitewashed and tipped with redlead, and flowers, sandal paste, milk, butter, cakes, and occasionally flesh are laid before him. The offerings generally go to a Mhar or Mang who sits in the circle.
A few paces to the south-east of Vetal and his guard is a round stone and cement block of rough masonry about three feet high and six feet across with a stone in the centre like a ling. To this central stone, during the time of the Peshwas (1714-1817), tigers used to be tied and be baited by elephants. The pillar is now worshipped as Vaghoba or Father Tiger.
Parvati Lake (91)
Parvati Lake, nearly rectangular in form about 550 yards long by 225 yards broad and covering an area of about twenty-five acres, lies
about half a mile north-east of Parvati Hill and to the south of the city. The lake is a beautiful piece of water fringed with rich gardens and stately trees and with a woody island in the centre. The cost of making the lake and building the dam is said to have been £1357 (Rs. 13,570). The idea of making Parvati lake seems to have occurred after the building of the Katraj aqueduct which passes through and along the east of the lake. The stormwater overflow from the aqueduct used to drain into the Ambil Odha stream, which passed through the present lake and the waste of so much good water perhaps originated the Parvati lake project. The bed of the stream was dammed with masonry above and below the lake, and the intercepting channel below the lower dam was again dammed in three places to form smaller pools below. These smaller pools remain but are out of repair The lake is still filled during the rains from the overflow of the Katraj aqueduct. Sluices, which are still worked, have also been made in the head dam to take the water of the Ambil Odha stream. The lake was a pleasing addition to the Hirabag or Diamond Garden where Balaji the third Peshwa (1740-1761) built a pleasure house. A neat flight of steps with intercepting paved landings lead from the pleasure house to the margin of the lake. The lake was begun in 1753 by Balaji (1740-1761) the third Peshwa. One day, according to the local story, when on his way to Parvati temple, Balaji, who was the most energetic of the Peshwas, looked at the works, and, enraged at their slow progress, got down from his elephant and began to pile the stones with his own hands. His retinue and officers followed his example and the dam was soon made. A piece of raised ground left in the centre to form an island was afterwards turned into a garden called the Sarasbag. A small temple of Ganpati was built
some time after. Ganpati's minstrant has a monthly allowance of £1 10s. (Rs. 15) from the Parvati temple revenues.
Photozincographic Office (93).
The Photozincographic Office or Government Map office is within
suburban municipal limits about fifty yards to the west of the
post office. It fills a number of detached buildings some of them as old as 1831 and some built in 1868 and changed and improved in 1882. The buildings include an office (93' X 43'), a furniture store (33' x 17')
a printing press house (45'x 23'), a draftsman's office (55'x l7'), two
dwelling-houses, a room (75'X 16'), a store room (32'X 16'), and a
new main press house (89' x 30').
Poona Hotel(93).
The Poona Hotel, within suburban municipal limits, at the corner of the Lothian and Bund Gardens roads, is about a hundred yards
east of the post office and St. Paul's church. The hotel, which belongs to Messrs. Sorabji Jahangir and Sons, was opened on the 24th of May x873 with eight bed rooms. It has now (1884) a large dining room (40' by 22'), a large drawing room (35' by 22'), twenty servants' rooms, and stabling for fifteen horses and eight carriages. The hotel has thirty bed rooms, twelve for families in a detached upper-storeyed building open to the westerly breeze and eighteen for single visitors. The hotel terms are £10 (Rs. 100) a month and 10s. (Rs. 5) a day.
Post Of (94).
The Post Office in suburban municipal limits, nearly half a mile south-east of the railway station,
is an unpretending substantial
structure designed and built in 1873-74 by Colonel Finch, R. E. at
a cost of £1971 (Rs. 19,710). The post office includes three rooms
(50' by 20'), (57' by 20'), and (16' by 20'), and quarters for the postmaster.
Race Course(95).
The Poona RACE COURSE, an oval 1½ miles and 31 yards in circuit, encircles the General Parade-ground, near the centre of the belt of
open land that runs down the cantonment from north to south. The course lies between the Native Infantry lines in the west and the Soldiers' Gardens in the east, and its southern end passes close to the Sholapur road. It is a right-handed course with a straight run in of about a quarter of a mile from south to north, the finish with the Grand Stand and small Stewards Stand opposite being near the north-west corner. The open ground in the centre is used for general parades when all the troops of the garrison are called out on field days. The whole ground slopes from west to east. The Grand Stand in the high ground to the west is admirably placed commanding every yard of the course from start to finish. As the present building is of no use except as a place from which to view the racing it is under consideration to build a new stand with coffee, refreshment, dressing, and other rooms. The course has been in use for nearly thirty years. It has lately been widened and much improved by Colonel Burnett and is in excellent order. Since last year (1883) water has been laid on all round by pipes from the Khadakvasla canal. About one-third of the width at the outer side of the course is regularly used for training all the year round. The rest is closed by ropes, and watered when necessary so as to raise a good turf by the time of the Race meeting (which always takes place in the month of September) to which horses come from all parts of India. The races are run on alternate days and
the meeting lasts ten days to a fortnight. As till lately there were no professional book-makers in India, it was the custom to hold lotteries in the evening before each day's racing. For the last two
are professional bookmakers from England have attended the Poona and other large meetings in India, and as a good business is done it is probable that the number of professional bookmakers will increase. The Poona meeting is very popular and the entries for the Arab races are always large. The two principal races are the Derby, for which in the last two years (1882-1883) the entries have been thirty-live and fifty-one and the Governor's Cup for which the entries have been fifty-two and sixty-siven. The races are run under the Western India Turf Club rules.
Railway Bridge (96).
About 250 yards above its meeting with the Mula the Mutha is
crossed by the Peninsula railway. The railway bridge, which is
about 150 yards above the Wellesley bridge and is parallel to it, is 752 feet long and is of twenty-one thirty-feet span masonry arches. It is built of rubble masonry with coursed face work in the abutments piers and wings, and with brick work in the arches with stone ashlar arch quoins at the faces. [Captain Benson's Compendium, 3.]
Railway Station(97).
The RAILWAY STATION, half a mile north-west of the cantonment
and 950 yards north of the post-office is one of the most important on
the Great Indian Peninsula Railway line. The masonry buildings of the station comprise a station master's office, two waiting rooms, a telegraph office with fourteen
signallers, a booking office, and a large third class waiting room. There are thirteen traffic and locomotive lines, ten of them sidings measuring 2¾ miles and three lines one the main line, another the platform line, and the third an alongside line. There are three platforms, the passenger platform 595' long 20' broad and 2½ ' high, the horse-loading platform 307' long 20' broad and 3' high, and the goods, platform 605' long and 31/3' high with a varying breadth of 20' for 102 feet and of 47' for the remaining 503. The station yard with a greatest length of 845 yards and a greatest breadth of 155 yards covers an area of 93,651 square yards and is closed by a masonry wall. The yard has four gates to the east, two main entrances each 13½ wide and on either side of these two small gates each 5' 2" wide, and on the south one main entrance 21 feet wide with two small gates each 5' 2" wide on either side of it. The station has four sheds, an engine shed, a goods shed, a carriage shed, and a store shed. The engine shed, 100 feet long 39 feet broad and 18 feet high, opens on the west and east. It is built of wrought-iron sides with corrugated iron covering and roof of wrought iron trusses and corrugated iron covering. The gables are of brick-work. The goods shed, 300 feet long 25 feet broad and 12½ feet high, opens on the north side to the railways. It is built of teak posts and has a teak roof with double tile covering. The south side and two ends are enclosed with palisade fencing and teak boarding with gateways at every alternate bay. The carriage shed, 200 feet long 39½ feet broad and 15¼ feet high, with its east and west ends open, is connected with the main line by rails. It is built of rubble masonry, teak roof, and corrugated iron covering. The
store shed, 200 feet long 25 feet broad and 16¼ feet high, opening at both ends, is connected with the main line by rails and with the outside by road. It is built of rubble masonry with double-tiled teak roof. [Benson's Compendium, 5-7.]
Royal Family Hotel(98).
The ROYAL FAMILY HOTEL is in the Civil Lines near the railway
station. The hotel was started in 1861 by the present Parsi proprietor. It is an upper-storeyed building with room for five families
and fourteen single visitors, and has stabling for sixteen horses and
four carriages, and out-houses. The hotel has a drawing room (26'
by 22'), a dining room (38' by 22'), a smoking room (22' by 13'), a
billiard room (30' by 20'), and a hall (40' by 22'). The charges are
10s. (Rs. 5) a day and £12 (Rs. 120) a month.
Sangam(99).
The SANGAM or Junction at the meeting of the Mutha and Mula
rivers, about a mile west of the post office, a pleasant house on
the high river bank in a garden with fine old pipal trees, is the
residence of the Judge of Poona who is also Agent for the Deccan
Sardars. The Sessions Court-house is across the Ganeshkhind road
about seventy yards to the south.
Santa Cruz (100).
On the right hand side going from Poona to Kirkee, on the bank of the small stream that runs into the Mula river at the north end
of Garden Reach, in a small space surrounded by an open bamboo
trellis fence about three feet high, are two plain whitewashed stone
tombs. The larger tomb rises in pyramid form with five steps each
about nine inches high from a square about six feet at the base to
eighteen inches at the top, the whole surmounted by a plain stone
cross about two feet high. There is another small cross at the foot
and in the middle of the face of each step a small niche for an oil
lamp. The smaller tomb is plain, altar-shaped, and about five feet
long. It has a cross at the head and on the ground is a small stone
slab with a cross cut in it. The crosses on the tombs are often
hung with garlands of marigolds and chrysanthemums. The tombs
are believed to mark the graves of Portuguese officers in the
Peshwa's army who were slain in the battle of Kirkee (5th November
1817), but no certain information has boon obtained.
Sassoon Hospital (101),
The SASSOON HOSPITAL within suburban municipal limits, about 450 yards south of
the railway station, is one of the largest and hand
somest buildings in or near Poona. It was begun on the 8th of October 1863 and opened on the 7th of October 1867. It was built at a cost of £31,006 (Rs. 3,10,060) of which £18,800 (Rs. l,88,000) were contributed by the late Mr. David Sassoon, a wealthy merchent of Bombay. The building was designed by Colonel Wilkins, R.E. and the foundation stone was laid by the late Sir Bartle Frere, then Governor of Bombay. It is in the English-Gothic style, built of the local gray trap, rectangular in plan, 227 feet long by 50 feet wide, its longer sides facing east and west. It is double-storeyed, the rooms having windows on both sides opening into arcades, so as to afford through ventilation and shade. On the ground floor, in the northern half of the building, are two male wards, one 47½ feet by 23½ the other 71½ X 23½', and in the southern half is a dispensary 22' x 234' and two male wards 47'½ by 23½'. On the first floors are
rooms of the same size as those on the ground floor, those to the north being the Native female ward and the European female ward, and to the south one European male and one Native male ward. Over the porch is the operating room. At the south-west angle a masonry tower with a clock and water-cistern rises ninety-six feet, above which it carries a steep-pitched roof twenty-four feet high. The outbuildings include, besides those for cooking and servants separate quarters for three apothecaries, a dead house, and an infectious ward. A building to be used for a lying-in ward has been lately completed (October 1883) from a sum of £1000 (Rs. 10,000) left under the will of Mr. E. David Sassoon.
Science College (102)
The SCIENCE COLLEGE, on the main road between Poona and Kirkee, on the left or west side of the Mutha
river, was built in 1869 at a cost of £18,164 14s. (Rs. 1,81,647), of which £5000 (Rs. 50,000) were contributed by Sir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney. It is in the Saracenic-Gothic style built of the local gray trap and covered with a low-pitched tiled roof. In plan the building is nearly a square (111'x 109') and it may be best described as a large central hall (62½' by 30' and 42' to the top of the walls) covered by an open roof carried on iron arched girders, and surrounded on three sides by double-storeyed arcaded corridors 8½ wide, round which central hall and opening into whose corridors are the other rooms of the college. The north-west corner of the building rises to a third storey and above that carries a square tower 67' from the ground to the eaves covered by a low-pitched tiled roof with overhanging eaves. Beneath the tower flights of stairs lead to the upper storeys. The porch is in the centre of the north face, and the entrance leads into a vestibule 13' by 20' having arched openings into the centre hall. On each side of the vestibule is a small office or room, and a passage leading on one side into the laboratory, a room 30' by 20', and on the other to the stairs leading to the first floor. To the east of the hall is a lecture room, 51' by 19', protected to the east on the outside by an open arcade, and another lecture room 29' by 20' having a similar arcade on its southern face. To the west of the central hall are three class rooms each 19' by 19'. On the first floor, over the vestibule, is a museum 49' by 20', and on the same face a lecture room 20' by 30'. To the east of the central hall are two lecture rooms one 50' by 19', the other 39½ by 20' both shaded by outside arcades. To the west are three rooms one 30' by 20', and two 19' by 14'. On the second floor are the quarters of the Principal. The building was designed and built by Mr. W. S. Howard, C. E. Executive Engineer Poona and Kirkee, and completed in 1869. Attached are workshops and a foundry built at a cost of £282 (Rs. 2820) where the students do practical work under carpenters smiths and fitters.
