PLACES OF INTEREST

KHOPVILI.

Khopivli, formerly known as Campoli, is a small village of 515 people, on the south-east frontier of the district, on the Poona-panvel high road five miles south-east of Khalapur. The Peninsula railway has a branch to Khopivli which is open for traffic during the fair weather. Khopivli is at the foot of the Bor pass incline, about 1600 feet below Khandala on the crest of the Sahyadris.

The place is chiefly remarkable for a fine reservoir 18½ acres in area, and a temple to Mahadev built by the Peshwa's celebrated minister, Nana Fadnavis (1790-1800). [There was also a bread-house, or annachhatra, to feed all comers. The building has been pulled down, but the huge grinding stones lie close by.] In 1779 the Bombay expedition, which was to have set Raghoba in power in Poona but ended in the unfortunate convention of Vadgaon, had, on their way to Poona, several skirmishes with the Marathas at Khopivli, in which two English officers were killed. [Bombay in 1781, 176.] In 1804 Lord Valentia described it as close to the foot of the pass, surrounded by forest-covered hills with a very fine reservoir and a neat temple. [Travels, II. 111.] In 1825 Bishop Heber called it a pretty village with a fine reservoir and temple of Mahadev, [Narrative, II. 200.] and, in 1831, Mrs. Wilson described it as finely situated commanding a picturesque view of the Poona road. [Mrs. Wilson's Life, 224.]