Alibag, north latitude 18° 39" and east longitude 72° 57", the ALIBAG. head-quarters of the Kolaba district and the chief town of the Alibag sub-division, had in 1881 an area
of 398½ acres, 6376 people, and a municipal revenue of £611 (Rs. 6110).
Appearance.
The town lies on the coast, nineteen miles south of Bombay, at the mouth of a tidal creek, locally known as the Sakhar creek, from the village of Sakhar on its southern bank. On the east side of the town is a salt marsh, covered with water at high tides, which is gradually being reclaimed, and, on the west, between the town and the sea, is a belt of cocoa palms which extend along the coast both to the north and south for many miles. The view of Alibag, as it is approached from the sea, is exceedingly picturesque. In the fore- ground is the sea-fort of Kolaba, with its temples, ruined palaces, and trees; beyond is the long line of palms broken only by groups of still higher casuarinas, beneath which may be distinguished the houses of the European residents. The town itself is almost hidden save some huts in the Kolis' quarter which border on the creek. In the distance are the hills which run like a backbone down the Alibag sub-division. Prominent among those immediately behind the town are Ramdharan with its conical peak, and the fort of Sagargad with its curious outlying pinnacle of rock. To the left of Ramdharan is the wooded hill of Kankeshvar, with a long spur
stretching far to the north, and to the right of Sagargad are the forest clad hills of Beloshi and Mahan reaching as far as the eye can see to the south. To the south-east, over the Nagaon and Revdanda palms, rise the low bare Cheul hills, with a row of Buddhist caves on the south face, and a shrine of Dattatraya crowning their south-east peak. At the end of the long row of palms, on the coast may be distinguished the mouth of the Roha creek or Kundalika riven the ruins of Revdanda on one side and the fort of Korlai on the other, with a background of the Habsan and Roha hills. About two, miles out at sea, to the south-west of the Kolaba Fort, a round tower about sixty feet high, marks the Cheul Kadu, a dangerous reef covered at high water, on which among other vessels, have been wrecked the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-ship ' Jeddo' and the English ship 'Di Vernon.'
With the exception of some newly built two-storied houses with tiled roofs there are few buildings of any size in Alibag and many of the dwellings are but thatched huts. The roads are well kept and clean and the main thoroughfares are lighted. The town is supplied with drinking water from a lake recently made, distant about a mile and half to the north-east on the road to Dharamtar. On the whole, Alibag is a prosperous place and has grown considerably in the past ten years. On the north-west side of the town, at the end of the shady road which leads to the jail and Government offices, is an open grass plot where the new official residence for the Collector is (1883) being built. In front is the sea and behind is an oval pond formed by the quarrying of stone for the buildings in the neighbourhood. On the east side of the pond is the Hirakot, now used as a jail and treasury, a new row of buildings for Government offices, and the police lines. The Hirakot, or Diamond Fort, is built of massive undressed blocks of trap, some of them about four feet by three. It is entered on the south side by a steep flight of steps recently replaced by modern masonry. At the top of the steps, on the right hand side of the doorway, is an image of Maruti with a spirit or devi under his foot. Immediately inside, in the gateway, are the guard-rooms and over these is an office of modern construction. The walls, which are about thirty feet high, the curtain wall being six feet high and four feet broad, enclose a space some fifty yards square. The cells for the prisoners are built along the north
and east walls, and the treasury is on the west side. In the southwest corner is an old well with a flight of steep steps.
At the end of the doable row of police lines, abutting on the main road, are the remains of a small outwork, some seven feet high and 150 feet in circumference, built of the same kind of large stones as the fort. On this stands the chief constable's office. This outwork was originally used by one of the Angrias as a place from which to watch the Dasara and Divali (September-October) festivities, and for seeing the Muharram processions when tabuts used to be carried to the sea. The building was afterwards used as a dispensary.
Climate.
The Alibag coast is open to the strong sea breeze, which blows
during most of the year and makes the climate pleasanter than in the inland parts of the district. In the town the passage of the breeze is checked by the palms and underwood. But the sea face, where are the jail, the police lines, and the dwellings of the European officers, is much opener and more healthy. During the twenty-three years ending 1880, the Alibag rainfall varied from 144 inches in 1878 to forty in 1871, and averaged eighty inches. The thermometer readings, for the five years ending. 1879, show that May is the hottest month, with an extreme maximum of 95.2 and an extreme minimum of 800, and January the coldest month with an extreme maximum of 87.0 and an extreme minimum of 62.6, The mean daily range of the thermometer is greatest (15.4) in January and least (3.4) in July.
