Early History.

THANA history may be divided into four periods, an early Hindu period partly mythic and partly historic, coming down to about A.D. 1300; a Musalman period lasting from 1300 to about 1660; a Maratha period from 1660 to 1800; and a British period since 1800. The chief interest in the history of the Thana coast is that, with comparatively few and short breaks, some one of its ports, Sopara, Chaul, Kalyan, Thana, Sanjan, or Bombay, has, from pre-historic times, taken a leading part in the foreign commerce of Western India. From pre-historic times the Thana coast has had relations with lands beyond the Indian Ocean. From B.C. 2500 to B.C. 500 there are signs of trade with Egypt, Phoenicia, and Babylon; from B.C. 250 to A.D. 250 there are dealings with, perhaps settlements of, Greeks and Parthians; from A.D. 250 to A.D. 640 there are Persian alliances and Persian settlements; from A.D. 700 to A.D. 1200 there are Musalman trade relations and Musalman settlements from Arabia and Persia; in 1530 there is the part conquest by the Portuguese; and in 1664 the settlement of the British. The share of the Hindus in these dealings with foreigners has by no means been con fined to providing in India valued articles of trade. As far back as record remains, for courage and enterprise, as traders, settlers, and travellers both by land and by sea, the Hindus hold a high place among the dwellers on the shores of the Indian Ocean. [Of the Hindu share in the early navigation of the Indian Ocean a notice is given in Appendix A. Authorities in favour of early Hindu settlements on the coasts of Arabia and the Persian Gulf are cited in footnote 3 p. 404. The following instances, taken from one of Wilford's Essays (As. Res. X. 106', 107), point to a still wider distribution of the early Hindus; at the same time the vague use of India and Indians among Greek and Roman writers makes the application of some of these references to Hindus somewhat doubtful. Wilford notices Hindu seers in Persia and in Palestine 700 years before Christ; Hindus in the army of Xerxes B.C. 480; Hindu elephant-drivers among the Carthaginians B.C. 300, and among the Romans B.C. Hindu male and female servants in Greece; and Hindu merchants in Germany (B.C, 60), perhaps in England.]

The openings through the Sahyadris by the Tal, the Nana, the Malsej, and the Bor passes, have from the beginning of local history (B.C. 225) caused trade to centre in the Thana ports. During these two thousand years the trade of the Thana ports, from time to time, has varied from a great foreign commerce to a local traffic. The trade has risen to foreign commerce when the Thana coast has been under a power which ruled both the Konkan and the Deccan; it has shrunk to a local traffic when Thana and the Deccan have been under different rulers.

Ashok's Edict, B.C. 225.

The earliest known fact in the history of the Thana coast belongs to the third century before Christ (B.C. 225). It is the engraving of Ashok's edicts on basalt boulders at Sopara about six miles north of Bassein. Sopara must then have been the capital of the country and probably a centre of trade. The history of Sopara may doubtfully be traced to much earlier times. According to Buddhist writings Sopara was a royal seat and a great centre of commerce during the lifetime of Gautama Buddha (B.C. 540) [Burnouf's Introduction, A PHistoire du Buddhisme Indien, I. 235-270.] But the story is legendary, or at least partly legendary, and there is no reason to suppose that Gautama ever left Northern India. A passage in the Mahabharat describes Arjun stopping at the most holy Shurparak on his way to Somnath Pattan or Veraval in South Kathiawar, and gives an account of Arjun's visit to a place full of Brahman temples, apparently at or near the Kanheri Caves. [Mahabhrata (Bom. Ed.), Vanaparva, cap. 118. This passage may be an interpolation. By passages such as these the revivers of Brahmanism (A.D. 600-1000) effaced the memory of Buddhism. The Buddhist cave temples became the work of the Pandavs, and the two colossal rock-cut Buddhas in the great Kanheri cave became statues of Bhim the giant Paudav. At the same time the story of Purna given below (p. 406) seems to show that Kanheri was a Brahmanic centre before it became Buddhist.]

This early Buddhist and Brahman fame, and the resemblance of the name to Sofer or Ophir, have raised the belief that Sopara is Solomon's Ophir, a famous centre of trade about a thousand years before Christ. This identification leads back to the still earlier trade between Egypt and the holy land of Punt (B.C. 2500-1600); and this to the pre-historic traffic from the Thana coast to Persia, Arabia, and Africa. [Vincent (Commerce of the Ancients, II. 45,281, 423), Heeren (Hist. Res, III. 408), and Reinaud (Abu-I-fida, clxxiv. and Memoir Sur. I'Inde, 221) hold, that by the help of the regular winds Hindus and Arabs have from pre-historic times traded from West India to Arabia, Africa, and Persia. This belief is supported by the mention in Genesis (B.C. 1700, cap. xxviii.) of Arabs trafficking in Indian spices; by the early use of Indian articles among the Egyptians (Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, Popular Edition, II. 237; Rawlinson's Herodotus, II. G4, 275; Mrs. Manning's Ancient India, II. 349; Lassen's Ind. Alt. II. 602, Ed. 1874; J. Madras Lit. and Scien. 1878, 202); and, according to Wilford (As. Res. X. 100), and Lassen by the Hindu colonization of Socotra and of the east coast of Arabia. It is also supported by the mention in later times B.C. 200; Ind. Alt. II. 586) of settlements of Aden Arabs on the Indian coast and of colonists in Socotra who traded with India (Agathareides, B.C. 177, in Vincent, II. 38 and Geog Vet. Scrip. I. 66); by the Arab form of Pliny's (A.D. 77) Zizerus or Jazra and of Ptolemy's (A.D. 150) Melizygerus on the Konkan coast; by the correspondence of Sefareh-el-Hende and Sefareh-el-Zinge, that is Sofala or Sopara in Thana and Sofala in Africa (Vincent, II. 281, 422); and by the statement in the Periplus (Vincent, II. 423) that the trade between India, Africa, and Arabia was much older than the time of the Greeks.

Whether the early Egyptians traded to the west coast of India is doubtful. The holy land of Punt, to which as far back as B.C. 2500 the Egyptian king Sankh-ha-ra sent an expedition, was formerly (Campolion's L'Egypte, I. 98) supposed to be India, but later writers place it nearer Egypt; Brugsch (Egypt Under the Pharoahs, I. 114) on the Somali coast; and Duncker (History of Antiquity, I. 150 157. 314) in South Arabia. As early as B.C. 1600 the Egyptians had many India, products, agates, hoematite, the lotus, indigo, pepper, cardamoms, ginger, cinnamon, and Indian muslins (Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, Pop. Ed., II. 237; Rawlinson's Herodotus, II. 64, 168, 173,275); but it is doubtful whether they traded direct to India.

Of the Phoenician connection with Ophir or Sopher (B.C. 1100-850), details are given under Sopara. The chief exports from Ophir were gold, tin, sandalwood, cotton, nard, bdellium, sugar, cassia or cinnamon, pepper, peacocks, apes, rice, ebony, and ivory (Max Muller's Science of Language, 190; Caldwell's Dravidian Grammar, 92). The imports were probably wine, slaves, clay and metal dishes, ornaments, arms, fish-purple, glass, silver, and embroidered and woven stuffs (Duncker, II. 70, 72, 73, 284-291, 306).

The connection between India and the Persian Gulf seems to pass even further back thau the connection with Arabia and with Africa. The voyage is shorter, sailing in the Persian Gulf is easier, and the inland route is less barren. Babylonian tradition opens with a reference to a race who came from the southern sea, a people who brought the Babylonians their gods, and who taught them the arts. According to one account these teachers came from Egypt; according to another account the chief teacher was Andubar the Indian (Heeren's Historical Researches, II. 145; Eawlinson in J. R. A. S. [New Series] XII. 201-208, 218).. Rawlinson holds that from very early times, Gerrha, on the mainland does to Bahrein island on the west shore of the gulf, was an emporium of the Indian trade, and identifies Apir an old name for Gerrha with Solomon's Ophir (Ditto, 214). The original traders seem to have been Phoenicians, who, according to ancient accounts, moved from Bahrein north-west to the Mediterranean coast (Rawlinson's Herodotus, IV. 241; Lassen's Ind. Alt. II. 589; Rawlinson J, R. A. S. XII. N. S. 219).

The head of the Persian Gulf seems also from very early times to have been connected by trade with India. In the ninth century before Christ, Isaiah (xliii. 14) described the Babylonians as rejoicing in their ships, and, at the close of the seventh century, Nebuchadnezar (B.c. 606-561) built quays and embankments of solid masonry on the Persian Gulf, and traded with Ceylon and Western India (Rawlinson's Herod I. 513; Heeren, II. 415-417), sending to India fabrics of wool and linen, pottery, glass, jewels, lime, and ointment, and bringing back wood, spices, ivory, ebony, precious stones, cochineal, pearls, and gold. (Heeren's Historical Researches, II. 209, 247 ; Duncker, I. 305). In the sixth century before Christ the men of Dedan or Bahrein brought ebony and ivory to Tyre (B.C. 588; Ezekiel, xxvii. 15).

The Persians (B.C. 538-330) despised trade and seem to have blocked the mouths of the Tigris (Lassen's Ind. Alt. II. 606; Rooke's Arrian, II. 149; Heeren, II. 247-249) and in India a trade-hating, class rose to power and introduced into Manu's Code (B.C. 300) a rule making seafaring a crime (Ind. Ant. IV 138). This clause is contrary to other provisions of the code (Heeren's Hist. Res. III. 349, 350, 359) and to the respect with which merchants are spoken of in the Rigved and the Ramayan, and in later times by the Buddhists. (For the vigour of Hindu trade in early Vedic and Ramayan times, see Wilson's Rigved, I. 152; Lassen's Ind. Alt. II. 581; Mrs. Manning's Ancient India, II. 347; Caldwell's Dravidian Grammar, 122,' Heeren's Hist. Res. III. 353, 366, 381. For the Buddhist respect for merchants, see Burnouf's Introduction, 250; Rhys Davids' Buddhist Birth Stories, I. 138,149, 157; and Mrs. Manning, II. 354). This Brahman and Persian hate of trade, especially of trade by sea, perhaps explains the decay of foreign commerce before the time of Alexander the Great (B.C. 325). In spite of all his inquiries in Sindh, and in spite of the voyage of Nearchus from Karachi to the Persian Gulf, one vessel, laden with frankincense, seems to have been the only sign of sea-trade at the mouths of the Indus, in the Persian Gulf or along the east coast of Arabia. Rooke's Arrian, II. 262, 282, 285; Vincent, II. 380. The Buddhists (perhaps about B.C. 250) are mentioned as increasing the trade to Persia (Ind. Ant. II. 147). In the second and first-century before Christ the old Bahrein trade revived, Gerrha on the mainland having much trade with India (Heeren, II. 100, 103, 118, 124-125). Among the chief imports were cotton and teak. These were supposed to grow at Bahrein, but almost certainly came from India (Heeren, II. 237-239).]

Buddhism.

The question of the identification of Sopara with Solomon's Ophir is discussed in the account of Sopara given under Places of Interest. As far as information goes, the identification, though not unlikely, is doubtful, and the carving of Ashok's edicts (B.C. 225) remains the earliest known fact in the history of the Thana coast. The Mahawanso mentions that Ashok sent Dharmarakshita, a Yavan or Greek, to preach Buddhism in Aparanta or the Konkan, and that he lectured to 70,000 people, of whom 1000 men and more than 1000 women, all of them Kshatriyas, entered the priesthood. [Turnour's Mahawanso, 73; Bigaadet's Life of Gaudama, 388; Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, 117.] It is not known whether at the time of the mission the Konkan formed part of Ashok's empire, or was under a friendly ruler. [Apparently Ashok addressed his edicts to countries where he did not rule. One copy of the edicts was addressed to the people of Chola, Pida, Kerala, and Tambapani. Tennent's Ceylon, I. 368]

Legend of Purna.

The Buddhist legend of Purna of Sopara belongs, in its present form, to the late or Mahayan School of Buddhism (A.D. 100-400), and is so full or wonders that it is probably not earlier than the third or fourth century after Christ. Its descriptions cannot be taken to apply to any particular date. They are given here as they profess to describe the introduction of Buddhism and the state of Sopara at that time, and as several of the particulars agree with recent discoveries near Sopara.

In the legend of Purna, translated by Burnouf from Nepalese and Tibetan sources apparently of the third or fourth century after Christ, [The wonders' worked by Buddha and the furniture of the monasteries, seats tapestries figured cushions and carved pedestals, point to a late date.] Sopara is described as the seat of a king, a city with several hundred thousand inhabitants, with eighteen gates and a temple of Buddha adorned with friezes of carved sandalwood. It covered a space 1000 yards in area, and its buildings and towers rose to a height of 500 feet. It was a great place of trade. Caravans of merchants came from Shrawasti near Benares, and large ships with '500' (the stock phrase for a large number) merchants, both local and foreign, traded to distant lands. There was much risk in these voyages. A safe return was the cause of great rejoicing; two or three successful voyages made a merchant a man of mark; no one who had made six safe voyages had ever been known to tempt Providence by trying a seventh. The trade was in cloth, fine and coarse, blue yellow red and white. One of the most valued articles was the sandalwood known as goshirsh or cow's head, perhaps from the shape of the logs. This was brought apparently from the Kanarese or Malabar coast. The coinage was gold and many of the merchants had great fortunes. A strong merchant guild ruled the trade of the city. [Trading companies are mentioned in Vajnaralkya's Code, B.C. 300. Oppert in Madras Journal (1878), 194.]

At this time the religion of the country was Brahmanism. There were large nunneries of religious widows, monasteries where seers or rishis lived in comfort in fruit and flower gardens, and bark-clad hermits who lived on bare hill-tops. The gods on whom the laymen called in times of trouble were Shiv, Varuna, Kubera, Shakra, Brahma, Hari, Shankar, and divinities, apparently matas or Devis. Besides the gods many supernatural beings, Asuras, Mahoragas, Yakshas, and Danavs were believed to have power over men for good or for evil. [Burnouf; 256, 264.]

Purna, the son of a rich Sopara merchant and a slave girl, whose worth and skill had raised him to be one of the leading merchants of Sopara, turned the people of the Konkan from this old faith to Buddhism. [It is interesting to note that, though at first despised as the son of a slave girl, when Purna proved himself able and successful, the merchants of Sopara sought him in marriage for their daughters. Burnouf, 249.] Sailing with some Benares merchants to the land of the sandal tree, Purna was delighted by the strange songs which they chanted morning and evening. They were not songs, the merchants told him, but the holy sayings of Buddha. On his return to Sopara Purna gave up his merchant's life and went to Benares, where Gautama received him into the Buddhist priesthood. He urged that he might be allowed to preach to the people of the Konkan. [The word used is Shron-Aparanta or Sunaparanta. Aparanta, the behind or western land, is admitted to be the Konkan. The following suggestion is offered in explanation of Shron. The fact of a Greek or Yavan element in the coast population seems probable, from the Greek trade with the country, from the mention of Yavans in several of the West Indian cave inscriptions, and from the fact that the Apostle whom Ashok chose to preach Buddhism in the Konkan, and his viceroy in Kathiawar (Ind. Ant. VII. 257), were Yavans. Shron may then be Son or Sonag, a word for Yavan still in use in Southern India (Caldwell's Dravidian Grammar, 5), and of which Son the name for the coast and part-foreign Kolis of Thana may be a trace. Hardy (Manual of Buddhism, Sec. Ed. 215,536) seems to think Son was a later name, and that the correct form was Yon and is connected with Hun.] The people of the Konkan had the worst name for fierceness, rudeness, and cruelty. Buddha feared that the patience of so young a disciple might not be proof against their insults. Purna, he said, the men of the Konkan are fierce, cruel, and unmannerly. When they cover you with evil and coarse abuse, what will you think of them? If the men of the Konkan cover me with evil and coarse abuse, I shall think them a kindly and gentle people for abusing me instead of cuffing or stoning me. They are rough overbearing fellows those men of the Konkan. What will you think of them, Purna, if they cuff you or stone you? If they cuff me or stone me, I shall think them kindly and gentle for using hands and stones instead of staves and swords. They are a rough set, Purna, those men of the Konkan. If they beat you with staves and cut you with swords, what will you think of them? If they beat me with staves or cut me with swords, I shall think them a kindly people for not killing me outright. They are a wild people, Purna, if they kill you outright what will you think of them? If they kill me outright, I shall think the men of the Konkan kindly and gentle, freeing me with so little pain from this miserable body of death. Good, Purna, good, so perfect a patience is fit to dwell in the Konkan, even to make it its home. Go Purna, freed from evil free others, safe over the sea of sorrow help others to cross, comforted give comfort, in perfect rest guide others to rest. [Burnouf's Introduction, 254.]