Sindia's Tomb (103)
SINDIA'S TOMB or chhatri is on the left bank of the Bahiroba stream in the south-east corner of Vanavdi
village three miles south-east of Poona. The chhatri, literally umbrella or pavilion, consists of a small hamlet of about forty houses surrounded by a fifteen feet Wall which runs about eighty yards north to south and fifty yards east to west. The chief entrance to the hamlet is on the south-west. Besides the houses there are three shrines inside the wall, small
shrines of Maruti and Mahadev, and Sindia's chhatri which is an earth-filled temple thirty feet high, much like a grass-grown mound pierced by stone pillars. Mahadev's temple is a low building (40' by 25') with a wooden hall and a small shrine. Behind Maruti's temple is a wrestling pit. Close by is a stable containing a horse sacred to Mahadev which marches before the temple litter on procession days. The staff of the two temples, numbering about twenty-five people, are maintained by the present Sindia. [Mr. R. A. L. Moore, C. S.] The tomb belongs to Mahadji Sindia who died at Vanavdi in 1794 and was burnt on this spot. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 502.] About 1830 Jankoji Sindia, the great-grandson of Mahadji, began to build a large monument in memory of his
great-grandfather but died in 1842 leaving the work unfinished Since Jankoji's death the tomb has enjoyed a yearly allowance of £350 (Rs. 3500) most of which is distributed among religious beggars on the anniversary of Mahadji Sindia's death which falls in February. [Colonel C. D 'U. La Touche.]
Small Arms Factory(104).
[Contributed by Lieut. Colonel Wake, R. A] The SMALL ARMS AMMUNITION FACTORY stands on the site of Kirkee village which was bought by Government for building a fort, the tracings of which were marked about 1868 though work has
not yet been begun. [A committee is (July 1884) sitting to decide on the site and nature of a place of
refuge which will probably be near the fort site and may perhaps supersede it, colonel
Ducat, R, E,] The factory lies within the limits of the
proposed fort, and consists of a main factory (200' by 100') with fifteen
other buildings, the entire premises occupying eight acres of land
enclosed by a rubble stone wall. The main factory has a boarded
floor and a double roof in five spans, resting on iron columns twenty
feet high and twenty feet apart braced together by longitudinal and
cross girders. The roof is of corrugated iron without and lined with
wood within. Between the corrugated iron roof and the wooden roof
is an air space 1' 4" broad, and a Louvre board runs along the apex of
each span from the inside of the factory to the outside air. This
contrivance gives a through current of air between the two roofs and
ensures perfect ventilation in the workshops. Of the fifteen other
buildings, nine enclosing 7950 square feet are for the different processes
of loading and filling cartridges; three outhouses and two small
magazines are for laboratory work for making fuzes, friction tubes,
rockets, long hights, and other war stores; and one is a store room
(300' x 25'). All the buildings are connected with the main factory
by a tramway 1' 6" wide with turn-tables in front of each room
admitting lorries, thus leaving the tram line clear for wagons going to
other departments.
The factory makes two kinds of cartridges Martini-Henry and Snider, both built varieties being formed of a number of parts put together. A Martini-Henry cartridge case is composed of twelve parts, an anvil, a base disc, a cap, a cap chamber, a case body, an inside and an outside cup, three jute wads, a paper wad, and a wax wad, a strengthening coil, and a bullet 480 grains ± 2 grains. After the case has been put together and the base disc rivetted to the cartidge by piercing and bending over the crown of the cap chamber on to the
paper wad to form the rivet, the case is charged with eighty-five grains of R. F. G.2 powder. The charges are thrown charges from a Caffin's filling machine and the limit of error allowed is 85 grains ±2 grains. After the charge has been put into the case it is wadded with a solid wax wad 190'' thick and on the top of this wax wad two jute wads are placed. The cartridge is then shaken to let the powder down into the case and bulleted with a bullet weighing 480 grains ± 2 grains. The bullet has a diameter of '449" to 451" and a length varying from 1.28 high to 1.26 low. The bullet is secured in its place by two grooves made outside on the neck of the cartridge which press the brass of the case into corresponding grooves in the bullet. The E. F. G. 2 powder with which the cartridge is charged should vary in density
from 1.72 to 1.75. It should contain not more than 1.2 or less than 0.9 per cent of moisture; and 85 grains of it fired from a Martini-Henry rifle with the service cartridge should give the bullet a muzzle velocity of 1290 to 1340 feet the second. [The velocity of the powder is taken with an electric instrument. In calm Weather the Martini-Henry cartridge should make a figure of merit at
500 yards. the mean of twenty shots not over fifteen inches.]
The Snider cartridge is also a built cartridge composed of an anvil, base disc, cap, cap chamber, inner base cup and outer base cup, case body, cotton-wool, and bullet. After the parts are put together the case is charged with seventy grains of R. F. G. powder with a density of 1.58 to
1.62. Half a grain of cotton-wool is placed over the powder and it is then ready to receive the bullet, weighing 480 ± 2 grains, with a diameter of
.573" to .575" and l.03 to 1.05 long. The bullet is smeared with a beeswax lubrication.001" thick and fitted with a clay plug to expand the bullet and drive the lead into the grooves of the rifle when the cartridge is fired.
The factory is capable of turning out 45,000 Snider or 20,000
Martini-Henry cartridges a day. From want of room and supervision
only one kind of ammunition can be made at a time. The making
of breech-loading ammunition is intricate and difficult. To make one
cartridge requires over 150 operations and the limit of error allowed
in the different parts averages only about 2/1000 of an inch.
The machinery used is chiefly for punching and stamping. It is worked by three Lancashire double-flued boilers twenty feet long and six feet in diameter, two of which are generally used. The average daily consumption of coal is about 1¼ ton. A 2½" shafting, on supports 6' 8" apart, is carried on the columns and brackets from the girders. The shafting which makes 150 revolutions in a minute is driven by a high pressure engine of twenty horsepower direct from a belt from the flywheel on to the shafting. The shafting is lubricated with needle lubrications and the whole is driven by bands joining one line of shafting with another.
The factory establishment consists of about 400 workmen with a superior staff of twenty. The superior staff includes a Superintendent, a chief and an assistant engineer, two chief and five assistant foremen, and ten other overseers and clerks. The number of workmen taken and paid by the day averages 400 and sometimes
rises to 800. Their monthly wages vary from 8s. to £6 (Rs. 4- 60). The skilled workmen are Europeans born in India, Eurasians, Portuguese, Hindus, Musalmans, Parsis, and Chinamen, and the unskilled labourers are Marathas from the villages round Kirkee. Where possible the labourers are paid by piece work a system for which they have a great liking. They are hardworking and eager to make money.
Soldiers' Gardens (105)
The SOLDIERS' GARDENS cover forty-one acres on the left bank of
the Mutha canal and of the Bahiroba stream in Ghorpadi about 250
yards north of St. Patrick's church on the east border of Poona
cantonment. It was originally intended as a garden to be worked
by the garrison troops. This idea was given up and for a time the
gardens were kept by the cantonment authorities and then closed
and given for tillage. In 1878 the gardens were revived and improved
by Sir Richard Temple, then Governor, and placed in charge of the
Executive Engineer Poona and Kirkee. A military band plays
twice a week. During the present year (1884), because of their
distance from Poona, the transfer of the Botanical Gardens from
Ganeshkhind to the Soldiers' Gardens has been sanctioned and is
(September) being carried out.
Soldiers' Institute (106).
The SOLDIERS' INSTITUTE and Assembly Rooms, near the centre of the cantonment about 140 yards north of the Gymnasium, consist of
a permanent building tiled and in good repair. The building contains one main hall (89' by 63'), one exhibition room (70' by 25'), three lamp rooms (each 20' by T 6"), one store room (7' 6" by 10' 3"), one office room (20' by 7'6"), two drawing rooms (each 17'6" by 12'), and two bath rooms (each 5'6"by 5'6"). During the rains the building is used for the Soldiers' Annual Industrial Exhibition. At other times it is available for theatricals, pennyreadings, and other entertainments.
St, Andrew's Church (107).
ST. ANDREW'S Church in the Vanavdi Lines, set apart for the use of members of the Established Church of Scotland, was built by
Government about 1861 and has room for about 500 people.
St, Anne's Chapel (108).
ST. ANNE'S CHAPEL in the Sholapur Bazar is of brick built in 1871 at a cost of £700 (Rs. 7000). The chapel, which is
subordinate to the city Roman Catholic church of Nossa Senhora
da Conceicao, has an altar, fourteen stations of the way of the cross,
and two pictures of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The
chapel has room for 350 and the congregation, consisting mostly of
Goanese cooks and butlers, numbers about 225. A mass is held every
Sunday and on obligation days.
St. Mary's Church (109).
ST. MARY'S CHURCH, within cantonment limits, on the high ground in the south-east corner of the Native Infantry Lines, is a large
building with a belfry. It is 118 feet long and eighty-five feet broad at the chancel with room for about 900 people. It was consecrated in 1825 by Bishop Heber who describes it as spacious and, convenient but in bad architectural taste. In the interior are six lofty round pillars, two shorter round pillars, and two square pillars with tablets. The baptismal font is in the south-west corner of the church and is surrounded by handsome stained-glass windows. The church has numerous tablets, some of them belonging to officers of distinction. Here is buried Colonel Morris, C. B., famous in the battle of Balaklavs (1854)
who died in 1858; and Lieutenant C. A. Stuart of the Madras Army who fell mortally wounded on the 28th of January 1858 while leading the men of the 4th Nizam's Infantry against a body of insurgent Bhils strongly posted at Mandvar in the Malegaon sub-division of Nasik.[ Details are given in the Nasik Statistical Account p. 200.] There are also tablets to five officers of the 27th Bombay Native Infantry and five officers of the 8th Royal Regiment of Foot. One tablet is in memory of Captain Thomas Ramon who died on the 5th of November 1815 at Mandvi in Cutch. The' Christian Temple' to which this tablet refers, as designed by his genius and built by his hand, is not St. Mary's but the large church in Kaira in Gujarat in which the tablet was originally meant to have been placed. Two other tablets are to Lieutenant J. W. McCormack of H. M's 28th Regiment who, on the 6th of October 1859, was killed at the storming of Bet in west Kathiawar with four non-commissioned officers and eight men; and to Major Henry C. Teesdale who fell in front of the colours of the 25th Regiment of Native Infantry when commanding it,at the battle of Meeanee in Sind on the 17th of February 1843. With Major Teesdale are associated the names of Lieutenant C. Lodge who was killed in action at Kotru in Kachh Gandava in Beluchistan on the 1st of December 1840, of Captain C. Rebenac, of Ensign Browne who was killed by accident at Karachi, and of eighteen other officers of the same regiment, one of whom, Colonel Robertson, was a C.B. and A.D.C. to the Queen. The church also contains tablets to Lieutenant Malcolm G. Shaw of the 3rd Light Cavalry who died of sunstroke at the battle of Beawra, and to Lieutenant Augustus Charles Frankland, with the motto 'Franke Lande, Franke Mynde', who was killed in a charge at the battle of Khushab in Persia on the 8th of February 1857. Another tablet is to Captains Seton and Peile and eighty-one non-commissioned officers and privates of the 1st Bombay Fusiliers who died of cholera at Karachi; also, on the same tablet, an inscription to Captain Rawlinson, Lieutenant A. P. Hunt, and 140 non-commissioned officers and privates who died before the return of the regiment to the Presidency; also, on the same tablet, an inscription to Lieutenant W. A. Anderson who was murdered at Multan, and to twenty-two non-commissioned officers and privates who were killed during the siege of Multan.
St. Patrick's Church (110).
ST. PATRICK'S CHURCH is a plastered stone building built by
English soldiers at a cost of £1800 (Rs. 18,000) and blessed by the
Right Reverend Bishop Hartmann in 1855. The cost was almost
entirely borne by Catholic soldiers especially of Her Majesty's 64th 83rd and 86th Regiments, of, the Bombay Fusiliers, and of the Royal Artillery. The church has room for 700 people. The congregation consists chiefly of European soldiers serving in the Poona garrison and their families, and the Native Christians of the native regiments. The church has a font enclosed in a wooden case and a harmonium.