Harbour.
The mouth of the Alibag creek is much blocked by shifting sand banks, and, during the last ten years, the old channel, close under the south-east wall of the Kolaba fort, has gradually silted, driving vessels to the south of a
large sand bank. The river is always difficult of navigation, and during strong north-west or south-west winds becomes exceedingly dangerous, even for small craft. The creek is nearly dry at low tide, and even at high tide is navigable only by vessels of about six tons (25 khandis). Small craft of five to seven tons (20-28 khandis) at high tide pass about four miles further to Hatala.
Trade.
Large quantities of rice go every year to Bombay, Ratnagiri,
and the southern coast, and in April and May common green mangoes are largely exported to Bombay. In the fair season (October-June) one of the Shepherd steamers daily calls off Alibag on its way to and from Goa, the passage to Bombay taking from two to three hours. The sea trade returns for the eight years ending 1881-82 show average exports worth £ 15,058 (Rs. 1,50,580) and imports worth £22,752 (Rs. 2,27,520).
Water Supply.
Alibag is well supplied with water. At present (1882) there are 368 wells and two ponds, compared with 271 wells and one pond in 1850. The large number of wells is due to the fact that water is found in the sandy soil within a few feet of the surface. Though well suited for irrigating palm-trees this water is not good to drink. Formerly, for their drinking, the well-to-do brought water from wells about two miles east of Alibag, in the village of Yadgaon under the Sagargad range. But the poor suffered from the badness of the water and guinea-worm was very common. In 1875 the survey of an old
pond at Veshvi about 1½ miles east of Alibag, showed that, by raising its
southern bank, cutting out the northern bank, and building two earth dams, a
lake could be formed 22½ acres in area and capable of storing 22,500,000 gallons
of water, all of which could be delivered and distributed with a pressure of
four feet in the town of Alibag.
Water Works.
By putting a masonry dam across the bed of the stream and cutting a channel from
the dam to the head or north end of the lake, it would be possible, by lifting a
sluice in the dam and conducting the river into the channel, to keep the new
lake up to the maximum level so long as the river ran during the fair season.
The river ceases to run between the 1st and the 20th of January. Taking the
earlier date, on the 1st of January of every year, the lake could be always at
its highest level, that is, containing 22,500,000 gallons of water. As the
population of Alibag is only about 6300, and as there are no industries
requiring large quantities of water, it was found that a maximum supply of
sixteen gallons a head was ample for ordinary use. Therefore on the first
January in each year there would be nearly nine months' supply, while, in almost
every season the rainfall in June would fill the lake. If at any time a larger
quantity of water was required, the storage capacity of the lake could be
doubled or even trebled by deepening its upper or northern end.
The dam across the river is 200 feet long, and at its greatest height 3½ feet.
It is built in the rocky bed of the river of a rubble in Portland cement, thus
forming a step in the river over which the stream flows easily. At the south
end, protected from the stream by a curtain wail, is a two feet iron sluice
lifted by a screw winch; from this sluice the water escapes into a hollow
channel, which continuing for a third of a mile, empties into the northern end
or head of the lake. It has been found easy to till die lake in forty-eight
hours. The two new earthen dams of the reservoir are respectively six and ten
feet high, with the usual slopes 3½ to one on the water side, and two to four on
the outer side. They are built of a very sticky earth which is found on the spot
; a puddle wall rise through their centre, which has been carried down into
solid ground throughout the whole length. Banks and puddle wail rise together in
layers of six inches worked in and consolidated by gangs of labourers. Both the
inside and outside slopes and the crowns of the banks are cased with a layer of
1½ feet of the best muram or broken trap, carefully beaten and consolidated. The
old banks to the south and east have been raised in the same way, and they have
also had a trench cut through their entire lengths deer, into solid ground,
which has been filled with puddle carefully worked in as above. All the inner
slopes of the dams are pitched with rough stone laid edgeways and driven into
the face of the banks with heavy rammers, the interstices being filled with
chips driven well home that the banks may be protected from waste or wear. The
crowns of ail the dams are covered with a well consolidated layer of road metal.
