Mahad

Mahad Mahad, north latitude 18° 6' and east longitude 73° 29', the headquarters of the Mahad sub-division, had, in 1881, 6804 people and a municipal income of £285 (Rs. 2850). The town lies on the right bank of the Savitri river thirty-four miles east of Bankot, just above its meeting with the Gandhari. At high water spring tides vessels drawing less than nine feet, and, at all times of the tide, canoes can pass a mile above Mahad. The sixteen miles above the Ratnagiri town of Mahapral are extremely difficult, and a small boat, if it fails to leave Mahad within an hour of high water, will hardly get further than Dasgaon a distance of about eight miles. The ten miles below Dasgaon are also very difficult. Sailing boats often spend three or four days in working from Mahapral to Mahad. The eighteen miles west of Mahapral can be passed at all times by vessels of five tons (20 khandis). Steam launches, not go further than Dasgaon. Above Dasgaon boats drawing two feet six inches can go to the Unhale hot springs at low water spring tides. From here navigation is tidal, but at high water spring tides boats drawing six feet can go a mile above Mahad. Almost across the river, opposite Mahad, is a bar of rock and the channel is narrow and under the left bank. In the pool above Mahad there is never less than eight feet of water. [Mr. W. F. Sinclair, C.S.] The limit of the tide is about two miles above Mahad. To improve inland communication, and give an impetus to inland traffic from Mahad and other Kolaba marts, a railway has been suggested from Kalyan to Mahad a distance of about ninety miles, with stations at Taloja, Panvel, and Apte in Thana, and at Pen, Vashi, Nagothna, Kolad or Roha Road, Mangaon, Goregaon, Dasgaon, and Mahad in Kolaba. [Mr. W. F. Sinclair, 20th January 1983.] The 1881 census showed 1202 houses and 6804 people, of whom 5695 were Hindus, 1086 Musalmans, three Beni-Israels, and twenty Others. History. Mahad is said to have been once known by the name of Mahikavati. [Mr. A. T. Crawford, C.S. At the junction of the Savitri and the Gandhari is a mosque still known as the Maika or Mahika mosque

which occupies the site of and is probably built of the stones of, a Hemadpanti temple. The mosque seems to have been turned into a battery and to have undergone a cannonade from down stream. Mr. W. F. Sinclair. C.S.] Its situation at the head of the main channel of the Savitri, and the group of early (about A.D. 100) Buddhist caves in Pale hill about two miles to the north-west of the town, and two groups equally old at Kol about a mile to the south, mark Mahad as an early trade centre. The caves are considered to date from the first to the third century after Christ, and the town, or more properly the suburb, of Pale, seems to be mentioned in Ptolemy (A.D. 150) as Balipatna, and in the Periplus, about a hundred years later, as Palaipatmai. [Bertius' Ptolemy, 198; McCrindle's Periplus, 129] In 1588 De Castro mentioned it as a large town with a great trade in wheat. The Savitri was also called the river of honey, because honey was a great article of trade. [Dom Joao de Castro Primeiro Roteiro da Costa da India, 41.] During the latter part of the seventeenth century its nearness to Raygad, Shivaji's capital, increased the importance of Mahad. Shivaji often lived at Mahad. In 1651, a party of troops in the interest of the Moghals and under the command of one Baji Shamraj, attempted to make Shivaji prisoner, but he was informed of the design, and marched against them and put them to flight. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 65.] In 1656, by building the fort of Pratapgad just beyond the southern limit of Kolaba, Shivaji gained command of the pass leading from the Deccan to Mahad, and secured a retreat to the Konkan. In 1682, when Dadaji Raghunath retired defeated from Janjira, the Sidi made constant inroads into the neighbourhood of Mahad, destroying cows, carrying off women, and burning villages. He even forced his way into the town of Mahad and captured Dadaji Raghunath's wife. [Ditto 139.] In 1771 Forbes found Mahad a fortified large and populous town. [Forbes Oriental Memoirs, I.200.] In 1796 Nana Fadnavis, unable to prevent the accession of Bajirav, fled to the Konkan, and at Mahad collected an army of 10,000 men. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 525; Nairne's Konkan, 107.] In the month of October 1796 Nana concluded a treaty with the Nizam on the one hand and the English on the other. Under this treaty, which is known as the treaty of Mahad, Bajirav was enthroned as Peshwa and Nana Fadnavis returned to Poona as minister. In 1802 when Holkar occupied Poona, Bajirav fled with from 6000 to 8000 men to Raygad and thence to Mahad, and took refuge in the fortress of that place. [Maxwell's Life of Wellington, I.119; Grant Duff's Marathas, 528, 558.] From Mahad Bajirav despatched letters to the Bombay Government, requesting that, ships