St. Paul's Church (111).
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, within suburban municipal limits about fifty
yards south of the post-office, is a plain stone building with belfry
and small windows. The inside is plain but it has four handsome stained-glass windows over the Communion Table. The church was built by Government after the style of the Sainte Chapell in Paris, from drawings by the Rev. Mr. Gell, B.A., and consecrated by Bishop Harding in 1867. It is intended for the use of the civil and military officers living in the Staff and Civil Lines and has 225 seats all of which are free. The north seats are kept for local residents and the south seats are open to all. The whole expenses of the church and worship are borne by the offerings of the congregation. The communion is celebrated every Sunday and at all other festivals. Morning prayer is said daily throughout the year, and during Advent and Lent special evening services are held,;
St. Xavier's Church (112).
ST. XAVIER'S CHURCH in Convent Street, Sadar Bazar, is a substantial stone building in the Gothic style built about 1865 at a cost of £1900 (Rs. 19,000). The entrances are sheltered by small Gothic
arches. The nave measures 70' 6" by 30' 6" and the chancel 30' by 18' 6". The church has a steeple seventy-one feet high with two bells, a gallery at the west end 30' 6" by 15' for boys and singers with a harmonium, a small vestry 15' 13" off the chancel, a baptistry with font at the side entrance, three Gothic altars with statues from Munich, and a large stained glass window in the back wall of the sanctuary representing in panels scenes from the life of St. Francis Xavier. The church has room for about 500 people, the congregation consisting of about 400 European Eurasian and Portuguese clerks, tradesmen, and pensioners. The church has a regular morning and evening service and a double morning service on Sundays. Attached to the church is the Poona Convent orphanage and day school for girls under the Religious Nuns of Jesus and Mary. The building consists of three wings in two storeys joined by an angular tower and a separate day school. There are thirteen inmates, eighty boarders, fifty day scholars, and thirty native cholars. Opposite the convent is St. Vincent's school and parish house. The buildings of St. Vincent's include two dwellings and a large two-storeyed school-house built about 1867 at a cost of £4000 (Rs. 40,000), which inclulded a Government contribution but was mostly provided by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Bombay. The school is managed by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus with lay teachers and has 260 pupils, European, Eurasians, Portuguese, Parsis, and a few Hindus and Musalmans.
Under St. Francis Xavier's church is a small chapel in the Camel
Lines for a Madras Christian community of over 400. The chapel
is a simple iron roofed brick building with room for about 200 people
A service is held on Sundays. Attached to the chapel is a Small
school with thirty boys and girls.
Synagogue (113).
The SYNAGOGUE, a handsome red-brick building with a lofty tower and spire, is in the south-east corner of suburban municipal limits,
about 450 yards south of the post-office. It was built in 1867 by the late Mr. David Sassoon. It is a lofty church-like structure in the English-Gothic style, built of red brick with trap stone archwork and window mullions. The body of the interior is 62'by 44½ and 30' high to the planked ceiling with galleries on three sides supported on pillars which are carried through to the roof. At the west
end is an apse at the end of which a curtain or veil hides the recess where the holy books are kept. The floor, which is of polished stone, is free from anything but a few chairs and movable seats. At about one-third of the length from the apse, and in front of it is a raised wooden platform surrounded by railings on which the officiating priests stand. The windows are in small panes of coloured glass. At the east end over the porch a red brick-tower 90' high carries a clock and bells and is surmounted by a spire.
Towers of Silence (114).
Among a few trees, on a low bare ridge called the Gul Tekdi, about half a mile south-east of Parvati hill, are two Parsi TOWERS OF
SILENCE, about half a mile apart. Of the two towers one, enclosed by a wall, was built by Mr. Sorabji Ratanji Patel on the 29th of April 1825. Two fire-places or sagris are near this tower and a third is (July 1884) being built. The second tower was built by public subscription on the 28th of April 1835 at a cost of about £507 (Rs. 5070) and was enclosed by a wall in 1854. A road has lately been made between the public road leading to the slaughter house and the first Tower. There is no made road up the hill to the second Tower.
United Service Library(115).
The UNITED SERVICE LIBRARY is in the Native Infantry Lines to
the north of St. Mary's church. It is a plain building with five
rooms and a veranda all round. Of the five rooms two (75' by 25
and 25' by 14') are large and the other three are side rooms. The Library contains about 10,000 works and is especially rich in works on India. It takes twenty magazines and twenty-two newspapers seventeen English and five Anglo-Indian. It is open to officers of the Civil Military and Naval Services and in July 1884 had 145 subscribers and an income in 1883 of £491 (Rs. 4910) realised by subscriptions at the rate of £3 (Rs. 30) a year, £1 16s. (Rs. 18) a half year, £1 2s. (Rs. 11) a quarter, and 8s. (Rs. 4) a month. [The income of the library from January to June 1884 was Rs. 2424. The income for 1877 was Rs. 4394, for.'878 Rs. 4033, for 1879 Rs. 3800, for 1880 Rs. 3634, for 1881 Rs. 4531, and for 1888 Rs. 4730.] In 1860 Poona had a library called the Poona Station Library owned by thirty-two shareholders. In July 1860 Sir W. Mansfield then commander-in-chief proposed to establish in Poona an institution similar to the Royal United Service Institution, London. The object of the new institution was 'the formation of a library containing historical scientific and professional works, maps, charts, and plans, the delivery of lectures, the collection of inventions and natural curiosities, and, if possible, the publication of a journal; the collection of native arms and a museum to serve as a central depository for objects of professional and general information and for trophies and relics connected with Indian history. The proposal found favour and the institution was called the United Service Institution of Western India. The shareholders of the Poona Station Library handed over their building and library of about 2000 volumes as a nucleus, and the institution, whose funds were vested in trustees, became the property of the station. In 1867, after seven years' experience, the institution was not found to work well, and at a
general meeting of subscribers, it was resolved to use the library
only as a Reading Room and to change the name to the United
Service Library Poona. The museum was sold by auction and a
committee of seven was appointed to manage the library restricting
it to the purposes of a Reading Room, the footing on which it noil
works.[ Professor G. W. Forrest.]
Vanavdi Barracks (116).
The VANAVDI BARRACKS, also known as the Right Flank Barrack from their
situation to the right or south of the military cantonment, stand on high ground. Besides the sergeants and staff of a
European regiment the barracks can accommodate 1006 rank and
file. The barracks consist of double storeyed blocks arranged in
open order, so that each block gets a share of the breeze. From
time to time older buildings have been pulled down to make room
for the present barracks. The buildings include eight older blocks
completed in 1861 of brick and lime plastered, each to hold sixty
men and two- sergeants. On each floor the blocks have a barrack
room (109'by 25'and 18'high) and sergeants' quarters of two room
each 12' by 13'. Both floors are surrounded by enclosed verandas
eleven feet wide with windows glazed and venetianed. To these verandas the
barrack rooms open on their longer sides by arched openings between pillars which carry the floor or roof above. Six other
blocks were completed in 1872. They are two-storeyed of stone
masonry surrounded on both floors by open verandas; the lower
with masonry arches, the upper with posts. Each block contains
on the ground floor and on the first floor two barrack rooms
(87' by 24' and 18' high) with a sergeant's quarters between. The
blocks were built according to the sanitary regulations and standard
plans in force at the time. Except the older blocks, which have
washrooms under the same roof as the barrack rooms, all have
cook-rooms, washrooms, and latrines as outbuildings. There are
eight staff sergeants' quarters and the patcherries or married men's
quarters have room for eighty married men. The barracks include
separate buildings for Guard-rooms, Cells, Hospital, Female Hospital,
Medical Staff Quarters, Armourer's Shop, Workshop, Store, Canteen,
Sergeants' Mess, and a Ball Court and a Skittle Alley. These quarters
have from time to time been built or adapted from old ones according
to standard plans and regulations in force at the time by successive
Executive Engineers of Poona. The total cost of the barracks as
they stand is £151,031 (Rs. 15,10,310).
Welleshy Bridge (117).
The WELLESLEY BRIDGE, -1. 14 miles west of the post office, crosses the Mutha river close above its meeting with the Mula. It
replaces a wooden bridge which was built in 1830 and called the
Wellesley bridge in honour of General Wellesley's conquest of
Deccan in 1803. In 1870, as it had become unsafe and was too
narrow for the traffic, the old bridge was pulled down and the
present masonry bridge begun. It is a substantial stone structure
of strong coursed masonry and consists of eight segmental arches of
52 ½ ' span, with a rise, of 13' and 2 ½ ' thickness of arch-ring, carrying a
roadway, 28' wide at a height of 47' above the deepest part of the river bed, protected on both sides by a neat dressed-stone parapet. It was designed by Lieutenant Colonel A. IT. H. Finch, R.E. Executive Engineer Poona, and built under his superintendence by Messrs. White and Company contractors;, It was opened for traffic in 1873 at a cost of £11,092 (Rs. 1,10,920). A tablet on the bridge has the following inscription:
The original wooden structure, named in honour of the victories obtained in the Deccan by Major-Genl. Arthur Wellesley (afterwards F. M. the Duke of Wellington,
K.G.), constructed by Captain Robert Foster, Bombay Engineers, at acost of Rs.91,892, and opened in 1830 by the Honourable Major-General Sir John Malcolm, G. C. B., Governor of Bombay, haying become decayed and unsafe for traffic, was removed, and the present bridge, designed and constructed by Colonel A. U. H. Finch, R-E., at a cost of Bs.110,932, was opened to the public in May 1875; His Excellency the Honourable Sir Philip Wodehouse, K. C. B., Governor and President in Council.
Yeravda Central jail (118),
The YERAVDA CENTRAL JAIL, Poona, intended for the confinement of long-term and dangerous prisoners, as well as for relieving
the overcrowding of the several district jails throughout the Presidency, is situated three and a quarter miles north of the post office. The present structure, built altogether by convict labour under the supervision of the Public Works Department, was begun in 1866 and finished in 1880, previous to which, and whilst under construction, the prisoners were located in temporary barracks and tents. The outer wall, sixteen feet high and 1¼ miles all round, covers an area of fifty-nine acres. Within this enclosure are three circles or in fact jails on the radiating system, hospital, barracks, cook-house, dye-house, European jail, separate, solitary, and dark cells, store rooms and offices. The jail has accommodation for 1600 prisoners, and during the 1876-77 famine held over 1800, the workshops being then temporarily turned into dormitories.
At the end of 1883, 911 prisoners were confined in the jail, the average daily number during the year being 1016 and the average yearly cost of each prisoner being £6 6s. (Rs. 63). The prisoners are employed extramurally on the several gardens in connection with the jail, and hired out to contractors for unskilled labour, and
intramurally on the various industries carried on in the factory, chiefly carpet-making, coir-work, cane-work, carpentry, french polishing, and printing. The factory work is well known for its superior quality throughout India and also in Europe and America.
The officer in charge is styled the Superintendent, but performs also the duties of a medical officer, the appointment being now invariably held by a medical man who enjoys a monthly salary of £70 (Rs.700) rising to £95 (Rs. 950). The jail establishment consists of a jailor, a deputy jailor, three European warders, one steward, two clerks, two hospital assistants, and sixty-four warders or peons, the yearly cost of all, exclusive of Superintendent, being £2040 (Rs. 20,400). In addition to the above establishment a military guard, consisting of one jamadar and thirty-four rank and file, is always present at the jail to assist in quelling emeutes.
A school, inspected yearly by the educational department, is kept at the jail, one or two educated men amongst the convicts being appointed teachers. Urdu, Marathi, and Kanarese and elementary
exorcises in arithmetic are taught. The Poona Meteorological Observatory is situated at Yeravda in charge of the Superintendent of the jail. The jail establishment, inclusive of the Superintendent, reside in quarters near the jail, the Europeans on the south or front side, and the natives on the north or rear of the jail.
POONA:
History.
The name Poona, as its Sanskrit form Punyapur or Cleanser shows,
probably refers to the holy meeting of the Mutha and the Mula close
to which it is built. Its religious position, and its trade position on one
of the main approaches to the Bor pass, mark Poona as likely to bean
early settlement. The earliest known remains in the neighbourhood
are the Shaiv cave at Bhamburda about one mile and the cells in the
Ganesh khind hills about two miles to the north-west of the city.