The building of a masonry waste weir was found unnecessary, as at a very
favourable point there is a natural overflow which can carry off all surplus
water.
The outlet is through a heavy dam of rubble in cement, built at the east end of
the lake, carried on each side into the banks. A deep channel has been dug from
the bed of the lake to this dam, and, for several feet before the channel
reaches the dam, the sides are built in wing walls with rubble smoothly coated
with cement. Two iron pipes, one a twelve-inch and the other a nine-inch pipe,
are bedded at the foot of the masonry dam. From the twelve-inch pipe on the
outer side of the dam a twelve-inch stoneware pipe, joined in cement, is carried
twelve feet underground to a hollow a hundred and fifty feet distant. This is
the waste or sludge pipe through which, if necessary, the lake can be run dry.
The inner mouth of the pipe is fitted with a plug which can be lifted at
pleasure, and during heavy rain scour the bottom of the lake. The nine-inch iron
pipe is the feed or outlet pipe. It has one mouth at the lowest point from which
delivery in Alibag is possible, and another mouth five feet above, so that water
can be drawn off either seven or twelve feet below the highest level of the lake
or ten feet below. Through this pipe the water passes into a filter-chamber with
eight compartments, filled with fresh sand and charcoal, the water passing over
one dividing wall under another, and so on, till it reaches the last or outlet
compartment, when it escapes through a nine-inch masonry pipe whose mouth is
guarded by a strainer of metal gauze.
The supply of water is regulated by a simple beam fixed over the outlet pipe
filled with two wheels or blocks. Over the blocks a light chain supports, on the
inside of the lake a weighted plug, and on the outside, that is in the filter
chamber, a large copper float which rests on the surface of the water. As the
level in the filter-chamber rises the float rises and the weighted plug drops
into the outlet; as the level in the filter-chamber falls the float falls and
lifts the plug. At the head of the filter-chamber a white marble tablet has been
let into the masonry with an inscription in English and in Marathi. The English
runs :
The Royal Alibag Water Works to commemorate the visit of H. R. H. the Prince of
Wales to India. The Bhau Saheb Dhondiraj Vina'yak Bivalkar generously presented
Rs. 20,000 for the above works which H. R. H. the Prince of Wales was pleased to
declare should be known as above entitled. Commenced 15th November 1875,
completed 1st June 1876. Arthur Crawford, Collector; W. Grey, C.E., Engineer;
Na'gu Purbha'ji, Contractor.
To save the great cost of iron mains Mr. Crawford, the Collector, arranged that
stoneware pipes should be brought from England, tested up to a head of
thirty-five feet. These masonry pipes saved seventy-five per cent in cost. They
worked well for a time, but, before long, either from faulty construction or
from bad masonry, serious leakage was found at the joints. This defect has to
some extent been cured, but the masonry pipes are a doubtful success. [As the
contractor who laid the earthenware pipes put an insufficient quantity of cement
in the joints, roots of trees found their way into the joints and choked them.
In 1879, the pipes were cleared and the joints properly cemented, but even now
(1883) there are constant leakages, and it is a moot point whether ultimately
iron pipes will not have to be laid. Mr. T. S. Hamilton, C.S.; Professional
Papers on Indian Engineering X. 41 No. CCCXLIX.]
The nine-inch main from the reservoir is laid alongside of the
high road about a mile and a half, to a point in the town where three leading streets meet. On the way it supplies a large cattle-pond, a stone reservoir for the Mhars and others of low caste, and another for the little village of Chendra. Where the road crosses the salt swamp at the entrance to the town, arrangements are made to shut off the water from the town with a sluice, and by opening a valve above it to scour the main from end to end. At the junction of the three streets the nine-inch main ceases, and three four-inch pipes branch from it down the three leading streets; these four-inch pipes change to three-inch and finally to two-inch pipes. At points chosen by the townspeople are eighteen stone reservoirs, each holding one thousand gallons, fitted with self-acting ballcocks to keep the water in the reservoirs above level and prevent overflow. The reservoirs are from two and a half to four feet deep, built of dressed blocks of trap brought from the Kolaba fort, and lined inside with cement. The level of the bottom of each reservoir is above the level of the nearest roadside drains, and an opening is left filled with a plug, so that each reservoir can at any time be thoroughly cleaned. Round each reservoir is a stone pavement three feet wide. The cost of the works was £3400 (Rs; 34,000), of which £2000 (Rs. 20,000) were contributed by the Bhau Saheb of Alibag. [The details
of cost are: Head works and main to municipal limits, £2000 (Rs. 20,000);
pitching dams, £100(Rs.1000); and distribution mains and reserviors, £13,000 (Rs.13,000). This amount has been contributed from the following sources: £2000 by
the Bhau saheb of Alibag; £1115 by public subcritions; £170 from local funds
for the reservior at chandre, for the Mhars' cistern outside of municipal limits,
and for a reservior at the civil Hospital; and £115 by Government for a public reservior. ]
Houses.
