278

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

for though shikáris, coolies, and guides mus tered a dozen men, it took them from tolerably early in the morning till much past midday be fore the centre of thc cairn was cleared.

In

accomplishing this, one remarkable feature was observed : in the middle of the well there was a

long large stone nearly four feet in length, of considerable thickness and tapering upwards, placed upright, filled in, and covered with the stones which

filled the well.

Whether this

had any lingam, or other significance, I cannot say. After the circular central opening was at last cleared, nothing was found to reward the toil but some pieces of a large urn ; a miniature buffalo's-head of hard-baked clay; a human

[OctoBER, 1873.

had been built on the rock, and there were only two or three inches of soil at the bottom of the

well. Considering the number of objects fre quently yielded by cairns, I was much disappoint ed at this result. The hill-top was the most commanding of themany around, on almost every one of which a cairn was visible, and there was

a magnificent prospect from it over Kotagiri and the low country beyond, extending to the distant Salem and Trichināpalli hills. Hence one was led to conclude the cairn must be the

burial-place of a great chieftain ; and the enor mous labour expended in carrying such mul titudes of stones up a hill that was trying to ascend empty-handed, raised the expectation head the size of a lime, of the same—the hair they would cover a rich and various funeral being represented by little dotted rings; and a deposit. small sickle-shaped iron-knife: the whole cairn 9, Randolph Crescent, London, June 1873.

MUSALMAN REMAINS IN THE SOUTH KONKAN. BY A. K. NAIRNE, Esq., Bo. C.S., BANDORA.

I.—Dálhol.

The Southern Konkan is a district which up to the time of the Marāthās possessed little importance, and is but seldom mentioned in the

earlier histories. The Musalmāns, who spread so gradually over India, would perhaps never have thought so barren and uncivilized a coun try worth conquering at all, if it had not been that its seaports gave travellers from Persia

and Arabia easier access to the great cities of the Dekhan than could be had by any land journey, and it must have been necessary also to keep open certain routes from these ports to the Dekhan, without which the command of the

Bidar, Gulbargã, Bijäpur, and Golkonda. What I have collected I now give with tolerable con fidence that, as far as it goes, it is correct, but

it is no more than an outline which may per haps help others to prepare a complete local his tory.

-

In his translation of Ferishtah, Briggs, speak. ing of the Muhammadan invasion of the Konkan

in 1429, says: “It seems very doubtful if the whole of the Konkan had ever been attacked

before this period, and this exploit seems to have been rather a marauding expedition than a conquest. The ports of Dábuland Chaul are spoken of at a very early period as in the hands

coast would have been of little value. It is pro bable that these ports and routes were but few, and from the fact of nearly all the Konkan forts

of the Muhammadans : but whether they occu. pied much of the interior of the country appears

having been rebuilt and enlarged by Sivāji, the

very doubtful.” As I have no acquaintance with

traces of the Musalmān occupation are even less than they otherwise would be. Yet it is possi ble, by searching books of old history and travel, and at the same time examining the few remain ing ruins, to get some idea of what this dis

the district in which Chaul lies, I shall confinemy self to that part of the Southern Konkan between

Bánkot and Goa—that is, the Rutnāgiri collect orate and a small part of the Săvantvādi State, and on all accounts it will be proper to begin

trict was in the days of Musalmān ascendancy,

with the history of Dâbul, as it is always spelt

and to make out a few of the routes by which merchants and travellers from Persia, Arabia, and Europe found their way to the capital cities of

by the Musalmān and early English writers,

Isfahji, in his Takwim al Buldán (cir. 1635) has : ‘Dábul (J. 19) a seaport of the Dekkan, long. S5°0',

lat. 45°30'. Chivel (U3*) or Chaul, he places in long. 8s

though it is written in Maráthi Dabhol." This ancient port is situated above 85 miles /o

Sádik

and lat. 86°, and Bidar (9%) in long. 109', lat. 47°–Ep.