The Ganeshkhind cells are plain and small and of uncertain age;
the Bhamburda cave is believe d to belong to the seventh or eighth
century. [Lord Valentia's (1803) collection of poona agates (Travels, 11.113) and the number of agates and chalcedonies which may still lie found near (Ganeshkhind suggest that poona may be Ptolemy's (A.D. 150) Pumiata in which are beryls so known Perhaps to distinguish it from the other Punnata or Punnatu which Mr. Rice has discovered in the Maisur State (Ind, Ant, XII. 13; Sewell's Southern India dynasties, 86). It is worthy of note
that poona appears as Panatu, almost the same as in Ptolemy, in the map of the arccarate English traveller Fryer (1673 -1675), the
't' in both cases seems to represent the nasal 'e' which survives in a weaker form in the spelling
poone] According to local tradition in A. D. 613 (Shak 535)
Poona was a hamlet of about fifteen huts two of Brahmans and the
rest of fishermen and musicians. At each corner to ward off evil
were the temples of Bahiroba, Maruti, Narayaneshvar and Puneshvar,
and a Mhasoba, of which the Mhasoba and the Maruti. and an old
temple of Puneshvar, now the shrine of the younger Shaikh Sala,
remain. To the east of Poona were (A. D). (613) two small villages'
Kasarli and Kumbharli which have been absorbed in the city. [As ass stone or gadhar
dagav which still remains is said to mark the herders of the three hamlets. A proof that poona includes three separate villages remains in the fact that there are three families of grant-enjoying Mhars. Of the three 'chavdis village offices and three Bahirobas or village guardians two chavdis and two Bahirobas
remain.] In
A.D. (1290) (Shak 1212) Poona seems to have been taken by the troops
of Ala-ud-din the Khilji emperor of Delhi (1295-1315). The memory
of the Musalman conquest survives in a local story that Hisa Mohidin
and four other Musalman ascetics came to the hamlet and turned the
two temples of Puneshvar and Narayaneshvar into the two Musalman Shrines or
dargahs (31) of the elder and the younger Shaikh
Sallas. [These shrines are described above pp. 343-344. They have still many traces of their Hindu origin.] Under the Mussulmans, according to local tradition, an
Arab officer and a small force were stationed at Poona. Barya the
Arab commandant fortified the town or kasba by a bastioned
mud wall with three large gates, the Kumbharves on the north, the
Kedarves on the east, and the Mavalves on the west. The ruins of
this wall, now called Pandhricha Kot, remain and the part, of the city
within its limits goes by the name of Juna Kot (24). It is said
that only the garrison and the Musalman inhabitants lived within the
wall. The hereditary or sthaik and the casual or upri Hindu
land-holders traders and Brahmans lived outside of the walls
Poona prospered and grew. Four new wards or peths were added, two to the south Mohiyabad now called Budhvar and Malkapur now called Aditvar, one to the east Astapura now called Mangalvar and one tot he west Murchudabad now called Shanvar. In 1595 king Bahadur Nizam II. (1596-1599) ennobled a Maratha named Maloji Bhonsla the grandfather of Shivaji the Great and gave him the estates of Poona and Supa with the forts and districts of Shivner and Chakan. In 1620 the town suffered much from the exactions of Siddhi Yakutray the Poona commandant of the Ahmadnagar minister Malik Ambar (1607-1626). Many people left and a few years later (1629-1630)[This was the 1629-30 famine. Compare Elphinstone's History, 507; Elliot and Dowson, VII. 24-25.] the town was for three years wasted by famine. In 1630 Murar Jagdevrav, the minister of Mahmud the seventh Bijapur king (1626- 1656), while engaged in the pursuit of Shahaji, burnt Poona, threw down the walls, passed an ass-drawn plough along the foundations, and fixed in the ground an iron rod as a sign that the place was accursed and desolate. The effect of the curse did not last long. In 1635 the same Mahmud of Bijapur, on the occasion of his entering the Bijapur service, confirmed Shahaji Bhonsla the son of Maloji Bhonsla and the father of Shivaji in his father's estates of Poona and Supa. Shahaji made Poona the headquarters of his territory and appointed a Deccan Brahman named Dadaji Kondadev to manage it from Poona. Under Dadaji the place flourished. The land rents were lowered and the unsettled hill people were employed as guards and messengers and to destroy the wolves by which the country round Poona was then overrun. [East India Papers, IV. 420.] Dadaji appointed one Malthankar to be commandant of Poona. To remove Murar Jagdevrav's curse (1630) Malthankar pulled out the iron rod, passed a golden plough along the line of the fortifications, held a shanti or peace-making to- drive away the evil spirits, and rebuilt the wall. [N. V. Joshi's Marathi Account of Poona, 8.] Settlers were granted land free of rent for five years and with only a tankha rent in the sixth year. At the same time on the southern limit of the town Dadaji built a large mansion called the Lai Mahal
(1)[The Lal Mahal now called Ambarkhana (1) as the Peshwa's elephant canopies or ambaris were kept there, is still in repair. See above p. 331.] or Red Palace for Shahaji's wife Jijibai and her son Shivaji. Jijibai also built the temple of Ganpati which is now called the Kasba Ganpati (12). In 1647 Dadaji Kondadev died and Shivaji took charge of his father's Poona estates, including the city. In 1662, to punish raids on Moghal territory close to Aurangabad, Shaiste Khan the Moghal governor advanced from Aurangabad with a great force towards Poona and Chakan, and Shivaji, who was in Supa, retired to Sinhgad; Supa fell, and in spite of much annoyance from Shivaji's horse, the Musalmans pressed on and took Poona.[Elliot and Dowson, VII. 261-262.] Shaiste Khan took Chakan fort, eighteen miles north of Poona, and several other Poona strongholds, and in 1663 came to live in Poona in the Lal Mahal, Shivaji's home. [Shaiste Khan settled the Shaistepura Peth now called Mangalvar Peth, See above p. 274.] In spite of the precautions which had been taken
to prevent armed Marathas entering Poona Shivaji determined to surprise the Moghals. He sent two Brahmans in advance to make preparations. One evening in April a little before sunset Shivaji set out from Sinhgad with a considerable body of foot' soldiers. These he posted in small parties along the road and took with him to Poona two of his most trusted men Tanaji Malusre and Yesaji Kank and fifteen Mavlis. The Brahmans had won over some Marathas in Shaiste Khan's employ who arranged that two parties of Marathas should enter the town one as if a wedding party the other as if bringing prisoners, and that Shivaji and his twenty-five should pass in with them. Shivaji's party passed safely, put on their armour, and, at the dead of night, by secret ways reached Shaiste Khan's house which Shivaji well knew. They entered through the cook-house, killed the cooks, and as they were cutting through a built-up window, the alarm was raised. Three of the Mavlis forced themselves into Shaiste Khan's room, but two fell into a cistern of water and the third, though he cut off Shaiste Khan's thumb, was, killed by his spear. Two slave girls dragged Shaiste Khan to a place of safety. [This is Khafi Khan's account in Elliot and Dowson, VII. 270-271. According to Grant Duff (Marathas, 88) Shaiste Khan's fingers were cut off as he was letting himself out of a window.] The Marathas killed many of his followers, cut to pieces some of the women, and cut off the head of an old man whom they took for Shaiste Khan. The kettledrums beat an alarm and the Marathas retired, lighting torches and burning bonfires as they went up Sinhgad in derision of the Moghals. [Elliot and Dowson, VII. 270-271.] Later in the same year Shivaji came to Poona to hear a
katha or song sermon by the Vani saint Tukaram and narrowly escaped being taken prisoner by the garrison of Chakan. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 89. According to the Marathas, Shivaji escaped by the help of Vithoba of Pandharpur,] In 1662, Shahaji came to Poona to visit Shivaji, who was then thirty-five years old and in great power. Shivaji omitted no means of showing his father respect, He walked several miles before his palanquin, attended him as a servant, and refused to be seated in his presence. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 85.] In 1665 the new Moghal viceroy Jaysing came to Poona, arranged its affairs, and spread his forces over the country.[Grant Duffs Marathas, 92.] In 1667, after his famous escape from Delhi, Shivaji obtained from Aurangzeb the title of Raja, and Poona Chakan and Supa were restored to him. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 98,99.] In 1674 the transfer of Shivaji's head-quarters to Raygad hill in Kolaba reduced the importance of Poona. About 1675 Poona appears as Panatu in Fryer's map. [New Account, 50,] In 1679 Poona was in charge of Naro Shankar Sachiv one of Shivaji's eight ministers. [Marathi Account, 14.] Shivaji died in 1680. In 1685 Aurangzeb sent a noble named Kakad Khan to Poona who is remembered as having introduced the unpopular order of obliging the people to recognize Golak or bastard Brahmans as family priests or upadhyas. The town people in despair are said to have appealed to the gods but the gods upheld Kakad Khan and the bastards. [Marathi Account, 14.] In 1688, according to local tradition, Aurangzeb, finding that the Musalman wards were deserted and overgrown with trees, sent one Mohanlal to
resettle the town. Mohanlal died while attempting to restore the town and Aurangzeb in his honour called the town Mohiyabad. About 1703 Aurangzeb encamped with his army for a month in a jujube or bor grove [The jujube grove was on the site of the present Bhavani ward.] south of Poona and settled a new ward called Mohiyabad near the grave of Mohanlal. [Marathi Account, 15. According to Khafi Khan (Elliot and Dowson, VII. 373) the Peth was called after Muhiu-1-Mulk the grandson of Alirangzeb who died at Poona.] In 1707 Lodikhan, commandant of Poona, was defeated by Dhanaji Jadhav the general of Tarabai the aunt of Shahu. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 185. ] In 1708 Shahu was established at Satara, while Poona remained under the Moghals, Shahu claiming the chauth and sardeshmukhi rights over it. Shahu's representative at Poona was Balaji Vishvanath, afterwards the first Peshwa, and the Moghal officer was a Maratha named Rambhaji Nimbalkar. Under this double government, which lasted till 1720, Poona suffered severely and the city was once plundered by the Nimbalkar's orders. [Marathi Account, 16, See Part II. p. 241.] In
1720 the double government ceased as, under the Delhi home-rule grant, Poona became one of Shahu's sixteen svarajya districts. In
1721 Balaji died and was succeeded as Peshwa by his son BajiraV, who appointed one Bapuji Shripat to be manager or subhedar of Poona. Bapuji persuaded many merchants to settle in Poona. [Marathi Account, 18.] In 1728 the old city wall on the river bank was pulled down and sites for mansions allowed to the Purandhare and Chitnis families, and, between 1729 and 1736, the Shanvar palace (32) was built near the Mavalves. In 1731 Bajirav remained at Poona and employed himself in improving the internal management of Maratha affairs. He continued at Poona Dabhade Senapati's practice of feeding some thousands of Brahmans for several days. He also gave sums of money to the assembled religious doctors styled Shastris and Vaidiks. The festival was continued by his successors and was known by the name of dakshina or money gifts. [ Grant Duff's Marathas, 225. Details are given above pp. 48, 62-64.] Of minor city works belonging to the time of Bajirav Peshwa (1720-1740) the chief are the temple of Omkareshvar (23) begun at his private expense by Bajirav's brother Chimnaji Appa, the temple of Amriteshvar (2) built by his sister Bhiubai, and a pigeon house.
1739.