In 1850 there were 140 tiled and 1087 thatched houses with an
average household of, three members. Most of the houses facing the roads were well built and tiled. In 1881 there were 966 tiled and 180 thatched houses. The houses of the rich are usually tiled, with walls at least six feet high and not very pointed roofs. There is frequently an upper storey and inside, on both stories, rooms are partitioned off and sometimes matted. The houses of the poor have low walls of karvi or bamboo, high pointed thatched roofs and floors of hardened mud. They have usually bat one room.
People.
In 1850 there were 4329 people, 3764 of whom were Hindus, 385
Musalmans, 158 Beni-Israels, and twenty-two Christians. In 1872 the number had increased to 5473, of whom 4903 were Hindus, 416 Musalmans, nine Christians, and 145 others. In 1881 the population was returned at 6376, of whom 5674 were Hindus, 407 Musalmans, 172 Beni-Israels, and 123 others.
History.
Alibag, that is Ali's Garden, is said to be called after Ali, a rich
Musalman who lived about 200 years ago and made many wells and gardens in and near Alibag. Ten or eleven of Ali's wells remain. The two best known are the Pimpal well near the large banyan tree close to the mamlatdar's office where also is Ali's tomb; and the Ganpati well in front of Ganpati's temple. The site of the present town is said to have formerly been covered by the sea. According to local tradition the old settlement was at Ramnath,
three quarters of a mile to the north of Hirakot, and Ali's garden was converted into the present town towards the close of the seventeenth century, when Angria made it his head-quarters. Alibag has never been a place of importance. In 1771 Mr. Forbes visited Alibag aad was sumptuously received by Raghoji Angria and his minister Govind Shet. [Oriental Memoirs, I.-222-226.] Raghoji lived on the island fort of Kolaba, but his palace, treasury, stables, and gardens were on the mainland in Alibag. It became the head-quarters of the Kolaba agency in 1840.[There was a mint at Alibag, or in Kolaba fort, at which Angria coined rupees which, till lately, were known as Alibaghi rupees.] Between 1840 and 1850 the town was improved and its appearance completely changed by the making of roads.
The gardens of Alibag, which yield cocoanuts and some fine varieties of graft mangoes, are among the best in the district, and the value of the produce is increased by the ease with which it can be sent to Bombay. There is a vegetable market, about ten miscellaneous shops, and ten taverns, nine for country and one for European liquor.
Besides the district and sub-divisional establishments, the chief Government institutions are the sub-judge's court, the customs house, the civil hospital, the post office, the English mission school, the Government vernacular school, and the jail. There are also a girls' school established by the municipality, a library, and two private vernacular schools. Alibag has a printing and a lithographic press from which issue two weekly Marathi papers called the Satyasadan or the Abode of Truth, and the Sharabh or Grasshopper, and two monthly Marathi magazines called Abala Mitra or the Friend of the Weak that is of women, and Saddharma Dip or the Light of True Religion.
The municipality was established in 1864 In 1880-81 it had an income of £611 (Rs. 6110), representing a taxation of 2s. 3d. (Re. 11/8) a head. The yearly expenditure amounts to about £650 (Rs. 6500). The chief improvements have been under water-works and conservancy. A scheme is under consideration for converting the night-soil into manure by mixing it with the ashes of the town sweepings.
Objects.
There are five chief Hindu temples, dedicated to Mahadev, Vithoba, Vishnu, Maruti, and Ram. The old Agent's Court, or Adalat, situated to the west of the town, was built about the year 1821 by Raghoji Angria and has since been used as a court-house. Though low and plain, it is strongly built with thick walls and massive wooden pillars. The court-house on the ground-floor has room for about 200 people. The court of the subordinate judge is held in a small upper room. There are two mosques one a hundred years and the other ten years old; there is also a synagogue forty years old. There are two rest-houses, one near the girls' school and the other near the ticket-box of the Bombay Steam Navigation Company. The Musalman and Christian burial ground and the Hindu burning ground are removed from the town on the north-west.