Purna goes to the Konkan, and, while he wanders about begging, he is met by a countryman who is starting to shoot deer. The hunter sees the ill-omened shaven-faeed priest, and draws his bow to shoot him. Purna throws off his outer robe and calls to the hunter, 'Shoot, I have come to the Konkan to be a sacrifice.' The hunter, struck by his freedom from fear, spares his life and becomes his disciple. The new religion spreads. Many men and women adopt a religious life, and '500' monasteries are built and furnished with hundreds of beds, seats, tapestries, figured cushions, and carved pedestals.

Purna becomes famous. A body of merchants in danger of shipwreck call on him for help, and he appears and stills the storm. On their return the merchants build a Buddhist temple in Sopara. Purna asks Buddha to honour the temple with his presence. He comes, with his chief disciples, flying through the air. On his way, apparently near Sopara, he stops at several places. At one of these places live '500' widows, whom Buddha visits and converts. In answer to their prayer he gives them some of his hair and his nails, and they build a mound or stupa over them. The spirit of the Jetvan wood, who had come with Buddha from Benares, plants a branch of the vakul or Mimusops elengi tree in the yard near the stupa, and the stupa is worshipped, by some under the name of the Widows' Stupa, and by others under the name of the Vakul stupa. This second name is interesting from its resemblance to the Vakal or Brahma Tekri, a holy hill about a mile to the south of Sopara, which is covered with tombs and has several Pali inscriptions of about the second century before Christ.

Accompanied by the '500' widows Buddha visited another hermitage full of flowers, fruit, and water, where lived '500' monks. Drunk with the good things of this life these seers or rishis thought of nothing beyond. Buddha destroyed the flowers and fruit, dried the water, and withered the grass. The seers in despair blamed Bhagavat for ruining their happy life. By another exercise of power, he brought back their bloom to the wasted fruits and flowers, and its greenness to the withered grass. The seers became his disciples, and with the '500' widows of Vakul passed with Buddha, through the air, to the hill of Musala. On Musala hill there lived a seer or rishi, who was known as Vakkali or the bark-robe wearer. This rishi saw Buddha afar off, and, on seeing him, there rose in his heart a feeling of goodwill. He thought to himself, shall I come down from this hill and go to meet Buddha, for he doubtless is coming here intending to convert me. Why should not I throw myself from the top of this hill? The seer threw himself over the cliff, and Buddha caught him, so that he received no hurt. He was taught the law and became a disciple, gaining the highest place in his master's trust. This passage has the special interest of apparently referring to the sage Musala, who lived on the top of Padan rock near Goregaon station, about eighteen miles south of Sopara. [Details are given in Places of Interest, Ghoregaon, and Appendix, Padan.] From the Musala rock Buddha went to Sopara, which had been cleaned and beautified, and a guard stationed at each of its eighteen gates. Fearing to offend the rest by choosing any one guard as his escort, Buddha flew through the air into the middle of the city. He was escorted to the new temple adorned with friezes of carved sandalwood, where he taught the law and converted 'hundreds of thousands.' While in Sopara Buddha became aware of the approach of the Naga kings Krishna and Gautama. They came on the waves of the sea with '500,' Nagas. Buddha knew that if the Nagas entered Sopara the city would be destroyed. So he went to meet them, and converted them to his faith. [Burnouf's Introduction, A l'Histoire du Baddhisme Indien, 234-275. Purna rose to the highest rank. He became a Bodhisattva or potential Buddha, and in future times will appear as Buddha, Perhaps, but this is doubtful, he is Maitreya or the next Buddha (see Appendix to Places of Interest). Purna's story is given with much the same details as by Burnouf in Hardy's Manual of Buddhism, 58, 267, and in St. Hilaire's Buddhism, 152-154.]

Craftsmen, A.D. 160.

The relics found in the Sopara mound show, that in the second century after Christ Sopara had workers of considerable skill and taste. The bricks are of excellent material and the large stone coffer is carefully made, the lines are clear and exact, and the surface is skilfully smoothed. The crystal casket is also prettily shaped and highly finished. The brass gods are excellent castings, sharper and truer than modern Hindu brassware. The skill of the gold and silver smiths is shown in the finely stamped silver coin, in the variety and grate of the gold flowers, and in the shape and tracery of the small central gold casket.

Short Pali inscriptions found on the Vakal or Brahma hill, about two miles south of Sopara, seem to show that about B.C. 200 the tribe of the Kodas or Kottas, who seem about that time to have been ruling near Mirat and afterwards (A.D. 190) near Patna, had a settlement at Sopara. [Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji gives the following note on the Kodas or Kottas. The inscriptions found on the Brahma hill seem all to belong to Kodas (Sk. Kottas), and the hill apparently was their burial-ground. One of the inscriptions roads, ' Of Kalavada a Koda.' A coin from Saharanpur near Mirat has Kadasa, that is 'Of Kada,' on both sides, in letters which closely resemble the Vakal hill letters. Skandagupta's inscription on the Allahabad pillar, in A.D. 190, states that, while playing in Pushpavhaya (Pataliputra or Patna), he punished a scion of the Koda family.

The Kods are one of many historical tribes whose names survive in Maratha surnames. In Kelva-Mahim there are twenty or thirty houses of Kods who are husbandmen, holding a lower position than Marathas or Kunbis, about the same as Kolis, and. higher than Varlis. They eat animal food except beef, burn their dead, and do not differ in their customs from other Thana Kunbis or Marathas. They do not marry with any caste except their own. They are also found in Nasik. A miserable remnant of the same tribe, or of a tribe of the same name, also occurs on the Nilgiri hills. They number about 1100, are rude craftsmen, very dirty in their habits, and much avoided. They speak a rude Kanarese. Caldwell's Dravidian Grammar, Int. 37, App. 512. There were Kotta chiefs in Ceylon in 1527, but Kottah seems to have been the name of their town. Tennent's Ceylon, II. 11. Kods seem to be also a Telugu tribe. Further details are given under Places of Interest, Sopara, p. 325 and in the Appendix.]

Under Ashok the west coast of India was enriched by the opening of a direct sea-trade with Egypt, and apparently eastwards with the great Deccan trade centre of Tagara. But the direct trade with Egypt was never large, and it centred at Broach, not at Sopara. [Duncker's Ancient History, IV. 528; Wilford in As. Res. I. 369, Grant Duffs Marathas, 11. The second Ptolemy Philadelphus (B.C. 270) made a harbour in the east of Egypt, and joined it with Coptus on the Kile near Thebes. Lassen's Ind. Alt. II. 594. "The Egyptian ships started from Berenike about half way down the Red Sea, passed by Mocha and Aden, coasted eastern Arabia, crossed the mouth of the Persian Gulf to near Karachi, and from Karachi sailed down the Indian coast. Chambers' Ancient History, 269. Gold and silver plate and female slaves are noted among the imports from Egypt. The direct trade to Egypt was never great. By the second century before Christ the trade between Egypt and India centred in Aden. Agatharcides in Vincent, II. 33.]

Andhrabhrityas.

The next dynasty known to have been connected with the Thana coast are the Shatakarnis, Shatavahans, or Andhrabhrityas, whose inscription in the Nana pass makes it probable that they held the Konkan about B.C. 100. [The Shatakarnis are supposed to have had their original capital at Dharnikot in Gantur near the mouth of the Krishna, and to be the Androi of Pliny (A.D. 77) and of the Peutinger Tables (A.D. 100). They are said to be the first Telugus who admitted a Sanskrit element into their language. Muir's Sanskrit Texts, II. 438. They are described in early Hindu writings as a border tribe (Ditto, I. 358) and as Dasyus of Kshatriya descent (Ditto, II. 422). Their Puranic name, Andhrabhrityas or Andhra servants, is supposed to be a trace of an original dependence on the Mauryas. The date of their rise to power is doubtful, because of the difficulty of deciding whether the dynasties recorded in the Purans as succeeding the Mauryas followed each other, or ruled at the same time in different parts of India.] During their rule the Konkan was enriched by the great development of the western trade, which followed the establishment of the Parthian empire under Mithridates I. (B.C. 174-136) and the Roman conquest of Egypt in B.C. 30. [Strabo (B.C. 25) in Vincent, II. 86.] Under the Romans the direct trade between Egypt and India gained an importance it never had under the Ptolemies.

Foreign Trade, B.C. 25. A.D. 150.

In a few years (B.C. 25) the Indian fleet in the Red Sea increased from a few ships to 120 sail. The Romans seem to have kept to the old Egyptian coasting route across the Persian Gulf to Karachi, till Hippalus discovered the monsoons about A.D. 47. The monsoon was first used to carry ships to Zizerus (Janjira?) and afterwards to Musiris, probably Muriyi-Kotta on the Malabar coast. [Caldwell's Dravidian Grammar, 97.] The Roman passion for spices probably made the Malabar trade the more important branch. [There was a street of spice shops in Borne in the time of Augustus (B.C. 36-A.D. 17), and Nero is said to have used a whole year's crop at the funeral of Popaea. Robertson's India, 56-57. Heeren's As. Ees. II. Ap. ix. 455. According to Pliny, India drained Rome of £1,400,000 (Sesterces 550,000,000) a year (Hist. Nat. XII. 18). Vincent (II. 48) calculates the amount at £800,000.] But the trade to the Konkan was in Some ways more convenient than to Malabar, [If you are going to Broach, says the Periplus (McCrindle, 138), you are not kept more than three days at the mouth of the Red Sea. If you are going to the Malabar coast, you must often change your tack.] and there was a well-known route along the Arab coast to Fartak Point, and from Fartak Point across to the Konkan. [According to Pliny (A.D. 79) the practice of ships engaged in the Indian trade was to start from Muos Hormus, at the mouth of the gulf of Suez, about the beginning of July, and slip about 250 miles down the coast to Berenike in the modern Foul Bay. To load at Berenike and sail thirty days to Okellis the modern Ghalla or Cella a little north of Guardafui. From Ghalla to coast along east Arabia to near Cape Fartak, and, in about forty days make the Konkan, near the end of September. To stay in the Konkan till the middle of December or the middle of January, reach the Arab or the African coast in about a month, wait at Aden or some other port till about March when the south wind set in, and then to make for Berenike. To unload at Berenike and pass on to Muos Hormus at the mouth of the gulf of Suez. Vincent's Commerce, II. 319, 474. Pliny's Natural History, Bk. VI. ch. XXIII.] It is doubtful which of the Konkan ports was the centre of the Egyptian trade; the references seem to point to Simulla or Chaul and to Zizerus, perhaps Janjira or Rajapuri. [Pliny (A.D. 77) has (McCrindle's Megasthenes, 142) a Perimula, a cape and trade centre about half way between Tropina or Kochin and Ratala or Haidarabad in Sindh. This position answers to Symulla or Timulla, that is probably Cbaul (compare Yule in Ind. Ant. II. 96). Zizerus Pliny's other mart on the Konkan coast seems to be Jazra or Janjira. But this again is made doubtful by the forms Milizegeris and Melizeigara which appear in the better informed Ptolemy and Periplus.]

Little is known about Parthian rule in Persia (B.C. 255 A.D. 235). They are said to hate been averse from sea-going and opposed to commerce. [Heeren's As. Res. II. Ap. IX. 445; Lassen's Ind. Alt. III. 76 (Ed. 1858).] But, according to Reinaud, under the Arsacidae or Parthian dynasty the Persians took a great part in oriental navigation. [Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, lxxvii.] There was a considerable Indian trade up the Persian Gulf and by land to Palmyra, and it seems to have been under Parthian influence that the Persians overcame their horror of the sea and rose to be the greatest sea-traders in the east. [See Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, lxxvii. The Parthians sent silk and spices to Rome. Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, VI, 425. The men of Gerrha on the west coast, of the Persian Gulf received cotton, spices, and other Indian articles, and sent them partly up the Euphrates and partly on camels across Arabia to Palmyra. This traffic is noticed by Agatharcides, B.C. 177, Strabo B.C. 30, and Pliny A.D. 70, and in the Periplus A.D. 247. Vincent's Commerce, II. 361-362. Pliny has several references to Parthian trade and riches. Bk. V. ch. XXV.; Bk. VI. ch. XXV. and XXVII.] The trade connection between the Thana coast and the Parthian rulers in the Persian Gulf has a special interest at this period, as, in the latter part of the first century after Christ, the Shatakarnis or Andhras were driven from the Konkan and North Deccan by foreigners, apparently Skythians or Parthians from North India.

Nahapan, A.D. 78.

The leaders of these foreigners were Nahapan and his son-in-law Ushavdat, who, under Nahapan, seems to have been governor of the Konkan and of the North Deccan. Nahapan seems at first to have been the general of a greater ruler in Upper India. He afterwards made himself independent and was the founder of the Kshatraps, a Persian title meaning representative, agent, or viceroy. This dynasty, which is also called the Sinh dynasty, ruled in Kathiawar from A.D. 78 to A.D. 328. [According to Rawlinson (Anc. Mon. VI. 23), the oldest form of the Parthians' name is Parthwa. The early Hindu form is Parada, and the Paradas seem to have been known to Hindus as rulers in Merv and Beluchistan, and to have been closely connected with Hindus, as far back as B.C. 500. Lassen's Ind. Alt. 111. 593. Though they had Arian and Persian names, and affected Persian habits and liked to be thought Persians, Rawlinson considers that the Parthians were of Skythian or Turanian origin. Rawlinson's Anc. Mon. VI. 21-28. Besides as Paradas the Parthians are supposed to have been known to the Hindus as Tushuranas (Wilford, As. Res. IX. 219), and perhaps as Arsaks. Nasik Inscriptions, Trans. Sec. Int. Cong. 307, 309. Cunningham, who considers them closely connected with the Sus or Sakas (Arch. Survey, II. 46-47), places Parthians in power in North-west India from the second century before Christ. Wilson (Ariana Antiqua, 336-338, 340) assigns the Indo-Parthian dynasty, to the first century after Christ. Their date is still considered doubtful. Thomas' Prinsep, II. 174. A passage in the Periplus (Vet. Geog. Scrip. I. 22) speaks of rival Parthians ruling in Sindh about the middle of the third century after Christ. Early Hindu writings mention the Paradas with the Palhav3 as tribes created by the sage Vasishtha's wonder-working cow. See below p. 413 note 7.] Ushavdat and his family had probably been converted to Buddhism in Upper India. Soon after conquering the Andhras, they ceased to be foreigners, married Hindus, and gave up their foreign names. They did much for Buddhism, and were also liberal to Brahmans. [There are six inscriptions of Nahapan's family in Cave VIII. at Nasik, one at Karli, and one by Nahapan's minister at Junnar. Besides smaller grants to Buddhist monks, Ushavdat, who seems to have governed in the Konkan and North Deccan under Nahapan, records (A.D. 100) the building of quadrangular rest-houses and halting places at Sopara and the making of ferries across the Pardi, Daman, and Dahanu rivers. Trans. Sec. Int. Cong. 328, 333, 335, 354; Arch. Sur. X. 33, 52. A curious instance of their liberality to Brahmans is recorded in Nasik Cave XVII. (Trans. Sec. Int. Cong. 327). This grant consisted of the gift of eight wives to Brahmans, the word used, bharya or a wedded woman instead of kanya or a maiden, seeming to show that the women were chosen out of the king's household. (As regards the loose marriage rules of the early Brahmans compare Muir's Sanskrit Texts, I.131,132; footnote 136-137; 282; 407; II. 466). The admission into Hinduism of Nahapan's family, and similar admissions in the Panjab (Lassen's Ind. Alt. II. 806-832) support Wilford's remark (As. Res. X. 90-91) that there is nothing in the theory or practice of Hinduism to prevent foreigners, who are willing to conform to the Hindu religion and manners, being admitted to be Hindus. Two instances in modern Konkan history illustrate the process by which a foreign conqueror may become a Hindu, and may be raised to the highest place among Hindu warriors. In 1674 on Raigad hill in Kolaba, by lavish bounty to Brahmans and by scrupulous observance of religious ceremonial, Shivaji was, by Gagabhatt a learned Brahman from Benares (who cannot have thought Shivaji more than a Shudra), raised to the highest place among Kshatriyas. Grant Duff, 177. About the same time (1650) success in two sea fights enabled the grandfather of Kanhoji Angria, who was a Musalman negro from the Persian Gulf, to become a Hindu and to marry the daughter of a Maratha chief. Grose's Voyage, II. 212.] The North Konkan seems to have remained under Nahapan's successors till, about the middle of the second century (A.D. 124), the great Shatakarni Gautamiputra drove the Kshatraps from the Deccan and Konkan, including the holy Krishnagiri or Kanheri hills. [Trans. Sec. Or. Cong. 311.] The great wealth of the Konkan during the rule of the Shatakarni kings is shown by many wonderful remains, the Kanheri caves in Salsette, the Nasik caves on the route through the Tal pass, the works on the Nana pass, the Bedsa, Bhaja, Karli, and Kondane caves along the Bor pass route, the stupa at Sopara and perhaps those at Elephanta a and Kalyan. These remains prove great wealth both among the rulers and the traders, and show that the architects and sculptors were men of skill, and were probably foreigners. The chief cause of the great wealth of the Konkan was that the power of its rulers stretched across India to the mouth of the Krishna, and enabled them to bring to the Thana ports, not only the local inland trade, but the rich products of the coast of Bengal and the far east, through Masulipatam, Tagar, and Paithan. [Gautamiputra I. (A.D. 124) built the Great Chaitya Cave No. III, at Nasik; at Karli two inscriptions, in the Great Chaitya and in Cave XII., are dated the seventh and twenty-fourth years of Vashishthiputra Pulumavi (A.D. 140); and there are three inscriptions of Yajnashri Shatakarni Gautamiputra (A.D. 160), two in Kanheri Caves 3 and 81, and one in Nasik Cave XV. Trans. Sec. Or. Cong. 311, 339; Arch. Sur. X. 34, 36; Places of Interest, Kanheri Caves. The frequent mention of Dharnikot (Dhenukakata) as the residence of donors and others connected with the Poona, Nasik, and Thana caves (five in Karli, Burgess' Arch, Sur. Report, X. 29-33; one in Nasik, Sec. Int. Cong; one in Shailarvadi, ditto 38; and one in Kanheri, Bombay Gazetteer, XIV. 188), are evidence of the close political and commercial connection between the east and the west coast.]