In 1739 Captain Gordon, a British envoy to Satara, perhaps
the first European who visited Poona, found the districts round Poona flourishing. The rent of land was low and husbandmen were drawn from other parts of the country. In and near Poona were many signs of prosperity. The crowded streets were lined with handsome houses. In a large foundry was the form of a thirteeninch mortar and considerable progress had been made in the art of running iron for shot and casting shell small cohorns and great guns. Weavers were encouraged and the produce of the Poona looms was sent to various parts of India and in large quantities to Bombay. Poona was emphatically the city of the Peshwas, rising with them and growing with their growth. [Bombay Quarterly Review, IV. 95.] In 1740 Bajirav was succeeded by
his son Balaji (1740-1761). In 1741, on the death of his uncle Chimnaji, Balaji spent nearly a year in improving the civil administration of Poona. From this till 1745, a period of unusual quiet, Balaji caused marked improvement in the country. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 264.] In 1749 Shahu the Raja of Satara died. Before his death Balaji had obtained a deed empowering him to manage the Maratha empire. In 1750 he came to Poona which was now the capital of the Maratha empire. [Grant Duffs Marathas, '270.] About this time the French missionary Tieffenthaler describes Poona as the capital of a Maratha prince of the Brahman caste. The town was well peopled and the houses were built partly of brick and partly of mud. The head of the government lived in a fortress surrounded by walls. [Description Historique et Geographique, I. 484.] In 1751 as Damaji Gaikwar refused to comply with Balaji's demands he was surrounded and made prisoner and kept
in confinement in Poona city till 1754. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 274] In 1756 Mr. John Spencer and Mr. Thomas Byfield, members of the Bombay Council, came to Poona and had a long interview with Balaji Peshwa. [ Grant Duff's Marathas, 294-295.] In 1757 Anquetil Du Perron, the French scholar and traveller, mentions Poona as the union of four or five villages in a plain with a common market and some one-storeyed houses. It was strictly a great camp of huts and was the actual capital of the Marathas and fairly prosperous. The market a broad street crossed the town from end to end. In it were all the merchandise of Asia and part of the goods of Europe which the English sent from Bombay four or five days distant. The riches were used by the Musalmans rather than by the Marathas. The Marathas had few wants. A piece of red cloth for the head, another white cloth for the waist, a third as a scarf, and some yards of cloth for winter. This was the dress of the richest. Their usual food was rice and pulse mixed with butter. If the Marathas were all-powerful European trade with India would perish. But the softness and luxury of the Moors more than makes up for the bare frugality of the Marathas. In the market were many run away Europeans. In many of the streets there was not one house worthy of notice and much stabling and forage. [Zend A vesta, 1.
ccxxvii. ccxxix.] In 1761 Balaji Peshwa died at Parvat in Poona crushed by the ruin of Pauipat. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 320.] In Balaji's reign the Parvati lake was made,the city walls were begun, and the temples of Nageshvarav and Tulsibag were finished. [Marathi Description, 34-42.] In 1763 Nizam Ali of Haidarabad plundered Poona taking much property and destroying and burning all houses which were not ransomed. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 328; Eastwiek's Kaisarnama, 70; wilks' South of india,] In 1763 Peshwa Madhavrav (1761-1772) assembled a large army at Poona to act against Haidar Ali of Maisur (1763 - 1782). [Grant Duff's Marathas, 330, ] In 1768 Mr. Mostyn came to Poona as envoy from the Bombay Government to try and secure an assurance that the Peshwa should not join in alliance with Haidar and the Nizam, but Madhavrav refused to give the assurance and told Mr. Mostyn that he would be guided by circumstances. [See Part II. p. 253.]
In 1768 Madhavrav surprised Raghunathrav's army near Dhodap
in Nasik and confined him in Poona in the Peshwa's palace. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 340.] In
1769 Janoji Bhonsla of Berar who supported Raghunathrav began
to plunder the country on the way to Poona. After Poona was,
destroyed by Nizam Ali in 1763 Madhavrav proposed to surround
it with a wall. This design was abandoned on the ground that no
fortified plain city could ever be as safe as Sinhgad and Purandhar.
On Janoji's approach the people of Poona sent off their property, and
as no steps were taken to stop the plundering Madhavrav was forced
to make a treaty with Janoji. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 341 -342.] In 1772 the Court of Directors
ordered that a resident envoy should be appointed at Poona and
Mr. Mostyn came to live in Poona as British envoy. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 371.] Madhavrav
Peshwa died on the 18th of Nov. 1772 and was succeeded early in
December by his younger brother Narayanrav who was murdered on
the 30th of Aug. 1773. That morning a commotion broke out among
the Peshwa's regular infantry at Poona. Towards noon the disturbance
so greatly increased that, before going to dine, Narayanrav told
Haripant Phadke to restore order. Haripant neglected his instructions,
and in the afternoon Narayanrav, who had retired to rest, was
awakened by a tumult in the palace where a large body of infantry,
led by two men named Sumersing and Muhammad Yusuf, were
demanding arrears of pay. Kharaksing, who commanded the palace
guard, joined the rioters. Instead of entering by the open main gate,
they made their way through an unfinished door on the east, which,
together with the wall round the palace, had shortly before been
pulled down to make an entrance distinct from the entrance to
Raghunathrav's quarters. On starting from sleep Narayanrav,
closely pursued by Sumersing, ran to his uncle's room. He threw
himself into his uncle's arms, and called on him to save him.Raghunathrav begged Sumersing to spare his life. ' I have not
gone thus far to ensure my own destruction' replied Sumersing;
' let him go, or you shall die with him.' Raghunathrav disengaged
himself and got out on the terrace. Narayanrav attempted to
follow him, but Tralia Povar, an armed Maratha servant of
Raghunathrav's, seized him by the leg and pulled him down. As
Narayanrav fell, Chapaji Tilekar, one of his own servants came in,
and though unarmed rushed to his master. Narayanrav clasped
his arms round Chapaji's neck, and Sumersing and Tralia slew them both with
their swords. Meanwhile the conspirators secured the whole of the outer wall of the palace. The tumult passed to the
city, armed men thronged the streets, the shops were shut, and the
townsmen ran to and fro in consternation. Sakharam Bapu went to
the police superintendent's office and there heard that Raghunathrav
had sent assurances to the people that all was quiet. Sakharam
Bapu directed Haripant Phadke to write a note to Raghunathrav.
Raghunathrav answered telling him that some soldiers had murdered his nephew. Haripant declared that Raghunathrav was the
murderer and fled to Baramati. Sakharam Bapu told the people to
go to their homes and that no one would harm them. On that night
Bajaba Purandhare and Maloji Ghorpade had an interview with
Raghunathrav, and Trimbakrav Mama bore off Narayanrav's body and burnt it. Visitors were received at the palace. Mr. Mostyn the English envoy, and the different agents, paid their respects, but Rughunathrav remained in confinement, detained, as was said, by the conspirators, as a security for the payment of their arrears. Raghunathrav was suspected, but there was no proof. He was known to have loved his nephew, and the ministers decided that until the contrary was proved, Raghunathrav should be held innocent and be accepted as the new Peshwa. Ram Shastri approved of this decision. At the same time he made close inquiries. After about six weeks he found a paper from Raghunathrav to Sumersing, giving him authority to slay Narayanrav. Ram Shastri showed this paper to Raghunathrav, who admitted that he had given an order, but persisted that his order was to seize Narayanrav, not to slay him. Examination of the paper confirmed Raghunathrav' statement showing that the word dharave seize had been changed to marave kill. This change, it was generally believed, was the work of Anandibai Raghunathrav's wife. It was also believed that it was under her orders that the servant Tralia Povar had taken part in Narayanrav's murder. When Raghunathrav confessed his share in Narayanrav's murder, he asked Ram Shastri what atonement he could make. ' The sacrifice of your life,' boldly replied the Shastri, 'is the only atonement.' The Shastri refused to stay in Poona if Raghunathrav was at the head of affairs, left the city, and spent the rest of his life in retirement near
Wai. Meanwhile the arrears of pay were discharged, Raghunathrav was released, and his adopted son Amritrav, attended by Bajaba Purandhare was sent to Satara to bring the robes of office. Raghunathrav was proclaimed Peshwa. Haidar Ali of Maisur and Nizam Ali of Haidarabad lost little time in taking advantage of the disturbances at Poona. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 363.] Raghunathrav left Poona resolved to oppose Nizam Ali and cripple his power. Meanwhile the Poona ministers sent Gangabai the pregnant wife of Narayanrav to Purandhar and began to govern in her name. Negotiations were opened with Nizam Ali and Sabaji Bhonsla both of whom agreed to support Gangabai, and a wide spread intrigue in Raghunathrav's camp was organised. When Raghunathrav heard of the revolt in Poona, he began to march towards the city. Haripant Phadke came from Poona to meet him the head of a division. On the 4th of March 1774 Raghunathrav met and defeated the ministers' troops near Pandharpur under Trimbakrav Mama. The news of this defeat filled Poona with alarm. The people packed their property and fled for safety to the villages and hill forts. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 367-368. ] In 1776 the impostor Sadoba, who gave himself out as Sadashiv Chimnaji who had died at Panipat, was carried by Angria a prisoner to Poona, where he was bound to the foot of an elephant and trample to death. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 397 -398] In 1777 an agent of France was received at Poona with distinction, and the British envoy Mr. Mostyn was treated with studied coldness. In March 1777 several Frenchmen went by
Cheul to Poona and early in May 1777 one of them St. Lubin was received in Poona as an ambassador from France. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 404. Grant Duff quotes an interesting letter regarding St. Lubin written from poona by Mr. Farmer of the Bombay Civil Service, 405 note 2.] In 1781 on the approach of General Goddard Poona houses were filled with straw and preparations made for taking the people to Satara. [Pennant's Views of Hindustan, 1.95.] In 1785 at Nana Fadnavis' desire Mr. Charles Malet was chosen to be British resident at Poona. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 468.] About this time Major Rennell describes Poona as meanly built, not large and defenceless. In case of invasion the officers retired to Purandhar eighteen miles to the south-east where the Government records, were kept and where many of the chief officers usually lived. This arrangement in Rennell's opinion greatly added to the strength of the Peshwa as he was free from the encumbrance of a great capital. [Memoir, 134.] On the 1 st of June 1790 a treaty was concluded at Poona for the suppression of Tipu between Mr. Malet on the part of the Company and Nana Fadnavis on the part of the Peshwa and Nizam Ali. [Grant Duff s Marathas, 484.] In August 1791 there was a curious outbreak of lawlessness at Poona. A party of merry Brahmans had separated rather late at night. Thirty-four of them remaining in the streets after the firing of the Bhamburda gun, [The Bhamburda gun was always fired at nine. It was a gun of large calibre and gave sufficient warning to all people to retire to their homes. After a reasonable time, the patrols took up and imprisoned very individual in the streets and took him before the city police superintendent or kotval. A story is told of a Peshwa having been thus taken up by the patrol. Sometimes the firing of the gun was delayed half an hour and sometimes an hour or more. Moor's Hindu Pantheon,373.] were taken up by the police and placed in confinement. In the morning twenty-one of them were found dead and the rest scarcely alive. The popular clamour grew great against the police superintendent or kotval one Ghashiram, a Kanoja Brahman of Aurangabad whom Nana Fadnavis had raised at the cost of his daughter's honour. Though Ghashiram did not even know of their imprisonment until the morning when the catastrophe occurred, popular indignation rose to such a pitch that Ghashiram sought refuge in the Peshwa's palace. The Peshwa, yielding to his fears, gave up the unhappy man to the mob, headed by a number of Telang Brahmans the caste to which the sufferers belonged. Ghashiram was dragged with every species of indignity to his own mansion and reservoir, he was bound with a cord held, by a Mhar, and he was stoned to death by the Telang Brahmans. [Moor's Hindu Pantheon, 373; Grant Duffs Marathas, 550. Other accounts seem to show that Ghashiram had grossly misused his power and deserved his fate.]
In 1792 Captain Moor describes the neighbourhood of Poona as well watered by frequent streamlets (June 3-8) und adorned by
groves and gardens of which the cypress was the chief ornament, he city was not very large, not covering more than two miles. It was fairly but neither elegantly nor handsomely built. The Peshwa's palace was handsome but hardly grand enough for a royal residence. Other houses were more elegant. There were large markets and a long street of English looking-glasses, globe-lamps, and other finery. In the Peshwa's foundries thirty-six to
forty-two pounder guns were made. The police was said to be particularly efficient. On the north-west a bridge had been begun across the Mutha.
But as two Peshwas who were interested in the work died it was stopped as
unlucky. There was a wooden bridge further up in bad repair. [Narrative,
78,363-365.]. Sir Charles Malet's residence at the Sangam was one of the pleasantest in India. He had formerly lived in the city but was allowed to move to the point above the meeting of the Mutha and the Mula. When he came this spot was bare except a ruined temple. He and his staff at great expense built neat houses and had a beautiful garden watered from both rivers by aqueducts. It yielded all the country fruits, and excellent vines, and had thirty apple and peach trees which promised to be a great addition to the fruits of the Decean.
He had a stud of forty or fifty noble Persian and Arab horses and several
elephants [Narrative, 363-364].