The little European burying ground, about half a mile to the north of Hirakot, shaded by tall casuarina trees, has the grave of a sub-Collector Mr. Travers, who died in 1854 and of several English and French shipwrecked sailors. [The graves are (1) Astley Cooper Travers, Bo.C.S., Sub-Collector and Joint Magistrate of Kolaba, died 11th June 1854; (2) Three men of Di Vernon wrecked 1st August 1866; (3) Six men of Turzah (Tirzah) wreeked 18th July 1867 (4) Jean Bertin, carpenter of ship Marie Catherine drowned at Warsoli, 15th July 1864; (5) Charles Randall, died 21st February 1858, aged; (6) Herbert Henry Howell, died 31st March 1861, infant.]
Hirakot.
The largest building in Alibag is the Hirakot or Diamond Fort,
built of massive blocks of black trap, to the north-west of the town within a hundred yards of the beach. It is said to have been built by Kanhoji Angria in 1720. In 1740 the great Peshwa Balaji Bajirav, then a youth of twenty, who had come to help Manaji Angria against his half-brother Sambhaji, distinguished himself by an attack on a party stationed under the Hirakot. He drove them into Sambhaji's camp, killed twenty-five or thirty men, and took prisoner Talaji Sambhaji's half-brother.[Grant Duff' Marathas, 248.] In 1793, after Raghoji's death, Jaysin who was imprisoned by Anandibai, the infant Angria's mother, escaped, and collecting some followers besieged Hirakot. Anandibai led an army against the besiegers, and in a bloody and hard-fought battle defeated Jaysing with heavy loss. After A'nandibai's death, Jaysing marched to Alibag and took Hirakot. Hearing that the Peshwa had promised to help Manaji. Jaysing applied for aid to Baburav, Sindia's commander-in-chief, who was his relation. Baburav agreed to help but, when he reached Alibag, he picked a quarrel with Jaysing and took Hirakot by treachery. Jaysing's eldest son escaped to Bombay, and, in 1807, collecting a force of 2000 men under command of one Bachaji Shet, a Revdanda goldsmith, captured Hirakot. Hirakot remained in the Angria's hands till in 1840, with the rest of the Kolaba state, it passed to the British Government.
Kolaba, Fort.
To the south-west of Alibag, about a furlong from the shore, is
the low fortified rock of Kolaba. It is mentioned as one of Shivaji's forts. [Hamilton's New Account, I. 243.] But it did not rise to consequence till, early in the eighteenth century, it became the stronghold of the great Maratha admiral and pirate Kanhoji Angria. It is a low rocky island, 850 to 900 feet from north to south, and, at the broadest, about 350 feet from east to west. The fortifications consist of an isolated putwork to the north and the main fort enclosed by a wall from twenty to twenty-five feet high and about 700 paces in circuit, with two gates, a main gate in the north-east and a small gate in the south, and seventeen towers, four in the corners, five on the sea face, four on the land face, three on the north face, and one on the south face. [The names of the seventeen towers, most of which can still be traced, are Nagar-khani, Ganesh, Madi, Topkhani, Surya, Hanumant afterwards known by the name of Hagrya, Bhavani, Pira, Golandaj, Darukhani, Eshvantdari, Nala, Ghanchakra, Fatya, Darya, Manohandra, and Babdev. Each of these towers is said to have been guarded night and day by four men.] Above the line of the walls appear the point of Ganpati's spire and a few scattered cocoa palms. The whole of the masonry
is of large squared blocks of trap fitted without mortar. Beginning from the north, the outwork, which is known as Sarjakot, is said to have been built after the main fort to protect the Great Gate from the artillery of Hirakot. Like the rest of the fortifications it is built of big blocks of trap, about three feet by two, put together without mortar. The outer height of the walls is about twenty-five feet. Inside a flight of thirteen steps, about thirteen and a half feet high, leads to a parapet twenty paces broad surrounded by a curtain wall four feet high and four feet three inches thick. The enclosed space is about twenty-six yards by twenty-eight. About sixty-five yards to the north-west, is a raised platform, about 110 paces long eleven feet high and fourteen paces broad, said to have been used for stabling horses and storing grass. The small building at the south end is called the powder-magazine. To the south a line of big rough stones, forming a causeway, about five feet high thirteen and a half feet broad and ninety paces long leads to the Manik Chavda, a tower about thirty-one feet in diameter and seven and a half feet high. Beyond the Manik tower is another causeway, about forty-three paces long twenty-four feet broad and seven high at the north end. Then comes the outer defence of the main fort well built with the same great black stones The outer height of the wall is about seventeen feet. Inside the parapet is about six feet high and the curtain wall about four feet six more. It is strengthened by a central and corner towers. This north outwork encloses a space about ninety paces east and west by about sixty north and south.