Parthians, B.C. 255. A.D. 235.

Westwards there were special openings for a rich commerce. The Parthian emperors (B.C. 255 - A.D. 235), however rude they may once, have been, had grown rich, luxurious, and fond of trade. This was already the case in the time of Strabo (B.C. 30), and in the early part of the second century after Christ, during the forty years of rest (A.D. 116-150) that followed Hadrian's peace with Chosroes, the exchange of wealth between the Parthian and the Roman empires greatly increased. [Heeren, III. 483. After the fall of Babylon and Ctesiphon, Trajan sailed down the Tigris to the Persian Gulf, embarked, on the south sea, made inquiries about India, and regretted he could not go there, DioCassius in Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, IV. 313. According to another, but incorrect, account Trajan went to Zizerus. Kerr's Voyages, II. 40. Rawlinaon (Anc. Mon. VI, 383) describes the Parthiana as luxurious and fond of wine and dancing.] The markets of Palmyra were supplied not only from Gerrha near Bahrein across Arabia, but from the head of the Persian Gulf up the Euphrates by Babylon and Ktesiphon to the new (A.D. 60) mart of Vologesocerta. Palmyra inscriptions of the middle of the second century (A.D. 133, 141, 246) show that merchants had a safe pass through Parthia, and that one of the main lines of trade lay through Vologesocerta. The details of this trade, perfumes, pearls, precious stones, cotton, rich silk, famous silks dyed with Indian purple and embroidered with gold and precious stones, point to a close connection with India, and, through India, with China. [Heeren, II. 440, 445, 453, 455.] Hindus seem to have settled at Palmyra for purposes of trade, as in 273, after the fall of Palmyra, Indians swelled the train of captives who graced Aurelian's triumph. [Heeren, II. 446.] Except the ruins of Hatra, or Al-Hadhra, their own land contains few traces of Parthian buildings. [Fergusson says (Hist, of Arch. II. 422) the Parthians have left no material trace of their existence, and Gardner (Marsden's Numismata Parthia, 2, 3) remarks that architecture and sculpture ceased during the Parthian period. Fergusson even fixes the building of Hatra at A.D. 250, about fifteen years after the close of Parthian rule. But Rawlinson (Anc, Mon. VI. 381) shows that Hatra was a place of importance under the Parthians, and fixes its date at about A. D. 150. He thinks it was the work of Parthian artists with little foreign help. There is a further mention that Pacorus II. (78-110) enlarged and beautified Ctesiphon (Ditto, 294), and that the Parthian palace at Babylon was magnificent and the emperor surrounded with much pomp and show. Ditto, 416.] But the great rock temples in and near the Thana district, that date from the centuries before and after Christ, seem to have been planned and sculptured by Parthian or Persian artists. Harpharan of Abulama, whose name appears in one of the Karli inscriptions, was probably a Parthian or Persian. [Arch, Sur. X, 36. Abulama is probably Obollah near Basra. See below p. 420 n. 3.] And so closely alike are the animal capitals of the pillars at, Karli, Bedsa, and Nasik, to capitals at Persepolis and Susa, that, according to Fergusson, the early Buddhists of Western India either belonged to the Persian empire or drew their art from it. [Nineveh and Persepolis, 360; Rude Stone Monuments, 456. Rawlinson's Description of the Halls at Hatra (Anc. Mon, VI. 379) has several points of likeness to Western India Cave Temples: Semicircular vaulted roofs, no windows, the light coming through an archway at the east end, and a number of small rooms opening from a central hall. Among the Sopara relics the resemblance between Maitrcya's headdress and the Parthian helmet adopted by Mithridates I. about B.C. 150 is worthy of notice. See Frontispiece in Gardner's Parthian Section of Marsden'a Numismata Orientalia, p. 18; also Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, VI. 91.]

Palhavs, A.D.120.-600.

This close connection between India and Persia supports the view, [See Mr. Fleet's Kanarese Dynasties, 14-15.] that the Palhavs who are mentioned with Shaks and Yavans in the Vishnu Puran and in Nasik and Junagad inscriptions of the first and second centuries, and who figure as a dynasty in the Deccan between the fifth and seventh centuries, were of Persian or of Parthian origin. Like many other foreigners, these Palhavs have become Hindus and are lost in the great mixture of tribes which the name Maratha covers. [Several Hindu references show, that the great inflow of foreign nations in the centuries before and after the Christian era was not confined to the north of India. The incorporation of foreign nations (Ind. Ant. IV. 166), Shaks, Yavans, Kambojas, Paradas, and Pahnavas, is mentioned in the Vishnu Puran. Wilson's Translation, 374. Tod's contention (Annals of Rajasthan, I. 82-85), that the Agnikula Rajputs are of un-Sanskrit origin, is supported by a reference quoted by Lassen (Ind. Alt, II. 805) to a king Vrigi of Malwa, who, apparently about the time of Christ, introduced new divisions into the four castes, and by the boast of Gautamiputra Shatakarni (A. D. 120) in one of the Nasik caves, that he had stopped the confusion of castes. Second International Congress, 311.

The Palhavs, who are mentioned in the text, seem to have been known to the Hindus in very early times, as living near the Hindu Kush. Lassen's Ind. Alt. I. 1028. Early Hindu writings mention the Palhavs, with the Paradas and others, as outside tribes created from the tail of the Brahman Vasishtha's wonder-working cow to help him in his great struggle with the Kshatriya ruler Vishvamitra. Muir's Sanskrit Texts, I. 391,398, Other passages describe them as degraded Kshatriyas who were forced to wear beards. Ditto, I. 482-484, 486, 488. As a Deccan dynasty the head-quarters of their power was in the east, near Masulipatam (Ind. Ant. VI. 85) and Kanchi or Konjiviram, where they were great builders. (Ind. Ant. VIII. 25). Though the Palhavs are best known in the east, they must either have spread their power to the west or a branch of them must have reached the west coast by sea. In the second century after Christ, a Palhav, with the Sanskrit name Suvishakh the son of an un-Sanskrit Kulaipa, was viceroy of Gujarat and Kathiawar under the Sinh king Rudradaman (Ind. Ant. VII.,263); the Brihat-Sanhita (A.D. 500) puts the Palhavs in the south-west of India (J. R. A. S. New Series, V. 84); and General Cunningham (Ancient Geog. 319) notices a Palhav prince of Kathiawar in A.D. 720. The surnames Palhav and Palhav are still not uncommon among the Marathas and Kunbis of the Konkan coast. The close connection between the Palhavs and the Parthians and Persians, the Parthian immigration from Upper India which has been noticed above, and the relations by sea between the Thana coast and the Persian Gulf, support Wilford's belief (As. Res. IX. 156, 233; X. 91) that there is a strong Persian element in the Konkanasth Brahmans and in the Marathas. The history of the Parsis, who for a time lost most of their peculiarities (see Population Chapter, p. 252), shows how easily a settlement of Persians may embrace Hinduism. Pandit Bhagvanlal also notices the Parajias, a class of Kathiawar craftsmen, whose name, appearance, and peculiarities of custom and dress seem to point to a Persian or a Parthian origin. It is worthy of note, that in modern times (1500-1680) one of the chief recruiting grounds of the Bijapur kings was Khorasan, the ancient Parthia, and that the immigrants entered the Deccan mostly, if not entirely, from the Persian Gulf through the Konkan ports. See Commentaries of Albuquerque, III. 232, 249; and Athanasius Nikitin (1474) India in XV. Century, 9, 12, 14.]

Besides with the Persian Gulf, during the rule of the Shatakarnis or Andhrabhrityas, the Konkan ports had a great trade with the Red Sea.

Ptolemy A.D.135.150.

The Konkan is the part of the west coast, which was best known to the Greeks at the time of the geographer Ptolemy (A.D. 135-150). It was from Greeks, who had for many years traded to Symulla or Timulla, probably Chaul, that Ptolemy gained much of his information about Western India. [Ptolemy, I. xvii; Bertius' Edition 17. The geographer to whom Ptolemy admits that he owed most (Book I. chap. VI. VII.) was Marinus of Tyre.] And from the mention of gifts by Yavans to the Kanheri, Nasik, Karli, and Junnar caves, some of the Greeks seem to have settled in the country and become Buddhists. [Lassen's Ind. Ant. IV. 79. In the first century after Christ, Dionysius, a wise man, was sent (J. As. Soc. Ben. VII. [1] 226) from Egypt to India to examine the chief marts, and in 138 Panta'nus the Stoic of Alexandria came to India as a Christian missionary and took back the first clear ideas of the Shramans and Brahmans, and of Buddha 'whom the Indians honoured as a god, because of his holy life.' Hough's Christianity, I. 51. Compare Assemanni in Rich's Khurdistan, II. 120, 122.] So, also, Indians seem to have gone to Alexandria, and perhaps gave Ptolemy his surprising knowledge of places of Hindu pilgrimage. [Ptolemy conversed with several Hindus in Alexandria. Wilford in As. Res. X. 101, 105. As early as the first century Indian Christians were settled in Alexandria. Hough's Christianity in India, I. 44. In the time of Pliny (A.D. 77) many Indians lived in Egypt. Dion Chrvsostom mentions Indians in Alexandria about A.D. 100, and Indians told Clemens (192-217) about Buddha. J. E. A. S. XIX. 278. Brahmans are mentioned in Constantinople. Oppert in Madras Lit. and Scien. Jl. 1878, 210. It was about this time (A.D. 24-57) that according to one account 20,000 Hindu families colonised Java (Raffles' Java, II. 69) and Bali. Crawfurd As. Res. XIII. 155-159. The date is now put as late as A.D. 500. J. R. A, S,. New Series, VIII. 162.] Ptolemy had the mistaken idea that the Indian coast stretched east and west instead of north and south., This confuses his account, but his knowledge of names is curiously exact and full. He divides the west coast into Surastrene or Saurashtra, corresponding to Cutch, Kathiawar, and North Gujarat; Larike, that is Lat Desh, or South Gujarat; Ariake or the Maratha-speaking country, the Marathas are still called Arii by the Kanarese of Kaladgi; and Damurike, wrongly written Lymurike, the country of the Damils or Tamils. [Damurika appears in Peutinger's Tables, A.D. 100.] He divides his Ariake or Maratha country into three parts, Ariake proper or the Bombay-Deccan, Sadan's Ariake or the North Konkan, and Pirate Ariake or the South Konkan. [The meaning of Sadan's Ariake is doubtful. The question is discussed later on p. 417. Perhaps because of Pliny's account of the Konkan pirates, Ptolemy's phrase Ariake Andron Peiraton has been taken to mean Pirate Ariake. But Ptolemy has no mention of pirates on the Konkan coast, and, though this does not carry much weight in the case of Ptolemy, the phrase Andron Peiraton is not correct Greek for pirates. This and the close resemblance of the words suggests that Andron Peiraton may originally have been Andhra-Bhrityon.] Besides Sopara and Symulla or Chaul on the coast, Nasik near the Sahyadris, and the great inland marts of Paithan and Tagar, Ptolemy mentions seven places in or near Thana, which can be identified. [These are Nausari, Nusaripa; the Vaitarna river, called Goaris from the town Goreh about forty miles from its mouth; Dunga, either Tungar hill or Dugad near the Vajrabai springs; the Binda or Bassein creek, apparently from Bhayndar opposite Bassein; the cape and mart of Symulla, the cape apparently the south point of Bombay harbour, and the mart Chaul. South of Symulla is Balepatna, the city of Pal near Mahad with Buddhist caves, and not far from Pal is Hippokura, apparently a Greek form of Ghodegaon in Kolaba. Ptolemy notices that Paithan was the capital of Siri-Polomei probably Shri-Pulumayi (A.D. 140), and mentions Nana-Guna which he thought was a river, but which apparently is the Nana Ghat the direct route from Paithan to the coast.]

Foreign Trade, A.D. 150.

Ptolemy gives no details of the trade which drew the Greeks to the emporium of Symulla. But from the fact that the Shatakarnis ruled the Deccan as well as the Konkan, there seems reason to suppose that it was the same trade which is described by the author of the Periplus as centering at Broach about a hundred years later. [McCrindle's Periplus, 125. Goods passed from the top of the Sahyadris eastward in wagons across the Deccan to Paithan, and, from Paithan, ten days further east to Tagar the greatest mart in southern India. At Tagar goods were collected from the parts along the coast, that is apparently the coast of Bengal. There seems reason to believe that this was one of the lines along which silk and some of the finer spices found their way west from the Eastern Archipelago and China. (Compare Heeren, III 384). Near the mouth of the Krishna, Ptolemy has a Matsolia, apparently the modern Masulipatam, and close by an Alosyque, the place from which vessels set sail for Malacca or the Golden Chersonese Bertius' Ed., Asia Map X. and XI. So important was the town that the Godavari was known to Ptolemy as the Maisolos river (Ditto) The Periplus has also a Masalia on the Coromandel coast, where immense Quantities of fine muslins were made. McCrindle, 145; Vincent, II. 523. It seems probable that molochinon the Periplus name for one of the cloths which are mentioned as coming to Broach through Tagar from the parts along the coast, is as Vincent suspected, a mistake (Commerce, II. 412, 741-742) and should be Masulinon or Masuli cloth. McCrindle, 136; Vincent, II. 412. This and not Marco Polo's Mohsol near Nineveh (Yule's Edition, I. 59) would then be the origin of the English muslin. Mausilina the Arab name for muslin (Yule, I. 59) favours the Indian origin, and in Marco Polo's time (290) Mutapali near Masulipatam was (Yule II 296) famous for the most delicate work like tissue of spider's web. The trade in cloth between Masulipatam and Thana was kept up till modern times. In the middle of the seventeenth century, Thevenot notices (Harris, II. 373-384) how chintzes and other cloths from Masulipatam came through Golkonda by Chandor, Nasik and the Tal pass to the Thana ports. And about the same time Baldaeus (Churchill III. 589) describes Masulipatam as a very populous city where the trade of Europe and China met, and where was a great concourse of merchants from Cambay, Surat, Goa, and other places on the west coast. It is worthy of note that the dark spotted turban cloth now worn by some Bombay Prabhus, Musalmans, and Parsis which was probably adopted by them from the old Hindu Thana traders, come., from Masulipatam and is known as Bandari, that is Masulibandari, cloth. The close connection between the Thana rock temples and traders from Dharnikot near the mouth of the Krishna has been already noticed.] The chief trade was with the Red Sea and Egypt in the west, and, apparently, inland by Paithan and Tagar to the shores of the Bay of Bengal, and, across the Bay of Bengal, with Malacca or the Golden Chersonese and China. The chief exports to Egypt were, of articles of food, sesamum, oil, sugar, and perhaps rice and ginger; of dress, cotton of different kinds from the Deccan, and from the eastern coast silk thread and silk; of spices and drugs, spikenard, coctus, bdellium, and long pepper; of dyes, lac and indigo; of ornaments, diamonds, opals, onyx stones found in large quantities near Paithan, and perhaps emeralds, turquoises, and pearls; [Pearls which Pliny (A.D.77) mentions as one of the chief exports from Perimula, that is apparently Simulla or Chaul (Yule in Ind. Ant. II. 90), and which in the twelfth century (Idrisi in Elliot and Dowson, I. 85) appear as one of the exports of Sopara, are still found in the Bassein creek (see above, p. 55). Besides pearls the Thana ports seem for long to have sent westwards another precious stone, generally called an emerald, but which may have been a Golkonda diamond, or may have included several kinds of stone. In very early times (A.D. 500) the Sopara stone was famous (Jour. R. A. S. New Series, VII). Pliny has a Lithos Kallianos (Vincent, II. 731), whose name (though this is made less likely by the export of a Lithos Kallainos from Sindh in the Periplus Vincent, II. 300) suggests that it may be the Sopara stone whose place of export may have changed to Kalyan. Masudi's (913) Sanjan stone, also described as an emerald (Prairies d'Or, III. 47, 48), is perhaps still the same stone or stones, the trade or the workers having moved to Sanjan. Compare Ihe modern fame of Cambay stones, most of which come from long distances to Cambay. Cambay Statistical Account, Bombay Gazetteer, VI. 198-207.] of metals, iron or steel, and perhaps gold. [Indian steel was famous. The chisels that drilled the granite of the Egyptian obelisks are said to have been of Indian steel. Shaw's Egypt, 364. Indian steel ia mentioned in the Periplus and in Autonine's Digest.] The imports were wines of several kinds, Italian, Laodicean, and Arabian; [As regards the use of wine, drinking scenes are common in the Umravati sculptures (A.D.400) and in the later Ajanta paintings (A.D. 500-600). Rawlinson notices (Anc. Mon. VI. 383) that the Parthians were fond of wine, and Hiwen Thsang (640) notices that some of the Maratha soldiers were much given to the use of intoxicating liquor. Julien's Mem. Occ. III, 150.] of dress, cloth and variegated sashes; of spices and drugs, frankincense, gum, stibium for the eyes, and storax; of metals, brass or copper, tin, and lead, [Pliny notices that the Indians took lead in exchange for pearls and precious stones. The earliest known coins of the Andhra kings, found both at Dharnikot at the mouth of the Krishna and at Kolhapur, are of lead.] also gold and silver coins; [The silver denarius worth about 8d. (5 as. 4 pies) was exchanged for bullion. Vincent, II. 694.] of ornaments, coral, costly silver vases, plate, [Polished plate was a large item. Vincent, II. 716.] and glass; and of slaves, handsome young women for the king of the country. [Greek or Yavan girls were much in demand as royal attendants and concubines. In one of Kalidas' dramas, Yavan girls salute the king with the word chareh, probably the Greek Xaipe or hail. Ind. Ant. II. 145. The king in Shakuntala is accompanied by Yavan girls with bows, and bearing garlands of wild flowers. Mrs. Manning's Ancient India, II. 176. Compare Baldaeus in the middle of the seventeenth century (Churchill's Voyages, III. 515): Every September the great ship of the Sultan of Turkey comes from the top of the Bed Sea to Mocha. Besides divers commodities it is laden with slaves of both sexes generally Grecians, Hungarians, or of the isle of Cyprus.]