might be sent to convey him and his followers to Bombay. He was anxious to send his family, and the families of his attendants, to Suvarndurg in Ratnagiri; but the comnand-ant of the fort refused to receive them. Khanderav Rastia, the governor or sarsubhedar of the Konkan, joined him at Mahad from Bassein. On hearing that Holkar was on his way down the Par pass, the Peshwa fled to Suvarndurg, while some of his followers took refuge in the English factory at Fort Victoria or Banket. [Grant Duff's Maratha, 558, in Nairna's Konkan, 107.] On the 24th of April 1818 the force under Lieutenant-Colonel Prother seems to have occupied Mahad without opposition. In 1820 Mahad is described as standing at the foot of a principal pass through the mountain leading to Poona, and as the emporium of the Bankot river where all merchandise whether leaving or entering the river was embarked. There was a large Vanjari traffic, caravans of pack-bullocks coming from the Deccan to be laden with rice and salt [Revenue Diary 142, P. 2572.] Mahad has still a large export and import trade. The imports are fresh and salted fish from Malabar, Goa, and the South Konkan, fresh fish from the North Konkan, and dates, sugar, iron, piece goods, kerosine oil, and cloth from Bombay. The exports are onions, garlic, coriander, potatoes, groundnuts, molasses, turmeric, linseed oil, and myrobalans to Bombay. Considerable quantities of rice go east through the Varanda pass to the Deccan and also south to Ratnagiri. Particulars collected during the present fair season (1883) showed an average daily traffic of about twenty-five tons down stream and about eighteen up stream. The average yearly trade during the five years ending 1881-82 was valued at £83,747 (Rs. 8,37,470), of which £34,394 (Rs. 3,43,940) were exports and £49,353 (Rs. 4,93,530) were imports. [The details are: Exports, 1877-78, £42,382; 1878-79 £44,373 187980, £44,092; 1880-81, £21,562; 1881-82, £19,560. Imports, 187778. £66,509; 1878-79, £52,421; 1879-80, £55,559; 1880-81, £38,302:1881-82, £33,973] Besides the sub-divisional establishments, Mahad has a subordinate judge's court, a dispensary, a library, and two vernacular schools for boys. Pale village, almost a suburb of Mahad about two miles northwest, has a group of twenty-nine Buddhist caves of about the first or second century after Christ. Pale Caves.

Pale is probably the Balipatna [This account of the Pile and Kol caves is prepared from Dr. Burgess notes in Bombay Archeological Survey, Separate Pamphlet, X. 1-3 and Report, IV. 18-19.] of Ptolemy (A.D. 150) and the Palaipatmai of the Periplus (A.D. 247). [Bertius' Ptolemy; 198; McCrindle's Pariplus, 128. The Patna of Ptolemy and Patmai of the Periplus are the Sanskrit Pattan a city.] Pale next appears as Valipavana or Palipattana, in a copperplate of Anantdev, the fourteenth prince of the northern Silahara family (A.D. 1094) where it is mentioned as the native place of the chief minister. No further mention of Pale has been traced till 1774, when Forbes wrote: "The excavated mountain is about a mile from the town of Marre (Mahad), of great height and difficult ascent. Like the excavations at Salsette and Elephanta there are temples and habitations hewn out of the solid rock. The principal temple is sixty feet long, thirty broad, and ten in height; the roof and sides are not ornamented, but at the termination is a large image, seated on a throne with a smaller figure on each side, and two mutilated animals under his feet; the light is admitted through a range of pillars forming a grand entrance. "[Oriental Memoirs, I.201. Nicbuhr's (1764) reference (Voyage on Arabic II. 33. 34) to a great temple or twenty-five houses with rooms cut in the rock not far from Port Victoria or Bankot probably refers to the Pale caves.] The caves are cut in the almost perpendicular scarp of the hill and face east. The first twenty are in the upper scarp and the remaining eight about thirty feet lower. Beginning from the south end of the series, Cave I is the largest and perhaps one of the latest of the group. Its veranda, fifty-three feet by eight, is supported by six pillars and two end pilasters. Of these only the south pilaster and the next pillar have been finished; the others are merely blocked out square masse. The finished pilaster has a narrow band of leaf ornament at the top, and another similar band about three feet from the bottom, with a line of beads or flowers over the lower band. The finished pillar is square at the base to a height of three feet; above this, is an eight-sided band six inches broad, then three feet two inches of the shaft is sixteen-sided, returning through another eight-sided back to the square form. Three doors and two windows in the back wall of the veranda open into a large hall fiftyseven feet wide along the front wall and sixty-two feet at the back, by about thirty-four feet deep, with an average height of ten feet four inches. Round all four sides of the hall runs a low bench. In the south wall four cells have been begun but none of them are finished. In the