At the north-east corner of the main fort is the chief gateway known as the Great Gate or Maha Darvaza with a pointed arch and two flanking towers. The north wall of the main fort has a central tower entered from the north by a sloping pavement. As in other parts, except repairs, the masonry is of big black stones put together without cement. The outer height of the wall is about twenty-eight feet, of which four are curtain, and the breadth is about seventeen feet. From the top of the slope is a view of the inside of the fort, which is about 800 feet long by 300 broad, full of temples, rains, and trees. In the north-west corner of the wall, on the parapet, are a sentry-box and two old guns, which, during the stormy months (June-September), are fired as signals if a vessel is seen dangerously near shore. The west or sea face is about twenty feet high with a curtain wall of four feet more. In the west face besides at the corners are five towers.
A short distance south of the life-boat sentry-box fifteen steps lead to the interior of the fort. At the north-east corner of the interior of the fort is the double door-way of the Main Gate or Maha Darvaza. The outer door-way has a peaked arch and a teak door armed with iron spikes. Inside of the outer door is a three-cornered space, fifteen yards broad, with a wall across the inside in which is a flat gateway with wooden side posts. Inside of the inner gateway, in the north wall, is a square room or talghar with four domes supported by round stone pillars. According to one account in front of this room were two store-houses, one for rice, the other for butter, oil, molasses, sugar, and wheat. On the right, close to the inner gate, is
Padmavanti's shrine, a ruined tiled shed with a small figure of a woman (1'4'' X 1'10"). To the south, in a roofless enclosure, is a rough figure of Gulbai or Mahishasuri (3'8" x 2'2"), the buffaloe-slayer, with a bufialoe lying in front. Gulbai is represented with one head and four hands. Her upper left hand holds a discus and her lower left grasps the buffaloe's tongue;her lower right smites the buffaloe with a trident and her upper right twists its tail. The small tiled house on the left is the shrine of Bhavani and the house of an Agri, one of the two ministrants who are in charge of the fort temples. In Bhavani's shrine are a bust of Bhavani and images of Vetal and Ganpati. The shrine has a yearly Government allowance of £6 4s. (Rs. 62). The ruined line of buildings on the right, beyond Gulbai's shrine, are stables in part of which fighting rams or yedkes, antelopes, and birds were kept. To the south of the stables are the ruins of a house and granary. The buildings on the left are the ruins of two palaces. The first or more northerly is known as the Nani Saheb's. It is said to be called after Lakshmibai, or Nani Saheb, the widow of the great Kanhoji Angria (1690-1731). Next comes the chief palace of the Angria's, roofless and ruined. The wood work was sold by auction in 1842, and many of the stones were taken to build the Alibag water-works in 1875. It is known as the Big Palace, Thorla Vada, and is said to have had five stories, and to have been built by the younger Raghoji Angria in 1816. To the east of the palace were store-houses and other outbuildings. In the palace enclosure is a small step well. To the south of the palace, entered by a brick gate-way, is a cement lined stone reservoir about 115 feet by 105. In Angria's time only one potful a day of this water is said to have been allowed to each person. In a niche in the reservoir are images of heavenly damsels or apsaras. Overlooking' the reservoir there is said to have been a small dwelling and near it five houses belonging to Angria's officers, the minister or divan, the head revenue officer or daftardar, the secretary or chitnis, the registrar or phadnis, and the treasurer or potnis. On the right, nearly opposite the reservoir, in a walled enclosure, is the chief temple. It is known as the Ganpati Panchayatan, because it contains the five images of Ganpati, Shamb or Mahadev, Vishnu, Surya, and Devi. It was built by the elder Raghoji (1759-1798). It is in Musalman style with open tracery windows