The merchants of the Thana ports were Hindus, Buddhism favouring trade, and owing many of its finest monuments to the liberality of Konkan merchants. [The Karli and Kanheri Cathedral caves were made by merchants; and there are many inscriptions in the Kuda, Kanheri, and Nasik caves, which record minor gifts by merchants. Arch. Sur. X. 16, 19, 20, 21, 28; Trans. Sec. Or. Cong. 34G, 347 and Places of Interest, Kanheri. As already noticed, Hindus at this time seem to have been great travellers. In addition to the former references the author of the Periplus notices Indian settlements in Socotra and at Azania on the Ethiopian coast. McCrindle, 93.] Besides Hindus the leading merchants seem to have been Greeks and Arabs, some of them settled in India, others foreigners. Christian traders from the Persian Gulf seem also to have been settled at Kalyan and Sopara. [Details of early Christian settlers are given in the Population Chapter and in the account of Sopara. Their high priest or Catholicus had his head-quarters at Ctesiphon. Heeren, III. 438, 442. See Wilford's As. Pes. X. 81, and Ritter Erdkunde, VIII. pt. 2, 385. Thomas the Apostle is said to have come to India about A.D. 50, and a second Thomas, a Maniehean missionary, in the third century. Reinaud's Memoir Sur. I'Inde, 95; Assemanni in Rich's Khurdistan, II. 120,121.] Except as archers no Romans seem to have come to India. [Egypt was directly under the Emperor and no Roman might go to Egypt without special leave (Vincent's Commerce, II. 69). Vincent writes, 'The merchants have Greek names, Diogenes, Theophilus, and Sopater. I have not met a single Roman name (Vincent, II. 69, 209, 505). According to Wilford (As. Res. X. 114) there was a Greek colony in Kalyan. The fondness of the Greeks for founding trade colonies (Heeren, II.282), and the mention in Peutinger's Tables (VIII.) of a temple of Augustus at Muziris favour Wilford's statement.]

The shipping of the Thana coast included small coasting craft, medium-sized vessels that went to Persia, and large Indian, Arab, and Greek ships that traded to Yemen and Egypt. [Vincent, II. 33, 37, 38.] The Greek or Egyptian ships were large well-found and well-manned, and carried archers as a guard against pirates. [ Pliny's Nat. Hist., bk. VI. chap. 23. According to one account the archers were Romans; according to another they were Arabs. Pennant's Views, I. 104.] They were rounder and roomier than ships of war, and, as a sign that they were merchantmen, they hung a basket from the mast-head. The hull was smeared with wax and was ornamented with pictures of the gods, especially with a painting of the guardian divinity on the stern. The owners were Greeks, Hindus, and Arabs, and the pilots and sailors were Hindus and Arabs. [Vincent, II. 56, 101; Lassen Ind. Alt. (Ed. 1858), III. 68-72; Stevenson's Sketch, 20. Lindsay (Merchant Shipping, I. 108) thinks that these Greek boats were like the grain ships, which plied between Alexandria and Rome, in one of which St. Paul was shipwrecked (A.D. 62). This vessel was of considerable size, able to carry 276 passengers and crew, besides a cargo of wheat. It was decked, had a high poop and forecastle, and bulwarks of battens. It had one main mast and one large square sail, a small mizzen mast, and a little pole at the bow with a square sail. These ships went at a great pace before the wind, but could not make much way on a wind.]

Sandanes, 227.

About the close of the second century (A.D. 178) Rudradaman, one of the greatest of the Kshatrap kings of Gujarat, has recorded a double defeat of a Shatakarni and the recovery of the north Konkan. [Ind. Ant. VII. 262.] About the beginning of the third century, according to the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean sea whose date is probably A.D. 247, [Reinaud's paper fixing the date of the Periplus has been translated in the Indian Antiquary of December 1879. The detailed account of the Kathiawar and Gujarat coasts, compared with Ptolemy's scanty and confused notes, and the fact that the author corrects Ptolemy's great error about the direction of the west coast of India support M. Remand's view that the Periplus is later than Ptolemy,] the elder Saraganes, one of the Shatakarnis, raised Kalyan to the rank of a regular mart. When the author of the Periplus wrote, the Shatakarnis had again lost their hold of the Thana coast, and it had passed to a king named Sandanes, who stopped all foreign trade. If Greek vessels, even by accident, came to a Konkan port, a guard was put on board, and they were taken to Barugaza or Broach. [McCrindle's Periplus, 128. This Sandanes seems to be the family or dynasty, which gives its name to Ptolemy's ' Sadan's Aria,' which includes most of the North Konkan. What dynasty is meant is uncertain. Prof. Bhandarkar contributes the following note: Among the western countries or tribes metioned by Varahamihira, is one bearing the name of Shantikas (Brihat S. chap. xiv. verse 20). The first part of the name must in vernacular pronunciation have become Sandi, since nt is often changed to ml in the Prakrits, as in Saundala for Shakuntala, Andeura for Antahpura, and in other cases. As to the final syllabic ka of the word Shantika it is clearly a suffix, and this suffix is in later Sanskrit very generally applied to all nouns. When it is added to nouns ending in n as hastin an elephant, the final n is dropped and thus hastin becomes hastin. Shantika therefore, without the suffix ka, is Shautin, the nominative plural of which is Shantinah. This Shantinah is Sandino in the Prakrits, and from this last form, that is the vernacular pronunciation of the day, the Greeks must have derived their Sandines or Sadinoi. The name Shantika occurs in the Markandeya Purana (chap, lviii.), where, as well as in the Brihat Samhita, it is associated with Apanintaka or Aparantika, the name of another western people living on the coast. Aparanta generally means northern Konkan. When the Kshatrapa Nahapan displaced the Shatavahanas or Andhrabhrityas in the Deccan, the Shantinah or Sandino must have asserted their independence in the Konkan, and thus it was that their chief called Sandanes by the author of the Periplus cause to be master of Kalyan. It was probably to render his independence secure against the victorious Kshatrapas, that ho prohibited intercourse between his territories and the Deccan, and sent away the Greek ships to Barygaza. There could be no reason for such a prohibition in the time of the 'Elder Saraganes' or Shatakarni, since he ruled over the country, above the Sahyadris, as well as below.

Another suggestion may perhaps be offered. That Ptolemy's Sadan and the Periplus Sandanes stand for the Kshatrap or Sinha rulers of Gujarat. The natural explanation of Sandanes' conduct in carrying the Greek ships to Broach is that it was done to force foreign commerce to his seaport of Broach. If the Sadhans are the Kshatraps, the word Sadan or Sandanes would be the Sanskrit Sadhana, an agent or representative (see Williams' Sanskrit Dictionary), that is a translation of the Persian Kshatrap. In support of the use of the word Sadhan as an agent may be cited Bardesanes account of the Hindu embassy, which he met in Babylon on its way to Rome about A.D. 218, where the headman, or ambassador, is called Sandanes, apparently Sadhan (J. R. A. S., XIX. 290, 291). The suggestion is supported by the Jain work Kalakacharya Katha (J. B. B. R. A. S. IX. 139-142), which speaks of the Kshatraps as the Sadhan-Sinhas. Wilford explains the word by Sadhan lord (As. Res. IX. 76, 198). He compares the phrase Sadhan Engriz a polite term for the English.]

Trade, 250.

The Konkan places mentioned by the author of the Periplus are Sopara (Ouppara), Kalyan, (Kalliena), Chaul (Semulla), and Pal near Mahad (Palaipatmai). [McCrindle, 128, 129.] Though the direct commerce with Egypt had been driven from the Konkan ports, there was still a considerable trade. Coasting vessels went south to meet the Egyptian ships at Musiris and Nelkynda on the Malabar coast, [Musiris is identified with Muyirikotta and Nelkynda with Kannettri. McCrindle's Periplus, 131.] or further south to Ceylon; or on to ports on the Coromandel coast, chiefly to bring back the fine cloths of Masulipatam. [McCrindle's Periplus, 145: Vincent's Commerce, II. 523.] There was an important trade with Gedrosia on the east coast and with Apologos, probably Obollah, at the head of the Persian Gulf. The chief trade with Gedrosia was in timber, teak, squared wood, and blocks of ebony, with a return of wine, dates, cloth, purple, gold, pearls, and slaves. [Vincent, II. 378, 379. The timber was chiefly used in boat-building.] There was also trade in muslin, corn, oil, cotton, and female slaves with the east coast of Arabia, Socotra where Indians were settled, Aden, and Moosa near Mocha. [Vincent, II. 296, 297, 346. McCrindle's Periplus, 94, 95. Besides in Socotra, there is a mention of Indians settled in Armenia in the third century after Christ. Reinaud's Memoir Sur. l'Inde, 72.] And there was a trade to Zanzibar and the African ports, taking corn, rice, butter, sesamum, cotton, sashes, sugar, and iron, and bringing back slaves, tortoiseshell, and cinnamon. [Vincent, II. 158.] Lastly there was a trade to Aduli, the sea-port of Abyssinia, the Indian ships bringing cloth, iron, cotton, sashes, muslin, and lac, and taking ivory and rhinoceros' horns. [Vincent, II. 116.]

Trikutakas, 420.

A copper-plate, found by Dr. Bird in 1839 in a relic mound in front of the great Kanheri cave (No. 3), is dated in the 245th year of the Trikutakas. From the form of the letters, which seem to belong to the fifth century, Dr. Burgess ascribes the plate to the Gupta era in A.D. 176, and thus makes the date of the plate A.D. 421. Trikuta, or the three hills, is mentioned by Kalidas (A.D. 500) as a city on a lofty site built by Raghu when he conquered the Konkan. The name is the same as Trigiri, the Sanskrit form of Tagara, and Pandit Bhagvanlal identifies the city with Junnar in west Poona, a place of great importance, on a high site, and between the three hills of Shivneri, Ganeshlena, and Manmodi. [Archaeological Survey, X. 59, 60. ]

Krishnaraja, 400.

The discovery of two hoards of silver coins bearing the legend of Krishnaraja, one in 1881 in Bombay Island the other in Mulgaon in Salsette in June 1882, seems to show that the early Rashtrakuta king Krishna (A.D. 375-400), whose coins have already been found in Baglan in Nasik, also held possession of the North Konkan. [Mr. Fleet's Kanarese Dynasties, 31, note 2.]

Trade, 500.

During this time the Sassanian dynasty (230-650) had risen to power in Persia. They were on terms of close friendship with the rulers of Western India, and became the loading traders in the eastern seas. [In proof of the close relations between the Sassanians and India may be noticed Behram Ghor's visit to the king of Kanauj (420-438), his marriage with an Indian princess, and the introduction of Indian music and literature into Persia. There were also the conquest of Sindh and embassies to the rulers of southern India under Naushirvan (531-578), and an embassy of Khosro Parviz (591-628) to the king of Badami, Pulikeshi II. (609-640). Jour. R. A. S. XI. 165. It was under the Sassanians that the Persians brought chess and the Arabian Nights from India (Reinaud's Memoir Sur. l'Inde, 135). Wilford (As. Res. IX. 156, 233; X. 91) traces the foreign element in the Marathas and in the Chitpavan or Konkanasth Brahmans to Persian immigration during Sassanian rule. But it seems likely that if there is a Persian element in the Marathas and Konkanasth Brahmans, it dates from before the time of the Sassanians. See above, p. 414.] In the beginning of the sixth century (A.D. 525) the Egyptian merchant and monk Kosmas Indikopleustes describes Kalyan (Kalliana) as the seat of one of the five chief rulers of Western India, a king who had from 500 to 600 elephants. [The other centres of power were Sindhu, Orrhata probably Surashtra, Sibor perhaps Sopara, and four pepper marts in the Malabar coast. Migne's Patrologian Cursus, 88; I. 446.] Kalyan had much traffic with Ceylon, which was then the great centre of trade in the east, sending copper, steel, ebony, and much cloth, and bringing back silk, cloves, caryophyllum, aloes, and sandalwood. [Cosmas in J. R. A. S. XX. 292. Heeren's Hist. Res. III. 403 and Ap. B. 439. Yule's Cathay, I. clxvii.-clxxxi. Vincent, II. 505-511. Lassen's Ind. Alt. IV. 94, 99, 100; Tennent's Ceylon, I. 545.] With the Persian Gulf there was much trade to Hira near Kufa, and to Obolleh. Of the exports to the Persian Gulf, one of the chief was timber for house-building, aloes, pepper, ginger, spices, cotton cloth, and silk. [In 638 the Arabs found teak beams in the Persian king's palace near Basra. Ouseley's Persia, II. 280.] The trade with Egypt began to fall off about the close of the third century, and by the sixth century it had almost ceased. [The mystic Loadstone rocks (an index to the limit of navigation) had moved from Ceylon in 280 to the mouth of the Arabian Gulf in 560. Priaulx in J.R.A.S. XX. 309.] The traffic with the African ports was brisk and had developed an import of gold. The merchants were Hindus, Arabs, Persians, and perhaps Christians from Persia. [Kosmas in Yule's Cathay, I. clxx. An account of the Christians of Kalyan and their connection with Persia is given in the Population Chapter. It seems probable that the settlements of Christians at Kalyan and Sopara had been strengthened by refugees from Syria and Mesopotamia in the fifth century during the persecution of the Nestorians by the Emperor of Constantinople. At that time Nestorians seem to have fled as far as China. Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, cd.; Rich's Khurdistan, II. 112.] The Hindus seem to have been as great travellers as during the times of Greek trade, and were found settled in Persia, Alexandria, Ceylon, Java, and China. [Hiwen Thsang (642) found colonies of Indians in the cities of Persia in the free exercise of their religion. Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, ccclxxxiv. There were two or three Buddhist convents of the Narrow Way (Julien's Hiwen Thsang, III 179). An Indian temple is mentioned about A.D.400 at Auxume on the Red Sea. J. R. A. S. XX. 278, note 4. In 470 Brahmans were entertained at Alexandria by Severus, a Roman Governor. (Wilford's As. Res. X. III; Lassen's Ind. Alt. III. 378, IV. 907; Priaulx in J. R. A. S. XX. 273). In the beginning of the fifth century there were said to be 3000 Indians in China. Beal's Fah Hian, xxix. Fah Hian (420) also mentions Brahmans in the ship between Java and China. Brahmans flourished in Java. Ditto, 168-169.]

Mauryas, 550.