back wall, at each end, are the beginnings of four more cells, while in the centre is the entrance to the shrine, with a window at each side. The shrine measures twenty feet by seventeen and has a square mass of rock in the centre rising to the roof. On the front of this mass of rock is sculptured an image of Buddha seated with wheel and deer beneath, fly-whisk bearers at his side, and demigods or vidyadharas above. On the south and north faces are other fly-whisk bearers and On the back face is roughly blocked out the form of a sitting Buddha. Everything about this cave shows that it was left unfinished. In front of cave I. at a lower level are three reservoirs, each about fourteen or fifteen feet square. Two have small square entrances, the third is perhaps partly broken. Cave II. is close to the north above cave I. It has two pillars in front of a small veranda, 15' 7" broad by 4' 3" deep, which gives access to a small unfinished cell, 7' square and 5' 6" high. Cave III. is close to cave II. It has been very carefully finished, and is the most perfect of the series. In front is a raised veranda, beyond the front of which the rock projects a good deal giving ample shade. In the veranda are two pillars with square bases and eight-sided shafts. At the right end of the veranda is an irregular recess containing a seat beaded and with pilasters. There are beaded seats also inside the veranda curtain. The wall of the veranda has been plastered and panelled in the Muhammadan window pattern. A door, with sockets for a wooden frame, in the back wall of the veranda leads to a chamber, 17' long by 8' 6" deep and 7' high. The chamber has a stone bench in the right end, the edge of which is beaded and at the ends are moulded pilasters. From the right side of the court of this cave, in front, stairs led to cave IV. and to the reservoirs in front of cave I. These stairs are now broken away. Caves IV. and V. are at a considerably lower level. Cave IV. has two broken pillars in front of the veranda. A door in the back wall, with sockets for posts in the floor and ceiling, leads into a small room (12' x 7' x 6' 6") and cell behind (6' x 6' 9"). On the north or right wall was a large inscription about 3' 10" x 2' but only a few letters here and there can be traced. Cave V. consists of a veranda and a hall. The veranda, 15' 1" broad and 4' 9" deep, has two eight-sided columns with bases 20" square and two square pilasters with the usual double-horn ornament. The veranda wall has, been hewn very smooth and there is a curtain between the pillars and pilasters with bench inside. A door in the back wall of the veranda with sockets leads to a rough clay-plastered hall, 15' 6" square and 7' 3' high. An 18" high bench with plain beading runs round three sides. Cave VI. is a recess in the rock, perhaps an

unfinished cave, on about the same level as the cisterns in front of cave I. Cave VII. is a larger roughly finished cell with veranda, with a cistern to the left of the front, half filled with mud. Cave VIII. is a larger irregular excavation with a veranda. Cave IX. is a chaitya or temple-cave and is one of the largest of the group. It consists of a veranda, a middle hall with cells in the side walls, and a shrine with a daghoba behind. The two pillars in front of the veranda are destroyed, but part of the capital of one still attached to the ceiling and portions of the bases, show that they were of the old pot or lota shape like the pillars in Nasik cave X. and in some of the Junnar caves. There is also a pilaster on either side with the usual double-horn ornament. The hall, 27' wide 23' 9" deep and 9' 2'' high, has a bench running along the back and side walls. The right and left walls of the half have in each a row of three cells with grooved doors and benches along their back wall. In the back wall are the shrine in the middle and on either side a cell with bench along the back wall. The shrine is a large recess about 15' square, with in front of it large holes as if for a screen. The shrine once contained a relic-shrine, or daghoba of which the only traces are the umbrella left in the roof and the rough surface of the floor. On the back wall is an inscription of four lines and two letters which from the form of the letters appears to be of about A.D. 190. It has been translated: 'To the perfect one prince! Kanabhoa Vhenupalita's dwelling-cave, chapel and eight (8) cells; this much work is endowed, and two (2) cisterns on each side of the dwelling-cave also a path connected with the dwelling cave, is presented. This is the meritorious gift of that Kumara (Prince) [Kanabhoa Vhenupalita is SK. Kanabhoja Vishnupalita. The titles Kumar's and Kanabhoja show that Vishnupalita was of royal family. Kanabhoja, corresponding to the Mahabhoja of the Kuda inscriptions, was probably the title of a family which ruled in and about Mahad or Palepattan.] Cave X is south from and above the level of cave IX. In front of the veranda which is 15' 7" long and 3' 11" broad, are two eight-sided pillars with end pilasters. A door, with a small square window on either side, leads into a hall 15' 3"x 6' 9", which has a cell behind it. Cave XI. is like cave IX, but, between the pillars and pilasters, is a low curtain carved on the outside with the rail pattern, but much destroyed. Caves XII. and XIII. have each two eight-sided pillars and two, pilasters in front of the veranda and inside an oblong hall with a stone bench.