and measures sixty-four feet by twenty and forty-five high. The image of Ganpati, which is finely carved in alabaster, is eighteen inches high and has two stone foot marks or padukas in front. Next to Ganpati's temple is a temple of Mahadev and to the north a shrine of Maruti or the Monkey God. To the south of the enclosure of Ganpati's temple, on the right are the ruins of a temple of Kanoba, and, on the left, was the jail. Further south on either side, are ruined guard-rooms, and, beyond the guard-rooms, is the Yashvant Gate with a peaked arch and side recesses. Outside is the shrine of Yashvandari, the guardian of the gate, a white stone marked with red. South of the fort wall, the open raised space, about eighty paces by thirty-eight, is said to have been a ship dock. Except two temple'ministrants or guravs and their families, no one lives on the island. A yearly fair, attended by about 100 people,
is held on the full moon of Chaitra (April-May). The chief articles sold are sweetmeats and pulse. Of the two ministrants, one draws a yearly Government allowance of £4 10s. (Rs. 45) and is in charge of Ganpati, Maruti, Bapdev, and the heavenly nymphs. The other, who has a yearly allowance of £6 4s. (Rs. 62), is in charge of the goddesses Gulbai, Bhavani, Padmavanti, and Yashvantdari. Besides the temples a tomb of a Muhammadan saint enjoys a yearly grant of £1 4s. (Rs. 12). In addition to the buildings mentioned above, there was the sadar or court where the chief held his office, a small palace built by Esoji Angria, and a building known as the karkunmandalivada for the use of court officers and clerks when they went on duty to the fort.
The first mention that has been traced of Kolaba Fort, is as one of the forts which were chosen by Shivaji for defence about the middle of the seventeenth century, when the whole of the Konkan south of Kalyan came into his hands. In 1662 Shivaji rebuilt and strengthened Kolaba and made the harbour one of his chief naval stations. He gave the command of his fleet to Darya Sagar and Manik Bhandari under whom Kolaba soon became a centre of
pracy. To put a stop to the ravages of the Maratha fleet, the portuguese sent an ambassador to Shivaji who promised to refrain from molesting their coasts and shipping, if he was supplied with guns and war stores. To this the Portuguese agreed, and, as might be expected, the demand for stores was frequently renewed. [Grant Duff's Marathas, 85. In 1673 Khafi Khan mentions ' Kalaba and Gandiri ' as newly built forts of Shivaji. Elliot and Dowson, VII. 290, 355.]
In 1690 Kanhoji Angria was appointed second in command of Rajaram's fleet, and in 1698 succeeded to the command on the death of the admiral Sidoji Gujar. Kanhoji Angria soon showed himself a most daring and enterprizing leader. Vessels of all nations were attacked, repeated descents were made along the coast, and few defenceless towns from Bombay to Travankor escaped a visit. As in the time of Shivaji, Kolaba continued the principal rendezvous of the Maratha fleet. In 1713, under the treaty with Peshwa Balaji Vishvanath, Kolaba with several other forts, was given to Angria. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 193.] In 1722 the Bombay Government, incensed at A'ngria's piracies and effrontery, joined the Portuguese in an expedition against Kolaba. A Portuguese land force and three English ships of the line under Commodore Mathews co-operated; but the attempt failed owing to the cowardice of the Portuguese. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 231.] About this time Kolaba is described by Hamilton as a fort built on a rock, a little way from the mainland and at high water an island. [Hamilton's New Account, I. 243. ] Kanhoji died about the year 1728. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 230.]
Of the two legitimate sons who succeeded, the elder Sakhoji remained at Kolaba. Sakhoji died shortly after his father, and his younger brother Sambhaji, keeping the eldest of his three half-brothers with him at Gheria in Ratnagiri, appointed the other two Yesaji and Manaji to the charge of Kolaba. Yesaji the elder brother had civil control, while Manaji commanded the army and navy.