In this year (1792) Poona witnessed the grand display of the Peshwa being robed as agent of the Emperor of Delhi. Mahadji Sindia, who was supreme at the Delhi court, came to Poona on the 11th of June with the deeds and robes of the hereditary office of Vakil-i-Mutlak or chief minister, whose hereditary deputy in North India was to be Sindia. Sindia pitched his camp near the Sangam, the place assigned by the Peshwa for the residence of the British envoy and his suite. Nana Fadnavis, who was jealous of Sindia, did all he could to prevent the Peshwa from accepting the titles and insignia brought from the Emperor. But Sindia persisted and the Raja of Satara gave the Peshwa formal leave to accept the honours. On the 21 st Sindia paid his respects to the Peshwa, carrying with him numberless rarities from North India. The following morning was fixed for the ceremony of investing the young prince with the title and dignity of Vakil-i-Mutlak, and Sindia spared no pains to make the investiture imposing. Poona had never seen so grand a display. A large suite of tents was pitched at a distance from Sindia's camp and the Peshwa proceeded towards them with the grandest display. At the further end of the tents a throne, meant to represent the Delhi throne, was raised and on it were displayed the imperial decree or farman, the khilat or the dress of investiture, and all the chief insignia. On approaching the throne the Peshwa made his obeisance thrice, placed 101 gold mohars as an offering or nasar, and took his seat on the left of the throne. Sindia's Persian secretary then read the imperial farmans, and among others, an edict forbidding the slaughter of bullocks and cows. The Peshwa then received the khilat, consisting of nine articles of dress, five superb ornaments of jewels and feathers, a sword and shield, a pen case, a seal and inkstand,
end two royal fans of peacock's tails or morchals with a nalki, [A nalki is a sedan chair without a top and having four poles two behind and two before, never used but by emperors or persons of the highest rank.] a palkhi, [A palkhi is an open bedstead with a curved pole over it.] a horse and an elephant with six other elephants bearing the imperial standard, two crescents two stars, and the orders of the fish and of the sun. The Peshwa retired to an adjoining tent and returned clothed in the imperial robes
when lie resumed his seat; and Sindia and Nana Fadnavis and other officers of the Peshwa offered nazars of congratulation. When the Peshwa rose to return to the palace, Sindia and Phadke followed carrying the peacock fans and fanning him. He entered Poona seated in the nalki; the throng of people assembled to see the procession was very great; the pomp and grandeur displayed was beyond anything the people of Poona had seen, while the clang of thousands of musical instruments, the shouts of the populace, the volleys of musketry and salvos of cannon gave to the ceremony all the effect that Sindia desired. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 499 - 500.] Two years later (February 12th, 1794) Mahadji Sindia, after a sudden illness of three days, died at Vanavdi. His body was burned and over the ashes was built a tomb still known as Sindia's Chhatri (103). In 1795 Madhavrav the young Peshwa was upbraided by Nana Fadnavis for keeping a private correspondence with his cousin Bajirav, afterwards the last Peshwa who was then confined in Junnar. Overwhelmed with anger and grief he for days refused to leave his room. At the Dasara on the 22nd of October he appeared among his troops and in the evening received chiefs and ambassadors. But his spirit was wounded to despair, a fixed melancholy seized his mind, and on the morning of the 25th of October, he threw himself from a terrace in his palace, fractured two of his limbs, and was much wounded by the jet of a fountain on which he fell. He lived two days and died having particularly desired that Bajirav should succeed him. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 521.] On the 26th of May 1796, much against his will, Chimnaji the second son of Raghunathrav and brother of Bajirav was adopted by the widow of the late Peshwa and formally installed as Peshwa. [ Grant Duff's Marathas, 524.] On the 4th of December of the same year Bajirav was installed as Peshwa Chimnaji's adoption being declared illegal. [Grant DufFs Marathas, 529.]
In the beginning of 1797 a desperate affray took place in the streets of Poona between a body of Arabs and a party of Maratha soldiers in which upwards of 100 persons were killed and many shops and houses were plundered. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 530.] On the 31st of December Nana Fadnavis, while returning a formal visit to Sindia, was seized by Michel Filoze a Neapolitan officer of Sindia's. On his word of honour Filoze had guaranteed Nana's return and his perfidy excited great indignation. Several persons of distinction who went with Nana were also seized and the rest of his retinue of about 1000 men were stripped, maimed, some of them killed, and the whole dispersed. Parties of soldiers were sent to plunder not only Nana's house but the houses of all his adherents, many of whom barricaded their doors and defended themselves from the roofs and windows. The city was as if taken by storm and firing continued the whole night and next day. The roads were stopped on every side; all was uproar, plunder, and bloodshed; the alarm was universal; friends marched together in groups with their shields on their arms and their swords in their hands. [ Grant Duffs Marathas, 532.] In 1798, with the consent of Bajirav and Sindia,
Sindia's Divan and father-in-law Sarjerav Ghatge so ferociously plundered Poona, that his name is still remembered with horror. Ghatge's first step was to raise money from the members of Nana's party who were confined in Bajirav's palace. These men of position and high reputation were dragged out and scourged till they gave up their property. One of them, a relation of Nana's, died tied to a heated gun. These cruelties were not confined to Nana's friends. Merchants, bankers, and all in the city who were supposed to have wealth were seized and tortured with such cruelty that several of them died. Though the plan of levying money from the people of Poona was Bajirav's, he never supposed that the money would be collected with such cruelty. Bajirav
remonstrated with Sindia but to no purpose. [Grant Duff's, Marathas, 533.] In the same year the Peshwa's troops, which were greatly in arrears, raised a tumult and kicked about the street the turban of one of Bajirav's favourites who tried to interfere. The tumult was quelled by Naropant the former commandant a friend of Nana's. This was followed in 1798 by a war between the widows of Mahadji Sindia who were living in Poona camp. Though Daulatrav Sindia, the nephew of Mahadji, had promised to make ample provision for them they found no provision made and even their comforts scrimped. The youngest widow was a beautiful woman and the others discovered or invented a criminal intimacy between her and Sindia. The ladies openly accused Sindia of incest and Ghatge, who was sent to quiet their complaints, being refused an entrance, forced his way into their tents and seized and flogged them. The Shenvi Brahmans, w ho, before Ghatge's rise to power, were the strongest party in Sindia's army, took the side of the widows and it was arranged that they should be sent to Burhanpur. [Grant Duffg Marathas, 538.] On their way to Burhanpur their friends learned that the widows were being taken not to Burhanpur but to Ahmadnagar fort. Under the influence of Shenvi officers a Pathan named Muzaffar Khan, who was in command of a choice body of cavalry, assailed the escort near Koregaon, afterwards the scene of Staunton's celebrated battle, rescued the widows, and carried them back close to Sindia's camp. Ghatge persuaded Sindia to let him attack Muzaffar. Muzaffar had warning and retired with the widows pursued by Ghatge. He left the ladies in the camp of Amritrav, Bajirav's brother who was near the Bhima, turned on Ghatge, defeated him, and put him to flight. Bajirav, who is said to have instigated the whole, approved of his.brother's kindness to the widows and asked Colonel Palmer the British resident to mediate between them and Sindia. Sindia refused and on the night of the 7th of June sent Ghatge with five battalions of regular infantry under Du Prat a Frenchman, to surprise Amritrav's camp and seize the ladies. Ghatge's attempt failed and he had to retire with loss. Sindia then promised to arrange for a suitable establishment for the ladies, and Amritrav came into Poona and camped close to Sindia. It was the Muharram time, and Ghatge under pretence of keeping order brought two brigades of infantry and twenty-five guns close to Amritrav's
camp, suddenly opened fire on it, charged and dispersed Amritrav's troops, and pillaged his camp. This outrage was nothing less than an attack on the Peshwa himself. Holkar came and sided with the Peshwa, the other Maratha nobles joined his standard, and the Peshwa negotiated an alliance with Niizam Ali. Sindia was alarmed by the treaty and brought Nana Fadnavis from Ahmadnagar and proposed to put him at the head of affairs. Meanwhile Ghatge had been acting with such cruelty that Sindia felt that Ghatge s disgraceful acts were alienating the minds of all his supporters. He accordingly gave orders for Ghatge's arrest which was successfully effected. Ghatge's arrest reconciled Sindia and Bajirav. In 1799 Sindia's widows fled to Kolhapur with the Shenvi Brahmans from Sindia's camp. Large bodies of horse flocked with them and when sufficiently strong they returned to the northward and not only insulted Sindia in his lines but stopped the roads near Poona. The country was wasted by swarms of horsemen. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 545.] Early in 1800 Nana Fadnavis died at Poona. This event sealed the fate of the Peshwa's
government. Before the close of the year Yashvantrav Holkar obliged india to leave Poona, but before he left Poona Sindia forced Bajirav to give him bills worth £470,000 (47 lakhs). After Sindia left Poona Bajirav began to distress and pillage all who had opposed himself or his father. One of the first who suffered was Madhavrav Rastia, whom he invited to visit him, and whom he seized and hurried to prison. This act followed by others like it caused great discontent in the city. Lawlessness spread and the country was filled by bands of plundering horsemen. Among the prisoners taken in one affray was vithoji the brother of Yashvantrav Holkar, whom Bajirav ordered to be tied to an elephant's foot and dragged in the streets of Poona (April 1801).
Colonel Welsh,1801.
About this time Colonel Welsh describes Poona as about three
miles long and two broad with 140,000 houses and 600,000
people. The streets were extremely narrow and full of markets with innumerable articles of merchandise, the produce of India China and Europe. The houses some three or four storeys high were built without much regard to taste or symmetry though being diversified in size shape and colour they had a pretty appearance from a distance. The view from the opposite side of the river was most imposing, as that part of the town which was washed by the stream, being faced with stone descending in many parts by regular steps to the water's edge and having trees intermingled with the houses, presented an appearance very far from despicable, though a
stranger set down in the streets could hardly credit the assertion. The fruit markets were well supplied with musk and water melons, plantains, figs, dates, raisins, mangoes, pomegranates, woodapples, almonds, and a great variety of country vegetables. In short it appeared a place of great wealth in which centred the entire trade of the empire. [Welsh quoted in Maxwell's Life of Wellington (1839), L 122.] Of Poona at this time and during the reign of Bajirav, Captain
Robertson the first Collector wrote in 1825. Poona was then a gay rich and busy city. The wealthy governors and revenue
officers of Gujarat and Karnatak, wherever they made their money,
spent it in Poona on marriages, feasts, and a numerous retinue of
Maratha servants and dependants. Vast wealth flowed into Poona
from other causes, the intrigues of foreign powers, and the deference
shown to the Peshwa by the Maratha leaders. The city was bright
with bands of armed men, handsome horses, rich palanquins, and
gorgeous elephants, messengers ran from place to place, all was gay
with sports, dances, and merrymaking. [Capt. Robertson, 1st Feb. 1825. Bombay, Rev. Rec. 117 of 1825, 533-534.] In 1802 Ghatge came to
Poona and made demands for money from the Peshwa. Bajirav
called him to his palace, but Ghatge, suspecting treachery, forced his
way out, leapt on a horse, escaped, and returned to Poona with a force
threatening to attack the city. The British Resident was called in
to settle Ghatge's claim and Poona was saved further loss by an
urgent message from Sindia requiring Ghatge in Malwa. Meantime
Yashvantrav Holkar, who was burning to avenge his brother
Vithoji's disgraceful death, was marching towards Poona. Sindia's
army joined the Peshwa's and took a position close to Poona near
the present cantonment. Bajirav ordered Yashvantrav to retire but
he refused to obey. On the morning of the 25th of October the two
armies met, and, after a well' contested fight, the battle ended in a
complete victory for Holkar. Bajirav making sure of victory came to
see the battle, bat the firing frightened him, and on learning the fate
of the battle he fled to Sinhgad. For some days after his victory
Yashvantrav showed great moderation at Poona. He placed guards
to protect the city, treated Bajirav's dependants with kindness, and
made several attempts to persuade Bajirav to come back. But
Bajirav fled to the Konkan. When Holkar heard of Bajiravs flight
he levied a contribution from the people of Poona. The contribution
was arranged by two of Bajirav's officers and it was carried out in an
orderly manner. But it was followed by a plunder of the city as
complete and as wickedly cruel as Sindia's plunder in 1798. The
loss of property was unusually severe as guards had been set to prevent
people leaving Poona. Meantime Bajirav had signed the treaty of
Bassein and General Wellesley was on his way to reestablish Bajirav in
Poona. Near Baramati, on the 19th of April 1803, General Wellesley
learnt that Bajirav's brother Amritrav was likely to burn the city to
prevent this misfortune. General Wellesley pressed on and used
such speed that, though kept six hours in the Little Bor pass, he
reached Poona on the 20th of April a march of sixty miles in thirty-two
hours. [Wellington's Despatches, II. 102.] Of the state of money matters in Poona General Wellesley
wrote: ' I have drawn in favour of a savkar at Poona who
promises to pay one lakh of rupees a month. However, from the
Peshwa down to the lowest cooly in the bazar, there is not a
Maratha on whom it is possible to rely that he will perform any
engagement into which he enters, unless urged to the performance
by his fears. I doubt therefore this savkar.' [Wellington's Despatches, II. 102.]
Lord Valentia, 1803.
In October 1803
the English traveller Lord Valentia describes Poona as an indifferent
town, with several large houses built with square blocks of granite to about fourteen feet from the ground. The upper part was a framework of timber with slight. walls merely to keep out the wet and air. The lime bricks and tiles were so bad that the rain washed away any building that did not depend on timber for its support. Timber was brought in abundance from the hills to the west and was not much dearer than at Madras. Holkar's stay did not improve the town. He pulled down several large houses in search of treasure and it was said that he found much. Lord Valentia forded the river both going and returning; the foundations of a granite bridge rose above the water, but they were laid in misfortune and superstition would not allow their completion. A bridge of boats had been laid across by General Wellesley but was not kept up. [Valencia's Travels, II. 115.]