Cave XIV. is under cave XIII. and is similar in plan to cave X. Cave XV. consists of a veranda and a cell 10' x 6' 9". Cave XVI is a recess 4' deep containing a relic-shrine or daghoba in half relief, 6' 2" high and 4' in diameter. The plinth of the relic-shrine is surrounded at the upper edge by a plain rail pattern, and the tee is crowned by five thin slabs or plates, the top plate touching the roof. Cave XVII. consists of a veranda 21' 3'' long and 5' 2" broad with two broken eight-sided pillars. A door in the back wall of the veranda, with a large square window on each side, leads into a hall 18' 8" deep by 15' broad and 8' high. The hall has a bench along the back and side walls and a cell off the east end of the south wall. Cave XVIII. is unfinished; the veranda has two square' pillars blocked put, but the hall is only begun. Cave XIX. is similar to caves IV. and XIV.; Cave XX. is in the same style, but the cell is unfinished; Cave XXI. is only the beginning of a cave. In the lower scarp, about thirty feet below caves I-XXI, is a group of eight caves. Cave XXII., at the south end of the group, is a small room or shrine 9'4" deep by 8' 5" broad and 7' high, with a plain relicshrine in the middle, 4' 8" in diameter, the top of its capital reaching to the roof. Round the upper edge of the plinth of the relic-shrine is a band of rail pattern. On the north wall is carved a figure of Buddha, seated with dangling legs with attendant fly-whisk bearers, and demigods, the latter holding a crown or mitre over his head. Over the demigods, a flower wreath or torana comes out of the mouths of alligator on either side. These images are a later addition, the work of Mahayana Buddhists of about the fifth or sixth century. In the south wall is a cell with a stone bench. Cave XXIII. is a plain veranda with a cell containing a stone bench. Cave XXIV. is a copy of cave XI with the rail pattern on the outer side of the veranda curtain. The veranda is 15'2'' long and 4'9" broad, and the hall, which has a square window on each side of the door, is 14' 10" x 6' 7" with a stone bench in the north end. Cave XXV. was a chamber of which the front has fallen. There are two cells in the back wall of the chamber. Cave XXVI. is a cell 9' 3" by 7' 10" with a square window. Cave XXVII. is a room with a window on each side of the door and a cell at the back with stone benches in both. Cave XXVIII. consists of a veranda 16' 9" broad by 4' 9'' deep with in front two eight-sided pillars and pilasters, and a hall 17' 3'' by 8' 3'' with a cell at the north end of the back wall. Outside the veranda, on the north, is an inscription in six lines. As the latter part of each line has peeled off the full meaning of the inscription cannot be made out. It seems to record the dedication of a cave and of a Chetiya Kodhi (?) together with an endowment of land for the

worship of Buddha. The giver's name may be Vadasiri. In the first line are the names of the householder and Seth Sangharakshita and the first syllable of his son's name Vi............Vadasiri was probably his wife. On a raised bench ornamented with the rail pattern is a small relic shrine, in half relief 4' 2'' high. Cave XXIX. is a room 11' 2" by 6' 7" with a window to the south of the door and a cell in the back wall. Near the bottom of the hill are two small and plain relic-shrines or daghobas hewn out of single blocks, severed from their bases. Kol Caves. Kol Caves. About a mile south-east of Mahad in a hill behind the village of Kol are two small groups of caves. The first group, to the north-east of the village, consists of a few ruined cells; the second group, to the south-east, contains one cell larger than any of the others. All are apparently unfinished. In the second group are three short inscriptions of about the first century after Christ. They have been translated: '(1) A cave, the religious gift of Seth Sangharakhita, son of Ganapati;' (2) ' A cave, the meritorious gift of Dhamasiri (Sk. Dharmasri), daughter of the lay worshipper Khara (u)d, and wife of Sivadata (Sk. Sivadatta); (3) 'A cave, the meritorious gift of Sivadata (Sk. Sivadatta), an inhabitant of Aghaakasa village. There is a third group of a few cells and cisterns in a hill to the north-east of Mahad, and there is a cell in a hill to the south near the road leading to Nagothna.