Before long Manaji quarrelled with his family, and, with the help of the Portuguese to whom he promised land near Revdanda, escaladed Kolaba and carried it sword in hand. He put out Yesaji's eyes and confined him first at Poynad and then at Alibag. [From Alibag Yesaji escaped to the Peshwa, who decided that he had no claim on Kolaba, and, on his engaging not again to break the peace, settled ten khandis of rice and £40 (Rs. 400) a month on him and sent him to Revdanda. Bom. Gov. Rec. Pol. Dep. 1840, 1107-21.] As soon as the Portuguese retired, Sambhaji attacked Kolaba, but, with the help of the Peshwa Bajirav, Manaji forced Sambhaji to raise the siege. [Grant Duffs-Marathas, 231.] In 1737, as Manaji had failed to give them the districts he had promised, the Portuguese joined Sambhaji against him. Manaji sent to the Peshwa, who agreed to help him on condition of his paying a yearly sum of £700 (Rs. 7000), and presenting the Raja of Satara with European and Chinese articles worth about £300 (Rs. 3000). [Ditto 237.]
With the Peshwa's help Manaji succeeded in repelling the Portuguese attack. Three years later, in 1740, Sambhaji, taking advantage of the absence of a large body of the Peshwa's troops in Hindustan, laid siege to Kolaba and cut off the garrison's supply of fresh water. Manaji applied to Balaji Bajirav the Peshwa's son, then on his first active service, who sent 500 men to support the garrison, and, under orders from Chimnaji Appa, repaired to Kolaba in person and applied for help to the Governor of Bombay.
Balaji, or as he was called the Nana Saheb, reached Kolaba on the fifth day's march, and distinguished himself by attacking a party stationed under the protection of Hirakot and driving them into Sambhaji's camp, killing twenty-five or thirty men and taking prisoner Talaji the half-brother of Sambhaji. Meanwhile the English, who reached Kolaba before Nana Saheb, forced Sambhaji's fleet to run to Suvarndurg and compelled him to move his camp from the sea side, to throw up an entrenchment to protect his people, and finally to retire to Suvarndurg in Ratnagiri.
No further steps were taken, as Manaji, finding that the Peshwa's officers were scheming to take Kolaba, patched up a truce with Sambhaji, and the designs of the Peshwa's officers were stopped by the news of Bajirav's death. Shortly after, in 1747, the Sidi of Janjira sent a strong force against Kolaba, but with the Peshwa's help the Musalmans were completely defeated between Thal and Navgaon a few miles north of Alibag. On his death in 1759, Manaji was succeeded by Raghoji the first Angria of that name, the eldest of Manaji's ten illegitimate sons. Mr. Forbes, who visited Kolaba in 1771, found Raghoji living in the island fort of Kolaba, though his palace, treasury, stables, and gardens were on the mainland in Alibag. [Oriental Memoirs, I. 224] Raghoji paid the Peshwa a yearly tribute of £20,000 (Rs. 2,00,000) and held his lands on military tenure. Alibag at this time was pleasant and well cultivated. In 1775 Alibag is mentioned as Cole Arbor.[Parson's Travels, 244.] In 1776 the pretender Sadashivrav Bhau, after his defeat by Sindia's troops, instead of landing at Bombay as was intended, repaired to Kolaba. On his arrival he was seized and confined by Raghoji Angria, to whom the Bombay Government made
an unsuccessful application for his release. From Alibag Angria sent him to Poona, where he was trampled to death by an elephant. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 398.] Raghoji died in 1793. In the family quarrels which followed his death, Anandibai the mother of the infant Angria gathered a band of troops, besieged the Kolaba fort, imprisoned Jaysing, and executed his chief advisers. After four months Jaysing escaped, and, collecting some followers, besieged Hirakot in Alibag. Anandibai led an army against the besiegers, and in a bloody and hard-fought battle defeated Jaysing with much loss. After Anandibai's death, Jaysing inarched on Alibag and took Hirakot. Hearing that the Peshwa had promised to help Manaji, Jaysing applied for aid to Baburav, Sindia's commander-in-chief who was his reation. Baburav agreed to help, but soon after reaching Alibag, he picked a quarrel with Jaysing and took Hirakot by treachery. Jaysing's eldest son escaped to Bombay, and, in 1807, collecting a force of 2000 men, placed it under the command of one Bachaji Shet, a goldsmith of Revdanda, who succeeded in taking Hirakot. But Baburav, with the help of the Peshwa and the English and by bribing Bachaji's officers, captured him and his leading supporters. In 1817 order was established under the British. No further mention of Kolaba occurs till it lapsed to the British in 1840, on the death of Kanhoji II. without legitimate heirs.