The chief of Kalyan described by Kosmas was perhaps either a Maurya or a Nala as Kirtivarma (550-567), the first of the Chalukyas who turned his arms against the Konkan, is described as the night of death to the Nalas and Mauryas. [Ind. Ant. VIII. 244. A dynasty of fifty-nine Chalukyas is said to have ruled in Oudh. Then Jaising passed south, invaded the Deccan, and about A.D. 468 defeated the Ratta chief Krishna (Jour. R. A. S. [Old Series], IV. 6, 7, 8). For two more generations their power did not pass west of the Sahyadris.] And Kirtivarma's grandson Pulikesi II. (610-640), under whom the Konkan was conquered, describes his general Chanda-danda, as a great wave which drove before it the watery stores of the pools, which are the Mauryas. The Chalukya general, with hundreds of ships, attacked the Maurya capital Puri, the goddess of the fortunes of the western ocean. [Arch. Sur. Rep. III. 26. Puri has not been identified. See below, p. 423 note 2.] A stone inscription from Vada in the north of Thana of the fourth or fifth century shows that a Mauryan king of the name of Suketuvarma was then ruling in the Konkan. [Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji. This stone, which may be readily known by a trident mark at the top, is in the Museum of the Bombay Asiatic Society. Details are given under Places of Interest, Vada. Traces of the Mauryas remain in the surname More, which is common among Marathas, Kunbis, and Kolis. The two small landing-places of the name of More, in Elephanta and in Karanja, are perhaps relics of Mauryan power. The only trace of the Nalas occurs in a local story of a Nal Raja, who married his daughter to the Malang or Arab devotee who gave his name to Malanggad hill. (See Places of Interest, Malanggad). Nal is still a Maratha surname.] And it is probable that the group of figures in the Lonad cave six miles south-east of Bhiwndi, which belongs to the sixth or seventh century, represents the court of a Mauryan king. [The attitude of some of the figures, whose hands are laid on their mouths apparently out of respect to the king, suggests Persian influence. The laying of the hand on the mouth is a sign of respect in the Persepolis Pictures (Heeren's As. Res. I. 178), and the Parsis still cover the mouth in sign of worship.]

Arabs, 640.

During the reign of the great Naushervan (531-578), when the Persians were the rulers of the commerce of the eastern seas. the relations between Western India and Persia were extremely close. [Yule (Cathay, I. 56) notices that about this time the lower Euphrates was called Hind or India, but this seems to have been an ancient practice. Rawlinson, J. R. G. S. XXVII. 186. As to the extent of the Persian trade at this time, see Reinaud's Memoir Sur. l'Inde, 124. In the fifth and sixth centuries, besides the Persian trade, there was an active Arab trade up the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates to Hira on the right or west bank of the river, not far from the ruins of Babylon. There was also much traffic with Obollah near the mouth of the joint river not far from Basra. Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, ccclxxxn.

Obollah is also at this time (A.D. 400-600) noticed as the terminus of the Indian and Chinese vessels which were too large to pass up the river to Hira. (Ditto and Yule's Cathay, lxxvii. 55). So close was its connection, with India that the Talmud writers always speak of it as Hindike or Indian Obillah (Rawlinson in J, R. G. S. XXVII. 186). According to Masudi (915) Obollah was the only port under the Sassanian kings (Prairies d'Or, III. 164.) McCrindle (Periplus, 103; compare Vincent, II. 377) identifies it with the Apologos of the Periplus (A.D. 247) which he holds took the place of Ptolemy's (A.D. 150) Teredon or Diridotus. Reinaud (Ind. Ant. VIII. 330) holds that Obollah is a corruption of the Greek Apologos, a custom house. But Vincent's view (II. 355) that Apologos is a Greek form of the original Obollah or Obollegh seems much more likely. In Vincent's opinion (Ditto, II. 356) the town was founded by the Parthians. At the time of the Arab conquest of Persia (637) Abillah is mentioned as the port of entry at the mouth of the Euphrates (J. R. A. S. XII. 208). In spite of the rivalry of the new Arab port of Basrah, Obollah continued a considerable centre of trade. It is mentioned by Tabari in the ninth century (Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, ccclxxxii.): Masudi (913) notices it as a leading town (Prairies d'Or, I. 230-231); Idrisi (1135) as a very rich and flourishing city (Jaubert's Ed. I. 369); and it appears in the fourteenth century in Abu-l-fida (Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, 72). It was important enough to give the Persian Gulf the name of the Gulf of Obollah (D'Herbelot's Bibliotheque Orientale, III. 61). According to D'Herbelot when he wrote (about 1670) Obollah was still a strong well peopled town (Ditto). The importance of the town and the likeness of the names suggest that Obollah is the Abulamah from which came the Persian or Parthian Harpharan of Abulamah who records the gift of a cave in Karli inscription 20. This identification supports the close connection by sea between the Parthians and the west coast of India in the centuries before and after the Christian era. See above p. 413.] On the Arab (625 and 638) overthrow of Yezdejard III., the last of the Sassanians, several bands of Persians sought refuge on the Thana coast and were kindly received by Jadav Rana, apparently a Yadav chief of Sanjan. [See above pp. 247-249.] In the years immediately after their conquest of Persia the Arabs made several raids on the coasts of Western India; one of these in 637 from Bahrein and Oman in the Persian Gulf plundered the Konkan coast near Thana. [Elliot and Dowson's History, I. 415, 416. As the companion fleet which was sent to Dibal or Diul in Sindh made a trade settlement at that town, this attack on Thana was probably more than a plundering raid. The Kaliph Umar (634-643), who had not been consulted, was displeased with the expedition and forbad any further attempt.]

No further notice [Hiwen Thsang's (642) Konkanapura, about 330 miles from the Dravid country, was thought by General Cunningham (Anc. Geog. 552) to be Kalyan, or some other place in the Konkan. Dr. Burnell (Ind. Ant. VII. 39) has identified it with Konkanahalli in Mysor.] of the North Konkan has been traced till the rise of the Silaharas, twenty of whom, as far as present information goes, ruled in the North Konkan from about A.D. 810 to A.D. 1260, a period of 450 years.

[

Besides the Thana branch of the Silaharas, there was a South Konkan branch whose head-quarters are unknown and a Kolhapur branch whose head-quarters seem to have been at Panhalgadh the modern Panhala (J. B. B. R. A. S. XIII. 17). From the single inscription which has been found, the South Konkan branch appears to have included ten kings who ruled from about 808 to 1008, at first under the Rashtrakutas and then under the Chalukyas. The Kolhapur branch, of which eleven inscriptions are recorded, had sixteen kings who ruled from about 840 (?) to 1190. One of this dynasty Vijayarkdev (1151) is described as restoring the dethroned lords of Thana and Goa. J. B. B. R. A. S. XIII. 16. Mr. Fleet's Kanarese Dynasties, 98-106.]

Silaharas.

810-1260.

Who the Silaharas were has not been ascertained. The name is variously spelt Silahara, Shailahara, Shrilara, Shilara, and Silara; even the same inscription has more than one form, and one inscription has the three forms Silara, Shilara, and Shrilara. [Ind..Ant. IX. 33, 34, 35; Jour. B. B. R. A. S. XIII. 2, 3, 5.] Lassen suggests that the Silaharas are of Afghan origin, as Silar Kafirs are still found in Afghanistan. [Lassen's Ind. Alt. IV. 113.] But the southern ending Ayya of the names of almost all their ministers and the un-Sanskrit names of some of the chiefs favour the view that they were of southern or Dravidian origin. [It seems probable that Silahara and Shailahara are Sanskritised forms of the common Marathi surname Selar. The story of the origin of the name is that Jimutvahan the mythical founder was the son of a spirit or Vidyadhara, who under a curse became a man. At this time Vishnu's eagle, Garuda, conquered the serpent king Vasuki and forced Vasuki to give him one of his serpent subjects for his daily food. After a time it came to the lot of the serpent Shankhachuda to be sacrificed. He was taken to a stone, shila, and left for the eagle to devour. Jimutvahan resolved to save the victim, and placed himself on the rock instead of the serpent. When Garuda came, Jimutvahan said he was the victim and Garuda 'devoured him except his head. Meantime Jimutvahan's wife came, and finding her husband slain, reproached Garuda, who restored him to life and at her request ceased to devour the serpents. For this act of self-sacrifice Jimutvahan gained the name of the Rock-devoured, Shilahara. J. R. A. S. (Old Series), IV. 113. Tawney's Katha Sarit Sagara, I.174-186. A stanza from this story forms the beginning of all Silahara copper plate inscriptions,]

The Silaharas seem to have remained under the Rashtrakutas till about the close of the tenth century, A.D. 997, when Aparajit assumed independent power. [See below, p. 424. The early Silaharas, though they call themselves Rajas and Konkan Chakravartis, seem to have been only Mahamandaleshvaras or Mahasamanta-dhipatis, that is great nobles. In two Kanheri cave inscriptions (Arch. Sur. X. 61,62) the third Silahara king Kapardi II. (A.D. 853 to 877) is mentioned as a subordinate of the Rashtrakutas. Of the later Silaharas Anantapal A.D. 1094 and Aparaditya A.D. 1138 claim to be independent. Ind. Ant. IX. 45.] The Thana Silaharas seem to have held the greater part of the present districts of Thana and Kolaba. Their capital seems to have been Puri, [The Silahara Puri, if, as seems likely, it is the same as the Maurya Puri (Ind. Ant. VIII. 244), was a coast town. Of the possible coast towns Thana and Chaul may be rejected, as they appear under the names of Shristhanak and Chemuli in inscriptions in which Purialso occurs (As. Res. I. 361, 364; Ind. Ant. IX. 38). Kalyan and Sopara may be given up as unsuitable for an attack by sea, and to Sopara there is the further objection that itappears in the same copper-plate in which Puri occurs. (Ind. Ant. IX. 38). There remain Mangalpuri or Magathan in Salsette, Gharapuri or Elephanta, and Rajapuri or Janjira. Neither Mangalpuri (see Places of Interest, Magathan) nor Rajapuri has remains of an old capital, so that perhaps the most likely identification of Puri is the Moreh landing or Bandar on the north-east corner of Gharapuri or Elephanta, where many ancient remains have been found. See Places of Interest, Elephanta, and Appendix A, Puri.] and their places of note were Hamjaman probably Sanjan in Dahanu, Thana (Shri-sthanak), Sopara (Shurparak), Chaul (Chemuli), Lonad (Lavanatata), and Uran. [Other places of less note mentioned in the inscriptions are Bhadan, Padgha, and Babgaon villages, and the Kumbhari river in Bhiwndi, Kanher in Bassein, and Chanje (Chadiche) village near Uran.] As the Yadavs call themselves lords of the excellent city of Dvaravatipura or Dwarka and the Kadambas call themselves lords of the excellent city of Banavasipura or Banavasi, so the Silaharas call themselves lords of the excellent city of Tagarapura or Tagar. This title would furnish a clue to the origin of the Silaharas if, unfortunately, the site of Tagar was not uncertain. [Tagar has been identified by Wilford (As. Res. I. 369) with Devgiri or Daulatabad and by Dr. Burgess with Roza about four miles from Daulatabad (Bidar and Auran-gabad, 55); Lassen and Yule place it doubtfully at Kulburga (Ditto); Pandit Bhag-vanlal, as already stated, at Junnar; Grant Duff (Marathas, 11) near Bhir on the Godavari; and Mr, J. F. Fleet, G.S., (Kanarese Dynasties, 99-103) at Kolhapur. Prof. Bhandarkar observes, 'The identification of Tagar with Devgiri is based on the supposition that the former name is a corruption of the latter. But that it is not so is proved by its occurrence as Tagar in the Silahara grants (A.D. 997-1094), and in a Chalukya grant of A. D. 612, the language of all of which is Sanskrit. The modern Junnar cannot have been Tagar, since the Greeks place Tagar ten days' journey to the east of Paithan. On the supposition that Junnar was Tagar, one would expect the Chalukya plate issued to a Brahman of Tagar to have been found at or near Junnar. But it was found at Haidarabad in the Deccan. The author of the Periplus calls Tagar 'the greatest city' in Dakhinabades or Dakshinapath. The Silahara princes or chiefs, who formed three distinct branches of a dynasty that ruled over two parts of the Konkan and the country about Kolhapur, trace their origin to Jimutvahan, the Vidyadhar or demigod, and style themselves ' The lords of the excellent city of Tagar.' From this it would appear that the Silaharas were an ancient family, and that their original seat was Tagar whence they spread to the confines of the country. Tagar therefore was probably the centre of one of the earliest Aryan settlements in the Dandakaranya or 'forest of Dandaka,' as the Deccan or Maharashtra was called. These early settlements followed the course of the Godavari. Hence it is that in the formula repeated at the beginning of any religious ceremony in Maharashtra, the place where the ceremony is performed is alluded to by giving its bearing from the Godavari. People in Khandesh use the words 'Godavarya uttara tire,' that is 'on the northern bank of the Godavari,' while those to the south of the river, as far as the borders of the country, use the expression 'Goda-varya Dakshine tire' that is 'on the southern bank of the Godavari," If then Tagar was one of the earliest of the Aryan settlements, it must be situated on or near the banks of the Godavari, as the ancient town of Paithan is; and its bearing from Paithan given by the Greek geographers agrees with this supposition, as the course of the Godavari from that point is nearly easterly. Tagar must therefore be looked for to the east of Paithan. If the name has undergone Corruption, it must, by the Prakrit law of dropping the initial mutes, be first changed to Tasraura, and thence to Tarur or Terur. Can it be the modern Darur or Dharur in the Nizam's dominions, twenty-five miles east of Grant Duffs Bhir and seventy miles south-east of Paithan?] Besides the Silahara references, the only known Sanskrit notice of Tagar is in a Chalukya copper-plate found near Haidarabad in the Deccan and dated A.D. 612. [Ind. Ant. VI. 75.] AS has been already noticed, the references to Tagar in Ptolemy and in the Periplus point to a city considerably to the east of Paithan, and the phrase in the Periplus, [McCrindle, 126.] 'That many articles brought into Tagar from the parts along the coast were sent by wagons to Broach,' seems to show that Tagar was in communication with the Bay of Bengal, and was supported by the eastern trade, which in later times enriched Malkhet, Kalyan, Bidar, Golkonda, and Haidarabad.

From numerous references and grants the Thana Silaharas seem to have been worshippers of Shiv. [The most marked passages are in a copper-plate of A.D. 1094, where the fifth king Jhanjha is mentioned as having built twelve temples to Shambhu, and the tenth king Arikeshari as having, by direction of his father, visited Someshvaror Somnath, offering up before him the whole earth (Ind. Ant. IX. 37). The Kolhapur Silaharas appear to have been tolerant kings, as one copper-plate records grants to Mahadev, Buddha, and Arhat (Jour. B. B. R. A. S. XIII. 17). Compare Mr. Fleet's Kanarese Dynasties, 103.]

Of Kapardi, the first of the Thana Silaharas, nothing is known except that he claims descent from Jimutvahan. Pulashakti his son and successor, in an undated inscription in Kanheri Gave 78, is mentioned as the governor of Mangalpuri in the Konkan, and as the humble servant of (the Rashtrakuta king) Amoghvarsh. The third king, Pulashakti's son, Kapardi II. was called the younger, laghu. Two inscriptions in Kanheri Caves 10 and 78, dated A.D. 853 and 877, seem to show that he was subordinate to the Rashtrakutas. The son of Kapardi II. was the fourth king, Vappuvanna, and his son was Jhanjha the fifth king. Jhanjha is mentioned by the Arab historian Masudi as ruling over Saimur (Chaul) in A. D. 916. [Prairies d'Or, II. 85.] He must have been a staunch Shaivite, as, according to a Silahara copper-plate of A.D. 1094, he built twelve temples of Shambhu. [Ind. Ant. IX. 35.] According to an unpublished copper-plate in the possession of Pandit Bhagvanlal, Jhanjha had a daughter named Lasthiyavva, who was married to Bhillam the fourth king of the Chandor Yadavs. [The text is, 'Bharya yasya cha Jhanjharajatanaya shri Lasthiyavvavhaya.' A short account of the Chandor Yadavs is given in the Nasik Statistical Account, Bombay Gazetteer, XVI. 185.]

The next king was Jhanjha's brother Goggi, and after him came Goggi's son Vajjaddev. Of the eighth king, Vajjaddev's son Aparajit or Birundakaram, a copper-plate dated 997 (Shak 919) has lately been found at Bher, about ten miles north of Bhiwndi. [The copper-plate records the grant at Shristhanak or Thana, of Bhadane village about eight miles east of Bhiwndi for the worship of Lonaditya residing in (whose temple is in) Lavanatata (Lonad), on the fourth of the dark half of Ashadh (June-July) Shak 919 (A.D.997), as a Dakshinayan gift, that is a gift made on the occasion of the sun beginning to pass to the south. Aparajita's ministers were Sangalaiya and Sinhapaiya. The inscription was written by Sangalaiya's son Annapai. The grant was settled in Thana, Tachcha Shristhanake dhruvam.] It appears from this plate that during Aparajit's reign, his Rashtrakuta overlord Karkaraja or Kakkala was overthrown and slain by the Chalukyan Tailapa, and that Aparajit became independent some time between 972 and 997. [Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji.]