Lord Valentia described Colonel Close's residence at the Sangam as a charming spot, adorned with cypress and fruit trees and with a handsome bungalow. [Travels, II. 123.] When (1792) Sir Charles Malet first came as Resident he was obliged to live in a wretched house in the town, and during the summer had to pitch his tents on the banks of the river. Remonstrances at length gained him leave to build a temporary house in the Sangam garden. It was burnt down and Sir Charles was allowed to build the existing bungalow. Still no fence was allowed and Colonel Close had great difficulty in getting leave to make a gateway and some additional buildings. The natives burnt their dead on the opposite bank. At four in the afternoon of the 14th of October a deputation from the Court, the highest compliment the Peshwa could pay, came to the opposite side of the river from the Sangam and Lord Valentia, accompanied by Colonel Close and their suites, set off. At starting a salute was fired. The Peshwa's minister for British affairs and the under minister, attended by a large body of horse and some foot soldiers, led the procession, and were joined by an escort of British infantry. In the place before the palace were drawn out the Peshwa's cavalry and infantry guard and his elephants, by no means a splendid body. Kettledrums were beating, the servants were all at their posts, and the crowd was considerable. Lord Valentia waited a few seconds at the door till Sadashiv Mankeshvar the minister had come near. He then left his slippers, and with Colonel Close supporting his left arm, stepped on the white cloth with which the floor was covered. He embraced the minister and presented the officers of his suite. The Peshwa entered the room and stepped on his cushion or gadi. Lord Valentia hastened towards him supported by the Colonel on his left and the minister on his right. His Highness continued standing and slightly embraced Lord Valentia with his right hand. Lord Valentia was next presented to the Peshwa's brother who was on the right and who also embraced him. Lord Valentia then returned and presented to the Peshwa the gentlemen of his suite who were also embraced. They then sat down. The minister was next His Highness on the left, but rather behind. Lord
Valentia was near to him. Next to Lord Valentia was Colonel Close and then the other European gentlemen. They had no chairs or cushions and were not allowed to put out their feet, as to show the sole was disrespectful. His Highness wore no slippers. The etiquette of the Court was silence and when anything was said it was in a low whisper. Lord Valentia spoke to Colonel Close, who translated it to the minister, the minister stretched himself out towards His Highness on his knees with his hands closed and raised, and, in a low voice, reported what Lord Valentia had said. By the same conveyance the answer was returned. Lord Valentia first asked after His Highness's health and was told that he was well, and that he hoped Lord Valentia had arrived in good health. Lord Valentia then asked after the health of the Peshwa's brother. The message was carried across the room, in front of the cushion by Anandrav. The answer was complimentary. Then through the minister His Highness expressed a wish that the party might retire into a more private place that conversation might be freer. Lord Valentia immediately arose and followed the Peshwa into a very small room attended by Colonel Close, the minister of the state, the under minister, and the minister of British affairs. His Highness seated himself on a small Turkey carpet in the corner of the room. He placed Lord Valentia next him on his left and the rest formed a part of a circle in front of him. The Peshwa then begana very interesting conversation in which he considerably relaxed from his etiquette, smiled, and frequently spoke immediately from himself to Lord Valentia and Colonel Close. With all the disadvantages of interpretation, Lord Valentia could perceive that the Peshwa gave a very elegant turn to the expressions he used. Among many other compliments the Peshwa expressed a wish to give Lord Valentia a fete at his country house. To this Lord Valentia with pleasure agreed. This fete had been previously arranged and was to take place after the Peshwa had honoured Lord Valentia with a visit. On political subjects the Peshwa spoke fully and clearly and seemed much better informed than Lord Valentia had reason to expect. After about an hour the party returned to the Darbar. Lord Valentia was so extremely tired with his position that it was with some difficulty he could, rise and for a few minutes was obliged to rest against the wall. No conversation passed after the Peshwa was seated on the cushion. Betel leaves were placed before him in a large gold plate; on the top was a gold box containing a parcel of the same; attar, rosewater, and spices were is the same line. Anandrav, the minister for British affairs, gave rosewater, attar, and spices to Colonel Close; to Lord Valentia he gave attar and rosewater. The party then rose, and His Highness' with his own hand presented Lord Valentia with the gold box filled with the betel leaves. The guests then made their salutations and retired, the ministers attending them to the door. The Peshwa and his brother were in plain white muslin dresses without a single jewel. The minister had some handsome flat diamonds in his turban, a neck-lace of emeralds and large pearls, and earrings of gold from which hung the finest pearls Lord Valentia had ever seen. They were perfectly round and clear and were as large as the pupil of the eye. The palace was a fairly handsome building and was very clean. The
Darbar-room was large, and was supported by handsomely carved wooden pillars. The state cushion was of white muslin richly embroidered in gold and coloured silk. With the exception of a few who carried silver sticks the Peshwa's attendants stood round outside of the pillars. Holkar had not done much harm to the palace but he had carried away everything movable, including a small armoury and the elephant cars. Lord Valentia thought Poona well placed and that when it had enjoyed a little rest, it would be a handsome capital. On the 16th, to receive the Peshwa, Colonel Close pitched a large tent in front of his house and two tents joined to it without sides so that they formed one very large room. The state cushion was sent forward and placed in the centre as at the Peshwa's own Darbar. When the Peshwa came in sight Colonel Close mounted an elephant and advanced to meet him. Lord Valentia waited his approach at the door of the tent. The Peshwa came close up, but did not dismount till the minister, the under minister, and the minister for British affairs had paid their compliments and had presented to Lord Valentia the different nobles and honourables who attended him. They made their salutations and passed into the tent. His Highness then descended from his elephant along with his brother, who rode behind him. Lord Valentia made his compliments and leaving a space on his right hand for the Peshwa to walk in moved into the tent. All seated themselves as at the Darbar. After a few compliments and while the dancing girls were singing and dancing, betel leaf and attar were placed on the ground before His Highness and he ordered them to be given to the sardars and other attendants. Lord Valentia then asked His Highness to allow him to robe the Peshwa and his Brother. The Peshwa granted leave and the trays were brought forward and laid before them. Lord Valentia rose and passing in front of the state cushion began with the Peshwa's brother. A jewelled crest and other ornaments were set in his headdress and a necklace of pearls with a pendant of coloured jewels was fastened round his neck. The Peshwa's headdress and his neck were then adorned with jewels and in addition his wrists were encircled with diamond bracelets. He had a telescope, and a sweetmeat box, ornamented with a beautiful picture of the goddess Ganga. His brother had a sweetmeat box with Indra painted on it. The figures were appropriate to their character. His Highness was much attached to the ladies. His brother was grave and ceremonious. Lord Valentia then gave betel leaves and attar; the attar was poured into Lord Valentia's hands, who gently rubbed it down both the shoulders of the Peshwa; this was done at the Peshwa's request, and was the highest compliment. His Highness was in such excellent humour, that, though it was a public visit of ceremony, he frequently smiled and addressed himself to Lord Valentia and to Colonel Close. The ministers did not receive the attar as it was Lord Valentia's wish that they should stay after the rest were gone. There was great jealousy, between the ministers and the Mankaris so that to have made the ministers presents in the company of the Mankaris would have been an insult to their dignity. Lord Valentia mentioned to the ministers that a horse and elephant were at the gate as presents to His Highness. These were always
given on state occasions but without being habited as was the practice in other courts. It was nearly dark before the Peshwa left. The ministers stayed a short time and received Present according to their rank, the jewels being tied by
Colonel Close's. Native Assistant. They then received betel leaf and attar froms Lord Valentia's hands and departed. The presents were provided by the East India Company. His Highness' were worth about £1200 (Rs. 12000), the others; altogether nearly £800 (Rs. 800). The nach girls had sung son very interesting Marathi or as they call them Deccani songs, which Lord Valentia's party now made them repeat as a relaxation from the fatigue of a state visit. Lord Valentia afterwards learnt that on this day there was a great religious festival at which His Highness ought to have assisted and that he was fined several hundred rupees for his absence. This provided a handsome fast for the Brahmans. At night Parvati's temple was covered with lights. On the 20th a little after four, Lord Valentia set off with the usual retinue to pay a visit to the Peshwa at his country house the His Bag. The road was for a considerable distance covered by his Highness' followers, chiefly horsemen, so that it was rather difficult to get to the gates. Fortunately Lord Valentia had a party of sepoys from the lines who joined on the opposite bank of the river, and made way for him. The Hira Bag was prettily placed on the bank of a large lake perfectly irregular in its shape. In the centre of the lake was a small island with a temple. The opposite bank rose into a sugarloaf hill whose top was capped by the white buildings of Parvati's temple. The garden house was insignificant and had never been finished. The garden was fine and was ornamented with several mar go trees and a great number of cocoa palms. The cushion was placed in a veranda opening on a basin of water with fountains and covered by a trellis of vines. Lord Valentia brought His Highness news of the surrender of Chandor fort to the umited army of the British and the Peshwa. His Highness was in great spirits and observed that his father always wished for the friendship of the English but that it had remained for him to reap the blessings of it. The Peshwa then asked Lord Valentia if he would procure for him an
Arab mare and Colonel close assured him that he would try his best. The ceremony at Lord Valentia's entrance was the same as on the former occasion and he was seated in a similar situation. The party soon had notice to move upstairs: the Peshwa passing through a back door, while the guests mounted by a narrow staircase to a platform with two verandas one at each end. In the farther veranda a white cloth was spread with plantain leaves one for each of the English gentlemen present. On each leaf was a Brahman's dinner, rice plain and sweet, pastry thin as paper and rolled up, pastry cakes, bread and peas pudding. Along one side was a row of sweets like paints on a pallet; on the other were seven different kinds of curried vegetables. On one side of the leaf were rice-milk, clarified butter, and some other liquids in small plantain leaf pans, which were all excellent of their kind. The guests had taken the precaution to bring spoons knives and forks which they used actively out of respect to their host who soon joined the party by seating himself on the cushion a little on the outside of the
veranda. When the guests had finished the Peshwa retired and the guests soon followed. After the guests had seated themselves below betel leaf was laid at the Peshwa's feet and served. Lord Valentia's servant had placed himself at the bottom of the line, and was consequently served first. They proceeded upwards till they reached Lord Valentia,
where they stopped. The presents were then brought in again beginning with Lord Valentia's servant. They consisted of a pair of shawls, a piece of brocade, and a piece of cloth; the whole worth about £20 (Rs. 200). There was no visible difference between these and
other presented to Messrs, Young, Sail, Murray, and Smith. The gentlemen of the establishment were totally overlooked. Lord Valentia's presents were then brought forward which consisted of the same articles and a piece of muslin. There were also jewels in a tray: these were put on by the minister which had answered every purpose of a turban, the shirpech, jiggar, and tura looking better on a native dress. All the presents were better than had ever been given on a former occasion, the shawls being new and good ones for this part of India. A horse and elephant were at the door. The horse was a fine animal and in good condition, a most unusual circumstance at Poona. The attar was given to Lord Valentia and Colonel Close by the minister. The box of betel leaf was delivered by His Highness himself. After this was over a sword was given into the Peshwa's hands and by him presented to Lord Valentia. It was handsomely mounted in green and gold and had a very fine blade. The sword was not part of the real gifts of the ceremony and Lord Valentia therefore valued it the more, assured the Peshwa that he would hand it down to his son and his son's son, and kept it by him instead of delivering it to his servants as he had done the trays. The nach girls were the same as on the Peshwa's visit to Lord Valentia. The Peshwa's own dancing girl was rather old but was said to have a fine voice. She was too busy in performing before the deities during that season of festivity the Dasara to attend Lord Valentia and his party. A few compliments passed at taking leave and the Peshwa paid Lord Valentia the unusual compliment of requesting to hear of his welfare. The minister attended the party as far as the end of the carpet and then took his leave. Lord Valentia's party returned through the town which was much larger than he had expected and the market much finer. There were several large houses, three storeys high; the temples were insignificant; the number of wretched objects was small. [Valentia's Travels II 113 -125. The wretched objects refered to by Lord Valentia were the poor famine-stricken people.]