In a copper-plate of A.D. 1094, recording a grant by the fourteenth king Anantdev, Aparajit is mentioned as having welcomed Gomma, confirmed to Aiyapdev the sovereignty which had been shaken, and afforded security to Bhillamammamanambudha? [Ind. Ant. IX. 36. Of Gomma and Aiyapdev nothing is known; of the third name only Bhillam the son-in-law of Jhanjha can be made out.] The next king was Aparajit's son Vajjadadev. The next king Arikeshari, VajjadadeVs brother, in a copper-plate grant dated A.D. 1097, is styled the lord of 1400 Konkan villages. Mention is also made of the cities of Shristhanak, Puri, and Hamyaman probably Sanjan. [Asiatic Researches, I. 357-367. This grant was found in 1787 while digging foundations in Thana fort. Arikeshari's ministers were Vasapaiya and Vardhapaiya. The grant consists of several villages given to a family priest, the illustrious Tikka-paiya son of the illustrious astnologer Chchhinpaiya, an inhabitant of Shristhanak (Thana) on the occasion of a full eclipse of the moon in Kartik (October-November) Shak 939 (A.D. 1017) Pingala Samvatsara. The grant was written by the illustrious Nagalaiya, the great bard, and engraved on plates of copper by Vedapaiya's son Mandharpaiya.] The eleventh king was Vajjadadev's son Chhittarajdev. In a copper-plate dated Shak 948 (A.D. 1025) he is styled the ruler of the 1400 Konkan villages, the chief of which were Puri and Hamyamam. [Ind. Ant. V. 276-281. His ministers were the chief functionary Sarvadhikari the illustrious Naganaiya, the minister for peace and war the illustrious Sihapaiya, and the minister for peace and war for Karnata (Kanara) the illustrious Kapardi. The grant, which is dated Sunday the fifteenth of the bright half of Kartik (October-November) Shak 948 (A.D. 1026) Kshaya Samvatsara is of a field in the village of Sour (the modern Naura two miles north of Bhandup) in the taluka of Shatshashthi (Salsette) included in Shristhanak (Thana). The donee is a Brahman Amadevaiya the son of Vipranodamaiya, who belonged to the Chhandogashakha of the Samved.] The twelfth king was Nagarjun, the younger brother of Chhittarajdev. After him came Nagarjun's younger brother Mummuni or Mamvani, who is mentioned in an inscription dated A.D. 1060 (Shak 982). [Jour. B. B. R. A. S. XII. 329-332. In this inscription, which is in the Ambarnath temple near Kalyan, be is called Mamvanirajadev and his ministers are named Vinta (paiya), Naganaiya, Vakadaiya, Jogalaiya, Padhisena, and Bhailaiya. The inscription records the construction of a temple of Chhittarajdev, that is a temple, the merit of building which counts to Chhittarajdev.] The fourteenth king was Mummuni or Mamvani's son Anantpal or Anantdev, whose name occurs in two grants dated A.D. 1081 and 1096. [The A.D. 1081 grant was found in Vehar in Salsette and the 1096 grant in Kharepatan in Devgad in the Ratnagiri district. The Vehar stone was found in 1881 and records a grant by Anantdev in Shak 1003 (A.D. 1081), the chief minister being Rudrapai. The inscription mentions Ajapalaiya son of "Mataiya of the Vyadika family and the grant of, some drammas to kharasan mandli[?](Pandit Bhagvanlal). The Kharepatan copper-plates were found several years ago and give the names of all the thirteen Silahara kings before Anantdev. Ind. Ant. IX. 33-46.] In the 109G grant he is mentioned as ruling over the whole Konkan 1400 villages, the chief of Which was Pari and next to it Hanjamana probably Sanjan, and as having cast into the ocean of the edge of his sword those wicked heaps of sin, who at a time of misfortune, caused by the rise to power of hostile relatives, devastated the whole Konkan, harassing gods and Brahmans. [This account refers to some civil strife of which nothing is known (Ind. Ant. IX. 41). Anantdev's ministers were the illustrious Nauvitaka Vasaida, Rishibhatta, the illustrious Padhisen Mahadevaiya prabhu, and Somanaiya prabhu. The grant is dated the first day of the bright half of Magh (January-February) in the year Shak 1016 (A.D. 1094), Bhav Samvatsara, It consists of an exemption from tolls for all carts belonging to the great minister the illustrious Bhabhana shreshthi, the son of the great minister Durgashreshthi of Valipavana, probably Palpattana or the city of Pal near Mahad in Kolaba, and his brother the illustrious Dhanamshreshthi. Their carts may come into any of the ports, Shristhanak, Nagapur perhaps Nagothna, Shurparak, Chemuli, and others included within the Konkan 1400. They are also freed from the toll on the ingress or egress of those who carry on the business of norika (?)]

The names of six Silahara kings later than Anantdev have been made out from land-grant stones. As these stones do not give a pedigree, the order and relationship of the kings cannot be determined.

The first of these kings is Aparaditya, who is mentioned in a stone dated A.D. 1138 (Shak 1060). [This stone, which was found in, 1881 at Chanje near Uran in the Karanja petty division, records the grant of a field in Nagum, probably the modern Nagaon about four miles west of Uran, for the merit of his mother Liladevi; and another grant of a garden in Chadiaja (Change) village. This is the Aparaditya ' king of the Konkan,'who is mentioned in Mankha's Shrikanthacharita (a book found by Dr. Buhler in Kashmir and ascribed by him to A.D. 1135-1145) as sending Teja-kanth from Shurparak (Sopara) to the literary congress held at Kashmir, of which details are given in that book. Jour. B. B. R. A. S. XII. Extra Number, 51; cxv.] The next king is Haripaldev, who is mentioned in three stones dated 1149, 1150, and 1153 (Shak 1071, 1072 and 1075). [The 1149 stone is built into the plinth of the back veranda of the house of one Jairam Bhaskar Sonar at Sopara. It records a gift. The name of the king is doubtful. It may be also read Kurpaldev. The 1150 stone was found near Agashi in 1881. It is dated 1st Margshirsh (December-January), in the Pramoda Samvatsara, Shak 1072 (A.D. 1180). Haripal's ministers were Vesupadval, Lakshman prabhu, Padmashivraul, and Visum nayak. The grant is of the permanent income of Shrinevadi in charge of a Pattakil (Patil) named Raja, to the family priest Brahmadevbhatt son of Divakar-bhatt and grandson of Govardhanbhatt, by prince Ahavamalla enjoying the village of Vattarak (Vatar) in Shurparak (Sopara). The witnesses to the grant are Risi Mhatara, head of Vattarak village, Naguji Mhatara, Anantnayak, and Changdev Mhatara. Pandit Bhagvanlal. There is another inscription of Haripaldev on a stone found in Karanjon in Bassein. The inscription is of thirteen lines, which are very hard to read. In the third and fourth lines can be read very doubtfully 'the illustrious Haripaldev, the chief of the Mahamandaleshvaras, adorned with all the royal titles.' The 1153 stone was found near Borivli station in 1882. The inscription is in nine lines, and bears date Shak 1075, Shrimukh Samvatsara and the name of king Haripal.]

The next king is Mallikarjun, of whom two grants are recorded, one from Chiplun in Ratnagiri dated 1156 (Shak 1078), the other from Bassein dated 1160 (Shak 1082). This Mallikarjun seems to be the Konkan king, who was defeated near Balsar by A'mbada the general of the Gujarat king Kumarpal Solanki (A.D. 1143-1174). [The Kumarpal Charitra (A.D. 1170) which gives details of this defeat of Mallikarjun (see below p. 436) describes Mallikarjun's father as Mahanand, and his capital as Shatanandpur ' surrounded by the ocean' (Shatanandapure jaladhiveshtite Mahanando raja). Mahanand is an addition to the Silahara table, but the form appears doubtful and does not correspond with the name of any of the preceding or succeeding kings. ' Surrounded by the ocean' might apply to a town either in Salsette or on Sopara island. But the epithet applies much better to a town on Elephanta island and the similarity in name suggests that Shatanandpur may be Santapur an old name for Elephapta. See Places of Interest, 81-82. Mallikarjnn's Chiplun stone was found in 1880 by Mr. Falle, of the Marine Survey, under a wall in Chiplun (Jour. B. B. R. A. S. XIV. p. xxxv.) It is now in the museum of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. The writing gives the name of Mallikarjun and bears date Shak 1078 (A. D. 1156). His ministers were Nagalaiya and Lakshmanaiya's son Anantugi (Pandit Bhagvanlal). The Bassein stone styles the king ' Shri-Silabara Mallikarjun' and the date given is Shak 1082 (A.D. 1160), Vishva Samvatsara, his ministers being Prabhakar nayak and Anantpai prabhu. The grant is of a field (?) or garden (?) called Shilarvatak in Padhalasak in Katakhadi by two royal priests, for the restoration of a temple. Pandit Bhagvanlal.] Next comes Aparaditya II., of whom there are four land-grant stones, three of them dated, one in 1184 (Shak 1106) and two in 1187 (Shak 1109), and one undated. [The 1184 (Shak 1106) stone was found in February 1882 about a mile south-west of Lonad in Bhiwndi. Of the two Shak 1109 (A.D. 1187) stones, one found near Government House, Parel; records a grant by Aparaditya, the ruler of the Konkan, of 24 dramma coins after exempting other taxes, the fixed revenue of one oart in the village of Mahuli (probably the modern Mahul near Kurla) connected with Shatshashthi, which is in the possession of Anantapai prabhu, for performing the worship by five rites of (the god) Vaidyanath, lord of Darbhavati. The last line of the inscription shows that it was written by a Kayasth named Valig Pandit (Jour. B. B. R. A. S. XII. 335). The second Shak 1109 (A.D. 1187) stone is in the museum of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. It is dated Shak 1109 (A.D. 1187) Vishvavasn Samvatsara, on Sunday the sixth of the bright half of Chaitra (April-May). The grantor is the great. minister Lakshmannayaka son of Bhaskarnayaka, and something is said in the grant about the god Somnath of Surashtra (Ind. Ant. IX. 49). The fourth stone, which bears no date, was found near Kalambhom in Bassein in 1882. It gives the name of Aparaditya, and from the late form of the letters probably belongs to this king. A fifth stone has recently been found near Bassein. The date is doubtful; it looks like Shak 1107 (A.D. 1185). Pandit Bhagvanlal.]

The next king is Keshidev, son of Apararka (Aparaditya II.?), two of whose land-grant stones have been found, one dated 1203 (Shak 1125) the other 1238 (Shak 1161). [The Shak 1125 (A.D. 1203) stone was found in 1881 near Mandvi in Bassein. It records the grant of something for offerings, naivedya, to the god Lakshminarayan in the reign of the illustrious Keshidev. Pandit Bhagvanlal. The Shak 1161 (A.D. 1238) stone was found near Lonad village in Bhiwndi in February 1882. It bears date the thirteenth of the dark half of Magh (February-March) and records the grant by Keshidev the son of Apararka of the village of Brahmapnri, to one Kavi Soman, devoted to the worship of Shompeshvar Mahadev. The inscription describes Brahmapuri as 'pleasing by reason of its Shaiv temples.' A field or hamlet called Majaspalli in Bapgram, the modern Babgaon near Lonad, is granted by the same inscription to four worshippers in front of the image of Shompeshvar. Apararka, Keshidev's father, is probably the Aparaditya (arka and aditya both meaning the sun) the author of the commentary called Apararka on Yajnavalkya's law book the Mitakshara. At the end of the commentary is written: Thus ends the Penance Chapter in the commentary on the Hindu law of Yajnavalkya made by the illustrious Aparaditya of the family of Jimutvahan, the Shilahara king of the dynasty of the illustrious Vidyadhara. Jour. B. B. R. A, S. XII. 335 and Extra. Number, 52. Apararka is cited by an author of the beginning of the thirteenth century. Jour. D. B. R. A. S. IX. 161.]

The next is Someshvar, two of whose land-grant stones have been found, one dated 1249 (Shak 1171) the other 1260 (Shak 1182). [The Shak 1171 (A.D. 1249) stone was found in Ranvad near Uran. In this stone the Silahara king Someshvar grants land in Padivase, village in Uran to purify him from sins. The Shak 1182 (A.D. 1260) stone was found in Chanje also near Uran. It records the grant by the Konkan monarch Someshvar of 162 paruttha (Parthian?) dramrna coins, being the fixed income of a garden in Konthalesthan in Chadiche (Chanje) village in Uran, to Uttareshvar Mahadev of Shri-Sthanak (Thana). The boundary on the west is the royal or high road, rajpath. Someshvar's ministers were Jhampadprabhu, Mainaku, Bebalaprabhu, Peramde Pandit, and Padhigovenaku. Pandit Bhagvanlal.]

Though, with few exceptions, the names of the Thana Silaharas are Sanskrit the names of almost all their ministers and of many of the grantees point to a Kanarese or a Telugu source. They appear to be southerners, and ayyas or high-caste Dravidian Hindus seem to have had considerable influence at their court. [Ind. Ant. IX. 46. This southern element is one reason for looking for Tagar in the Telugu-speaking districts. Ayya the Kanarese for master is the term in ordinary use in the Bombay Karnatak for Jangam or Lingayat priests. The Sarasvat Brahmans of North Kanara are at present passing through the stage, which the upper classes of the North Konkan seem to have passed through about 500 years ago, of discarding the southern ayya for the northern rao.] Kayasths, probably the ancestors of the present Kayasth Prabhus, are also mentioned.

Though their grants are written in Sanskrit, sometimes pure sometimes faulty, from the last three lines of one of their stone inscriptions, the language of the country appears to have been a corrupt Prakrit, the mother of the modern Marathi. [Jour. B. B. R. A. S. XII. 334.] The same remark applies to the names of towns. For, though inscriptions give such Sanskritized forms as Shri-Sthanak, Shurparak, and Hanjaman or Hamyaman, the writings of contemporary Arab travellers show that the present names Thana, Sopara, and Sanjan were then in use. [Elliot and Dowson, I. 24, 27, 30, 34, 38, 60, 61, 66, 67, 77, 85; Masudi's Prairies d'Or, I. 254, 330, 381; III. 47.]

On the condition of the Silahara kingdom the inscriptions throw little light. The administration appears to have been carried on by the king assisted by a great councillor or great minister, a great minister for peace and war, two treasury lords, and sometimes a (chief) secretary. The subordinate machinery seems to have consisted of heads of districts rashtras, heads of sub-divisions vishayas, heads of towns, and heads of villages. [Asiatic Researches, I. 361; Ind. Ant. V. 280; and IX. 38. The name pattakil (modern patil) used in stone inscriptions seems to show that the villages were in charge of headmen.] They had a king's high road, rajpath, passing to the west of the village of Gomvani a little north of Bhandup, following nearly the same line as the present road from Bombay to Thana; and there was another king's high-road near Uran. At their ports, among which Sopara, Thana, Chaul, and perhaps Nagothna are mentioned, a customs duty was levied. The dramma was the current coin. [Dramms, which are still found in the Konkan, are believed by Pandit Bhagvanlal to be the coins of a corrupt Sassanian type which are better known as Gadhia paisa or ass-money. Jour. B. B. R. A. S. XII. 325-328. The Paruttha Drammas mentioned in note 3, p. 427, seem to be Parthian Drammas. Perhaps they are the same as the coins mentioned by Abu-l-fida as Khurasani dirhems, and by Masudi (Prairies d'Or, I. 382) and Sulaiman (Elliot and Dowson, I. 3) as Tatariya or Tahiriyeh dirhems. General Cunningham (Anc. Geog. 313) identifies these Tatariya dirhems with the Seythie or Indo-Sassanian coins of Kabul and north-west India of the centuries before and after Christ, and Mr. Thomas (Elliot and Dowson, I. 4) with the Musalman dynasty of Tahirides who ruled in Khurasan in the ninth century.] The Silaharas seem to have been fond of building. The Muhammadans in the beginning of the thirteenth century and the Portuguese in the sixteenth century destroyed temples and stone-faced reservoirs by the score. The statements of travellers and the remains at Ambarnath, Pelar, Atgaon, Parol, Walukeshvar in Bombay, and Lonad prove that the masonry was of well-dressed close-fitting blocks of stone, and that the sculptures were carved with much skill and richness. Many of them seem to have been disfigured by indecency. [Details of these remains are given under Places of Interest. Walukeshvar in Bombay is the only exception. The remains at Walukeshvar consist of about sixty richly carved stones, pillar capitals, statues, and other temple remains, one of them about 6' x 3', apparently of the tenth century, which lie near the present Walukeshvar temple on Malabar Point. The memorial stones or paliyas, which are interesting and generally spirited, seem almost all to belong to Silahara times. The handsomest specimens are near Borivli in Salsette. Details of the sculptures on memorial stones are given under Places of Interest, Eksar and Shahapur.] Some of the Silaharas seem to have encouraged learning. One of them Aparaditya II. (1187) was an author, and another Aparaditya I. (1138) is mentioned as sending a Konkan representative to a great meeting of learned men in Kashmir.

Musalman writers supplement the scanty information which local sources supply of Thana under the Silaharas.

Trade Centres.

The chief local centres of trade were Thana, which is mentioned as a mart by the Arab writers of the ninth and tenth centuries, as a pretty town in the twelfth century, and as the head-quarters of a chief and a place of much traffic and of many ships at the end of the thirteenth century. [Al Biruni (1020) Elliot, I. 66; Idrisi (1135) Elliot, I. 89; Marco Polo (1290) Yule, II. 330.] Chaul (Saimur) is mentioned as a place of trade and a great city in the tenth and eleventh centuries, and as a large and well-built town in the twelfth. [Masudi (916) Prairies d'Or, II. 85, 86. Ibn Haukal (970) Elliot, I. 38; Idrisi, (1135) Elliot, I. 85.] Sanjan was a mart and great city in the tenth century, and large and prosperous in the twelfth. [Al Istakhir (970) Elliot, I. 27; Idrisi (1135) Elliot, I. 85.] Sopara was a mart in the tenth and eleventh centuries, and one of the chief marts in India in the twelfth. [Masudi (916) Prairies d'Or, I. 381; Al Biruni (1020) Elliot, I. 66; Idrisi (1135) Elliot, I. 85.] The chief ports with which the Thana coast was connected were Kulam or Quilon and Kalikat in Malabar; Broach, Cambay, and Somnath in Gujarat; Dihval in Sindh; Basrah, Obollah, Siraf, Kis, and Ormuz on the Persian Gulf; Kalatu or Kalhat, Dufar, Shehr, and Aden on the east Arabian coast; Socotra at the mouth of the Red Sea; Jidda within the Red Sea; Zaila, Makdashu, Mombaza, and Quilon on the African coast; and Kalah in the Malay Peninsula, Java, Malacca, and China. [These references are taken chiefly from Reinaud's Abu-l-fida for the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, and from Yule's Marco Polo for the thirteenth century. For the Chinese trade with Western India, see Yule's Cathay, I. lxxviii. lxxix. For the position of Kalah see Yule's Cathay, cxci. note 2.]

The articles that formed the trade of the Thana ports were, of Food, rice grown in the Konkan and sent to the Arabian and African ports; [Ibn Haukal (970) Elliot, I. 38; Yule's Marco Polo (1290), II. 377, 381.] salt made in the Thana creeks and sent in bags inland to Devgiri and other Deccan centres; [Briggs' Ferishta, I. 306. The date is 1290.] cocoanuts, mangoes, lemons, and betelnuts and leaves grown in Thana and probably sent inland and by sea to Sindh, the Persian Gulf, and the Arabian coast; [Masudi (916) Reinaud's Memoir Sur. I'Inde, 230; Ibn Haukal (970) Elliot, I. 38; Idrisi (1135) Elliot, I. 85.] dates from Shehr in Arabia and from the Persian Gulf used locally and sent inland; [Yule's Marco Polo, II, 377.] honey produced in Thana; [Ibn Haukal (970) Elliot, I. 38.] and wine from Arabia and Persia apparently little used. [Abu Zaid (880) and Masudi (915) Elliot, I. 7, 20.] Of Spices, pepper, ginger, turbit, cinnamon, and cloves came from Java and Ceylon in Chinese ships and from the Malabar coast. [Yule's Marco Polo, II. 325.] Of articles of Dress, cotton was brought from Khandesh and the Deccan and either worked into cloth or sent raw to Ethiopia. [Yule's Marco Polo, II. 330, 364.] Good cotton cloth of Konkan or Deccan weaving went to Ceylon, the Straits, and China; [Tennent's Ceylon, I. 590, note 7.] and delicate and beautiful fabrics, probably the muslins of Burhanpur and Paithan, went to Kalikat and probably to Persia and Arabia. Silks were made locally and probably brought from Persia and from China. [Yule's Marco Polo, I. 50, 57, 60, 86; II. 186, 189.] There was a large manufacture of laced shoes in Sopara and Sanjan, and a great export of excellent leather, chiefly to Arabia. [Masudi (916) Prairies d'Or, I. 253-254; Yule's Marco Polo, II 328, 330.] Of Precious Stones pearls were found in the creeks near Sopara, [Idrisi (1135) Elliot, I. 85. Pearls are still found in the Bassein creek. See above, p. 55.] and were brought from Travankor, from Ceylon, and from Sofala in Africa; [In 1020 it was believed that the Ceylon oysters had migrated to Sofala in Africa. Al Biruni in Reinaud's Memoir, 228. In Marco Polo's time the Ceylon fisheries had revived. The chief of Lar, or Thana, was noted for his fondness for pearls. Travels. II. 299.] emeralds, equal to the best in brightness and colour but hard and heavy, were exported from Sanjan; [Masudi Prairies d'Or, III. 47. The Brihatsanhita (A.D. 500) mentions the Sopara diamond. Jour. R. A. S. (N. S.) VII. 125.] coral was brought from the Red Sea; [Abu Zaid (880) Elliot, I. 11.] and ivory was brought from Sofala and Madagascar and used locally and sent to the Persian Gulf. [Marco Polo, I. 101; II. 345. Ibn Aluardy (950), Reinaud's Abu-1-fida, cccvii.] Of Drugs and Perfumes, Thana was famous for the drug tabashir, which was made from the inner rind of the bamboo and sent to all marts both east and west; [Idrisi (1135) Elliot, I. 89. Tabashir from the Sanskrit tvak rind and kehir fluid, made from the inner rind of the bamboo, is a white substance like sugar or camphor. It was used as a medicine. In Borneo, in the fourteenth century, pieces of tabashir were let in under the skin to make the body woundproof. Oderic in Yule's Marco Polo, II. 208. Tabashir is the first solid food that the Thana Kolis give their children] brown incense, probably the resin of the gugal, Balsamodendron mukul, perhaps the bdellium of the ancients, was gathered in the Thana forests and probably sent to Arabia and China; [Yule's Marco Polo, II. 330, 332.] white incense was brought from the Arabian coast; sandalwood and ambergris came from Socotra and the African coast; [Yule's Marco Polo, II. 342, 345, 377, 380.] and aloes, camphor, sandal, sapan or brazil wood, lign aloes or eaglewood, and spikenard from Siam, Java, Sumatra, and Borneo, either direct or through Ceylon. [Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, cdxviii; Yule's Marco Polo, II. 229, 325.] Of Tools and House Gear, porcelain came from China for local use and for export to the Deccan, [Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, II. 186, 190.] and swords from the west through Persia. [Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, lviii.] Of articles used as Money, cauries came from the Maldives and from Sofala in Africa, [Maldives Al Biruni (1020) in Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, ccclxxxviii.; Sofala Ibn Aluardy (950), Ditto, cccvii.] dirhams from Khurasan and dinars from Sindh, gold-dust from Sofala, and gold and silver from Malacca, Sumatra, and China. [Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, cccvi. cdxv.; Marco Polo, II: 229, 325.] Of other Metals; iron Was brought from Sofala and made into steel; [Ibn Aluardy (950) Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, cccvii.] copper was brought from Persia and from China in large quantities as ballast, [Yule's Marco Polo, II. 325, 330.] and lead and tin came from Malacca. [Masudi (916) Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, cdxv.; Abu Mohalhal (940) Yule's Cathay, cxci.] Of Timber, teak and bamboos were sent from Sanjan to the Persian Gulf and there used for house-building; [Ibn Khurdadba (900) Elliot, I. 15; Ouseley's Persia, I.175. Biladuri, 850 (Elliot, I. 129) mentions that the largest teak tree ever known was sent from Sindan to the Khalif. But it is doubtful whether this Sindan is not the Kutch Sanjan and the teak. Malabar teak. Idrisi, 1135, (Major's India in XV. Century, xxvi.) calls the Konkan the land of teak, sag, and notices, that teak was used for house building in the Persian Gulf, Besides for house-building the bamboos, were used for spear handles. They were in great demand among the Arabs, and were known as El-Khatif bamboos from the town of that name on the mainland near Bahrein island. Like the Bahrein cotton and teak, which were famous in Persia and Arabia in the century before Christ, these El-Khatif bamboos were Indian, See Rawlinson in J. R. A. S. XII. (New Series), 225.] and fancy woods, such as sandal and brazil wood, were brought from Kalah in the Malay Peninsula. [Mohalhal (940) (Yule's Cathay, cxcii.) has Saimuri wood brought to Saimur or Chaul for sale. This may be sandalwood from the Kanara forests, for which Sopara in early times was famous. But the passage is doubtful. It may refer to Timur in the extreme east whose sandalwood was also famous.] The chief trade in Animals was, towards the close of the period (1290), agreat import of horses from the Persian Gulf and from Arabia. No ships came to Thana without horses, and the Thana chief was so anxious to secure them that he agreed not to trouble the pirates so long as they let him have the horses as his share of the plunder. This great demand for horses seems to have risen from the scare among the Hindu rulers of the Deccan caused by the Musalman cavalry. As many as 10,000 horses a year are said to have been imported. [Yule's Marco Polo, II. 330. The horses came from Aden, Shehr, Dhafar, and Kalat in east Arabia, and from the islands of Kish and Ormuz in the. Persian Gulf. Ditto 276, 377, 380,381.] Of Human Beings, women, eunuchs, and boys are said to have been brought by Jews through the Persian Gulf, [11 Ibn Khurdadba (880) Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, lviii.] and slaves are mentioned as sent from Sofala in Africa. [Ibn Aluardy (950) Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, cccvii.]

Merchants.

The merchants who carried on the Thana trade were local Hindu, Musalman, and Parsi traders, and Hindus and Musalmans from Gujarat and from the Malabar coast. There were also foreign Persians and Arabs, Jews, Europeans, and perhaps a chance Chinaman. The fact noticed by several of the Arab writers of the ninth and tenth centuries, that the language of the Thana ports was Lar, seems to show that, as is still the case in Bombay, the trade tongue of the Thana ports was Gujarati, and the leading traders were probably Gujarat Vanias. [The close connection in general opinion between Gujarat Vanis and Gujarat Brahmans, as in the Gujarat phrase Brahman-Vani for high-caste Hindus, perhaps explains Marco Polo's (Yule's Edition, II. 298-305) Abraiamans from Lar, who were sent to the Madras coast by the king of Lar to get him pearls and precious stones. Their sacred threads (which Gujarat Vanis used to wear), their tenderness of life, their temperance, their trust in omens, and their faithfulness as agents all point to Gujarat Vanis from Thana or from Cambay.] The local Musalman merchants, settlers chiefly from the Persian Gulf, held a strong position. In 916, when Masudi visited Chaul, there were 10,000 Persian and Arab settlers in that city alone. [Masudi's Prairies d'Or, II. 85, 86.] The Balharas or Silaharas were famous for their kindliness to Arabs, allowing them to have mosques and a headman to settle disputes. By the beginning of the tenth century the Parsis seem to have risen to wealth in Sanjan, and to have spread and built fire-temples in Chaul. Hindus, as in former periods, freely left their homes and crossed the seas. Hiwen Thsang, about 650, heard that in Saurashthan probably Ctesiphon in Persia, there were several Brahman and Buddhist monasteries. [Reinaud's Memoir Sur. I'Inde, 157; Julien's Mem. Occ. III. 179.] In the best days of the Bagdad Khalifat (700-900), learned Hindus were much sought for, and many physicians and astronomers were settled at the court of the Khalifs, [Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, xlii; Reinaud's Memoir Sur. l'Inde, 314, 315; Elliot and Dowson, I. 447.] and afterwards (1290) at the court of Arghun the Moghal king of Persia. [Yule's Marco Polo, It 304.] Indian merchants were settled in Arabia and at Kish in the Persian Gulf. [In Arabia Chronique de Tabari, I. 186; Reinaud's Memoir, 157; Biladuri (890) Reinaud's Memoir, 169. In Kish Benjamin of Tudela (1160) Major's India in XV. Century, xlvi.] Of foreign merchants, besides Persians and Arabs, the great carriers at the beginning of the tenth century were Jews. They could speak Persian, Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, and Russian, and passed to India either down the Red Sea or by Antioch and Bagdad through the Persian Gulf. [Ibn Khurdadba (912) Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, lviii. Marco Polo (Yule, II. 299) notices, that among the people of Lar it was usual for foreign merchants, who did not know the ways of the country, to entrust their goods to Abraiaman, probably Gujarat Vani, agents. These agents took charge of the goods' and sold them in the most loyal manner, seeking zealously the profit of the foreigner and asking no commission except what he pleased to give. However unmoral he may be in bargaining, the Gujarat Vani agent is still loyal to his employer.] At the same time, Russian, Spanish, and French merchants also passed through Mesopotamia to India. [Ibn Khurdadba (912) Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, lix. About this time (883) the Indian sea and the west coast of India were first visited by Englishmen, Sighelm or Suitnelm bishop of Shireburn, and Athalstan the ambassadors from Alfred the Great (871-900) to the Indian Christians of St. Thomas. Turner (Anglo-Saxons, 317) is doubtful whether the ambassadors went by the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf. According to Reinaud (Memoir Sur. I'Inde, 210) they probably took ship in the Persian Gulf ana sailed to Quilon. Alfred's wealth of spices and other oriental products suggests that religion was not the only motive that prompted this embassy. Compare Pennant's Outlines of the Globe, I. 164, and Milburn's Oriental Commerce, I. i. On the European connection with West Indian trade in the fourteenth century, see Yule's Cathay, I. cxxxii.-cxxxv.]

Ships.

The ships that carried the trade of the Thana ports were Konkan Gujarat and Malabar vessels, boats built in the Persian Gulf, and perhaps an occasional junk from Java or China. [Tabari (850) Reinaud's Abu-I-fida, ccclxxxii.; Yule's Marco Polo, II. 149, 183.] The Thana or other West Indian ships went to Obollah in the Persian Gulf, to the Arab and African ports, and as far as China. The Arab vessels, some of which were built at Shiraz in the Persian Gulf, were of two kinds, a larger that sailed to Africa, Calcutta, Malacca, and China, and a smaller that went to India. [Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, cdxii.] Marco Polo described the ships of the Persian Gulf, perhaps these were the smaller vessels, as wretched affairs with no iron, bound with wooden bolts, and stitched with twine. They had one mast, one sail, one rudder, and no deck. A cover of hides was spread over the cargo, and on this horses were put and taken to India. It was a perilous business voyaging in one of these ships, and many were lost. [Yule's Marco Polo, I. 102; John of Monte Corvino (1292) Yule's Cathay, I. 218; Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, cdxiii.] Great Chinese junks occasionally visited the Thana ports. [It is possible (Yule's Ed. I. liii.) that Marco Polo's fleet of thirteen Chinese ships passed the stormy months of 1292 (May - September) in Bombay harbour. Polo has left the following details of the ships. They were made of a double thickness of firwood, fastened with good iron nails, and daubed with lime, chopped hemp, and wood oil. They could carry from 5000 to 6000 baskets of pepper. They were divided into some thirteen water-tight compartments, and were fitted with from fifty to sixty cabins in which the merchants lived greatly at their ease. They had large sweeps each pulled by four men and four regular and two extra masts. They had twelve sails and one rudder. The crew varied from 200 to 300 men. Yule's Marco Polo, I. 33; II. 194, 197.] The war ships shown in the Eksar memorial stones of the eleventh or twelfth century are high-peaked vessels with one mast and nine or ten oars aside. [Details of the Eksar memorial stones are given under Places of Interest, Eksar.]

Pirates.

The chief sailors were Hindus, Arabs, and Chinese. European travellers had no high opinion of their skill or courage as seamen. According to John of Monte Corvino (1292) the Persian Gulf mariners were few and far from good. If a ship made her voyage it was by God's guidance, not by the skill of man. [Yule's Cathay, I. 218.] Though all made voyages across the sea, they preferred as much as possible to hug the coast. [The Chinese ships in the seventh and eighth centuries coasted along Western India, by Diu in Kathiawar, and Diul in Sindh to the Euphrates mouth. Yule's Cathay, I. lxxviii.]