Sir J. Mackintosh,1805-1808
In 1805 Sir James Mackintosh the Recorder or Chief Justice of Bombay went on a visit to Poona. He found the chief streets of the city paved with stone and the city regarded as one of the best built native towns in India. The Peshwa's residence the Saturday Palace or Shanvar Vada (32) from its size well deserved the name of a palace.[Mackintosh's Life I.274.] On the 10th of November 1808 Sir James Mackintosh paid a second visit to Poona. He learnt from Colonel Close the Resident that Poona had a population of about a
hundred thousand. The police was entrusted to a military Brahman of the family of Gokhle who had a large establishment and whose duty was either so easy or so well performed that notwithstanding the frequent meeting of armed men instanes of disorder were rare. [Life, I. 460.] In 1813 a brigade of British troops was stationed at Poona near Garpir (68), a spot originally chosen by General Wellesley to guard the city. In 1816 the unknown author of a Fiteen Years in
India described Poona as of modern build and not of any great extent nor imposing in appearance. The city lay in a garden-like plain with fine mountain scenery in the distance. Covering the city was a hight mountain range with several romantic hill forts in sight and near the city walls was the round and steep Parvati hill. It was well watered by the Mula and Mutha which met near the city. The streets were broader in general than in other native towns and showed vast wealth. The city had several temples but they were modern and not held in great veneration. In point of strength the city was not worth much consideration, but its wealth and its Brahman
government gave it an importance among Maratha states. [Fifteen Years in India, 450-451.] In a letter to Lady Keith (27th November 1816)
Mr. Elphinstone,1816.
Mr. Elphinstone
gives a livelier picture of the sights of Poona, or rather of the part of Poona close to the Sangam. I am writing, he says, in a garden of trees some of which have no names in English and others are among the rarest in your green houses. My room is filled with the smoke of incense burnt before a Hindu god not ten yards from my house, where troops of women come, with music playing before them, to hang garlands, to sacrifice sheep, and to cut off their own hair, which they have vowed to to the divinity. In the same garden there is a very ancient ruined tomb of a Muhammadan female saint, which is a place of such sanctity that an oath taken in it is reckoned sacred, even among the faithless people. I have just heard loud, lamentations over a dead body and I now see a funeral pyre kindling on the banks of a river close at hand, where I have before seen the living consumed with the deal. The mourners are sitting in silence on the ground looking on till it be time to gather up the ashes of their friend. Two large elephants are wallowing in the water at no great distance, and on the road that crosses the river are buffaloes, camels, horsemen with long spears and loose drapery, and foot passengers male and female in dresses of all sorts and colours. At this moment a procession is passing of Muhammadans dressed like Arabs, performing a frantic dance and flourishing their drawn swords in honour of the sons of Alli
of whose martyrdom this is the anniversary. The whole town is ringing with drumming trumpeting and shouting, occasioned by the same festival, and to make the whole still more unlike England the
country round is laid waste by a body of predatory horse, who have made an inroad from beyond the Narbada, and have drive the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages in on the capital. [Cole brooke's Elphinstone, I. 343.] On the 13th of June 1817 the treaty of Poona was drawn up by
Elphinstone and signed by Bajirav Peshwa. [The terms of the treaty of Poona are given in Part II. p. 297.] On the 14th of October Mr, Elphinstone and Bajirav met for the last time. Bajirav spoke of the lose he suffered under the treaty of Poona. Mr. Elphinstone told him that his only chance of regaining the goodwill of the English was to lose no time in sending his troops north to aid the English in putting down the Pendharis. Bajirav assured him that his troops would start as soon as the Dasara was over. Dasara Day fell on the 18th of October. It was the finest military spectacle in Poona since the accession of Bajirav. Every day of the week after Dasara (19th - 25th) became more interesting. By night and day parties of armed men kept flocking into Poona from all sides. The British troops were cantoned to the north of the town in a position originally chosen by General Wellesley for the protection of the city. Gardens and enclosures with high prickly-pear hedges ran in many places within musket-shot of the lines, affording not only every advantage for the attack of the Arabs and irregulars, but, in case of disaffection among the sepoys, every facility to desert. Small parties of horse came out and encamped round the British cantonment, and in a few days more were augmented to large bodies, while a strong body of Gosavi infantry took a position on one of the flanks. The Sangam being at some distance from the cantonment the Vinchurkar's horse with some infantry and guns encamped between the Residency and the village of Bhamburda. Besides these preparations all reports showed that an attack was immediate. The Peshwa was urged to strike before reinforcements could reach Mr. Elphinstone. On the night of the 28th October the guns were yoked, the horses saddled, and the infantry ready to surprise the British lines. Next day (29th October) Mr. Elphinstone complained to the Peshwa of the crowding of the Maratha troops on the British lines. At four in the afternoon of the 30th of October the European regiment, after great exertions, reached the cantonment. With the exception of 250 men left to guard the residency, Mr. Elphinstone, on the 1st of Nov. moved the troops to a good position at Kirkee four miles north of Poona. The British cantonment was plundered and events culminated on the 5th of November 1817 in the battle of Kirkee when 2800 British troops signally defeated a Maratha host of 33,000.[Details of the battle of Kirkee are given above pp. 374 - 381.] The residency was sacked and burnt on this day, and all Mr. Elphinstone's property, manuscripts, and oriental curiosities, valued at upwards of £8000 (Rs. 80,000), were either plundered or consumed. Poona city, left with only a small garrison, was surrendered on the 17th of November and the British flag was hoisted on the palace under a royal salute. [Fifteen Years in India, 486.] The greatest care was taken to protect the town people and order and peace were soon established. [Many outrageous acts on British officers and soldiers had raised indignation to the highest pitch and Mr. Elphinstone and General Smith found it very difficult, almost impossible, to save Poona from the sack for which the soldiery were eager. The British banker successfully solicited protection for the bankers and merchants,and
guards were also posted at the chief public offices and the Peshwa's palace, Some
trifling excesses were committed in the suburbs, but the city suffered no injury
and the loss of property was insignificant. Considering all circumstances the for-bearance of the troops deserved high praise. Colebrookes Elphinstone,
I. 4,] But many of
the people especially jewellers and pearl merchants, who had fled to Sinhgad,
suffered. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 655; Fifteen Years in India, 490.] Details of Artillery and Pioneers, one regiment of Light Cavalry, one European regiment, and three battalions of Bombay Native Infantry, were placed in the city and cantonment.
[Blacker's Maratha War, 315-16.] In 1819 Mr. Elphinstone detected a conspiracy in Poona in which men of desperate fortunes, some of them Brahmans, took a lead. The object of the conspiracy was to murder the Europeans at Poona and Satara, to surprise the chief forts, and to take hold of the person of the Satara Raja. Mr. Elphinstone met the conspiracy with promptitude and ordered the ringleaders to be blown from guns remarking ' that the punishment contained two valuable elements of capital punishment,it
was painless to the criminal and terrible to the beholder' [ Colebropke's Elphinstone, II 74 75,]
Capt. Robertson, 1821-1825.
Captain Robertson the first Collector of Poona writes ' the fall of the
Peshwa was a great loss to Poona. Into the city had flowed large sums not only from the tributary states but also from the surrounding districts. Though Bajirav himself was fond of hoarding his money, among his courtiers and his military oflicers there were many who received large sums in bribes and freely spent what they made. The stoppage of war over the whole of India closed to the bankers their favourite and most profitable investments and there were no other channels into which their wealth could be tumed. With the end of the gaiety and richness of Bajirav's court the demand for the rich; silks and tissues of gold, which had vied with the produce of Paithan, ceased, and the dealers and weavers were impoverished. The poorer of the mutsaddis suffered severely. Some moved to smaller towns where living was cheaper, others took to husbandry or retired to their homes in the Konkan, others entered Government service; about twenty-five of them were employed in mamlatdars' office, and at the civil court. A considerable number (about 600 in all), of whom about 400 were Musalmans and 200 Marathas, men to indolent habits who refused all work but fighting went idly about Poona, and lived in brothels and were often indebted for a meal to the keepers of brothels,[ 10th October 1821; East India Papers, IV. 588, 594.] others continued to hang about in the city for years, hoping for-military service, and their growing poverty was turned to distress by the high prices of grain which followed the years of scanty rainfall ending in 1825. In 1825 instead of its old bustle and gaiety the city presented the tameness of poverty; the people led aimless idle lives without employment and without an object. Scarcely a horse passed along the listless streets which were empty except for starving tailors and better fed butter dealers.[1st February 1825; Bom. Gov. Rev. Rec. 117 of 1825, 533 - 534]
Hamilton, 1820.
In 1820 according to Hamilton, Poona had a population of 150,000. It covered probably not more than two square miles, was
Bishop Heber,1825 indifferently built and wholly open and defence less, more like a large
village than a city. [Hamilton's Description of Hindustan, 196.]
Bishop Heber, 1825.
In 1825 (27th June) Bishop Heber describes
Poona as lying in the centre of an extensive plain, about 2000 feet
above the sea, surrounded by singularly scarped trap hills from 1500
to 2000 feet higher. The plain was very bare of trees, and though
there were some gardens close to the city, they were not sufficient to
interrupt the nakedness of the picture, any more than the few young
trees and ornamental shrubs of the cantonment. The most pleasing
feature was the small insulated hill of Parvati. The city was far
from handsome and of no great apparent size, though it was said to
have a population of 100,000. It was without walls or fort, it was
irregularly built and paved, with mean bazars, it had deep ruinous
streets interspersed with pipal trees and many small but no large or
striking temples, and as few traces as can well be conceived of having
been so lately the residence of a powerful sovereign. Bishop Heber
found the chief palace large with a handsome quadrangle surrounded
by cloisters of carved wooden pillars. Externally it was mean, as
were also the smaller residences which were whimsically known by
the names, of the week. The ground floor of the chief palace was used
as a prison, and the upper storey as a dispensary and an insane
hospital. [Journal, II, 208 209.]
Jacquemont, 1832.
In 1832 the French traveller and botanist Jacquemont, a sharp
but ill-tempered observer, described Poona as a large city very dirty
and ill built. Nothing bore witness to its former greatness. Of the 50,000 inhabitants only a few were Musalmans. There were very many Brahmans, and many temples but none remarkable. The Brahmans lived almost all as priests and beggars, very few went into the army. The population was much mixed with
Konkanis Gujaratis and Deccanis, and there were Marwari merchants and Bohoras. There were no Parsis in the city, but Parsis had a monopoly of the market in the camp. The people were small and very black, their features had none of the classic regularity of Hindustan, but they were shrewd and sharp, the expression hard but not unpleasant. The lowest classes wore a narrow girdle and a black or red turban. The better-off had a waistcloth or an open shirt. Each caste had a different form of headdress generally ungraceful, coming low in front and behind and high over the ear so as to show the earrings. Almost all women wore silver toerings and had their arms covered with silver, copper, ivory, or lacquered bracelets. The people lived on rice, wheat, and the flour of grains. Wood was extremely rare and dear and the dung of cows as well as of horses was the universal fuel. The streets were very dirty, and in the morning were thronged with men and women. On Parvati, near the temple, were the ruins of the Peshwa's palace, and great mango groves stretched at the foot of Parvati towards the Mutha and surrounded the city to the south. But the trees were wretched and vegetation had no strength except on the river side. From the hill top Poona looked a mixture of huts and trees such as pipals, bors, and babhuls, with a few cocoanuts. There were two wooden bridges, one built by the Marathas and the other by the English. [Voyage Dans 1' Inde, III. 554.]
1832-1884.
During the fifty years since 1832 Poona has advanced more
perhaps than any of the leading towns of this presidency except
Bombay. No notices or details regarding the city have been traced,
but from what is known of the former condition of the district it
probably made no rapid progress before 1850. During the 1857
mutinies there were signs of disloyalty and sedition, but the strong
body of European troops prevented any attempt at an outbreak.
Since the opening of the railway in 1860 the trade and prosperity
of Poona has rapidly increased. The making of the railway, the
American war, and the building of the barracks, and most of the
leading public buildings between 1860 and 1870, added very greatly
to the wealth of the city. This was followed by a time of depression
which was at its height during the 1876-77 famine. Even during
the famine many classes of townspeople shared in the profits which
were made in the great trade in grain. In 1879 the opening of the
Khadakvasla water works rapidly restored those of the lundholding
classes who had suffered from the famine, and has turned into gardens large tracts round the city which were formerly bare waste. In 1879
(May 13) Poona was disturbed by the burning of the Budhvar palace and the attempt to burn the Vishrambag palace. Both fires
were the work of incendiaries, and seem to have been prompted by a
wish to cause loss and annoyance to Government and to increase the
feelings of uneasiness which the gang robberies carried on by the
openly disloyal Vasudev Balvant Phadke had caused. Since 1879 the
progress of the city has been steady. The making of the West
Deccan Railway, though it may deprive Poona of some of its present
branches of trade, will do much to enrich it and to increase its importance as the chief trade centre in the Bombay Deccan. The growth
of Poona is shown in the increase in the number of its people. The
total in 1851 was 73,219. By 1872 this had risen to 90,436, and to
99,421 in 1881.