Besides storms the Indian seas were full of dangers. Whales, water-spouts, and the giant bird the Ruk kept seamen in unceasing alarm. [Sulaiman in Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, ccclxxix. The Ruk is mentioned by several writers (see Yule's Marco Polo, II. 351). Polo heard that the Ruk lived in the land south of Madagascar, that its quills were twelve feet long, and the stretch of its wings thirty yards. Ditto, 346.] But the worst of all dangers was from pirates. During the greater part of this period the sea swarmed with pirates. In the eighth and ninth centuries, Sangars, Kerks, and Meds sallied from the coasts of Sindh, Cutch, and Kathiawar, and ravaged the banks of the Euphrates and even the coasts of the Red Sea as far as Jidda. [Beladuri (890) Reinaud's Memoir Sur. I'Inde, 181, 200, 283; Elliot, I. 119. The Persians complained of Indian pirates in the sixth century. Ind. Ant. VIII. 336. This apparent increase in the hardihood of Indian pirates and seamen is perhaps the result of the Waves of Central Asian invaders, Skythians, Baktrians, Parthians, and Huns, who from about B.C. 100 to A.D. 550 passed south to the sea coast. Reinaud's Memoir Sur. l'Inde, 104, 124. In 835 fleets of Jaths harassed the mouths of the Tigris. The whole strength of the Khalifs had to be called out against them. Reinaud's Memoir Sur. l'Inde, 200.] In the seventh century the islands of Bahrein in the Persian Gulf were held by the piratical tribe of Abd-ul-Kais, [Elliot and Dowson, I. 422.] and, in the ninth century (880), the seas were so disturbed that the Chinese ships carried from 400 to 500 armed men and supplies of naphtha to beat off the pirates. [Reinaud's Abu-l-fida, cdxii.; Reinaud's Memoir Sur. l'Inde, 200.] Towards the close of the thirteenth century Marco Polo found Bombay harbour haunted by sea-robbers. [Yule's Marco Polo, II. 330.] From the Malabar and Gujarat ports numbers of corsairs, as many as a hundred vessels, stayed out the whole summer with their wives and children. They stretched, five or six miles apart, in fleets of from twenty to thirty boats, and whenever one caught sight of a merchant vessel, he raised a smoke, and all who saw, gathered, boarded, and plundered the ship, but let it go hoping again to fall in with it. [Yule's Marco Polo, II. 325. The Gujarat pirates seem to have been worse than the Malabar pirates. They purged the merchants to find whether they had swallowed pearls or other precious stones. Ditto, 328.] Socotra was still frequented by pirates, who encamped there and offered their plunder for sale. [Yule's Marco Polo, II. 341.]

Balharas.

While its local rulers were the Silaharas, the overlords of the Konkan, to whom the Silaharas paid obeisance during the latter part of the eighth and the ninth centuries, were the Rashtrakutas of Malkhet, sixty miles south-east of Sholapur. [Like the Silaharas the Rashtrakutas seem to have been a Dravidian tribe. Rashtra is believed (Dr. Burnell in Fleet's Kanarese Dynasties, 31-32) to be a Sanskrit form of Ratta or Reddi the tribe to which the mass of the people in many parts of the Deccan and Bombay Karnatak belong.] Their power for a time included a great part of the present Gujarat where their headquarters were at Broach. [Ind. Ant. VI. 145.] The Arab merchant Sulaiman (A.D. 850) found the Konkan (Komkam) under the Balhara, the chief of Indian princes. The Balhara and his people were most friendly to Arabs. He was at war with the Gujar (Juzr) king, who, except in the matter of cavalry, was greatly his inferior. [Sulaiman in Elliot, I. 4.] Sixty years later Masudi (916) makes the whole province of Lar, from Chaul (Saimur) to Cambay., subject to the Balhara, whose capital was Mankir (Malkhet) the 'great centre' in the Kanarese-speaking country about 640 miles from the coast. [Prairies d'Or, I. 254,381.] He was overlord of the Konkan (Kemker) and of the whole province of Lar in which were Chaul (Saimur), Thana, and Supara, where the Lariya language was spoken. The Balhara was the most friendly to Musalmans of all Indian kings. He was exposed to the attacks of the Gujar (Juzr) king who was rich in camels and horses. The name Balhara was the name of the founder of the dynasty, and all the princes took it on succeeding to the throne. [Prairies d'Or, I. 254, 383; II. 85; Elliot and Dowson, I. 24, 25. Tod (Western India, 147, 160) held that Balhara meant the leaders of the Balla tribe, whose name appears in the ancient capital Valabhi (A.D. 480), probably the present village of Valleh about twenty miles west of Bhavnagar in Kathiawar. Elliot (History, I. 354) has adopted Tod's suggestion, modifying it slightly so as to make Balhara stand for the Ballabhi, or Ballabh, Rai. Reinaud (Memoir Sur. l'Inde, 145) explained Balkan by Malvarai lord of Malwa, and Mr. Thomas has lately adopted the view that Balhara is Bara Rai, or great king, and holds that his capital was Monghir in Behar (Numismata Orientalia, Vol III.) The objection to these views is, as the following passages show, that the two Arab travellers who knew the country of the Balharas, Sulaiman (850) and Masudi (915), agree in placing it in the Konkan and Deccan. Sulaiman (Elliot and Dowson, I. 4) says the Balhara's territory begins at the Komkam or Konkas. Masudi says (Prairies d'Or, I. 177, 381), the capital of the Balhara is Mankir, the sea-board Saimur or Chaul, Sopara, and Thana, and again (I. 383) the Balhara's kingdom is called the Konkan (Kemker). Again the Balhara of Mankir ruled in sindan, sanjan in north Thana, and the neighbourhood of Cambay in Gujarat (Ditto, 1. 254; III. 47. This Gujarat power of the Rashtrakutas at the opening of the tent century is proved by local inscriptions. Ind. Ant. VI. 145) Finally Lar, or the North Konkan coast, was under the Balhara, and Masudi in 916 (H. 304) visited saimur, or Chaul, one of the chief of the Balhara towns (Ditto, II. 85), which was then under a local prince named Jandja. This is the Silahara Jhanja. (See. above, p. 424). Idrisi (1185) is the only authority who places the seat of Balhara power in Gujarat (Jaubert, I.176; Elliot,I. 87, 88). The Anhilvada sovereigns had before this (Ras Male, 62) adopted the title of King of Kings, raja of rajas, and Idrisi seems to have taken for granted that this title was Balhara, whieh Ibn Khurdadba (912), who never was in India, had, by mistake, translated king of kings (Elliot, I. 13). The true origin of the title Balhara, that it was the name of the founder of the dynasty, is given by Masudi (Prairies d'Or, I. 162), and neither Sulaiman (850), Al Istakhir (951), nor Ibn Haukal (970), all of whom visited India, translate Balhara, king of kings (see Elliot, I. 4, 27,34). The details of the Balhara kings given by Sulaiman, Masudi, Al Istakhir, and Ibn Hankal, show that their territory began from the Konkan and stretched across India, and that their capital was Mankir, inland in the Kanarese (Kiriah) speaking country. These details point to the Rashtrakutas of Malkhet who were overlords of the Konkan from about 750 to 970. At the same time the Rashtrakutas seem to have BO claim to tho title Balhara. As far as present information goes the name never appears as one of the titles of the dynasty, not even, as a title of one of the Kings. Dr. Buhler (Ind Ant. VI. 64) has suggested that the proper form of Balhara is Bhattaraka or lord; but so extreme a change seems hardly possible. It seems more likely that Balhara, or Al Balhara as it is written, should be read Al Silshars the difference between the two words disappearing in a manuscript written without diacritical points. The Silaharas were then the rulers of the Konkan and, as Masudi states, the title silahara is the name of the founder of tha dynasty. None of the Musalman writers, who Mention the Balhara, seems to have visited either the Silahara or the Rashtrakuta capital. To strangers, whom informants were coast-town merchants, confusion between the local rulers and their Deccan overlords was not unnatural. Tha identification of Balhara with Silahara has been suggested by Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji.] When Masudi (916) was in the Konkan, the province of Lar was governed by Jhanja the fifth of the Silahara rulers. [Praires d, Or, II. 85. Jhaniha (see above, p. 424) is the fifth Silahara king.]

Gujarat Solankis, 943-1150.

For fifty years more (950) the Rashtrakutas continued overlords of the Konkan, and of Lar as far north as Cambay. [See Al Istakhir (950) and Ibn Haukal (943-976) in Klliot, I. 27, 34.] Soon after the beginning of the reign of Mulraj (943-997), the Chaulukya or Solanki ruler of North Gujarat, his dominions were invaded from the south by Barap, or Dvarap, the general of Tailap II. (978-997) the Deccan Chalukya who afterwards (980) destroyed the power of the Rashtrakutas. Barap established himself in South Gujarat or Lat, and, according to Gujarat accounts, towards the close of Mulraj's reign, was attacked and defeated, though after his victory Mulraj withdrew north of the Narbada. In this war Barap is said to have been helped by the chiefs of the islands, perhaps a reference to the Thana Silaharas. [Ind. Ant. V. 317; VI. 184; Has Mala, 38, 46.] It appears from a copper-plate lately (1881) found in Surat, that, after Mulraj's invasion, Barap and four successors continued to rule Lat till 1050. [The kings are Barappa, who is described as having obtained Latdesh; (2) Agniraj (Gongiraj?), who freed and reconquered the land encroached on by his enemies;(3) Kirtiraj, who became the king of Latdesh; (4) Vatsaraj, the opening part of whose reign and the closing part of whose father's reign were occupied in foreign wars; (6) Trilochanpal (1050) the grantor, whose reign also was disturbed by wars. There are three copper-plates, the middle plate inscribed on both sides and the outer plates on the inner sides. They are well preserved and held by a copper-ring bearing upon it the royal seal, stamped with a figure of the god Shir. The date is the fifteenth of the dark half of Paush (January-February) Shak 972 (A.D. 1000). The plate states that the king bathed at Agastitirth, the modern Bhagvadandi twenty miles northwest of Sunt, and. granted the village of Erathana, modern Erthan, six miles northeast of Olpad in Surat. Mr. Harilal H Dhruva. A list of references to Lat Desh in given in Bombay Gazetteer, XII. 57 note 1.]

Between the overthrow of the power of Malkhet (A.D. 970) and the establishment of the overlordship of Gujarat (A.D. 1151), the Silahara rulers of the North Konkan claim independence, and, during part at least of this time, Thana was the capital of the Konkan. [Reshid-ud-din in Elliot, I. 60. This independence of the Silaharas is doubtful. In an inscription dated 1034 Jayasimha the fourth western Chalukya (1018-1040) claims to have seized the seven Konkans. Bom. Arch. Sur. Kep. III. 34; Fleet's Kanarese Dynasties, 44.] Between the death of Mulraj (997) and the succession of Bhimdev I. (1022-1072), the power of Gujarat did not increase. Bnt Bhimdev took the title of Raja of Rajas, and spent most of his reign in spreading his power northwards and in a great contest with Visaldev of Ajmir. [Ras Mala, 62, 70-75.] Neither Bhimraj nor his successor Karan (1072-1094) advanced his borders to the south. Nor does Sidhraj (1094-1143), the glory of the Gujarat Chalukyas, though he spread his arms over so much of the Deccan as to fill with fear the chief of Kolhapur, seem to have exercised control over the Konkan. Idrisi (1135), whose details of Anhilvada (Nahrwara) seem to belong to Sidhraj's reign, calls him King of Kings. [Idrisi calls the ruler of Nahrwala Balhara. He says the title means King of Kings. He seems to have heard from Musalman merchants that Sidhraj had the title of King of Kings, and concluded that this title was Balhara which Ibn Khurdadba (912) had translated king of kings, apparently without reason. Jaubert's Idrisi, I, 177; Elliot, I. 75, 93.] He shows how wealthy and prosperous Gujarat then was, [Compare Ras Mala, 188, 189, 192; Tod's Western India, 156.] but gives no information about the extent of Sidhraj's power. Idrisi's mention of Thana (Bana) seems to show that it was unconnected with Gujarat, and this is borne out by the account of Kumar Pal's (1143-1174) invasion of the Konkan. Hearing that Mallikarjun (a Silahara) king of the Konkan, the son of king Mahanand who was ruling in the seagirt city of Shatanand, had adopted the title of Grandfather of Kings, Rajapitamaha, Kumar Pal sent his general Ambad against him. [Ras Mala, 145. for the mention of the Silaharas as one of the thirty-six tribes subject to Kumar Pal, see Tod's Western India, 181,188.] Ambad advanced as far as the Kaveri (Kalvini) near Navsari, crossed the river, and in a battle fought with Mallikarjun on the south bank of the river, was defeated and forced to retire. A second expedition was more successful. The Kaveri was bridged, Mallikarjun defeated and slain, his capital taken and plundered, and the authority of the Anhilvada sovereign proclaimed. Ambad returned laden with gold, jewels, vessels of precious metals, pearls, elephants, and coined money. He was received graciously and ennobled with Mallikarjun's title of Grandfather of Kings. [The title 'Grandfather of Kings, Rajapitamaha.' occurs along with their other titles in three Silahara copper-plates (As. Res. I. 359; Jour. P. A. S. [O. S.] V. 186; Ind. Ant. IX. 35, 38). Mr. Wathen suggests, 'Like a Brahmadeva among Kings,' that is ' First among Kings,' and Mr. Teiang, while translating the phrase as 'The grandfather of the king. suggests the same meaning as Mr. Wathen. The Kumar Pal Charitra, which gives a detailed account of this invasion, has the following passage in explanation of the term Rajapitamaha: ' One day while the Chalukva universal ruler (Kumar Pal) was sitting at ease, he heard a bard pronounce Rajapitamaha as the title of Mallikarjun king of the Konkan' (in the verse), 'Thus shines King Mallikarjun who bears the title Rajapitamaha, having conquered all great kings by the irresistible might of his arms and made them obedient to himself like grandsons.'] The Konkan is included among the eighteen districts, and the Silaharas are mentioned among the thirty-six tribes who were subject to Kumar Pal. But Gujarat power was shortlived, if the Silahara ruler of Kolhapur is right in his boast that in 1151 he replaced the dethroned kings of Thana. [J. B. B. E. A. S. XIII. 16. The local Bimbakhyan, or Bimb's story, and the traditional rule of Bimb Raja at Bombay. Mahim seem to be founded on the conquest of the coast tract by the Solanki rulers of Gujarat in 1150. The stories have been lately re-written, the names changed to suit modern Maratha names, and much of the value of the stories destroyed. The people generally' believe that Bimb was a prince of Paithan near Ahmadnagar. But this seems to be due to a confusion between Paithan and Patan or Anhilvada Patan, the Solanki capital of Gujarat. In the Population. Chapter reasons have been stated for holding that the Prabhus, Pachkalshis, and Palshi Brahmans are of Gujarat or part-Gujarat origin. The question is doubtful, as some of the references to Bhim, in copies of local grants, belong to the latter part of the thirteenth century (1286-1292), when the Devgiri Yadavs were the Overlords of the North Konkan. The position of Bimbsthan, apparently the old name of Bhiwndi, is also in favour of a Deccan Bimb. A good account of the old legends-is given in Trans. Bom. Geog. Soc. I. 132-136]

Devgiri Yadavs. 1270-1300.

During at least the latter part of the thirteenth century the North Konkan seems to have been ruled by viceroys of the Devgiri Yadavs, whose head-quarters were at Karnala and Bassein. Two grants dated 1273 and 1291, found near Thana, record the gift of two villages Anjor in Kalyan and Vavla in Salsette (called Shatshasthi in the inscription), by two Konkan viceroys of Ramchandradev (1271 -1309) the fifth Yadav ruler of Devgiri. Two stone inscriptions dated 1280 (S. 1202) and 1288 (S. 1210), recording gifts by Ramchandradev's officers have also recently (1882) been found near Bhiwndi and Bassein. [J. R. A. S. [O. S,], II. 388; V. 178-187. The text of one of the inscriptions runs, ' Under the orders of Shri Ram this Shrikrishnadev governs the whole province of the Konkan' This would show that the Yadavs had overthrown the Silaharas and were governing the Konkan by their own viceroys about 1270. How long before this the Yadavs had ceased to hold the Konkan as overlords and begun to govern through viceroys is not difficult to determine, as the Silahara Someshvara calls himself king of the Konkan in 1260. For the Bhiwndi (Kalvir) and Bassein stones recently found, see Places of Interest, Appendix A.]

In the thirteenth century, while the Devgiri Yadavs held the inland parts of the district, it seems probable that the Anhilvada kings kept a hold on certain places along the coast. [Ras Mala, 188, 189. They seem to have had considerable power at sea. Bhim-dev II. (1179-1225) had ships that went to Sindh, and Arjundev (1260) had a Musalman admiral. Tod's Western India, 207; Ras Mala, 161.] At the close of the thirteenth century Gujarat, according to Rashid-ud-din (1310), included Cambay, Somnath, and Konkan-Thana. But his statements are confused, [Elliot, I. 67. In another passage of the same section he makes Konkan-Thana separate from Gujarat.] and, according to Marco Polo, in his time (1290) there was a prince of Thana. who was tributary to no one. The people Were idolators with a language of their own. The harbour was harassed by corsairs, with whom the chief of Thana had a covenant. [Yule's Marco Polo, II. 330. More than two hundred years later Barbosa complains of the same piratical tribe at the port of Thana. 'And there are in this port (Tanamayambu) small vessels of rovers like watch-boats, which go out to sea, and, if they meet with any small ship less strong than themselves, they capture and plunder it, and sometimes kill their crews.' Barbosa's East Africa and Mar, 69.] There were other petty chiefs on the coast, naiks, rajas or rais, who were probably more or less dependent on the Anhilvada kings.